Ruby Walsh: It feels more like a dark wet winter for Irish racing than a glorious summer

Is the risk of being close to an infected person for any period of time not less at a racecourse? asks Ruby Walsh

I have little doubt that the eyes of racing fans will be focused on the Curragh this afternoon for the Juddmonte Irish Oaks, but lingering in the back of everyone’s mind will be the future.

There will be concerns about might appear in tomorrow’s Sunday newspapers regarding the usage of drugs in Irish racing and what Panorama will reveal on Monday night.

They say when it rains, it pours, but it feels more like a dark wet winter for Irish racing right now than a glorious summer.

I don’t know how this saga progresses. What does the Oireachtas committee do with its findings? Because I assume it will have some after two sittings and so many questions.

Still, my lack of understanding of how this system works leaves me wondering who implements whatever conclusions they form.

Recent Oireachtas hearings didn’t reveal a whole pile we didn’t already know, so all the questions and accusations still linger answered to an extent but unproven, just sitting like a big black cloud that will either burst open or move away.

That black cloud could be joined by thunder and lightning on Monday evening when the BBC airs a documentary called The Dark Side of Horse Racing.

Night follows day, and ups follow downs, but I guess ever since Primetime Investigates dug deep into the world of greyhound racing, horse racing has known its turn would come.

What route Panorama will explore is unknown, the rumour mill has been in full flow, but when a programme digs into how horses are cared for when they are retired and when the time comes to be euthanised, it won’t be to show it in a good light.

The content is believed to include horses from both sides of the Irish Sea, but my gut tells me that Monday night’s TV viewing won’t make for comfortable watching for the industry.

Since the success of the Irish Derby day spectator trial of 1,000 people, I had hoped Galway would be the chosen venue to trial a larger crowd.

Croke Park is set to welcome 18,000 for the Leinster hurling final this weekend, so hoping Galway would get the green light for 5,000 people seemed a logical progression to me.

There’s little doubt Galway lobbied hard for this, and with the west losing the Connacht football final to Dublin to facilitate a crowd, I am sure plenty of people living west of the Shannon were hoping for good news.

The outcome is a mere 1,000 people a day plus owners and industry staff, a lot more than 12 months ago but not a lot for a venue with the capacity to accommodate 45,000.

Perhaps the powers that be could foresee Thursday’s evening’s spike in Covid figures, but I thought we were all in this together, so why 18,000 for the GAA and 6,000 at the 51,700 seater Aviva for rugby?

Perhaps it is the simple logic that in a stadium, you can allocate isolated seats, something you can’t do on terraced grandstands at a racecourse.

Still, the enclosures to allow social distancing are more significant on a racecourse than in a stadium. With the action on a racecourse being at a maximum of seven minutes per race in Galway compared to whole halves of a match at either Croke Park or the Aviva, is the risk of being close to an infected person for any period of time not less at a racecourse?

Therefore, you assume the interaction between races is the issue, so we presume the streets and bars around GAA headquarters in the capital this weekend will be minimal!

Hopefully, today will bring joy as Snowfall bids to follow up her 16-length demolition of the Epsom Oaks field in the Irish version.

Last month’s victory under Frankie Dettori was breathtaking and, with Ryan Moore back in the plate today, she is impossible to oppose.

Some lament the lack of creditable opposition, but when you land a knockout blow as she did at Epsom, it is hardly surprising that not too many want to step into the ring with her this afternoon.

We are fortunate to have some very talented fillies strutting their stuff on our racecourses right now, and Snowfall will surely throw her hat in the ring beside Love as the best filly in Ballydoyle.

In doing so, perhaps a star will help lift the gloom.