Stewards again favour perpetrator over victim
In a two-year-old maiden, Beethoven, the hot-favourite, was allowed keep a race, after beating Clashnacree by a head.
When a horse who has been the subject of strong support, he ended at 4-7 from 4-5, is given the nod by the stewards in controversial circumstances, you will hear barely a whimper from punters.
That’s understandable, because racing, at least for most, is all about finding a winner and turning a profit.
If the stewards are perceived to have got it wrong — but it works in your favour — then silence can indeed be golden!
The facts of this case are quite simple. Beethoven turned for home in front, with room for about one horse on his inside.
Soon, however, you could literally drive a fleet of buses up that inside, as Beethoven hung dramatically away to his right.
There’s a huge, wide straight at Leopardstown and the head-on clearly showed him drifting about 75% of the way across.
In doing so, inside the furlong pole, he blatantly intimidated the challenging Clashnacree to go in the same direction.
Indeed, not far from the line, you can see Wayne Lordan, who partnered Clashnacree, losing his balance momentarily.
Hardly surprising, when you consider that Lordan obviously expected to be driving his charge in a straight line, rather than sideways.
Johnny Murtagh had his whip in the correct hand (his right) and did everything he could to keep Beethoven honest, but it was to no avail.
The stewards then decided that, as THEY considered Beethoven had not improved his placing, the result should stand.
We’ve said it before and will say it again, this is simply ridiculous. Such thinking, such a rule, greatly favours the perpetrator and not the innocent victim.
A colleague, who was at Leopardstown, summed it up best when I spoke to him on Tuesday. He said: “In no other jurisdiction would the Leopardstown result have stood.
“It seems to me that, in order to lose a race in Ireland, you now have to drive the second horse out over the rails.”
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NEXT week, from Tuesday to Friday, will see the first running of the August Racing Festival at Killarney.
This is a meeting which Killarney has essentially taken over from the now defunct Tralee and it will be mighty interesting to see just how successful it will be.
Killarney is certainly a track on the up and you’d be surprised if there wasn’t a positive vibe and a good atmosphere.
It will be worth noting how the public reacts to an all-flat start on Tuesday, highlighted by the Listed €45,000 Vincent O’Brien Memorial Ruby Stakes over an extended mile.
Wednesday is a mixture of flat and National Hunt, Thursday is all National Hunt and it’s back to the mixture for Friday. All four days are evening meetings.
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ALRIGHT then hands up those who cannot wait for the return of the prodigal son, Kieren Fallon, on September 4?
To read the constant publicity about the man over the last few weeks, you’d think it was the second coming of Our Lord.
But wait and see, if he cocks up at any stage in the future, it will be those who are promoting him now who will be the first to tear him to shreds-again.
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ASTONISHING or what that returned price of Themoonandsixpence at Kilbeggan last Saturday night!
Bookmakers seemed to have got it about right in the morning, putting him at around 10-11. But he shortened all day and then from 8-13 to 4-11 on track.
Someone, somewhere, thought they knew a lot more than what the form book was revealing. He won alright, by a length and a half, but didn’t appear to have a whole lot more in the locker.
