Cape Blanco affair didn’t have to become international incident
An imposition of £10,400 sterling won’t half hit O’Brien where it hurts and it will surely be a case of bread and water, not to mention no visit from the lad with the white beard, for all at Ballydoyle over the festive period!
The more you read about the BHA’s findings the more you realise they, somehow, unnecessarily turned something which could have been managed far better into an international incident.
Cape Blanco pulled up lame after winning the Dante at York on his seasonal debut in May. The BHA disciplinary report then makes it quite clear what happened subsequently. The BHA vet, Lynn Hillyer, observed Cape Blanco coming off the course and noted that he was three tenths lame on his left foreleg. She concluded his lameness required further examination.
The lad with Cape Blanco was asked to jog the horse for a few strides on grass. He obliged and the vets, yes the vets, now assessed the lameness to be five tenths.
It reminded me of the trainer, a fair few years ago, who had a high-class National Hunt horse in his care.
After the horse’s first outing of a campaign the trainer would tell the press of his delight because his pride and joy was only 65% fit.
Then it might be 80% for his second run and so on until the magical 100% figure was reached. It was complete rubbish, of course, and the vets being so precise in this case strikes one as being a bit like that.
Anyway, the drama continued to unfold after the last race when the vets undertook a further examination of the colt, whose leg had now been cooled, iced and bandaged. In other words Cape Blanco had been given the best of care.
We are told that it was clear the lameness had improved and he was, perhaps, about one tenth lame.
So now we have progressed from three tenths and five tenths to perhaps about one tenth. The whole situation was getting more ridiculous by the minute.
Even though the vets had decided Cape Blanco had improved dramatically, 90% sound, they demanded he be trotted up.
O’Brien’s representative on track, Pat Keating, quite rightly was having none of it, at least not without the absent O’Brien giving him the green light.
O’Brien was contacted at home and informed the vets wanted the horse to be trotted, the explanation being they needed to ensure he was fit to travel. The trainer didn’t mince his words and described the request as “insane.’
And wasn’t it insane? It was crystal clear, by the vets’ own admission, that Cape Blanco was almost sound, just 10% short they believed.
So all logic dictated, I would contend, that Cape Blanco was in the hands of professionals, those who actually knew the horse best, and as safe as houses to make the short hop across the river.
But no officialdom was having none of it and after many months, and discussions between the parties involved, O’Brien finally felt the need to admit to “acting in a manner prejudicial to the proper conduct of horseracing in Great Britain.’
The chairman of the BHA disciplinary panel, a Matthew Lohn, was moved to say the following: “If an umpire or a referee asks a player to give an account of himself they do not turn on their heel and leave the field of play. So should be the case in racing and the penalty must reflect this position.”
Yes Mr Lohn, but the horse was injured and by the time the vets wanted him trotted yet again was almost sound and there was no need whatsoever for it.
At least no need, except for those with a bit of power to be seen to be flexing their particular muscles.
As well as that if a soccer player makes a two-footed tackle, in the process breaking one of his own legs, you can be certain the referee will not ask him to account for his actions. No, the priority would be to get him to hospital as quickly as possible.
We’ve all seen this sort of thing before, of course, you know the odd bouncer or guy at a point-to-point, given a white coat for the day, who allow their perceived new standing in society to influence their behaviour.
In any case whatever about the merits of fining O’Brien, the threat that restrictions might be imposed on him in the future, regarding his ability to enter horses in races in Britain, was sinister and completely unacceptable. Talk about the punishment fitting the crime!
