When it comes to the politics of racing in Ireland anything is possible
This really was a puzzle. The four-day Killarney meeting was due to run from last Wednesday week to the following Saturday.
But Wednesday was lost to the weather and so the natural progression surely was to start on the Thursday and end on the Sunday.
But when it comes to the politics of racing in this country then anything is possible. The decision was then made, much to the surprise of most observers, that Killarney wouldn’t race last Sunday and instead wait for Tuesday of this week.
It didn’t seem to make much sense, but we thought, because Dundalk was on last Sunday as well HRI, perhaps, concluded that running two all-flat meetings on the same day wasn’t a good idea. The Trainers’ Association might even agree with such a sentiment.
But then we arrived in Kerry on Tuesday to discover the main reason was that Turf Club officials wouldn’t have been available to oversee racing on Sunday, rosters and all that sort of thing you know. There’s no mystery here, it was as simple as that.
Such a scenario was quite ridiculous and for Killarney not to race on Sunday was clearly economic madness.
Killarney is a hugely popular track, with a go-ahead management and a setting that is breathtaking.
The racing was excellent, weather superb, catering first-class and attendances, in the main, quite healthy.
Last Saturday, for instance, was deemed Ladies’ Day and grabbed an audience in excess of 3,000. That was impressive.
All logic dictated that the feel-good factor should have been allowed spill into Sunday. But no, the public was told to go home and come back next Tuesday.
But, of course, most didn’t. Tuesday was sparsely populated, they deserved far better, there was no atmosphere and just 20 bookmakers were standing.
If the meeting had taken place on Sunday several thousand would have been on site and it would have been a case of win-win all round.
And then you have to ask yourself about the type of card that was foisted on Killarney on Tuesday.
The way it was framed tells us that the people who are responsible for such things have little understanding of what the punter wants.
Do not ask the Irish punter to go to a meeting where the last four races are those necessary evils, handicaps. The first three contests were maidens, but why wasn’t the programme framed as follows: handicap, maiden, handicap, maiden, handicap, handicap and finish with a maiden.
Punters and bookmakers alike in this country, in my experience, detest handicaps. Punters, at least those who know what they’re at, won’t bet on them, on the basis it is simply too difficult to find the winner.
And bookmakers don’t want them either. They hold little or nothing in such races and having to go say 5-1 or 6-1 the field isn’t a very attractive proposition.
Racing in Ireland should nearly always end with a non-handicap. Punters and layers will then come out to play and may the best man win.
Let’s have a quick look at one of the handicaps at Killarney on Tuesday to emphasise just how pathetic betting on such a race can be.
Here’s the business Daragh Fitzpatrick did on the contest won by Van Rooney. In total he issued just eight tickets.
He had €20 for Van Rooney, €100 for Loreto, €150 for Maundy Money and €30 for Lord Kenmare.
He did not take as much as a cent on any of the other eight horses in the race. Fitzpatrick held just €300 and, somehow, managed to win €160.
Berkie Browne held €250 and John Harney a whopping €47. That’s how sad the betting ring in Ireland has become and yet the people who run the game think that racing on a Tuesday, in preference to a Sunday, is fine and there is nothing wrong with having four handicaps in-a-row.
On the Thursday of Killarney, Joseph O’Brien put up 2lbs overweight on Greek Goddess, who won a maiden by three parts of a length.
Last Tuesday at Killarney he again weighed out 2lbs in excess of his allotted weight aboard Purple, who scrambled to win another maiden by half a length. O’Brien weighed in, I gather, 3lbs over. It is something that has happened repeatedly this season.
If he weighs out almost 3lbs over, but not quite, then that will be registered as 2lbs. When you hear he is putting up 2lbs over then chances are that it will be nearer to 3lbs.
At Leopardstown on August 16, he put up 2lbs overweight on Snow Queen. She was beaten half a length into second by What Style.
Aidan O’Brien’s desire to make his son champion jockey is perfectly understandable, but should such a consideration override the overall good of racing?
Punters are being short-changed on an ongoing basis and thousands throughout the country have no way of knowing that, frequently, a horse they are backing is carrying more than its allotted weight. There has been some tweaking to the weighing in procedure, but it’s no more than a fudge.
The Turf Club’s job is to ensure the integrity of racing and to protect the interests of punters. The silence from that quarter is essentially deafening.
Denis Egan, Turf Club Chief Executive, has issued the following statement regarding the decision that Killarney should race last Tuesday rather than the previous Sunday.
Said Egan: “There were two major contributing factors in not being able to staff a second fixture last Sunday.
“Firstly, in the last four years, five full-time officials have retired and have not been replaced, so we are working with a minimum of full-time staff.
“The cost of providing integrity has reduced by 26% since 2008.
“Secondly, we are obliged to comply with the laws of the land with regard to employment practices and are obligated to give days off to comply with the working time acts. Last Sunday was the first Sunday for five weeks where a double fixture was not scheduled for that day.
“It was the first time this year that we were unable to staff a fixture.
“We had no problem staffing all the rescheduled and additional fixtures last month and we staffed two fixtures at short notice on Tuesday of this week.”
