Oireachtas hearing: 'Rumours are no good' for Irish horse racing
Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board chief executive, Denis Egan has called on the members of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and Marine who have received correspondence relating to alleged breaches of doping regulations in Irish racing to pass it on
Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board chief executive, Denis Egan has called on the members of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and Marine who have received correspondence relating to alleged breaches of doping regulations in Irish racing to pass it on.
Egan spoke at the conclusion of the second session on Tuesday which begin with an hour of questions for Irish Racehorse Trainers Association chairman Michael Halford and CEO Michael Grassick and was followed by engagement with the IHRB (Egan and Lynn Hillyer, chief veterinary officer and head of anti-doping) and Horse Racing Ireland (via CEO Brian Kavanagh).
Egan invited members, who spoke of receiving information in the past week of alleged doping violations and malpractice, could forward the information in anonymised fashion.
“We will follow up on everything you’ve got,” Egan insisted, at the end of a day in which he had to face numerous questions about the lack of publication surrounding his salary and that of other IHRB staff despite racing’s regulatory body being funded in the large part by State funds through HRI.
Egan explained that the figures are known to the Department of Agriculture and that the salaries are withheld from publication due to “commercial sensitivities”. He also insisted that there was full transparency and public accountability on a number of levels.
There were countless queries once more, in both sittings, about the appropriateness of the board of a regulatory body comprising members of the industry where it was easy to perceive that there might be a conflict of interest.
Senator Ronan Mullen surmised that the desire to retain the good image of the Irish racing and thoroughbred industry might lessen any desire to impact on that image, even more so if the board of regulatory body were made up of people involved in the breeding and trading of racehorses.
One man’s image loomed large over proceedings, even though his name was never spoken. Jim Bolger was “the trainer”, “the person who made the allegations” or “the gentleman”, for the duration of proceedings.
Both Halford and Grassick said they had never been made aware of any issues of doping of racehorses: “In my position as chairman of the IRTA, I can honestly say that apart from well-publicised recent claims on the part of one trainer, I have never seen any reports on doping in Irish racing,” said Halford.
Later, when asked by Senator Mullen to speculate on the motivations of anyone making allegations, Halford responded that “the people making the claims are a minority”.
When asked if it took bravery to blow a whistle, he replied, “they have only blown a whistle, they haven’t stood up.”
Grassick was asked his opinion on the perceived conflict of interest within the IHRB board by numerous committee members.
“Maybe there should be changes but that’s another day’s work,” said Grassick, who when pressed, added: “Who regulates the regulator? Maybe that’s something that could be looked at.”
Grassick said he would not be averse to an independent inquiry.
“I’d have no problem on that. I don’t think there’s anything to hide. Anybody that can get us out of the predicament we’re in at the moment I’m in favour. Rumours are no good. If HRI and the government thought it was the way to go, I’d have no problem with that.”
Much of the discussion around anti-doping led to a repeat of the significant increase of out-of-competition testing in recent years, while Hillyer revealed that pre-race testing would be “imminent – we’re talking weeks, not months”.
Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice exposed a lack of knowledge around the exact number of horses that may exist on stud farms, pointing to the AIM registration system used in cattle movement that should be replicated.
He claimed that horses had been moved from a yard while Hillyer and member of her team were awaiting entry, something she rejected, insisting that they would have vehicles at all entry and exit points at stud farms, whereas in training yards, all horses are registered and any horse moved would be immediately identifiable.
While this year’s foal crop is the first to be registered, the inability to trace all horses from the time they are born was a “ferocious flaw” in the system that left Hillyer at a disadvantage doing her work according to Fitzmaurice, something Hillyer and Kavanagh both agreed needed to be addressed.
There is to be one further discussion and then the committee will meet to discuss recommendations.
