Graham Cunningham outlines the need for change in the BHA interference rules after more incidents highlight a key flaw while the dearth of French equine talent is questioned, too.
Positive trends mask one key flaw in interference rules
Gut feeling, how do you think British racing has progressed over the last decade in the key areas of whip use and interference?
I’ll save you the trouble of guessing. BHA statistics supplied by the BHA’s Robin Mounsey show that jockeys made significant changes during the decade between 2010 and 2019 (2020 had a big Covid hole in it), with whip bans reducing from 624 to 391 and interference suspensions dropping from 718 to 310.
The whip data is especially notable given that riders are now held to more stringent limits than ever before, though that may not stop a 15-strong Steering Committee recommending further unnecessary restrictions when their findings are finally published next year.
An equally striking drop in interference bans speaks well for the progress being made but the last week has shone further light on a continued flaw in the system that keeps being exploited by riders and making the finish of numerous British and Irish races look like something from the Wild West.
Feisty O’Brien abandons No Speak policy
Let’s start with Aidan O’Brien, who checked his Ballydoyle PR cloak in at the door for an enthralling RP interview with the Racing Post’s Ireland editor Richard Forristal in which he torched suggestions that his team are powered by anything more than natural substances and lit up Shane Foley for causing serious interference to his 1000 Guineas winner Mother Earth (and others) as he muscled his way to Matron Stakes victory on No Speak Alexander.
It will come as scant comfort to O’Brien that Mother Earth had no problem reversing the form with No Speak Alexander when the pair met again in last Saturday’s Sun Chariot Stakes and it’s only fair to point out that Ballydoyle winners have been sinners in various big races, including when St Mark’s Basilica and Ryan Moore carried Tarnawa across the track in the Irish Champion.
Those with longer memories may recall that the wayward Dylan Thomas and Kieren Fallon seemed fortunate to keep the 2007 Arc under the interference rules that prevailed in France at the time but O’Brien’s larger point relates to a reluctance among stewards to use the full range of powers available to them.
“Ryan should have got a week for careless and Shane should have got a month for dangerous,” said O’Brien. But stewards seem to feel that reaching for the section of the rule book marked dangerous riding is a dangerous game.
More than twelve years have passed since Tony Culhane became the last British-based rider to be punished for dangerous riding. Yes, you read that right. Not one rider in twelve years has performed a single dangerous manoeuvre on a British racetrack. Mounsey puts this down to “the deterrents in place…and the professionalism of our jockeys.”
But one of the definitions of dangerous riding is when “a rider causes serious interference as a result of steering a course or carrying out a manoeuvre when it should have been obvious that interference would result.” It’s hard to argue with Aidan’s view that what Foley did in the Matron was dangerous. And he isn’t the only one who feels stewards are soft pedalling.
Pontefract case leaves Berry perplexed
I’m not sure how connections of well-backed favourite General Clermont felt when 5lb claimer Richard Deegan on Elite Des Mottes took a leaf from Foley’s ‘win now and serve the 5-day ban later’ book by swinging away with his whip at Killarney on Sunday even when it was clear his partner was hanging all over a rival posing a serious threat on his inner.
But I do know how Newmarket stalwart John Berry felt after Wynford and Kevin Stott slammed the door in the face of his staying handicapper Dereham at Pontefract on Monday.
“I was pretty pissed off” was Berry’s understandable response after Stott switched his whip from right to left inside the final furlong, causing Wynford to continue a sustained drift which forced Derham’s rider Faye McManoman to snatch up and lose all chance against the stand rail.
"I don't think we had a hearing - never mind a fair one."
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) October 4, 2021
Trainer John Berry plans to appeal after his Dereham finished second behind Wynford in an eventful finish at Pontefract pic.twitter.com/bvkBZc0cJx
Berry was dead right to point out that “Faye would have gone through the rails if she hadn’t pulled back” and stated his case with skill and subtlety while contending that Stott’s decision to let Wynford hang was intentional rather than careless.
Meanwhile, Stott was probably justified in believing that Wynford was just beginning to get the better of Dereham when interference took place. And herein lies the crux of an issue which, sadly but predictably, has become more about semantics and getting to the line first than fairness.
Aidan option well worth considering as Tylicki case looms
The BHA view allowing a horse to continue hanging as merely careless even when that carelessness carries potentially dangerous consequences; canny riders like Foley and Stott seem content to win first and take the ban that follows; and racing is poorer as punters are left wondering whether other sports might give them a fairer shake.
Memo to J Berry: Your cause is righteous but it’s as well to avoid punting on stewards’ inquiries if you thought for one second that getting the Ponte race was “a formality” under the current system.
And, though your desire for a fresh hearing in London is understandable, the winning distance of over four lengths means the High Holborn panel will have to depart from a very well-worn path to even think about allowing the appeal.
And memo to the BHA: A decade of data shows your policing of the whip and rough riding has helped produce a more sanitised sport. That’s laudable, but no rule book is ever so neat that it can’t be tightened up further.
Britain’s interference rules are due to come under major public scrutiny later this year when Freddie Tylicki heads for the Royal Courts of Justice to sue Graham Gibbons over the 2016 Kempton fall that ended his career and left him paralysed.
History relates that courts are reluctant to interfere in the doings of sporting authorities but keeping your own house in order is crucial for any legislator. O’Brien’s plea for hefty fines and bigger bans for those who win at all costs may not provide a panacea. But watch those finishes at Leopardstown, Killarney and Ponte again and tell me his plan isn’t well worth trying.
Unlimited Replays
of all UK and Irish races with our Race Replays
Discover Sporting Life Plus Benefits
Talk of Arc switch lands on sticky wicket
It’s a tradition like no other. And the annual wailing and gnashing of teeth over testing ground for the Arc and Champions Day is as pointless as it is predictable.
France Galop chief exec Olivier Delloye has suggested that moving the Arc forward slightly is an option, though it might have been useful for him to bone up on what late September weather is like before fuelling the RP’s exclusive. Spoiler alert: it can slash down then, too.
Various senior racing bods dismissed the idea in the best traditions of their ‘the answer’s no, now what’s the question?’ mentality. And, further down the food chain, punters who dislike betting on which horse will handle deep ground best can always lay out.
But, if you really want something to ponder, maybe look back to a time before the rains arrived. Four runners for the Eclipse; five for the King George; and four for the Irish Champion. If you don’t see that as any sort of a problem then you might just be part of the problem.
What’s going on with French racing?
They have tracks to die for and Tote driven prize money that puts Britain in the shade but their best horses simply aren’t cutting it when foreign legions roll into town. The facts from Arc weekend tell a tale that isn’t dissimilar to the hiding Ireland dealt out to the Brits at Cheltenham in March with visitors responsible for:
- Six of the first seven in the Arc
- The first four in the Foret
- Three of the first four in the Abbaye
- The first two in the Cadran, Lagardere and Royallieu
- And Saturday G2 wins for Manobo, Real World and Dubai Honour
Andre Fabre provided his usual resistance but fellow old school players like Jean-Claude Rouget, Alain De Royer-Dupre, Freddy Head and Pascal Bary were barely sighted and their younger colleagues were largely anonymous on France’s biggest weekend.
Better brains than mine will have clear ideas as to why France is struggling on the big stage. Perhaps it’s because the new wave of handlers aren’t on a par with the old guard yet; maybe it’s because the best stallions are based in Britain and Ireland or because Godolphin and Juddmonte are concentrating their best prospects with Appleby and Gosden.
Still, the bottom line is that France won just two of eleven Group races on Arc weekend. Zellie and Rougir saluted in the Boussac and Opera but overall it was a case of tes garçons ont pris une sacrée raclée. Or, to put it in plain English, your boys took a hell of a beating.
How much more interesting is racing when key players come out swinging?
Loads more, as evidenced by one haymaker and another subtle yet highly effective left jab unleashed in the last week.
Sport is nothing without heroes and villains and, in calling out Shane Foley and those who talk “out of the side of their mouths” on doping allegations, Aidan O’Brien showed a hard edge that surfaces only rarely in public.
But Hollie Doyle’s cleverly placed clapback at Frankie Dettori was every bit as effective in its way. For those who missed it, Frankie had suggested that Snowfall’s Vermeille defeat came about because Hollie hadn’t gone hard enough aboard pacemaker La Joconde.
But Hollie wasn’t here for any of that. Her ATR Arc weekend Blog contained a bold statement that “having Ryan back aboard (Snowfall) is a massive plus". It seems the ATR Tweet trailing the Doyle dig has been deleted. But the delicious Doyle dig is still there on the ATR website. And I’m here for all of it.
Racing hacks staying strangely quiet on hacks?
I’m also here for the latest revelations about what the most powerful man in racing has been getting up to.
We already know that Sheikh Mohammed orchestrated the abduction of his daughters - Princesses Latifa and Shamsa – due to a court ruling from 2019.
And we now know that agents acting on his behalf hacked the phone of his ex-wife Princess Haya and five associates including two of her lawyers in what amounted to “a total abuse of trust and indeed an abuse of power” according to senior Family Division judge Sir Andrew McFarlane.
We know that the BBC and other major news organisations such as the Guardian consider this a highly significant news story because they have covered it in considerable detail across all their platforms over the last 24 hours.
And we know for sure that most racing media outlets don’t share the latter view because they continue to treat the Sheikh’s reprehensible behaviour as utterly separate from his exalted status within the racing industry.
Anyone who has spent time working within those outlets – whether it be on newspapers, television or influential podcasts – will be familiar with the awkward trade-offs that take place to minimise the risk of alienating people who wield great power.
But a discerning public isn’t fooled by mealy mouthed media. They may not hear from you. But they do see you.
