Declaration of breathing operations

[Steeplechasing]

I knew about Cue Card and Smad Place in advance of their most recent runs, but did not know that Al Ferof has had epiglottal surgery.

I can’t believe that this breathing surgery has not become a cause celebre. The success of the 3 mentioned above will only urge trainers to have this surgery performed on a greater number of horses. Where is the tipping point here for making these declarable?

The heart-searching and hand-wringing that goes on at the BHA about the importance of racing as a betting product, and they’re effectively endorsing insider-trading here. How much damage must be done to public confidence before action is taken?

I’ve written to the formal BHA Betting Forum (punters’ committee) this morning. If you support the declaration of breathing ops, please add your name, and your experiences/comments to this thread.

[Ex RubyLight]

I was just about to start the same thread two hours ago. What’s the point of telling us about gelding operations, tied tongues and the application of head gear, when the most important operation of them all is being left aside?
As soon as a horse returns from a break, the people interested and also involved in the sport (no matter if media, bookmaker, punter or the occasional racegoer) should be informed about the “changes” that took place in the meantime. Otherwise you could say that someone is cheating on you, especially when they (trainers, owners, connections) talk to the media NOT before the race, but afterwards and tell them how good the op has turned out for the horse.

[droffats]

Totally agree. If you get a petition going put the link on here and I will happily sign it.

[Racingahoy]

This has to happen, I have lost count of the number of times it has been shown to make a significant difference to a horses performance and it is unreasonable to expect people to trawl through connection’s quotes for this sort of information.

[Zamorston]

I agree it is something that the information should be made available, but as Luke Harvey rightly said the other day it works both ways….there will be a hell of a lot of horses who have breathing ops who don’t win first time back from it.

And of the three mentioned above was there any real great surprise in any of them?

Smad Place was strongly fancied for the Hennessy last year and his trainer is on record as saying the biggest difference to him in this years Hennessy to last years was the fact he had a run under his belt.

Cue Card…I’m still a bit unsure as to how reliable that form of beating Silviniaco Conti is…for me it didn’t look a true race or result but I suppose time will tell on that score…it wasn’t a major shock anyway…on either of his two wins and there was very strong market support both times…

Al Ferof did nothing surprising really considering he’s won 1st time out for the last four seasons, and would have been 5 but for a late fall with a race in the bag in 2010….again though I’m not convinced it’s suddenly turned him into a better horse….like Cue Card, I suppose we’ll see in his next run or two…

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