- This topic has 28 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 5 years ago by
.
- Posts
There’s an excellent piece by David Walsh on this subject in the Sunday Times today, hopefully more attention will be paid to this problem.
A link to the the article by David Walsh – not sure if there is a fire but, if not, how does one explain all the smoke?
cormack15I feel uncomfortable about the feeding frenzies you see whenever a small permit holder or even certain biggish operations send one to the HIT sales. It’s predatory and makes you wonder how the original trainers feel when one of these shady yards improves their old horse by two stone. Do they roll their eyes and suspect doping? Although I’m as bad as anyone when I scroll through a catalogue – think I’d love to buy that cheap from X and send it to Y, win a few races in France and sell on for profit.
What if Given, Burrows, the Dunlops, Bolger and co actually aren’t bad trainers, but are the only ones doing it straight?
I think there could be a cycling type situation in racing one day where we look back at results from the last 20 years and struggle to find the clean ones.
You could also argue about horses leaving Irish top stables like Gordon Elliotts’ or W P Mullins’.
Why are most of them (like 70%-80%) underperforming so badly?Of course, they have their best years behind them and are also badly handicapped when re-starting at a smaller stable. People got a bit carried away when Yorkhill won a handicap chase at a northern track, though he still ran some 15-20 lbs below his best.
But maybe, it’s because they don’t get the same feeding (chocolate bars, juices, whatever) they were used to.
I also tend to think that Ed Dunlop for instance is somehow an idiot. But, maybe you’re right shipithollabolla. I rather think he is one doing it straight and once he has a good horse you see his true training qualities as well. The only problem is, being straight might not bring you many top horses. Apologies to Ed……
“You could also argue about horses leaving Irish top stables like Gordon Elliotts’ or W P Mullins’.
Why are most of them (like 70%-80%) underperforming so badly?”I would say that many of them are broken animals by the time of sale. 75% of that annual Gigginstown draft is horses with mid or high grade breathing/bleeding issues when you do the catalogue prep. Also horses north of 9 with 100 race miles in their legs or ones that have gone sour. There are a few that slip through the net though, although mostly from the fringe Giggi trainers rather than Elliott. John Dixon has done really well with Captain Zebo (ex Meade) and Kerry Lee improved Bishops Road (ex de Bromhead) by 25lbs.
I took note when young trainer George Boughey discussed sales in an interview recently. He’s an interesting character (I wonder if Hugo Palmer’s rapid decline is linked to losing Boughey as assistant) and has made a good start as a trainer, still at the stage of wheeling and dealing until he can pick up the big owners. He said his intention is to not drain all the mileage out of a horse and wants to believe someone could win another race with anything he sells the next day. He said trainers soon find it hard to do business when buyers suspect that they are only selling crap. Although, with Darren Yates around, perhaps that doesn’t always ring true.
David Walsh is one of the leading investigative sports writers/journalists in the UK. For those who might not be aware, he is the sports writer who first broke the Lance Armstrong story, and his book on the Russian state-sponsored doping programme has just been published. My reading of this story’s appearance today is that it is a marker of interest. For sure, papers need ‘click bait’, but serious writers don’t publish unless they, their editors, and – as significantly – their lawyers, are convinced the story is worth pursuing. Finally, seemingly, this issue is going to get the treatment it merits. I cannot see it being otherwise, given Walsh’s steadfast pursuit, over decades, of drugs in elite sport. Like others on this thread, I sincerely hope this is racing’s Festina moment.
https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-russian-affair/david-walsh/9781471158155
https://www.waterstones.com/book/seven-deadly-sins/david-walsh/9781471127557Quite right @befair. I haven’t read that one – but would note the potential overlap in interests between The Times and Team Sky. That is difficult terrain for any embedded journalist to navigate. Subsequent events have shown just what was going on and I suspect we will see much the same emerge in racing, especially around TUEs. Whatever, Walsh’s interest in this story represents a new journalistic departure and a welcome change from what passes for a racing press. To my mind, that the racing press has long behaved like the proverbial ostriches and the sand over this one speaks volumes – where are the equivalents of William Fotheringham or Sean Ingle? Nowhere to be seen.
Statement from IHRB…
In response to recent media comment, the directors of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) feel it is prudent to clarify a number of points.In July this year, the IHRB became the first horseracing jurisdiction in the world to enhance raceday anti-doping testing by taking hair samples unannounced at the racecourse. Testing of the race winner by blood, urine and/or hair samples was maintained for every race in Ireland during 2020, in addition to intelligence led and random testing on a raceday, Out of Competition Testing and Stable Inspections, which combined to a total of 3,032 tests carried out by the IHRB up to and including 30th November, despite restrictions relating to the Covid-19 pandemic.
During the course of this year numerous pieces of intelligence have been assessed relating to licenced individuals and non-licenced premises which included a sharing of intelligence with the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM). No evidence of doping was identified throughout this process and investigations remain ongoing. As recently as this week officials from DAFM accompanied officials from the IHRB at a Stable Inspection and the Special Investigations Unit of DAFM continue to work with us in a positive manner with regard to all regulatory aspects including investigations.As well as being tested by the Newmarket based LGC Laboratory, which is an internationally certified reference laboratory, on behalf of the IHRB, Irish-trained horses that were successful this year by winning races in Great Britain, Australia, America, France and Hong Kong for example would all have been subject to the drug testing systems in place in those countries.
Since 2016, the IHRB has continued to enhance the department of anti-doping with a 12% increase in samples taken on the racecourse including urine, blood and hair samples. There has been a 236% increase in the number of samples taken away from the racecourse and Out of Competition testing has increased from 8% of the total samples in 2016 to 21% of total samples in 2019.
For 2021, it is estimated that over 4,000 horses will be tested in Ireland and the IHRB will continue to develop current procedures and processes to maximise the effectiveness of raceday anti-doping and non-raceday anti-doping which considers best global practice.
Denis Egan, CEO of the IHRB said: “The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board remains committed to delivering the highest possible standard of equine anti-doping and medication control to protect the sports participants and ensuring a level playing field as well as instilling international confidence in Irish horses. This was highlighted by our decision to become the first jurisdiction to introduce hair testing on a raceday and in line with the Strategic Plan that we issued last year, hair testing is just one measure that is going to remain a familiar feature on Irish racecourses going forward.
Perhaps it’s coincidental, but there does seem a gradual progression from Bolger’s initial statement through the publication of Jones’ book, and now Paul Kimmage/David Walsh getting involved. I hope they have more lined up though, because the wagons are circling. Came across this today, which mentions the difficulty that the racing press face, but also that Bolger is not a lone voice (from ~35mins): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh8GekbPPeQ&t=1413s. Certainly some performances/profiles just don’t add up – it’s like Walsh saying that it seemed obvious to him (re: Armstrong). The implications for breeding are concerning too.
Got an airing on radio this week: https://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/html5/#/radio1/21901537
Money talks and you only have to compare the liquidity at Betfair Exchange on Irish races compared to UK races to see what punters think of the integrity of Irish racing below the top level.
UK racing is hardly whiter than white – plenty of maidens on the Flat and novices over Jumps just running to obtain a lenient handicap mark and any Handicap at Class 4 or below cannot be taken at face value form wise.
But the UK low-grade fayre looks positively straight as a dye compared with what goes unchallenged in Ireland.
As over here, every now and then they will wheel in some unknown claimer and unknown trainer and ban them plus the 66/1+ shot who just had a school round the back, but they never pick on anyone remotely significant.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.