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Isn’t a bit strange that O’Brien and Donoughue have been called to the enquiry by the BHA, but Johnny Murtagh [the main beneficiary of this episode] has not?
David Brady – You are, of course, 100% correct on all counts. It does make Mr. Struther’s quotation all the ridiculous.
Regarding Murtagh – I don’t he rule well enough. Yes he was clearly involved in planning the move, but did nothing wrong during the race. Indeed, after Red Rock Canyon moved along, he made the only logical move.
What price Johnny will be getting a quiet talking to from a certain Mr Magnier regarding saying too much in media interviews from now on? if he hadn’t made his comments that it was predetermined that RRC would move out for him the BHA wouldn’t have been forced to act.
Expect more along the lines of "We’ve a great team at home" from him too in future, sadly…Sometimes team tactics are necessary to determine the best horse.For breeding purposes I mean.Where they are not allowed you may have sprinters winning mile races.Bad news for the breeding industry and for upgrading the racehorses.
Sometimes team tactics are necessary to determine the best horse.For breeding purposes I mean.Where they are not allowed you may have sprinters winning mile races.Bad news for the breeding industry and for upgrading the racehorses.
I’m struggling to think of any sprinters who have won mile races that have affected another horses stud value.
Team tactics do not neccesarily determine the best horse. If a horse cannot win a race off a steady pace then he clearly is not the best horse in those conditions. It’s one thing ensuring a decent pace but quite another to make sure that you clear the way for your stablemate to have an easy run past you, but bugger everyone else.
Couldn’t agree more.Team tactics are just to ensure an honest pace to suit the honest horse at that distance.Maybe without team tactics Henry Cecil would have a world beater group 1 horse in his stable!And we would all be wrong.By the way how about the Coral Eclipse. Multidimensional lead to a furlong when his stablemate took over and ran on just to be headed on the line.Was that not team tactics which only proved that he was not good enough even with team tactics? Same applies to Ballydoyle .If not good enough the horse won’t win.Team tactics separates Murtagh from the bunch which stopped Lush Lashes from winning the Nassau.If Lush Lashes had a pacemaker she would probably have won.She was the best but lost without a pacemaker, (not to mention the shenanigans of the other jockeys,who were all riding losers)
Couldn’t agree more.Team tactics are just to ensure an honest pace to suit the honest horse at that distance.Maybe without team tactics Henry Cecil would have a world beater group 1 horse in his stable!And we would all be wrong.By the way how about the Coral Eclipse. Multidimensional lead to a furlong when his stablemate took over and ran on just to be headed on the line.Was that not team tactics which only proved that he was not good enough even with team tactics? Same applies to Ballydoyle .If not good enough the horse won’t win.Team tactics separates Murtagh from the bunch which stopped Lush Lashes from winning the Nassau.If Lush Lashes had a pacemaker she would probably have won.She was the best but lost without a pacemaker, (not to mention the shenanigans of the other jockeys,who were all riding losers)
No they are not just to ensure an honest pace, they are there to ensure the right kind of pace for their own stable / owner companion. They can go off at a slower pace if the favoured horse does not want a test of stamina at the trip.
Multidimentional was not a pacemaker, if you look at his form his best this year was when ridden prominently. And, at 1m2f he needed a truly run race. It was jockey error in the Eclipse, going off too strongly.
Lush Lashes did not win the Nassau due to pulling early, had she been given her head she would’ve run herself in to the ground. Manning could have expected help from his rivals but Durcan, despite being on a horse proven over further and proven able to lead, let two probable non-stayers dictate a very very slow pace. Others were also at fault, collective stupidity. Though I do agree a pacemaker would’ve helped.
I used to be all in favour of pacemakers when they occasionally stayed in front. However nowadays jockeys on these horses do not seem interested in doing the best for their mounts, they seem to do everything to help their stable companions (all well and good) but also to hinder rivals.
If a pacemaker goes off at a suicidal pace he has no chance of winning, doing something which the jockey knows is to the detrement of his own chance is surely against the rules of racing. Similarly, no jockey missing the break on a non-pacemaker would then rush his mount around the whole field no matter how his own chance might be compromised. However, that is what happens with pacemakers. This again is seems against the rules of racing.
What are your thoughts.
Mark
Value Is EverythingVery thoughtful and interesting post, Mark.
There are three pacemakers due to run in tomorrow’s Moulin. They will be coupled in the betting with their stablemates. What, if any, would the consequence for the preferred runner be if its pacemaker were disqualified for interfering with another horse?
I don’t know the French rules in this case and would appreciate some enlightenment.
Do pacemakers have to be ridden to obtain their best possible placing? Is this the rule in France as well as Britain? Doesn’t coupling in betting get round this difficulty? Patently pacemakers are usually ridden to try to provide the ideal pace for their more illustrious stablemate, and this often seems to make a mockery of the best possible placing rule.
I guess the drift of this post is that if pacemaking is deemed acceptable, wouldn’t coupling in betting get rid of some, not all, of the problems?
What are the arguments against it?
Thanks in advance.
nefertiti,
A good suggestion re coupling.
You can do that in France as the PMU has a monopoly.
In UK that is not the case as BHA do not regulate bets.The UK rules appear to control the issue except that a pacemaker that gets exhausted doing its intended job at the front and drops out has not and never has obtained its best placing ie by running its race a fair bit slower. The Stewards, like Admiral Nelson, have sensibly accepted by default that the best placing rule does not and cannot apply here. The BHA, belatedly, have not. Ireland has no rule permitting pacemaking.
Team tactic abuse rules are far more clear.UK Rules of Racing
H1 PACEMAKERS
The HRA are of the opinion that the Rules of Racing do not prohibit the running of horses as pacemakers as such, provided they are run on their merits as required by Rule 155 (i).The HRA gives notice that other than the pure act of pacemaking, riding to benefit horses which have one or more owners in common or are under common control or are from the same stable or team is unacceptable, and breaches of Rules 153 (iv) and (vi) which have that result are likely to be treated as serious.
155. (i) Every horse which runs in a race shall be run and be seen to be run on its merits. This means the Rider must comply with Instruction H18 and take and be seen to take all other reasonable and permissible measures throughout the race, however it develops, to ensure the horse is given a full opportunity to achieve the best possible placing.
I don’t believe anyone would conceive of a pacemaker setting a slow pace. He would be passed immediately by other jockeys if the pace did not suit them.A pacemaker that goes too fast will lose touch with the field and be useless.Aidan says he uses pacemakers to ensure an honest race and to establish the quality of his best horses.Remember the racing is for Coolmore not for Ballydoyle at the end of the day.
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I don’t believe anyone would conceive of a pacemaker setting a slow pace. He would be passed immediately by other jockeys if the pace did not suit them.A pacemaker that goes too fast will lose touch with the field and be useless.Aidan says he uses pacemakers to ensure an honest race and to establish the quality of his best horses.Remember the racing is for Coolmore not for Ballydoyle at the end of the day.
Andyod
You obviously didn’t see last year’s Eclipse?
Anymore examples…or is that just 1 in the last ten years? No questions were asked or raised when Godolphin’s Give The Slip ignored and Ice Dancer in the Irish Champion and then proceeded to slow the race down (which did not suit Galileo) and then push that one wide on the bend allowing his stablemate win.
Never any questions asked there but for whatever reason this is suddenly different to what Godolphin did.
I don’t believe anyone would conceive of a pacemaker setting a slow pace. He would be passed immediately by other jockeys if the pace did not suit them.A pacemaker that goes too fast will lose touch with the field and be useless.Aidan says he uses pacemakers to ensure an honest race and to establish the quality of his best horses.Remember the racing is for Coolmore not for Ballydoyle at the end of the day.
Andyod
You obviously didn’t see last year’s Eclipse?
This whole thing is sour gripes.Races are not run for the benefit of the public.Do you really think any owner gives a darn what the public thinks? As Cash Asmussen once said " They put on a 2dollar bet and want to ride the horse" Races are run for the benefit of those who enter horses in the races.Hence racetracks frame races to get the owners to enter their best horses in them.If is suits a stable to have a pacemaker they will do so.Very few stables have two horses capable of winning the same group 1 race so the pace maker is not going to win,period.Everybody knows that so quit griping about the pacemaker being given a chance to win.
This whole thing is sour gripes.Races are not run for the benefit of the public.Do you really think any owner gives a darn what the public thinks? As Cash Asmussen once said " They put on a 2dollar bet and want to ride the horse" Races are run for the benefit of those who enter horses in the races.Hence racetracks frame races to get the owners to enter their best horses in them.If is suits a stable to have a pacemaker they will do so.Very few stables have two horses capable of winning the same group 1 race so the pace maker is not going to win,period.Everybody knows that so quit griping about the pacemaker being given a chance to win.
Pacemakers do win occasionally.
The problem arises when horses from the same team who are being used for the specific benefit of their stablemate, interfere with other runners, or are used as spoilers.
Horses interfere with other horses all the time.Good jockeys keep other horses in a pocket as long as possible and interfere with the outcome by doing so.They may not win themselves but will prevent another horse from getting out of a negative situation.This is considered good jockeymanship If a jockey expects another jockey to help out he is living in dreamland see Soldier of Fortune in Arlington Million. Was Murtagh fined for his riding there?No. Should he have let him out? That is the jockeys call.
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