The controversy around the case of jockey Philip Byrnes’s unseat from Redwood Queen at Wexford last May should be the tipping point that propels Irish racing towards professional stewarding. But it requires the entire sport and the industry behind it to wake up, smell the ridicule and pony up the money to make it happen.
The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) last week released a statement outlining how a referrals committee chaired by Justice Peter Kelly exonerated Byrnes from the charge of deliberately jumping off the mare trained by his father, Charles. The fallout from that statement has been almost as charged as the original incident itself. None of it has shown Irish racing in a positive light.
The regulation of a sector that likes to boast about being worth €2 billion a year to Ireland has wound up looking a clumsy hotchpotch. Even by the standards of those familiar with how racing is policed here, it all appears startlingly inept.
That no stewards’ enquiry was called on the day by the Wexford stewards was always astonishing. Byrnes had come to the final flight of a claiming hurdle with the race in the bag on a horse that had drifted alarmingly in the betting from 6/4 to 13/2. His exit left the 1/3 favourite Beacon Edge to win. The uproar on all kinds of media was immediate.
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It was only the following day that the IHRB announced there would be an investigation. By that time, rightly or wrongly, much of the betting and racing public had made up their own minds about what happened. After eventually interviewing Byrnes in August, the regulator charged him with deliberately jumping off the horse. The referrals panel hearing took place in December.
After examining the incident from all sorts of video angles, the committee concluded the unseat was due to “poor horsemanship”. It dismissed evidence presented to it about betting patterns on the race as “unsatisfactory and unconvincing”. The panel didn’t criticise how the matter was handled on the day at Wexford.
But on Friday – the day after the referrals judgment was released – it emerged the Wexford stewards had been informed before the race of unusual betting patterns on the race. This was from the British Horseracing Authority’s (BHA) integrity team – part of their brief to scrutinise betting patterns for the IHRB as part of a €350,000 five-year contract that has since expired.
After the race, and Byrnes’s unseat, the BHA had contacted the stewards and the IHRB’s integrity department encouraging them to seek an explanation from the rider. This message was repeated in their end-of-day report. But the Wexford officials – who, like all panels, enjoy considerable independence – considered the threshold for a stewards’ enquiry not to have been met.
That call was hard to fathom. An ultra-charitable interpretation might originally have been that the stewards simply missed the significance of Redwood Queen’s exit. But for those charged with policing events on a racecourse to be repeatedly told of suspicious betting patterns, watch what happened and conclude it wasn’t even worth asking a question about is baffling.
A public explanation as to how they arrived at that conclusion would be the least expected of any functioning operation charged with such significant responsibility. It is the very least required to maintain public confidence. But since most stewards’ panels are voluntary, a more Corinthian attitude has always seemed to apply – one that was never good enough and certainly isn’t now.
A ruthlessly professional sport being policed by well-meaning amateurs saves the IHRB money, but it’s an indulgence Irish racing can’t afford anymore.
Basic measures of accountability aren’t being met by a body largely financed by public money. Professional stewards required to account for their decisions are par for the course in every other major racing jurisdiction. Here, the prevailing attitude is akin to not criticising voluntary GAA referees when they mess up.
There is always one stipendiary steward in any stewards’ panel but stories of “stipes” being overruled are plentiful. The rules allow for it. They shouldn’t.
Race-day regulation needs transformation. There is no reason why full-time professional stewarding can’t form part of a racecourse presence, combined with video interpretation at a central studio back at IHRB base. It simply requires the money and, perhaps more importantly, the will to make it happen.
There is a broader context to all this about how the IHRB, as well as Horse Racing Ireland, are essentially reflections of Irish racing’s constituent parts. In particular, they are what a powerful cross-section of prominent owners, breeders and trainers want.
Perhaps it’s too much to expect these people to change how the sport is regulated at the cost of diverting resources from areas such as prizemoney. Perhaps the current situation suits them fine. But Irish racing’s regulation needs to catch up with best practice or lose more credibility on the back of incidents like the one that took place at Wexford. Ultimately, that’s no good for anyone.
Right now, the IHRB’s credibility is suffering. Spouting jargon about transparency is undermined by how it took media queries to find out about the BHA’s input into that Wexford process. The BHA integrity contract was cancelled last August. The IHRB’s former head of security and investigations, and his deputy, have left and their positions scrapped. Reputational odours, such as the one left by the long-running controversy over a €350,000 transfer from a jockeys’ charity fund, still linger. And that’s before even addressing the doping threat.
In perception terms, it looks desperately like seat-of-the-pants stuff. The entire sport needs to find the gumption required to take a vital first step with professional and accountable stewarding. Such a move is in its own gift. These are the types of actions it should expect of itself. Sad to say that even the most optimistic probably accept its long odds against it happening.
Something for the Weekend
Themanintheanorak (2.30) is 7lbs higher for his smooth victory in Fairyhouse last week but can defy that penalty at Gowran on Saturday. Deafening Silence (3.15) could earn himself an Aintree spot if landing Haydock’s National Trial. Based on his Welsh National third to Haiti Couleurs, Dan Skelton’s charge looks the one to beat.
