18+ | Commercial Content | T&Cs apply | Wagering and T&Cs apply | Play Responsibly | Advertising Disclosure
Brian O'Connor

Brian O'Connor's Latest Blog

Donkey's Screech

The Irish Grand National is to be held between October and DecemberThe Irish Grand National is to be held between October and December
© Photo Healy Racing

In 2012 Department of Agriculture inspectors raided Philip Fenton's yard and found unlicensed medicines, including an anabolic steroid. That year they also found unlicensed medicines, including an anabolic steroid, when raiding Pat Hughes's premises. Now, in 2020, we're told the department won't assist the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) with random inspections. Racing's fight against doping has always struggled for credibility. But it looks like the situation is getting worse.

The revelation that the department isn't doing random inspections came during Chris Gordon's successful High Court defamation case against the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association (IRTA). In evidence the IHRB's head of security said the department expressed its disappointment over the relationship between him and the IRTA. Gordon also said he had been compromised in his role since 2015, memorably employing the phrase "sent to Coventry" to describe his position.

An industry wide anti-doping taskforce issued a report in early 2016 which recommended that IHRB personnel be able to test on unlicensed premises. This is a basic requirement of any meaningful attempt to introduce traceability throughout a thoroughbred's life and fundamental to any realistic anti-drugs regime. The Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) board unanimously approved the Industry Wide Policy on Prohibited Substances & Doping Control almost two years ago.

Crucial to teasing out the crucial question of jurisdiction was use of a legislative Service Level Agreement that allows the transfer of statutory responsibility to a separate body, in this case from the department of Agriculture to the IHRB. That would allow inspections to be carried out at studs and pre-training yards. Except what should be a relatively straightforward exercise in form-filling has been repeatedly put on the long finger. Now it looks like we know why the department doesn't want to know.

Let's not forget that prior to state agencies getting involved in the cases of Fenton and both Pat and John Hughes, Irish racing operated under the delusion that doping was a problem that occurred elsewhere.

No positive tests meant no doping problem. It was a comfortable position to take and one that seemed to suit everyone involved. Tales of white vans touring the country and from the back of which emerged commercial supplies of banned substances were dismissed as fanciful. The inevitable invitation from racing's authorities was to show the evidence and there would be a decisive regulatory response.

Well evidence emerged. And the response to this threat to the industry's credibility has been supremely indecisive.

The foot-dragging involved on actually drawing up the industry wide policy, never mind starting to effectively implement it, has been woeful. It included endless horse-trading over notice times, a bizarre element in any supposed random inspection system, and one which ended up in a 'prior day notice' compromise that inevitably convinced no one in terms of credibility. Let's not forget either that there is still no agreement with the two major sales companies to improve testing in that sector.

Uncertainty was hardly eased by the saga involving the expensive testing switch from the BHP lab in Limerick to LGC in Newmarket.

Throw in some questionably lenient penalties for drug offences, and some notably vague information surrounding the official justification for them, and it contributes to a sorry litany that hardly supports claims about a sector serious about fighting drug cheats.

That's even before coming to the Gordon case which originated as part of an investigation relating to the use of performance enhancing drugs in racehorses.

The IHRB's head of security brought defamation charges against the IRTA and was found to have been subjected to an orchestrated and severe campaign against his good name. He was awarded €300,000 in damages but the fallout from the case is ongoing with the trainer's body considering an appeal amid uncertainty about the financial implications of the judgement.

Gordon was a clear winner in court. But at a time when racing's capacity for inflicting reputational damage on itself was already obvious, the impact of such a high-profile case on the sport's image was another blow. Certainly the viciousness simmering under the surface of some of the exchanges in court will have been an eye-opener for many in the wider public. At times it resonated of a very internecine conflict within a very insular sector.

In terms of basic functionality it's hard to think any reasonable and objective observer can look at what's been going on for the last number of years and argue that racing here is operating at any kind of normal standard. It doesn't come within a donkey's screech of backing up the flowery ambitions it has proclaimed with meaningful action. Does this look in any way like a sector in a hurry to do what's necessary as an "absolute priority?" And It's hard to see anything changing any time soon either.

As for the Gordon case specifically the overwhelming reaction appears to be amazement that it should have exploded so expansively and expensively. The costs of a case that dragged on for almost six years, and which lasted for 30 days in the High Court, are reportedly well over the million euro mark. Once again it seems the ultimate benefactors of what appears to have turned into a very personal dispute is the legal profession. The net blame for failure to resolve this long before it reached the courts seems like it can be cast widely.

Separately it appears any reservations about Horse Racing Ireland pulling the plug too early on the 2019-20 National Hunt season are mostly being kept for private consumption. Inevitably there are those in the jumping fraternity unhappy about that decision and also the call not to reschedule Punchestown and Fairyhouse in some form later in the year. The Irish National is likely to be the only big race saved as part of an "enhanced" National Hunt programme in the last quarter of 2020.

Nevertheless it's hard to see that HRI were left with much choice. The surge towards a peak of the Covid-19 pandemic continues and there's no knowing how long the crisis will last. The thought of diverting medical resources to racing due to the greater risk involved in jumps action is simply not a runner. Instead the focus is on trying to get some sort of flat programme under way as soon as is both possible and appropriate.

The task of revamping the 2020 programme so that it will make sense in both sporting and commercial terms is an unenviable one. But it is also one that will serve notice of a welcome note of normality in heartbreakingly abnormal times.