Nowhere is the pressure to win more intense than at Royal Ascot. That pressure to come out on top will apply once again next week in high-stakes scenarios full of potential to highlight how racing’s interference rules, and their interpretation, are flawed.
It’s a year to the day since such a scenario memorably unfolded in the Norfolk Stakes. Success for a 50-1 outsider called The Ridler had many observers indignant at how he hung on to the race despite all but wiping out his closest rivals.
Having careered across the track, The Ridler was eventually straightened up by jockey Paul Hanagan and passed the post almost two lengths in front. Hanagan got a 10-day suspension for careless riding. The Ridler kept the race.
The incident prompted yet another anvil chorus pointing out how ludicrous it is for a horse to blatantly foul the opposition but only the jockey gets penalised.
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And yet again, the official steward’s response was to shelter behind a best horse on the day defence, rooted in subjective interpretation of whether, or not, the sinner would have finished in front of the sinned-against anyway.
The dangers of such interpretation were obvious then and continue to be so, even in everyday races where jockeys are effectively encouraged to take one for the team despite the stakes being comparatively small.
Last week an ordinary handicap at Nottingham saw an outrageous piece of riding from jockey Theodore Ladd who decided he was entitled to make space where none existed on the eventual winner My Chiquita.
Determined to launch a run outside the furlong pole, Ladd barged into one of his rivals, Alhabor, who came within an ace of coming down. My Chiquita kept the race. Ladd got five days for careless riding.
It’s hard to credit how anyone could look at the head-on clip of that incident and put it down to mere carelessness. At the very least it looked reckless although so blatant did it appear that Ladd could hardly have cribbed too much at being done for dangerous riding.
It’s unusual that things get so glaringly obvious. But instances of jockeys accidentally on purpose veering off a straight line are everyday both here and in Britain. And why wouldn’t they think it a risk worth taking given the way the rule book is interpreted.
The risk-reward quotient in terms of losing a race is so skewed in the offender’s favour that the regulations practically encourage a win at all costs approach; or they do until a horse and jockey come down, at which point the outcome of any race can become very inconsequential indeed.
Except the game is being policed like those dangers aren’t obvious beforehand, as if irresponsible riding only really becomes an issue if someone gets hurt – or worse – when the ambition should be to try and prevent such a dire outcome as much as possible in the first place.
Danger can’t be prevented in such a high-speed and high-octane environment. But effectively turning a blind eye to a riding culture that fosters a winner-takes-all climate is a dangerous dereliction of responsibility.
A substantial correction that focuses on giving much more of the benefit of the doubt to those interfered with is urgently required. Jockeys ride to the culture that applies. Stewards tipping the balance in favour of the sinned-against rather than the sinner will quickly see change on the track.
What’s perplexing in the circumstances though is how so much inertia on this topic has appeared to exist within jockey’s rooms on both sides of the Irish Sea.
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Those with more at stake than anyone else in changing the culture have been remarkably passive when it comes to demanding modifications in how their central and unique role in the sport gets policed.
Evidence of some change in that approach appears to be stirring here. Apparently, the Irish Jockeys Association and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board have been discussing the introduction of stiffer penalties.
It is almost two years since a rider here was done for dangerous riding which is hardly a reflection of reality.
It’s a welcome step but those with the most skin in the game in Britain still don’t appear galvanised enough to demand something be done about worryingly lax attitudes to riding habits that are of more pressing concern to them than anyone else.
Bigger suspensions for minor breaches of the whip rules rather than egregious examples of reckless race-riding is a ridiculous state-of-affairs. But expecting that to change without a proactive approach from those at the coalface strikes as wishful thinking.
It was Bobby Kennedy who declared that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on. There hasn’t been nearly enough insistence by riders when it comes to clamping down on questionable tactics that put them in danger.
Changing that and insisting on greater and more meaningful penalties for irresponsible riding – including disqualification – will restore much needed credibility to the interference rules.
SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND
It’s not at the weekend but next Thursday’s Norfolk Stakes throws up a very interesting contender in NOCHE MAGICA (2.30.) Paddy Twomey’s colt is back to five furlongs having looked all over the winner of last month’s Marble Hill at the Curragh over six before running out of puff. That defeat has produced general 12-1 odds for a ground-versatile colt with plenty of natural speed.
This latest classic focus is on Sunday’s French Oaks where the weekend thought leads to PENSEE DU JOUR (3.05.) She can boast a mere Group Three victory in comparison to top-flight opposition such as Blue Rose Cen and Jannah Rose. But she’s trained by the maestro Andre Fabre and has a big reputation.
