Another day another very suspect group 1 win for Ballydoyle. I watched the Juddmonte on Channel 4 - the commentary was revealing;
” … and Duke of Marmalade has had a wonderful passage through… ”
Sure he did - a nice gap opened up in front of him at exactly the right time between Red Rock Canyon and the rail. It was no coincidence though - Red Rock’s jockey looked round several times before he moved him out to let the Duke through.
No such luck for the sponsor’s horse. As Red Rock Canyon moved back through the field he blocked poor old Phoenix Tower in his run. There were no looks back and no attempts to get out of the way - in the end Phoenix Tower had to barge his way through to get a run, but the Duke had flown and it was too late. Only just though - if Phoenix Tower had had a little more luck in running the result might have been different. I guess we’ll never know.
The rules of racing appear to cover this point. They state (on the BHA website);
153. (iv) A Rider shall not:
(a) make a manoeuvre in a race in the interests of another horse in common ownership or under common control or from the same stable or team whether or not such a manoeuvre caused interference or caused his horse to fail to achieve its best possible placing.
This and other rules seem to indicate a simple (and IMO correct) policy - every horse in every race should be run to achieve the best possible placing in total isolation and related runners should not conspire or work together in any way for any reason. In simple terms - no team tactics.
Ballydoyle’s tactics appear (to my eye anyway) to be in blatant breach of the BHA rule above. Will the BHA do anything? There’s no point having rules if they are not going to enforce them. Mick has asked Owen Byrne, communications officer of the BHA, for his comment. Watch this space.
11 Responses to “Wild West”
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Good luck with contacting Owen Byrne. A likeable sort of chap but a complete waste of time contacting him on matters of importance within racing. His role is to tow the party line and repeat ad nauseum that no offence was committed.
According to the BHA’s Paul Struthers, quoted in today’s Racing Post, the stewards at Newmarket were satisfied that there was no breach of the above rule. If the BHA are prepared to leave it at that, it will represent a massive insult to the intelligence of fans of the sport. Faced with the simple choice of changing the rule or enforcing it, it will be immensely disappointing if they once again take the ‘problem, what problem ?’ stance. Don’t bet against it though.
Good debate and well done from bringing this up again.
If Murtagh’s quote in the Sunday Times is correct - “I was always going to follow Colm. I didn’t want to start worrying about other horses. I just wanted to worry about myself and Colm and I said to him “when you get to the four marker, just ease off and give me a passage through. It’s what Ballydoyle’s all about”, then he has just admitted to a blatant breach of Rule 153 (v) by Ballydoyle…
As it happens, I think DOM probably had quite a bit in hand, but it really is irrelevant in the context of this debate. It must have infuriated connections of Phoneix Tower that their RRC both gave DOM a dream passage and denied their horse a run. Ballydoyle/Coolmore really don’t need to be messing about with other horses like this given their current wealth of equine talent.
In one way you’ve gotta admire him for bringing new tatics to the sport…. the problem is the BHA have failed to deal with this new tatic and stamp it out. All the time they do not tackle it Mr O’brien is going to keep scoring.
Bert - tell us some good news on this dreary bank holiday…. Max One Two Three is running better than ever or MB hacked up in a piece of work and we’re all going to get our money back in the mill reef at better odds!!!!
If you can’t beat them join them. Why not try and get Aidan to train Winker for you? The PCH operation appears to be in serious decline what with Cheveley leaving him.
Yes agree John about PCH stable and A Munro well i dont think hes good enough
I’ve only loged on tonight but already its obvious that the last two chaps who left comments know very, very little about racing to suggest that you should leave Peter C-H and that A Munro is not good enough. Fairweather fans who obviously have not been racing fans for very long or have very short memories!
To be fair to Winker, he outran his pedigree as a 2yo but it was unreasonable to expect him to do it again at 3.
Joe your comments are like min …. some people havce short memories. PCH did have a bad period and for some reason he never gets great smount of horses from the Sheiks. Munroe well i have seen him run some blinders but Johny Murtagh and Keeran Fallon are diffrernt class. The only probllrm with Kieran is the baggage that comes with him and a few other things of all sorts as we all know DONT WE !!
Rgds mARK
Phoenix Tower has had a few attempts at the Duke now and failed each time, the result would have been the same, he only gets close because the Duke idles in front.
Shaun - that isn’t the issue. The fact is that Murtagh could hug the rail safe in the knowledge that nothing on his outer could inconvenience him as the gap inside would appear when he wanted it. Anything else that had tracked the pacemaker would have had its run up the inner blocked and would have had to find a path down the outside. Whatever the relative merits of the principals, that is against the rules of racing and somewhat tarnishes the achievement of an admirable horse who, incidentally, I backed heavily - confident that team tactics would again be successfully employed.
bert is right about ballydoyle, but i cannever see anything being done about it as coolmore are so influential on the thoroughbred industry. you will be banging your head against a brick wall bert.