TO paraphrase the late Henry Ford, often the biggest mistakes made are the ones from which we learn nothing.

When Irish racing faced an embarrassing situation back at the 2021 Galway Festival as three-year-old Aurora Princess won a two-year-old maiden, it was keenly hoped that lessons would be learned to avoid a similar mix-up on these shores in the future.

The obvious potential for a scenario like this to occur again was widely spoken about, and the dangers of not identity checking horses as they arrived into the parade ring once saddled were clear for all to see. It should have led to runners being scanned as they enter the pre-parade or parade ring, but the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board failed to act on the warning it was given. That lack of action has promptly come back to bite us all.

It goes without saying that the ultimate responsibility to run the right horse in the right race comes down to the trainer. Simple as. No arguments.

The authorities also have a part to play, however, when it comes to ensuring a level playing field for everyone, and what unfolded at Killarney last Saturday shone a light on the disappointing shortcomings of the IHRB’s existing protocols in this area. It found them to be insufficiently robust again.

When four-year-old Indigo Five mistakenly won a three-year-old-only handicap at the Kerry venue - with her three-year-old stablemate Ano Manna stood in the stable yard while missing her intended assignment - it was another regrettable incident that reflected poorly on Irish racing, and its regulator. An industry said to be worth €2.46 billion to the country can seriously do without amateurish episodes like this.

‘Human error’

Trainer Johnny Feane, who was fined €3,000 over the incident, apologised and accepted responsibility for the “human error” that led to the Indigo Five running in the wrong race.

He explained on Racing TV: “I was delayed getting to the races and the wrong horse raced. The wrong horse was tacked up, I arrived ten minutes late. I noticed immediately down at the stable yard that it was the wrong horse. It’s just an unfortunate series of events.”

Perhaps more tellingly, though, Feane highlighted exactly what many were left to ponder about the IHRB’s identity-checking protocols once horses are saddled at the race.

“It’s history now, and people study history to know why things go wrong,” he said.

“At Irish point-to-points, we scan all horses before they go into the parade ring and maybe in future it might help to bring it into the rules [on the track] to help stable staff and trainers, many of which are struggling to get stable staff at the moment.

“That would be scanning the horses before the parade ring as opposed to just the winner after the race. I’m sure it could be possible.”

Confidence dented

As well as the obvious messiness for bookmakers when something like this arises, the Killarney mix-up also leaves the scope for doubts over just how often are the wrong horses running in the wrong races.

You would like to think this does not happen often by any means. However, as long as the current protocols are in place, there will always be the potential for horses to run in the wrong races without the authorities picking up on it - barring they win when their microchips are scanned at that point.

Placed prize money, blacktype and betting are of obvious importance, yet there is a risk for errors to go undetected with these beaten runners and that is not near satisfactory. While it might not be happening regularly, the protocols are not strong enough to have certainty on the matter. The IHRB cannot afford to go on without addressing this any longer.

It would be foolish not to acknowledge that logistically it is not always going to be straightforward to scan each horse in a big-field race once tacked up and entering the parade ring. That said, as Feane pointed out, a version of this process is the norm in point-to-points, and if a trainer felt their runner is going to be particularly difficult to scan pre-race, they could always request to have the check completed ahead of the field, therefore avoiding delays late on. Extra resources will be needed to fulfil this role, but recent evidence suggests it is worthwhile.

Recent cases

As well as the Jessica Harrington team’s mix-up at Galway in 2021, Aidan O’Brien was fined after Snowfall and Mother Earth were incorrectly saddled and ridden by the wrong jockeys in theGroup 1 Fillies’ Mile during Covid-19 in 2020.

More recently, Gordon Elliott was fined €500 when saddles had to be reweighed and refitted at the Punchestown Festival after the wrong tack was placed on Imagine and Perfect Attitude in the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel Handicap Hurdle. Thankfully, the error was spotted before the race and the saddling issue was corrected, but it still resulted in a 13-minute delay to the race won by Grangeclare West, with winning rider Paul Townend describing the hold up as “hugely unfair” to the runners who were waiting at the start.

As Feane touched on, recruiting suitable stable staff is a major challenge for trainers at the moment. The Irish Field reported last month that operators are in desperate need of fresh workers and are pressing Horse Racing Ireland to secure a fresh batch of non-EU work visas from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Advertisements for positions are being posted in yards big and small all over the country, and, anecdotally, it seems as though some trainers are having to work longer hours at their yards while fulfilling hands-on tasks to make up for the staffing shortfall. This can obviously reduce handlers’ scope to attend the races in some circumstances.

Trainer delayed

Though fully accepting his responsibility for the incident, Feane said he wasn’t at Killarney when the saddling error occurred and got delayed while “working hard as usual”, and in the Alizarine-Aurora Princess mix-up at Galway, the groom leading up the wrong filly was working at the races for the first time. As new staff are being recruited to the game and the current raceday system has its own shortcomings, an extra layer of security for trainers from the IHRB would be reassuring.

All told, the latest Killarney saga begs the question that if two mistaken identity disqualifications in two years doesn’t trigger change on behalf of Irish racing’s regulators, what will?

Scanning the microchip of only the winner, once horses are tacked up, is clearly risky and the very last thing the industry needs is another high-profile mix-up down the tracks. It would be quite the look for Irish racing if a similar instance arose after a race involving the World Pool with an international audience, for example.

On the bright side, Feane will surely be hoping that his fillies wind up half as lucky as the O’Brien-trained pair who were caught up in the 2020 Fillies’ Mile identity debacle. Mother Earth went on to win the following year’s 1000 Guineas back at Newmarket and Prix Rothschild at Deauville, while Snowfall landed the Oaks by the widest margin in the race’s history before following up in the Irish equivalent at the Curragh.

No pressure, Ano Manna and Indigo Five.