THE October meeting at Cheltenham is perhaps not trying as hard as was once the case to provide clues for the big meeting in March, and I remember the distant days when the meeting was completely low-key and away from television, taking place in a midweek slot with small fields the norm.
It was once again the case that local stables struggled to field runners for some of the novice events and it’s just as well that Irish trainers continue to support the meeting, with Saturday’s card dominated by yards from across the Irish Sea, albeit not always the ones the market expected.
There is a myth promulgated in idle chatter around Cheltenham that Irish trainers suffer in comparison to the juggernaut that is Willie Mullins, but the real lesson that the British can learn from years of Closutton domination is how other Irish stables have adapted and thrived in that time period.
Sure, it’s not easy to win races on the domestic front, when Willie (and Gordon Elliott, of course) get so much high-quality ammunition, but rather than stand around whinging about the lack of opportunities, the smartest Irish trainers have worked out how to streamline their operations to achieve best results, changing the way they source horses and finding opportunities abroad, as well as at home.
Growing number
The proof is in the success of Irish stables at a growing number of UK courses, with John McConnell regularly farming novice contests in the UK when the competition is thin on the ground and, despite a quiet time on the home front, he was in winning action again last weekend, taking the staying novice for the third time in recent years.
Henry de Bromhead and Gavin Cromwell are top-class trainers, who also went home with winners’ cheques and the latter unearthed a ‘Hennessy’ hopeful in Senior Chief in a quality handicap chase, where the Knockeen stable had the first and second.
The Newbury contest is the Coral Gold Cup now, and it was a surprise to see Senior Chief as big as 20/1 on Monday, given comments by the trainer that he has a big handicap in him.
I doubt Henry was talking of the Cheltenham race and he could still be well-weighted, with a 6lb rise for Cheltenham looking very fair, considering he had the reliable Broadway Boy a dozen lengths behind.
It wasn’t de Bromhead or Cromwell who made the biggest impression on me over the two days, however, but Ian Donoghue, who managed to eke some more improvement from the seemingly exposed Lisnamult Lad in the handicap chase that opened Saturday’s card.
That horse was well-produced and well-ridden by Sean Bowen to win, and he’s not going to be the easiest to place, but Donoghue has done well in squeezing more improvement from a horse, who was well-placed over hurdles by John McConnell last term. He also impressed with the accuracy of his jumping, for a horse not obviously built for chasing, and the thoroughness of the Donoghue operation came shining through in this success, and in the trainer’s post-race comments.
Branched out
The emergence of the likes of Donoghue - older brother of leading rider Keith, and also a graduate of the pony-riding circuit - who has branched out from training and selling on pointers to success under rules, gives the lie to the notion that Mullins and Elliott are squeezing the small trainer out of the picture in Ireland.
It’s true that there are no easy pickings, but in starting at square one and making sure all the relevant boxes are ticked, the Donoghues of this world are making a mark.
There may have been a time when a few rich owners, a lot of enthusiasm, and a big dollop of luck could ensure a trainer’s survival on the jumps circuit, but trainers must be smarter all round to survive, trimming the fat, giving value to owners who haven’t fortunes to waste, and putting in the research to find the right races.
In that regard, Ian Donoghue is helped by the hard work of younger brother Ross and wife Alana, and the family operation is clearly paying dividends.
Smart enough to spot a bargain, but hard-headed enough to know when to sell a promising recruit in order to reinvest, Donoghue looks to have his head screwed on and is one to keep on side.
IT didn’t really make much of a buzz in a week when the great and the good are either in Melbourne or California, or planning to flit between the two, but the Independent Disciplinary Inquiry into a case involving trainer Mickey Bowen and jockey Shane Fenelon raised an eyebrow with me.
What happened was reasonably simple, in that Fenelon found himself in trouble for riding in the UK last month, on days when he was banned from riding in Ireland due to a breach of the whip rules, including on Bowen’s Newton Abbot bumper winner Alan De Banks, and as a result, that horse has been disqualified.
So far, so straightforward, but the case was complicated by the fact that Bowen had telephoned the BHA to ask if Fenelon could ride, and was told that he could.
I’d normally be critical of the BHA for making an error here, but the fact is that the telephone operator who answered that query would have had no reason to assume that Bowen was enquiring about an IHRB punishment.
Rather than allow a fast-track punishment to be handed out, Fenelon and connections of Alan De Banks appealed the proposed disqualification on the basis of a verbal contract established by the phone call (Estoppel in legal terms) that the jockey was allowed to ride.
That’s a novel approach, but it’s hardly surprising that the appeal was dismissed, as there is strict liability for jockeys to know whether or not they are banned, and jockeys from another jurisdiction riding in Britain have to sign a form confirming that they are not the subject of any such ban.
It beggars belief that Fenelon (and Bowen, presumably, although perhaps he was merely taking the jockey at his word) had somehow forgotten that he was banned on those days (though he had moved from Ireland), so it’s almost amusing that, aware that he couldn’t ride at home, he had attempted to do so in another jurisdiction.
To be caught out in that endeavour only to argue that the fault lay elsewhere, has turned comedy into something more like farce.