BRIAN Kavanagh was honoured by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) in Paris this week.

Kavanagh has stepped down as vice-chair of the IFHA vice-chair following a lengthy spell in the role. He has also served as chairman of the European Pattern Committee and chairman of the European and Mediterranean Horseracing Federation.

At home, Kavanagh served as chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland for 20 years prior to becoming chief executive of the Curragh Racecourse in 2021, a position he had previously held in the 1990s.

IFHA chairman Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges praised Kavanagh for his singular contribution to the IFHA, saying: “Brian’s tireless dedication and unwavering commitment to the Federation and international racing have been vital to its sustained success. We are most grateful for his many years of leadership, wise counsel and friendship.”

The IFHA is a federation of more than 60 racing authorities from different countries and regions. It seeks to promote all facets of thoroughbred racing, including the welfare of equine and human athletes, and to protect and grow racing’s global social and economic significance.

Keynote speaker

Justice Frank Clarke, a director of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) and former Chief Justice, delivered the keynote speech at this week’s International Conference of Horseracing Authorities, organised by the IFHA in Paris.

The focus of this year’s conference was on upholding racing integrity. Clarke highlighted the vital importance of what he believes are the “three pillars” of racing integrity – up-to-date rules of racing, sound processes, and independent decision-makers.

He said: “In Ireland, we are currently engaged in a project to entirely review our rulebook and it is striking to me, as one of those involved in that project, to realise just how many rules we have that are outdated; that reflect different ways of doing things; which have not been amended when the world changed to some extent.

“A clever lawyer would be very good at finding some rules, which we would all say ‘well we never apply that’, but they would argue that it’s in your rulebook, it’s there and you must comply with it.

“If the stakes are high, that’s the kind of loophole that will be looked at.”

Clarke said it was important that racing’s rules could be easily comprehended by solicitors, barristers and non-racing judges, as integrity cases can end up in the law courts.

“Not having those things laid out in a way that is understandable leads to the risk that the non-racing expert judge may come to a conclusion that we do not think is right, but which would be legally very hard to dispute.”

He noted that wealthy racehorse owners are already engaging top legal teams to fight their cases in the stewards’ room.

“Whether the stakes are high in terms of prize money or breeding value, or whether the stakes are high in terms of illicit betting activity; once the stakes are high, people will be willing to expend money to secure a particular result,” he said.

“I recall chairing an appeal panel on a purely refereeing decision about whether a race result should have been overturned by the raceday stewards, only to find that one of the parties was represented by a QC from London, who had been brought over to Ireland at great expense, and the other horse - which ran for a well-known Irish racing and breeding operation which I won’t name - was represented by a very distinguished then-member of the Irish bar, who had ultimately turned out to be my successor as Chief Justice of Ireland.

“So they were prepared to put their money where their mouths were.”

He concluded by advising delegates of the importance of explaining integrity decisions to the public. “A great danger for us all is that, if you lose the centre ground of public opinion, who will want to be an owner and spend lots of money owning racehorses, if it is not regarded as a respectable activity?

“We may perhaps need to do more to sell our efforts to the outside world,” said Clarke. “In a very different context, during the first public speech I made as Chief Justice, I coined a phrase which was: ‘you can’t complain if you don’t explain.’”

Highest standards

Engelbrecht-Bresges commented: “Integrity is the foundation on which our sport is built and therefore protecting integrity is essential for the credibility and popularity of our sport.

“We have to provide a level playing field, so that our participants feel comfortable to compete. Without the highest standards of integrity, our sport loses the trust and confidence of our customers and other key stakeholders, which then places the existence of our industry at stake.”

Over 150 delegates from about 40 different countries heard from key integrity leaders from racing and other major sports in a number of presentations and panel discussions.

Integrity threats

The overall programme examined key integrity threats and learnings from previous cases, in order to demonstrate how racing can utilise cutting-edge approaches and techniques to protect the sport.

Other speakers from outside of racing included Susan Ahern, Arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and former Head of Legal and Legislative Affairs at World Rugby; Brett Clothier, Head of the Athletics Integrity Unit; Jenni Kennedy, Senior Director of Investigations at the International Tennis Integrity Agency; and Andrew Adams, Partner at international law firm Steptoe.

Integrity leaders from within racing who presented included Andrew Harding (IFHA), Marc Van Gestel (Hong Kong Jockey Club), Jamie Stier (Racing Victoria), Cliodhna Guy (IHRB), Brant Dunshea (British Horseracing Authority) and Martin Purbrick (Asian Racing Federation).

Each of them discussed recent integrity case studies from their own jurisdictions and Ciodhna Guy talked about the methodologies, which led to Luke Comer’s three-year ban.

THE International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) released its Racing Integrity Handbook and created the IFHA Council on Anti-illegal Betting and Related Crime at this week’s international conference in Paris.

“The release of the Racing Integrity Handbook is a major achievement for the IFHA and its commitment to upholding integrity in our sport,” said IFHA executive director Andrew Harding.

“It is the first of its kind in horse racing, and indeed the most comprehensive such document produced for any sport. We expect it to be a valuable resource for use by all jurisdictions, and we are grateful for the collective efforts of the 25-plus global regulators and integrity experts that directly contributed to the publishing of the Handbook.”

The IFHA Racing Integrity Handbook can be found on the IFHA website.

The IFHA Council on Anti-illegal Betting and Related Crime is the result of the collaboration between key racing bodies, as it is transferring from the Asian Racing Federation (ARF) to the IFHA.

“The Council has become an established sports integrity think-tank, and its impact, purpose and objectives are now global in nature,” said Martin Purbrick, chair of the Council.

“On behalf of the Council, I would like to thank both the IFHA and the ARF for their unwavering support of our work, and look forward to contributing to the integrity objectives of the IFHA, horse racing, and sport in general.”