Suspended suspension for trainer Thomond O’Mara sends out sorry signal

Between races at Cork in November, clerk of the course Paul Moloney was walking to the weighroom when Thomond O’Mara started shouting and pointing at him. Moloney asked the Co Tipperary trainer to go away, at which point O’Mara grabbed him by his shirt and tie. Moloney called a security official for help before a racecourse staff member came on the scene and O’Mara left.

The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board security officer on duty advised that the Gardai be contacted. Moloney didn’t want to do that. The stewards were informed but O’Mara couldn’t be located to attend an inquiry. Moloney told the stewards he had been verbally and physically abused and it was referred for investigation. Last week a referrals panel issued their report on the matter.

It outlined how the root of it all arose at Limerick in July, when O’Mara’s son had a fall while riding in a race. The trainer felt the ground had been overwatered and he held Moloney, as Limerick’s clerk of the course too, responsible. The IHRB’s head of race-day operations Paul Murtagh subsequently found no fault with the ground preparation and noted no watering had taken place.

At last week’s referrals hearing, Moloney revealed that on the back of the Limerick race, O’Mara harassed him with repeated phone calls late at night. He was forced to block the trainer’s number. It also emerged that during the incident in Cork, O’Mara shouted at Moloney “Hey you, you nearly paralysed my son.”

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Having considered the matter, the panel concluded O’Mara behaved in a manner prejudicial to the integrity, proper conduct and good reputation of racing, that he abused, intimidated and physically assaulted an IHRB official, and acted in a threatening and intimidating manner. They also decided O’Mara engaged in violent or improper conduct on a racecourse.

As a result, they fined him €10,000, ordered the payment of €5,000 in costs to the IHRB, and suspended O’Mara’s licence to train for three years.

Then, to the astonishment of many objective observers, they suspended the suspension for three years: O’Mara is free to continue training so long as he doesn’t reoffend. All of which begs the question as to what must happen for your licence to actually get taken away?

Maybe Ronan McNally has an answer. This time last year, the Armagh kitchen-fitter and restricted trainer got warned off with a record 12-year disqualification for offences that included playing the handicap system in a way many others do too, albeit perhaps not with such a cavalier attitude towards rubbing officialdom’s nose in it. But many will say “but still”.

Billionaire businessman Luke Comer is currently appealing a three-year licence suspension after a dozen of his string tested positive for anabolic steroids. Considering it is the biggest doping story in Irish racing history, it’s little surprise the IHRB is appealing against the apparent leniency of that penalty.

However, no new frontiers in whataboutery need opening in order to wonder how roughing up, abusing and intimidating an IHRB official can yield a racing professional little more than a slap on the wrist. Suspended suspensions are a dubious deterrent at the best of times, often perceived as a cop out that suggests getting tough without really having to do so. But they appear to be getting used far too much.

It is a discrepancy the IHRB has acknowledged to be unsatisfactory. Last month, trainer Tony Martin had a third winner in four years thrown out for failing a drugs test. A referrals committee imposed a six-month licence suspension only to suspend it for two years subject to him not breaching anti-doping rules in that period. Both sides are appealing that one.

Afterwards the IHRB’s chief executive Darragh O’Loughlin admitted he wasn’t convinced that imposing a suspension, and then suspending the suspension, has the same deterrent effect as following through on the penalty.

The whole basis of racing’s regulatory appeals and referrals process is rooted in panel independence. A valid element of that is the use of discretion and acknowledgement of individual circumstances in different cases. One size cannot fit all. But more consistency within that flexibility is needed.

Deterrents only work if they’re credible. And those charged with implementing them must be armed with authority. It’s understandable for Moloney to want to draw a line through the whole sorry saga. But effectively rapping O’Mara on the knuckles for such brazen behaviour sends out a sorry signal.

Policing works best with buy-in from the majority. But there must be an “or else” at play in relation to the minority that aren’t prepared to. It’s a slippery disciplinary slope without it and there have been other worrying cases in recent years where regulatory officials working at the coalface have faced unacceptably belligerent behaviour.

Some will put it in a supposed context of modern over-sensitivity, maybe even argue the characters to look out for aren’t in your face but operating behind people’s backs. Racing has plenty of those too. IHRB personnel can’t reasonably expect to be some ultra-protected species in a tiny industry village either.

However, naked aggression must be a non-runner, and must be seen to be so.

Something for the Weekend

It’s odd to talk Group One flat races in January, but Saturday night’s Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream in Miami includes Aidan O’Brien’s Warm Heart in the $1 million Turf contest. Over nine furlongs she makes little appeal at cramped local odds. In contrast 20-1 about Frankie Dettori’s mount, Crupi (10.40) in the $3 million dirt highlight looks too long.

With Mark Walsh on duty at Doncaster on Saturday, Paul Townend rides Capodanno (1.50) at Cheltenham’s Trials Day. His opposition looks either out of form, unsuited by the going or inexperienced. The Irish hope came back to form last time, and a win here would be a major boost to his stable companion Galopin Des Champs.