Report exposes bad horses

THE EVIDENCE of there being too many bad horses in Irish racing was maintained yesterday when the Turf Club reported a big increase in the number of the sport’s “yellow cards” during 2008. There were officially 299 “performance warnings” issued by Turf Club officials last year, a massive jump from the 2007 total of 167.

Performance warnings were described yesterday as being like football’s yellow card system whereby a trainer is warned about a very poor display by a horse which could be suspended from racing if repeating a similarly bad performance.

“It deals with bad horses who aren’t able to lie up with the pace or who might go with it for six or seven furlongs and then finish two furlongs behind,” explained the Turf Club chief executive Denis Egan.

“Horses have to be able to participate meaningfully in a race and if they are so bad that they can’t do that, they will be suspended. Most trainers get the message and don’t run such horses again if they get a warning,” he added.

The figures were part of the Turf Club’s Integrity Racing Statistics Report for 2008 which was released yesterday. The sport’s regulatory body reported an increase in activity by its appeals body which dealt with 38 cases last year, including 15 dealing with prohibited substances inquiries.

Three of those were from point- to-point cases but Egan expressed disappointment at “the increase in the number of positive results to 12, noting that all the positives related to the finding of legitimate therapeutic substances which had not left the horses systems on raceday.”

However there was satisfaction at how both drug and alcohol tests on jockeys all turned up negative.

A total of 88 riders were drug tested last year and there were 670 breath tests taken at 13 meetings. In total 425 riders have been tested since checks for drugs started in 2003 with just one positive result. “All 758 tests were negative and jockeys, and Irish racing, can be proud of the results,” Egan said. “These results are excellent are in view of the results in other jurisdictions.”

There was little change in the number of full-time registered stable staff in Ireland (1,784) but Egan said any impact from the current economic downturn is not likely to be reflected in Turf Club statistics until next year.