An inch can be as good as a mile when it comes to getting past the winning post first – except of course when it isn’t, as was obvious to most anyone watching Saldier win at Killarney last Sunday.
Willie Mullins’s former top-class hurdler started 7-4 favourite for a novice chase and was battling it out with Gordon Elliott’s Vina Ardanza when they jumped the final fence.
Saldier’s dramatic jump right meant he collided with his rival, who got taken off a straight course and had to be regathered by jockey Jody McGarvey.
The pair then fought out an exciting finish that ended with the favourite winning by a nose – the minimum possible margin. If it wasn’t quite a flared nostril, there wasn’t much more than an actual inch in it.
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Losing jockeys tend not to underplay things in such circumstances but McGarvey’s declaration he felt he lost at least half a length through Saldier’s bump is hard to quibble with.
The stewards, however, let the result stand. This despite finding that Saldier had interfered with Vina Ardanza. They concluded “on the balance of probabilities” that he hadn’t improved his finishing position as a result.
Given the minuscule margin, it’s a bewildering verdict to have come to, so it’s little wonder the runner-up’s connections have appealed.
If the tipping factor in the stewards’ decision was a report from Saldier’s rider Paul Townend that he felt he was always holding the second horse to the line, they might have borne in mind a famous line: he would say that, wouldn’t he?
There’s a similar inevitability about stewards getting it in the neck. Slagging them off as myopic chancers prone to holding their binoculars back to front is as old a vent as swearing at a beaten favourite. Stewarding is a thankless task in many respects.
They’re not helped either by a rule book that’s too open to individual interpretation when it comes to the interference rules. Certitude in such an interpretive exercise is, by definition, difficult. But even allowing for all that, by common consensus this was a penalty kick without a keeper.
It wasn’t like the 2015 Tingle Creek Chase when Sire De Grugy wiped out Special Tiara at the final fence and dubiously but unsurprisingly kept the race. Sire De Grugy had three parts of a length in hand; when it comes down to a nose, how much room for interpretation can there be?
This was straightforward. Saldier had to get thrown out. But the stewards somehow fouled it up. Running and riding enquiries regularly occur that are much tricker judgment calls, so missing the dunk like this is hardly confidence-inspiring.
The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board needs to stop shooting itself in the foot. It knows better than anyone how there are plenty of snipers out there ready to pull the trigger anyway. It’s the nature of the policing game. But too often there is inconsistency in how it’s being played.
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A couple of days before Saldier’s win, an admittedly less straightforward decision was required from the Kilbeggan stewards after Rachael Blackmore appeared to many to ride to a finish a circuit too soon. She persevered to ultimately finish fourth in the race on Lady Rita.
It was an unenviable position for the steward’s panel. They watched the same pictures as everyone else. But they were also faced with the most high-profile personality in the sport telling them she’d simply carried out a tactical move that hadn’t worked out.
Faced with a choice of accepting that or not, they fudged it. They said they were not entirely convinced with her explanation but couldn’t be certain “her misjudgement, if any, had caused her to fail to obtain her best possible placing”. In short, they washed their hands of it.
That isn’t good enough. Confirmation came a day later with those back at IHRB base confirming an investigation of the circumstances in which no action was taken.
Navigating such minefields is what stewards are there for. Or if they don’t feel up to it, at least refer the matter back to HQ. Simply ducking the situation undermines credibility in an environment where regulatory scepticism is rampant anyway.
Certain jobs don’t come with popularity thrown in. Tax inspectors and traffic cops know this. So do dentists and, God help us, reporters. Stewarding too comes accompanied by any amount of baggage. It’s why Irish racing must have professional stewarding sooner rather than later.
Entrusting racecourse policing to well-meaning amateurs isn’t credible in the long run.
There are racing jurisdictions where the decisions relating to Saldier and Blackmore would have provoked very excitable reactions indeed. These are the same jurisdictions whose mammoth betting markets are likely to become much more important to the Irish racing industry’s finances in the coming years.
More than enough mileage has been got over the years from the voluntary system. Professionalism won’t bring perfection. But in terms of perception and consistency it’s time to do a lot more than inch slowly towards the inevitable.
Something for the Weekend
There’s no obvious outstanding candidate like last year’s winner Baaeed for Newbury’s Lockinge Stakes on Saturday but his former stable companion My Prospero (3.35) could kick-start a potentially lucrative four-year-old career.
With just half a dozen career starts, the William Haggas-trained colt shapes as one that may bloom in 2023, and the decision to drop him back to a mile at Group One level looks significant.
Senecia (4.00) was too good for a Grade Two-winning hurdler at Ballinrobe earlier this month, and the course hurdles winner will appreciate drying ground for a competitive-looking novice chase at Wexford.
