Henry Kissinger, benighted former US secretary of state, was credited with the apocryphal line “who do I call when I want to talk to Europe?” Racing’s disparate factions can make the European Union look like a monolith so, when it comes to the gee-gees, getting someone accountable on the line can sometimes be tricky.
The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board’s head of governance and legal, Cliodhna Guy, finishes up today. Her position has been scrapped. Guy joined the regulator in 2017. She was interim CEO following the departure of the former long-term incumbent Denis Egan in 2021 until current boss Darragh O’Loughlin was appointed a year later.
A brief IHRB statement to the Racing Post last Friday said: “As part of a restructuring of the IHRB’s governance arrangements, the role of head of governance and legal has been made redundant. Accordingly, Cliodhna Guy will leave the organisation on July 10th following more than nine years of service to the IHRB.”
Guy is the latest IHRB brass to leave. Before last Christmas, the IHRB’s head of security and investigations, Chris Gordon, and his deputy, Declan Buckley, left. Those positions were also scrapped. They subsequently launched proceedings against the regulator in the Workplace Relations Commission. Both sides came to an agreement in February.
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That the regulator’s ‘detectives’ were let go was wide open to interpretation. So too was the significance of them not being replaced. The IHRB insists it retains the capacity to investigate wrongdoing.
But such “restructuring” generates obvious questions. Even in the broadest terms, what kind of structure is the IHRB after? To what aim is the board ultimately working towards? Where is the impetus coming from? Is there more to come, and what about the suspicion that much of it is little more than a cost-cutting exercise?
All of which the IHRB basically declined to answer this week. Communications boiled down to referencing the paragraph given to the Racing Post. From a ‘comms’ perspective, it was probably job done. The gig’s reality is usually to deflect as much as possible from what’s relevant, or flood the space in corporate speak.
Horse Racing Ireland is perhaps even more adept at it. When it comes to uncomfortable headlines, the governing body’s default position can seem to be little more than variations on a theme of hunkering down, saying nothing, and hoping to ride out any aggro on the back of anodyne press releases.
Reluctance on the part of officials at any organisation to engage with parasitic media can testify to sound personal judgment. But distasteful as it may be, it’s professionally necessary sometimes. It can’t just be all about fluffy social media feeding. With executive privilege comes the responsibility of occasionally having to hold your nose and front up.
Both Egan and the former long-serving HRI boss Brian Kavanagh understood the deal. Whatever the merits or otherwise of how they went about their business they appreciated they headed organisations at the heart of a €2.4-billion-a-year industry. It meant they were rarely unavailable for comment.
From a media perspective, there’s a self-serving element to this, but it’s not just that. HRI gets €79.3 million in State funding this year. It’s a semistate organisation. The IHRB got over €11 million from HRI last year. That’s over 86 per cent of its turnover. It might be a private club, but its largely publicly financed and, like it or not, there is a public interest in how it goes about its business.
Most objective observers will cheer any meaningful reboot of racing’s administration.
The IHRB has been particularly put through the reputational wringer in the last dozen years. Some reforms have resulted, not least in relation to anti-doping processes. But the organisation continues to be plagued by perceptions of its private heritage encouraging a nod and wink culture that ultimately serves to facilitate an oligarch of powerful owners and breeders.
Last week, it also released its 2025 annual report, marking the halfway point of its four-year Statement of Strategy. The usual bells and whistles of such reports was present and correct. So was the jargon. Transparency got saddled up and given a spin. It often is. Whether it’s properly ‘off’ or just out for a run is debatable.
It is legitimate to ask why some of the regulator’s higher echelons have been deemed surplus to requirements. It’s valid too to query why, if the posts were worthy of being filled in the first place, they aren’t now. If it’s all part of a brave new best-practise regulatory world for Irish racing, there’s no reason for the IHRB and HRI not to shout it from the rooftops.
Something for the Weekend
On the back of Coolmore’s opposition to the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe being opened to geldings next year, there’s an irony to how their hope for a real stallion-making race like the July Cup is Mission Central (4.35pm).
Gelded after his first career start, the horse bred by Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary is a prime contender to give Aidan O’Brien a record sixth success in Europe’s premier sprint. He ran down Rayevka to win the first Ascot Group One sprint last month and this July Cup sees a tie up of all that Ascot sprint form.
Mission Central’s performance as a three-year-old against older horses was remarkable. The extra furlong should be no trouble as he’s unbeaten in two starts at six furlongs. With no diversionary thoughts to deflect attention he can continue his rise to the top of the sprint pecking order.
At the opposite end of the distance spectrum, Native Speaker (6.32pm) can land Friday’s Midlands National at Kilbeggan. Henry de Bromhead’s hope already has a National under his belt having landed the Mayo version in Ballinrobe. He’s 9lbs higher in the ratings but his run style should suit here.
