Racing

John Oxx fears for Irish racing if no restart in May

Government’s exit plan does not contain any specific mention of horse racing

Racing was run behind closed doors in Ireland prior to current restrictions being implemented. Photo: Bryan Keane/Inpho

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Brian O'Connor
Wed May 6 2020 - 17:53

Renowned trainer John Oxx believes Irish racing will be made to look “very odd” if it can’t resume behind closed doors until the end of June due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

With racing due to resume in Germany on Thursday, and France on course to start back on Monday, the picture for the sport here remains remarkably unclear.

Five days after An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar unveiled the government’s five-phase ‘Roadmap for Reopening Society & Business’ there is no clarification as to what point racing will be able to start again.

Initial hopes of being included in phase one – which would allow a resumption in less than fortnight – appeared to be ruled out when it was announced no sport behind closed doors will be permitted until June 29th at the earliest.

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Significantly, racing wasn’t mentioned specifically in the plan and since then there has been intensive lobbying by Horse Racing Ireland for it to be made an exception.

There has been speculation the sector may eventually be included in phase two of the government plan which would allow a return on June 8th.

However that would still see a significant time difference with Ireland’s competitors on the continent and there are also hopes British racing might be able to get under away again later this month.

On Wednesday there was once again no official comment from HRI on the matter. One Curragh trainer, Michael O’Callaghan, tweeted: “It’s hard to fathom that we still haven’t heard anything.”

Other industry professionals have also privately expressed deep unease with a lack of information emerging from racing’s ruling body.

Oxx however is adopting a “wait and see” attitude to what emerges from HRI’s negotiations with government.

The hugely respected former champion trainer, who masterminded the career of Sea The Stars, said he is as in the dark about the eventual outcome as everyone else but underlined how June 29th would be a major blow to the sector here.

“It would be a big setback. It would be very serious in fact. Our competitors, if you like, are starting up. Germany may not really be a competitor but they’re starting on Thursday. France is starting Monday.

“We don’t know about England but they’re hoping for sometime in the middle of the month.

“If we were way behind them it would be a big worry for trainers because there is a danger that some owners with an international profile will be be tempted to move horses. It would make us look very odd,” he said.

Such a late start point would also have a major impact on scheduling later in the year as HRI try to make up on as much of the original 2020 programme as possible in a confined timeframe.

Oxx pointed to the success of 10 fixtures run behind closed doors here prior to lockdown on March 24th as evidence of how racing here can take place safely in the short-term.

“I was very impressed myself when I was at the first meeting in Dundalk and then came back a week later for the second meeting and there were all sorts of enhancements to it.

“I thought it was a very safe place for everybody. It would be much safer than walking around the streets of Dublin or going to the supermarket or anything like that. So we have proved our capacity to run behind closed doors very safely.

“And it’s not as if we are pioneers. It’s been happening all over the world. Australia has carried on a behind closed doors programme. Hong Kong has as well, Japan, a lot of American tracks, so it’s well tested elsewhere.

“The business almost lends itself to it and also we have a population of workers who are tuned into it. There’s a community of people who would be going to the races. Everyone is aware of it and have a bit of knowledge of bio-security in general,” he said.

Oxx echoed many others in saying he had anticipated a May 18th phase one return for the sport prior to the Taoiseach’s speech last week.

“We all thought we would be in the same category as golf and tennis. Even some of the medical people I saw quoted saying golf, tennis and horse racing could resume pretty quickly. That’s what we were expecting,” he said.

“I’ve no knowledge of what’s going on so we will have to wait and see. We don’t know because racing wasn’t mentioned one way or the other. So that makes me imagine it has been inadvertently left out – I hope!” Oxx added.

In contrast the sport will resume in Germany with a meeting in Hanover after being given clearance by local authorities there.

“The races, which have not been carried out since March 15th due to the corona pandemic, will be resumed in Hanover on Thursday, May 7th,” said a spokesman for Germany’s racing authority.

He added that the local government had deemed hygiene and protocol arrangements at the track to be appropriate.