SPORT REVIEW 2011:From the death of one teenage rider with the world at his feet to the success of another at Churchill Downs the racing world showed again both the pain and joy that's wrapped up in the great sport
IT IS a racing reality that the high of victory can seem so high because the lows can be so terrible. Sometimes that ventures into the realm of cliché, used in a pat way after losing out in a photo-finish or falling at the last. But its fundamental truth came back to haunt everyone in Irish racing just a month into 2011.
Jack Tyner was only 19 and had the racing world at his feet. A pair of racecourse winners and four point-to-point successes had already testified to a talent that would have gone on to much bigger things with the backing of his father, Robert, a leading trainer in Co Cork and one of the mainstays of the southern point-to-point circuit.
However, at the start of February, Jack Tyner took a crashing fall at a point-to-point in Dungarvan. A week later he lost his fight for life in Cork University Hospital. It was the second tragedy to hit the family. Robert Tyner’s sister Ruth had been killed in a pony racing fall years before. She was just 17 at the time of the accident.
Risk is at the centre of racing’s appeal, whether it is sprinting at full pelt, where a clipped heel can spell disaster, or launching a horse at a fence, throwing your own heart over it first and hoping the animal will follow. But sometimes the cost of that excitement can seem too much. It says much about the resolve and strength of the Tyner family that within days of burying Jack, they were back racing, continuing a tradition with horses that goes back generations. But it also says a little bit about the pull of a sport that continues to enthral so many, no matter what the cost.
The cost of contesting the Grand National dominated the headlines after Ballabriggs’ triumph at Aintree in April and the reverberations of it will continue into 2012.
Public unease about the National challenge reached a crescendo on the back of two horses being killed in the race and the sight of winning jockey Jason Maguire using his whip with a frequency that saw him suspended afterwards. On an unusually warm day, having horses being quickly dismounted after pulling up and water being thrown over them contributed to an overall picture that only the most unimaginative could have felt happy with.
The British Horseracing Authority’s response in terms of the whip has proved well-meaning but counter-productive in terms of headlines it so desperately wants to avoid. Even more adaptations to the famous Aintree fences have been made since then.
But nothing can avoid the central nature of the National and jumps racing in general: it is high-risk, and that can require some people to park their qualms to one side. Some can’t manage that. It is racing’s challenge to persuade an otherwise indifferent general public that the overall balance of competition and animal rights remains appropriate.
During the second day of this year’s Cheltenham festival the level of Irish dominance seemed downright embarrassing and not at all appropriate. All six races had been won by the visitors, including Sizing Europe’s 10-1 Champion Chase victory. Coming on the back of an opening day that included Hurricane Fly’s Champion Hurdle success, it seemed like nothing could stop the Irish, especially since the last race of day two was the traditional Irish benefit, the bumper. Cheltenian proved the party-pooper, preventing a clean-sweep. But at the end of the festival a record 13 Irish-trained horses had won, providing a reminder of the sport’s resilience in the face of economic uncertainty.
Hurricane Fly was the focal point of another dominant season by champion trainer Willie Mullins who supplied the ammunition for Paul Townend to secure a first jockeys title.
The unique position of Coolmore is seemingly resistant to any economic fluctuations and the evidence of that was written through 20 Group One victories for Aidan O’Brien this year, not to mention Pour Moi carrying the Magnier colours to Epsom Derby success for master French trainer Andre Fabre.
The absence of a retained jockey at Ballydoyle caused barely a hiccup and Séamus Heffernan and Colm O’Donoghue proved more than capable of coping with big-race pressure, most notably when O’Donoghue steered Treasure Beach to the Irish Derby, leading home another O’Brien 1-2-3 in Ireland’s premier classic.
However, it was the emergence of the champion trainer’s 18-year-old son Joseph that resonated most through the flat season. A first Group One on Roderic O’Connor in the Irish 2,000 Guineas proved to be anything but a one-off.
Seemingly thriving on the pressures of riding multi-million euro horses, the champion apprentice also scored on Maybe in the Moyglare, Camelot in the Racing Post Trophy and topped it all off at the Breeders’ Cup on board St Nicholas Abbey.
The worldwide reach of Coolmore/Ballydoyle was emphasised at Churchill Downs with Wrote also winning, and giving Aidan O’Brien a remarkable tally of seven Grade One races in the US through 2011.
Johnny Murtagh provided Co Meath trainer Ger Lyons with a first Group One on board Lightening Pearl in the Cheveley Park Stakes and completed his own clean-sweep of the Irish classics with a thrilling dead-heat on Jukebox Jury in the Irish Leger.
For good measure he also regained the jockeys’ title.
