Things that make you go hmmm

Contrary to our national anthem, it seems that every creed and race does not have an equal place, at least not when it comes to the horse racing industry. Time and time again, those in authority continue to treat with the different groups involved in the sport in a highly differentiated way. The most recent case of a trainer whose charge tested positive after finishing third on December 3 has re-opened old wounds. Joezel, owned by Paul Mouttet and trained by John O’Brien, tested positive after finishing third behind Bad Action on Caribbean Racing Challenge day. Following the T&T Racing Authority’s (TTRA’s) review, Joezel was disqualified from third and trainer O’Brien was suspended for one month. While the industry awaits the TTRA’s official explanation for such an apparently lenient penalty, comparisons are being made with the penalties imposed on Shaffique Khan, Harriram Gobin and Christopher Prime in the past, albeit under a different TTRA regime. In the case of Joezel, the drug fell into category 4, the penalty for which, according to Rule 100B the Rules of Racing, is “one month to one year suspension and a fine not exceeding $500 and a loss of purse.” By the size of the suspension, the authority obviously imposed the minimum penalty. 

 

The concern of third parties is what is the message being sent? It is alleged that the error was that of the veterinarian—if so, has any penalty been imposed on the vet? It is difficult to assess whether the penalty fits the crime, what is undeniable is the lack of transparency around the decision. This is not the first such time however and based on the habitual inconsistencies in horseracing, possibly neither the last. Trinidad and the wider Caribbean is experiencing one of the wettest dry seasons yet again, but the administrators at the Arima Race Club continue to be intent on framing races on the turf and then waiting until the very last moment before deciding to take the race(s) off the turf. Over the last two racing days (21 and 28 January), five and three races respectively were scheduled for the turf and all taken off the turf. For the next three race days (4, 11 and 17), three races are scheduled for the turf on each day.  While no one is advocating that races should be run off on conditions which are dangerous for riders, at issue is the timing of the decision to cancel turf races. Given the many years of turf races and rain in Trinidad, surely the track management can now determine by Friday whether turf races are possible or not. It is understood when, having made that decision, excessive rain fall overnight on the Friday or early Saturday resulting in a revision of the decision. It is surely not reasonable when everyone knows, based on the condition of the track on a Friday morning, that regardless as to what happens during the day, there is no way that races can be run off on the turf, and yet still, the decision is only made on the Saturday morning. In this era of ante post betting, the implications of late decision making are enormous and this will only worsen over time. 

 

There is also the relatively small matter of the Tipsters’ competition wherein most tipsters would be submitting their selections to the respective newspapers by midday on a Friday with one expectation, whereas on some occasions, the decision should already have been advised to all. In November 2011, jockey Freddy Mannriqque who had been suspended by the TTRA was inexplicably re-instated, “apparently” without the TTRA fully conducting their enquiry. “Apparently” can be the only applicable word because in January 2012, the TTRA announced that Mannriqque had been re-suspended for “failing to appear at the hearing into his matter”. This raises the question of the basis for the lifting of the original suspension, if his matter was only now being determined and as a result of which, his attendance was now being requested. In their latest announcement, Mannrique was not the only one to fall foul of the authorities for failing to appear, a number of delinquent owners were also warned off for failing to appear to answer charges being brought against them. One could be forgiven for thinking that the TTRA takes more umbrage with the disrespect shown to them by failing to appear at an enquiry, than the seriousness of any underlying charge. Throughout the 2011 season there was one owner who would consistently claim horses for $20 to $ 30,000 and them race them back in claiming races for $6 and $8,000. That was 2011. Roll on 2012, and after three days of racing, the pattern seems to be repeating itself. Surely the racing authorities must be aware of what is taking place and the fact that no action is being taken to prevent this distortion of the game speaks volumes. Surely it cannot be a good thing for racing that horses are popping up from one day to the other, owned by a single owner throwing confusion into the minds of the betting public as to whether the owner is trying with one horse or the other.  

 

It is hard to conclude that this is being done solely for the sake of becoming Champion Owner (in terms of races won). That is a value-less title and any victory there would be pyrrhic because the only other owning group previously interested in that title, has long since had to pull back on their participation in the sport in any meaningful way. The owner in question also invests in quality horses and that is where the focus should continue to be. If the Jamaican Kittitians come through on their pledge, and if the ARC can attract new investors to the sport, the top owners need to focus their energies on ensuring better quality animals contest the local events. Towards the end of last year, and following the passage of anti-smoking legislation in the Parliament, the ARC announced that the Grand Stand would be completely smoke free. Signage to this effect was also installed throughout the facility. It is therefore somewhat disheartening that smoking in the Grand Stand continues unabated. The limited police presence at the facility is not really there to police smokers and so they should not be relied upon. If the patrons cannot be relied upon to voluntarily follow the laid down guidelines for use of the facility, the club needs to employ the services of individuals who sole purpose is to walk around the facility ensuring compliance.  These need only be ordinary security personnel. The club would need to balance its liabilities for fines from the relevant authorities and/or lawsuits from affected patrons against the cost of employing one or two individuals to circulate around the facility daily. Hostility is not an issue since these individuals can refer to the police presence in the event that there is hostile resistance from any patron. A civil society can only be built on the backs of civilised rule abiding citizens. Horse racing is no different.

 

The survival of any sport is dependent on media coverage. Coverage, however, entails more than cutting and pasting of international articles taken off the web, and taken without acknowledgement of the original source. Surely that is plagiarism at its worst. Outside of this journalist, few of the journalists involved in this lovely sport are spending any time to develop articles of greater interest to the local population. Articles about the local sport are few and far between.  The death of articles on the local sport while all of the dailies claim to have racing desks is really just another one of those things that make you go hmmm. Additionally, there is news this week that there are problems again with the testing of horses following racing in December 2011. If indeed any of the stories are true, then this needs to be properly ventilated otherwise, yet again people will begin to believe that there is one rule for some and another for many others. It will be interesting to find out from the authorities as well which of the laboratories that do the testing of samples is now being utilised by the T&T Racing Authority. At the moment, it is not certain where horseracing will grow if at the beginning of the year there is all this doubt surrounding many of the rules of racing and in particular the implementation of these rules. This must be addressed sooner rather than later. In the meantime, we await official information on the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer of the Arima Race Club. This sort of information should be disseminated quickly and not kept secret; otherwise many may get the wrong impression.