ELLIOTT’S LONG ROAD BACK
The decision made by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board to suspend Gordon Elliott from training, effectively for six months, was never going to satisfy everybody.
At least the news that his Cullentra yard will be now carry on and be led by Denise Foster was good to hear for the staff and the horses still stabled there.
Gordon Elliot Racing announced the news on Twitter on Saturday afternoon and finished the statement with: “Gordon will be available to assist her as she requires.” That raised a few eyebrows and indeed the line was removed shortly afterwards.
Because he lives at the yard, Elliott will certainly be around and it begs the question, what will really change other than the name on the racecard? I have no idea how these things work or how it is policed. He obviously can’t be thrown out of his own home.
He is not banned from licensed premises and can go racing during this time if he wishes but assured the IHRB that he wouldn't.
For sure, Elliott's reputation has been battered this past week, perhaps beyond full repair, and some, alluding to the impact on his mental health, say six months was more than enough. Others say it should have been longer, a lot longer, than the same six-month ban recently apportioned to Charles Byrnes for leaving his horse unattended for a few (albeit crucial) minutes at Tramore in October 2018.
It's such a difficult balance to strike and comparisons with other controversial and shocking cases that have gone before, such as those involving Howard Johnson, Mick Quinn and Mahmood Al Zarooni, for example, are probably pointless. We live in different times.
It's an understatement to say that none of these cases did racing much good, but the impact of the Elliott photograph will last a lot longer than the other transgressions.
It’s an image that won’t and, in a way, shouldn’t be forgotten. Quite why the trade daily, the Racing Post, refused to publish it in its entirety is a mystery when it was so freely available to view elsewhere, either in print or on social media. I felt that was a bizarre decision.
The IHRB, meanwhile, had to make a point and judging from the above we may not know quite yet whether they succeeded in that. It was a long, long week though for Elliott who, it might be argued, matured more in seven days than he had in the previous seven years.
His initial reaction to the photograph, was simply to admit its existence and to say he was helping out with enquiries from the IHRB. Then, he admitted it was indeed real followed by a, quite frankly, embarrassing attempt to explain how it came to be. You do wonder who on earth was advising him at this time.
However, his statement released straight after Friday’s hearing was much more like it, the result no doubt of a hard week of reflection and soul searching. He said he was “paying a very heavy price for my error but I have no complaints”.
Perhaps most tellingly, Elliott also added: “I am no longer a teenage boy who first rode a horse at Tony Martin’s 30 years ago. I am an adult with obligations and a position in a sport I have loved since I first saw horses race.”
This struck a chord. This is not to try and make excuses but his rise to the top has been so swift and relentless that this metamorphosis into a top trainer (and head of a large company with scores of employees) from that carefree young lad who enjoyed the craic, may have been a change that, mentally, he has struggled to catch up with.
You may argue that events leading up to and including this past week have demonstrated that.
So, Elliott will be back again, all being well, in September, a little older and surely a lot wiser, just as the new season is starting.
WHAT NOW FOR RACING?
Julie Harrington, who took over as the BHA’s chief executive this year, has settled in and has chosen a good time to reach out to the media during this maelstrom for the sport. She appeared on ITV Racing at the weekend and also gave an interview to the Racing Post, printed on Saturday.
Harrington talked about Gordon Elliott and, refreshingly, didn’t shy away from mentioning Sheikh Mohammed and the ongoing concern about his missing daughter Princess Latifa. The United Nations, by the way, is still waiting for evidence to show that she is still alive.
Julie's got quite an in-tray all right as racing now has a massive task on its hands to try and recover from the shock of the Elliott photo, a potentially lethal body blow to its image and indeed its future.
The Elliott photo was too much for James Corrigan of the Daily Telegraph who announced in print that he had had enough of the sport he had been into since his teens. Let’s hope he is in the minority and at least has a rethink.
Matthew Syed of The Times weighed in with his always thoughtfully considered views and referred to racing as “a fundamentalist sect that cannot bear scrutiny" and which is “suspicious of outsiders" and also "not unlike a cult".
Syed’s argument was that unless you have spent years in the sport, you would not understand it and are therefore "not entitled to a view".
I agreed with him and it’s high time that this perception ended. Let's open things up. For example, the use of the whip. People watch horses being hit at the races, in front of their very own eyes, in public. They may well wonder what goes on behind closed doors.
And please stop telling me it doesn’t hurt the horses. You hit them down the ribs, of course it is going to hurt. This is just one thing we urgently need to look at.
Other massive issues about why so many horses are dying on the course and on the gallops, doping and illegal substances, drugs masking injuries and over production of foals. Let’s get to it, have total transparency and encourage a different mindset. It has to start somewhere before it is all too late.
After all, we need to be honest with ourselves before we can be honest with others.
THISTLECRACK RETIRES
I often wonder what Thistlecrack, who was retired this week, might have achieved had he had a clearer run with injuries. That’s a big if, I know, but this horse was massively talented.
Five years ago, Thistlecrack was the most exciting jumper in training. A brilliant hurdler, he was having just his fourth start over fences and still a novice when he beat his stablemate Cue Card in a memorable King George VI Chase at Kempton.
The sky really was the limit but he never won again and only raced seven more times in the following three seasons. It must have been a frustration to Colin Tizzard and his team and owners John and Heather Snook, but he still provided them with some incredible memories with five Grade 1 wins, including a World Hurdle.
Tizzard always said that no horse (not even Cue Card) worked better at home than Thistlecrack and no wonder Tom Scudamore (11 wins from 13 on him) described him as easily the best he had ridden.
Let’s hope he has a long and healthy retirement.
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