Turf Club looks into mirror
The Turf Club is to investigate the siting of photo-finish mirror images following the rumpus at Cork last Sunday when the judge was forced to announce a dead-heat even though most observers were convinced that Dipterous had won the race.
Although there was a mirror image, it was useless because it was placed too far away to appear on the print. Chief executive Denis Egan says that he will discuss with Horse Racing Ireland whether it should be moved from its present position on the far side of the hurdles course.
Egan adds that there is no mirror image on several courses including Roscommon, Killarney and Thurles but this is going to have to change after what happened at Cork when angry punters crowded round the weighing room, where the photo-finish print was pinned up, and voiced their dissatisfaction. The photo-finish cameras are state-of-the-art affairs but they are in danger of being let down by the absence of what is a basic piece of equipment.
Advertisement
Juicy plans for Damson
David Wachman says that Damson will go for the Lowther Stakes at York after having a break. The Queen Mary winner will then go for either the Moyglare Stud Stakes or the Cheveley Park.
Stable companion Intriguing has become a focus of attention after Jamie Spencer got off Damson and said that the once-raced Cork winner is a better filly. Wachman says that the 240,000 guinea yearling purchase will miss the Silver Flash Stakes at Leopardstown next month and is likely to run next in the Kilboy Estates Debutante Stakes at The Curragh on August 8.
Advertisement
Times back to full power
The new electrical timing system will be used for the first time at The Curragh on Friday. The old one was used at Leopardstown, Navan and Naas as well as The Curragh but was discontinued last year when concerns were raised that it was taking too much power from the starting stalls’ power unit.
Advertisement
Ever since then times have been taken by the old-fashioned method of the judge’s assistant sitting in front of a monitor and pressing a button when he sees the stalls open. No matter how sharp he is, there is bound to be a delay and the times are not accurate.
The new system has its own power unit and Darren Lawlor, the HRI official in charge, says that it will be in use at Leopardstown in a month’s time. Navan and Naas will come into play soon afterwards and eventually it should be possible to use it at the other courses.
Advertisement
Antonius to go sprinting
Aidan O’Brien is likely to run Antonius Pius in the July Cup at Newmarket after the colt showed so much speed during Tuesday’s St James’s Palace Stakes. O’Brien successfully adopted a similar policy with Stravinsky five years ago after he had been beaten into fourth in the Jersey Stakes. Two years later he won a second July Cup with Mozart who had only just scrambled home in the Jersey.
Dispute over stalls failure
The Turf Club has fixed Tuesday week as the date for the Appeals & Referrals Committee’s hearing into the problems with the new Italian starting stalls at Cork last Saturday.
Advertisement
The local stewards expressed concern that the stalls failed to work for the Ballyogan Stakes and that the stalls team had left the course by the time they were required to explain what had gone wrong. The stewards described this as ‘very unsatisfactory behaviour’.
Pat Walsh, who runs the stalls operation, says that the problem was a minor technical one involving a solenoid and that there was no question of his staff leaving the course immediately after the Ballyogan. They had to wait while he located an electrical expert before they headed off to get the problem fixed.
Kavanagh earns his money
Is Brian Kavanagh underpaid? British Horseracing Board chief executive Greg Nichols gets almost £300,000 a year yet the HRI accounts show that the total remuneration package of his opposite number in Ireland is E217,000, less than half the BHB man’s wages. No matter how many hours a week Nichols works, he would be hard pressed to beat Kavanagh’s dedication.
Cruzspiel ready at last
Cruzspiel should finally make his belated reappearance in the Curragh Cup on Saturday. He was to have started off in the Vintage Crop Stakes at Navan seven weeks ago but failed to ‘scope clean’ and he was ruled out of Leopardstown’s Saval Beg Stakes for the same reason.