Miss Abby Jools prevails in a bunch-finish at Dundalk© Photo Healy Racing
The Dundalk stewards took an unusual course of action following a race at the track on Friday evening. They initially enquired into the improvement in form of the Charles Byrnes’ trained Miss Abby Jools after it won a handicap. This is standard practice and 99% of the time ends up with the stewards noting the explanations given by connections, but on this occasion they referred the matter to a Senior Racing Official of the IHRB for further investigation.
Cathal Byrnes, representing his father stated that “the run the last day was over seven furlongs whereas today their charge raced over one mile with the benefit of a seven pound claiming apprentice today as against a professional rider the previous day and furthermore the winning margin was a neck today compared to being beaten seven lengths the last day.”
Byrnes went on to say “Charles Byrnes only acquired this filly in January and she has had an uninterrupted training regime since then. He expressed his satisfaction with the ride the previous day where in his opinion the filly was outpaced when the pace quickened and revealed the riders post race comment that the filly needed a step up in trip.”
Cathal Byrnes’ argument as to why this filly may have improved from one run to the next doesn’t quite add up, but regardless of that it would normally be the end of it. On this occasion the stewards went further and asked him about the betting trends for the previous run (went from 6/1 into 5/2 before drifting out to 14/1 and finished second last) and this run (backed from 8/1 into an SP of 100/30 and won). Cathal Byrnes was unable to shed any light on the betting trends and this seems to be what led to the matter being referred on to headquarters.
The Senior Racing Official at the IHRB tasked with this referral will hardly be jumping for joy when this case lands on his/her desk. The last time the IHRB looked into betting trends relating to a Charles Byrnes’ runner was in relation to the nobbling of Viking Hoard at Tramore in 2018 and after two years and three months of investigations they found “no evidence to connect Mr Byrnes with these betting patterns” and instead found an intricate web of concealment where lay bets on the horse were placed on the betfair exchange via a limited liability company and the best guess was that an individual “based in a distant part of the world and said to be associated with match fixing and associated betting in connection with other sports” was known to use that vehicle to lay bets.
Aside from this new investigation into betting patterns involving Miss Abby Jools’ two recent races at Dundalk the IHRB also has another investigation into betting patterns from a Claiming race at Dundalk involving Tony The Gent and Yuften which has been ongoing for over three years.
Ronan McNally, another trainer whose horses were the subject of investigations relating to betting patterns, won’t have his appeal against his 12 year disqualification heard until after the current National Hunt season at the end of May.
There was a last minute punt on McNally’s The Jam Man (10/1 - 5/1) in Sunday’s Ulster National at Downpatrick, but it’s difficult to know if the trainer backed his own runner or it was just public support. Either way those who bet the 10-year-old did their dough as he was pulled up having made a bad mistake five fences from home. He was also found to have lost a shoe.
Changing the subject, I find it takes me time to build up enthusiasm for Flat racing while the National Hunt season is still in full flow. The stop-start nature of the Flat in the first few weeks of the season doesn’t help, but I must say a Maiden race at Navan last Wednesday whetted my appetite for what’s to come.
The Vintage Crop Maiden over one mile for Three-year-olds and older horses contained a quartet of potentially useful newcomers - unusually three by Japanese sires - and the betting market suggested there was real confidence behind several of them. Paddy Twomey’s Irish Derby entry, Captain John Barry, was sent off the well-backed 11/8 favourite from an early show of 3/1, but there was also significant support for the Ballydoyle second-string Drumroll (10/1 - 13/2), the twice-raced Johnny Murtagh representative Save Your love (12/1 - 11/2) and Jim Bolger’s Long Count (25/1 - 11/1) while Dermot’s Weld’s Sea The Stars colt and half-brother to the stable’s Homeless Songs, Time Tells All, was also solid in the betting at 11/4. A strong betting market is often the best indicator of a hot race. Whatever about average times and sectional analysis, when the money goes down you know you are dealing with good horses.
The Weld second-string, Real History, cut out the running and set a solid pace for his stablemate to aim at and once the pace-setter gave way early in the straight it was left to the main protagonists to fight it out. The favourite challenged briefly, but was soon beaten and in the end an apparently green Drumroll took the honours by half a length and the same from Time Takes All and Save Your Love. The first three horses home look well above average and it will be most interesting to follow their progress over the coming months.
Of course, no sooner am I starting to get engaged in the new flat season than along comes all the PR bumf about the Racing League kicking off again which I find a complete turnoff.
