IRISH PONY RACING & IT IS RARELY CORRUPTION.

If it were not for the Irish pony racing circuit it is possible that Dylan Browne McMonagle would not be gracing the world's racecourses and neither would Paul Townend and a hundred other jockeys past and present. So it is surprising to learn that Horse Racing Ireland are proving miserly at a time when pony racing is in crisis. Horse Racing Ireland receive 79-million euros from the state, yet they refuse to allocate 150,000 of those euros to ensure the continuence of pony racing. Horse Racing Ireland excuse for not digging deep to keep pony racing alive and well is that it pony racing has no central governing body and in having four regional committees somehow leaves the sport open to corruption, as if the top brass fear unscrupulous members of these four committees, all of whom are volunteers, might be potential embezzlers.

At present, pony racing is kept alive by volunteers and contributions from professional riders, jockeys and owners. As a man with a simple mind, I cannot help thinking that, given the importance of pony racing to the sport in both Ireland and Britain, that racecourses could stage fund-raising meetings for the Irish Pony Racing Association, with pony races topping and tailing the day's thoroughbred sport. Although the famous Dingle Derby should remain in County Kerry, I cannot see why pony racing cannot be staged on a regular basis on proper Irish racecourses. I take it on trust that ponies receive the same flu injections as thoroughbred racehorses, which removes one concern, and ponies would have no need to to stabled at the racecourse stables as they would be used to be held at the transport that brought them to the racecourse and washed-down accordingly after their race, ensuring the mingling of ponies and racehorses would be kept to an absolute minimum. 

Might it also be possible, as it must be for the sons and daughters of trainers, for a professional stable to house a pony or two for a budding local jockey to hone his or skill and coached by the jockeys associated with the stable. It is presumptuous of me to suggest, I guess, but you would have thought that between the top Irish jockeys, trainers and owners, that they alone could find the 150,000 euros a year to ensure the survival of a division of the sport that has been as much a foundation course for jockeys as the hunting field.

At a provincial racecourse in France, in a flat race, a jockey, thinking he had won the race, dropped his hands to coast home, only to be caught and relegated to second and the ridicule and anger of punters who in a split second had also gone from winning a bundle to losing their stake. Unlike the Rossa Ryan incident, this was a calamitous mistake by the errant jockey. Human error, also, but where Ryan never really stopped riding, with his horse not actually slowing down, the French horse did slow down and his jockey blatantly took his foot off the gas.

What the French incident was not was foul play. Yet in the comments section of the YouTube video of the race, corruption was the first thought on many of the keyboard commentators. Why, if you believe 'the sport to be riddled with corruption' would anyone follow the sport? Jockeys are human and they will once or twice in their careers make a ricket of things. I am sure after Nijinsky was beaten in the Arc, Lester would have liked to have had another go at it. I am sure after late season's Aintree National, Ben Jones wanted a hole to appear for him to hide in after his ride on Jordans.

This failing to ride out a horse to the finishing line is pitted with equine welfare issues. A jockey knows when a horse has given its all. No one else will know whether the horse has anything else to give and certainly no punter standing in a betting shop will know if a horse is close to exhaustion in the final few yards of a race. I am an advocate of the one-meeting rule for jockeys as it has allowed more jockeys to earn a decent living, ensuring fewer jockeys have the financial need to be persuaded towards corruption. If jockeys were only allowed one strike with the whip, they would be more minded to keep a horse balanced and running straight, removing, I would hope, the professional foul of leaning on an opponent or taking its line when only a length in front. Many jockeys over the years have lost their lives in pursuit of our enjoyment, why would anyone be quick to condemn them as cheats when the only sin they have committed is to have made the sort of error anyone could make today in their car, a momentary misjudgement. That French jockey deserves a suspension longer than ten-days but it would be an injustice if his ban removed from him his right to earn a living for as long a period as the Sandown stewards thought to impose on Rossa Ryan.