Racing in disarray
End of jumps and start of flat affected
THE COVID-19 crisis has thrown the racing season into upheaval from two entirely different angles.
The jumps season is due to end at the conclusion of the Punchestown Festival early in May, while the flat got off to what was effectively a false start at Naas, the only meeting completed before the lockdown.
Many of the jockeys are self-employed and, while they may earn some money riding out, their racing income is completely gone.
I fear very much that the jumps season is already over. The Aintree Grand National Festival is gone, and the 150th Irish Grand National Festival has fallen within the initial lockdown period up to April 19, which will almost certainly be extended.
Trainer Paul Nolan feels the ‘closed doors’ racing experiment went off very well, and he is hoping this might be re-introduced to rescue some of the major end-ofseason races.
They provide their own medical facilities through the Order of Malta and would not impact on the nationwide medical effort, which he warmly praised.
He accepts it would not be ideal, but ‘something is better than nothing in the circumstances’. He still has 48 riding out every day, and all his staff are still in.
Of his Cheltenham runners, Latest Exhibition, which came so close in a thrilling Albert Bartlett, has been let out to grass for the season, but Fitzhenry and Discorama are being kept going in the hope that there will be something for them.
Gordon Elliott, who is only €100,000 behind Willie Mullins in his quest for his first trainers’ title, has also suggested a sort of rescue meeting might be held in May to include the Grand National and the top races from Fairyhouse and Punchestown.
Locally, Wexford has already lost the April 3 meeting, and those for May 16 and 22 are at serious risk.
The final meeting before the lockdown was at Clonmel on Tuesday and produced wins for Liz Doyle’s impressive Farmix (6/4f), and Jonathan Moore on Gavin Cromwell’s Mutadaffeq (9/1).
It is a totally different problem facing the flat racing fraternity as they are at the very start of their season. For the big boys, the traditional early Classic programmes here and in Britain are likely to be disrupted.
The English Guineas are fixed for May 2 and 3, with the Irish for May 23 and 24, and they will almost certainly have to be put back to allow for the various trials and preparatory races leading up to them.
A whole host of Class 1 races are scheduled in Britain and Ireland almost every week from Ascot on April 29 onwards, and a lot of them may be lost.
The smaller stables will be more badly hit as the cancellation of the ordinary Irish meetings will be sorely felt. If this continues, staff will probably have to be let go, impacting on rural Ireland in particular.
Aidan O’Brien took the pragmatic view. ‘Obviously the most important thing is the health and safety of everybody…and whatever everybody has to do to achieve that is the right thing to do.
‘We can only hope and pray now and be vigilant in adhering to the government guidelines. After that we’ll just have to take it day by day,’ was his comment.
For the record, Jim Bolger was quick off the mark to win the first race of the flat season at Naas last Monday week with Poetic Flare (2/1f), while O’Brien won the last race before the shut-down with Russian Emperor (2/1f).