Racing chiefs have been as much use as a rubber plant

TURFISTES have become used to looking on in envy at the equine talent in Britain and Ireland, whose hegemony has seen four of the past five Prix de l’arc de Triomphe winners cross the English Channel.

But, when it comes to racing administrations, it is us who are on first-name terms with the green-eyed monster.

French racing made its return from the pandemic on Monday, overcoming a late hitch when President Macron, himself, over-ruled objections from other sports.

Longchamp’s glittering card was a triumph for

Olivier Delloye (right),

France Galop’s everaccessible chief executive who speaks on the record to keep his constituents up to speed — and whose dynamism got things done

What a stark contrast to the behind-the scenes ineptitude of the British and Irish top brass, whose impotence can’t be addressed by swallowing a blue diamond-shaped pill.

Irish racing’s leaders are still in talks with the Irish government, hoping to bring forward the proposed

June 29 return date — which falls after three Curragh

Classics — to June 8. Meanwhile, after Boris Johnson’s clear-as-mud address to the nation last Sunday, British racing is focusing on a June 1 return behind closed doors.

That puts us on the same footing as all professional sport — so the assertion that horseracing is easier to put on safely than the others counts for nothing.

What is all too apparent is that, while French racing’s head honchos hold some sway with their Government, the executives in Dublin and London don’t appear to give a tinker’s cuss about what our leaders think. A return on June 1 is not a disaster, but it means the British Horseracing Authority have done nothing to advance the cause of our sport.

When I was an undergraduate, a wag put a rubber plant up against the sole candidate in a student election — and the rubber plant won!

Well, that same rubber plant would have matched the BHA’S achievements in securing a quick end to the blackout.

Mark Johnston and Ralph Beckett were cast as pantomime villains when they criticised the BHA policy of waiting for a ‘green light’ from Downing Street — instead of being more proactive and stating our own intentions.

But where are we now? We have a ‘green light’ but, with a more front-foot tactic on the part of our leaders, could have stolen a march on other professional sports — and had the limelight to ourselves as a result.

Devotees of our great sport in Britain and Ireland might not swap our equine heroes for those who strut their stuff in France.

But could we say the same of those who run it?

ON COURSE 1,000 Guineas favourite Quadrilateral (left)