Grief behind Howley’s exit from World Cup
Former Wales assistant coach Rob Howley has revealed that grief over his sister’s death sparked the gambling spree that saw him sent home from the World Cup.
Howley is nearing the end of a nine-month ban from the sport after he admitted breaching betting regulations. The 49-yearold’s long-term gambling issues were exposed when a betting company got in touch with the Welsh Rugby Union just as Wales were travelling to Japan for the 2019 World Cup.
Howley was sent home a week before Wales’ opening World Cup match in September after it emerged he had placed 363 bets on more than 1,000 rugby matches from November 2015, losing more than £4,000.
On two occasions he bet on Wales players to score tries.
After a course of therapy, Howley believes the gambling stemmed from the death of his sister in 2011. The former British and Irish Lions international had not paid his sister Karen his weekly visit in the days before her death and had agonised over his decision to find her a place to live away from their mother as she battled with depression and alcoholism following a divorce.
“I blamed myself for her death. If I’d seen her on that Wednesday, would she still be alive?” Howley told the Mail on Sunday. “There was a lot of guilt, should haves, could haves. By putting her in that house, on her own, I created an environment for her to kill herself.
“Her alcoholism went from bad to worse. My feeling was that I had driven my sister to her own grave.”
Howley tried to block out the ordeal as he threw himself into his work with the Wales coaching staff. But the grief came back in November 2015 when he sorted out his sister’s estate and discovered a number of police and financial issues.
“It was never about the money. Never. It wasn’t addictive behaviour. It was about escaping. A means of forgetting about the bad things and the experience of my sister,” he said.
Warren Kennedy, who is as certain to win his first jockeys’ championship this season as Liverpool are to clinch the Premier League title, has opted to ride in his home province KwaZulu-Natal instead of Gauteng during level 3 lockdown.
Horse racing resumes at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Monday with 10 races scheduled behind closed doors.
Kennedy said: “My [Durbanbased] family were at the forefront of my decision, but we’re heading into the champion seasons in KZN with big races, including the Durban July.”
The 38-year-old stressed the important role Gauteng trainer Paul Peter has played in the most successful season of his career.
“Mr Peter is a pleasure to ride for — he lets you do your own thing. It’s amazing how he churns out the winners just like a conveyor belt.
“But in this [Covid-19] situation you’ve got to play the cards you get, and another question about travelling to Gauteng was that it would have been slightly risky,” he said.
Kennedy admitted that his target of overhauling Anthony Delpech’s record of 334 winners in a season was now out of the window. “The virus has put paid to that target so my aim is for 240 to 250 winners by the end of the season.”
The perfect cherry on the top for the Durban-born rider would be victory in the Vodacom Durban July, scheduled for July 25. “I’ve had one or two offers, but nothing’s set in stone.”
Kennedy’s rise from riding 139 winners from 1,138 mounts last season and finishing seventh in the national log to his situation this term is simply remarkable. Statistics to March 16 show him with 182 winners, putting him 48 ahead of his nearest rival, Greg Cheyne.
Hard graft has been the name of the game for the rider. Only three jockeys — Lyle Hewitson, Muzi Yeni and Ryan Munger — rode in more races last season and his total this season of 991 is 300 more than anyone else.
For a while, Kennedy’s chance of making a career as a jockey was very much in the balance. In his second year at the Summerveld Academy he weighed just 28kg and was told he must transfer to the Port Elizabeth Academy or have his indentures cancelled.
In the Eastern Cape Kennedy had the good fortune to come under the wing of astute trainer Nic Claassen, who saddled his fair share of winners every season from a small string.
It will be a surprise if Kennedy is not among the winners at Monday’s Greyville meeting. He has prospects of kicking off with a winner in the opening event on Thomas Henry for trainer Glen Kotzen.
Other promising mounts include James Peter and Vercing
Dubai for Gavin van Zyl in the third and fourth races, though in the latter trainer Alyson Wright’s three-year-old Lightening Spirit makes plenty of appeal.
Later in the meeting two other Van Zyl inmates, Hexatonic (second last time out) and Opensea, should be competitive in the sixth and seventh races.
With time to study the form during lockdown, Kennedy agreed with this writer’s assessment that André Nel’s mare Vase should go well in the eighth race. The five-year-old contested a 90 handicap last time out but now drops to a 76 handicap.