Jan_113_C_Cook_Owner Breeder 13/12/2013 15:49 Page 26
CHRIS COOK COMMENT
If the BHA wants racing to be seen as straight and honest, it needs to review its policy of withholding vital information from public scrutiny
’Tis the season to be secretive
I
forms should make interesting reading, but they are not circulated outside the BHA. I can’t see why this should be so. If the BHA told visiting trainers in advance that their responses would be published on its website, there could be no objection to airing that material for all to see. If you don’t wish to make such a disclosure, should you expect to be able to race in Britain? It seems to me that a regulatory body should have a really good reason for keeping any detail to itself, yet clammed-up is almost the default position for the BHA. With how much force can you insist that no one else is allowed to keep secrets if you yourself make a fetish of secrecy? My 2011 appeal for openness was aimed at racing professionals rather than the regulator. “In the future, those jockeys and trainers who enjoy the greatest public support will be those who make most effort to communicate,” I wrote, though it is hardly clear that public support is a valued commodity among trainers. The sustained backing of two or three wealthy owners is enough to make a career, even if you are loathed by everyone else. You can be beloved by all and still go bust if your owners drift elsewhere. So we should continue to expect at least a modicum of caginess from trainers. And on a related subject, I note that the two journalists honoured at the recent Derby awards are among the few who remain unknown to Twitter. ‘Close to the chest’ remains the fashionable place to hold one’s cards while seated at racing’s table. But I question whether it is healthy for the
sport that the BHA should be allowed to play their hand the same way. At least a part of their function is to reassure potential new followers that the game is as straight as can be, that they can bet on it with legitimate hope of a profit if their judgement is good enough and that they are not simply viewed by insiders as a species of cash machine. I worry that this is the impression raised in many minds by our culture of secrecy. It may cost us dearly in the long run. There was no secret about Newbury’s new dress code, which caused such a stramash at the Hennessy meeting. Course officials had tried to forewarn regulars, yet annual members and owners were among those caught out, which just shows how far the code is from ordinary expectations of appropriate clothing for a sports venue in winter. Some of the coverage has suggested a moral dimension to the debate but, for me, it’s a purely practical issue. If Newbury is so over-run with potential customers that it can merrily risk offending a good portion of them in the hope of currying favour with the rest, there is nothing to fret over. Alas, it seems unlikely that this is really the case, especially in light of the course’s determined efforts to produce new seams of profit from its land. I will be surprised if this dress code remains in place a year from now.
GEORGE SELWYN
n the grandstand at Sandown the other day, as I waited patiently to watch one of my fancies get stuffed, I suddenly recalled a comment piece from three or four years ago in which I listed New Year’s resolutions that the sport of horseracing might collectively make. I couldn’t remember the proposals, which gives you an insight into the burning passion and belief that underlies my every written word. But the internet is the recording angel that allows no sin to be erased, so digging the piece up took about five seconds. And how amusing it was to discover I had suggested more openness as a sensible way forward. Anyone who has been following racing politics this past 12 months will be aware that openness is somewhat out of favour. The High Holborn offices of the British Horseracing Authority now appears to be a vast repository of undisclosed information, modelled on the warehouse of sealed boxes in which Raiders Of The Lost Ark ends. The BHA’s full report into the use of steroids by a rogue trainer at Godolphin is just one of the items not revealed to public scrutiny. Other things they know that we don’t include the identities of the nine Newmarket trainers other than Gerard Butler who used Sungate and the dozens of beasts injected with it. When horses based abroad race here, their trainers are required to make a full disclosure of any medication with which those animals have been treated. Given the variation in what has been allowed by other countries, those
The BHA’s full report into the Mahmood Al Zarooni scandal has not been released, one example of the secrecy in High Holborn
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THOROUGHBRED OWNER & BREEDER INC PACEMAKER