Royal Ascot win exposes weak rules
Last week's Royal Ascot was beamed around the globe and much of the racing world has been horrified at what went on under the cloak of legitimacy at Britain's annual celebration of racing excellence.
It was a stunning reminder of what is allowed to pass in the name of sport in the old country, with an unabashed case of team riding gaining the hoped-for result in the Group One Queen Anne Stakes and, in the longer term, many millions of profit for the perpetrators.
The winner - and the key horse in the team affair - was the Australian-bred Haradasun, a multiple Group One winner Down Under, but now being campaigned by Irish training wizard Aidan O'Brien. The handler's principal at Ballydoyle stables, Coolmore Stud boss John Magner, had bought a 50 per cent interest in Haradasun last year in a deal that supposedly valued the animal at A$45 million.
This is the era of simulcasting and commingling and, as this column has warned on a number of occasions, there are going to be some unhappy players in this new international game unless the rules get harmonised.
As the hero of the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, Haradasun is now being spruiked as a A$60 million commodity because he's a dual-hemisphere Group One winner with a purple pedigree.
But had the race been run in France, or Australia, he might have been a disqualified and disgraced Group One winner. In Australia and Hong Kong, his connections would be looking at some very serious charges because of the use of a pace-maker and obvious team riding.
When looked at through the sensible prism of our racing rules, the win by Haradasun was not legitimate. Not only did he have a pace-maker, 100-1 shot stablemate Honoured Guest, but that pace-maker was deliberately taken off the fence by his jockey to give the saloon passage to Coolmore's fancied runner.
Worse still, Honoured Guest, weakening through the field, creating interference to other runners, effectively shepherding for the hot pot, while Haradasun was in the clear and staying on at a strong pace.
The good folk at Coolmore would no doubt say they were playing within the rules but it's the rules that are the joke. You cannot have one rule that says all horses must compete on their merits and another one that allows pace-makers, in other words, horses ridden to go fast in order to enhance the winning chance of a stablemate. One clearly contradicts the other.
In Australia 21 years ago, the AJC Derby was won by Myocard after his stablemate, Imprimatur, ridden by Shane Dye, led and then shifted off the fence to give Myocard the winning inside run. Dye was disqualified for six months - that's the real-world measure of the seriousness of this matter.
Racing at Ascot was founded by Queen Anne on August 11, 1711 - 297 years ago. The racecourse is still crown land, and the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, is the focal point of the meeting each year.
But we wonder what Queen Anne would have thought, with her name given to a race where such dubious plans and tactics were passed off as the best in sport, with ne'er a question asked.
Questionable value
Haradasun is now valued at this much (in Australian dollars) after his Group One Queen Anne Stakes victory: 60m
