Month: November 2021

International Trophy Is Just The Start For Bahrain

SAKHIR, Bahrain–Old habits die hard. Neil MacKenzie Ross may have been Clerk of the Course at Sakhir racecourse in Bahrain for the last seven years but even in 24-degree heat at 7am, the British ex-pat was easy to spot in the green wellies in which he doubtless completed plenty of laps of Lingfield when he filled the same role at the Sussex course.

“There is quite a thick dew,” he said with a defensive grin as he awaited the arrival of the 14 runners for Friday's Bahrain International Trophy for their morning exercise on the pristine turf track.

Just ahead of the horses, the chairman of the Rashid Equestrian and Horseracing Club, Shaikh Isa Bin Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, appeared on course to greet the growing team of international visitors at Sakhir racecourse for the big race.

In just its third year, the early highlight of Bahrain's 27-meet racing calendar has been elevated to Group 3 level for the first time in 2021 and it has attracted a cast of runners from Bahrain, Britain, Ireland, France and Germany which fully befits that status.

There are few people more passionate about the development of horse racing in Bahrain than Shaikh Isa, the grandson of the King and a lifelong equestrian who also has horses in training in Britain. Following Friday's meeting, his focus will turn to the impending start of the new 10-race Bahrain Turf Series which it is hoped will draw similar international participation. 

“I was worried when I saw Neil's wellies this morning,” said a smiling Shaikh Isa at the draw for the International Trophy. “As it was in year one with the Bahrain International, it was a strong race but people I felt were just testing the water, and now I feel they have taken the plunge in year two and year three. The Turf Series is also going in that direction.”

Worth a total of £500,000, this year's Bahrain International Trophy has drawn four Godolphin entries from three different trainers. Charlie Appleby, fresh from his Breeders' Cup treble and en route to being crowned champion trainer in Britain for the first time, fields two of those, the current favourite Zakouski (GB) (Shamardal), winner last month of the listed Ben Marshall S. on his first start for 261 days, and the 7-year-old four-time Group 1 winner Barney Roy (GB) (Excelebration {Ire}). The latter notched the first of those top-level wins at three in the St James's Palace S. when trained by Richard Hannon and, following a stud stint shelved through infertility, he joined Appleby's stable in  2019 and added a trio of Group 1s to his record last year in Dubai and Germany. 

Godolphin's French-trained Magny Cours (Medaglia d'Oro) is currently second-favourite for the 10-furlong contest on the back of some consistent performances this season, including a last-start win in the G3 Prix Perth and a third-place finish in the Dubai World Cup in March. The 6-year-old, who will carry the red cap from stall 10, is set to become the first runner for Andre Fabre in Bahrain. The quartet in the royal blue is completed by the Saeed Bin Suroor-trained Dubai Future (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), who is the mount of Frankie Dettori. 

The betting may suggest otherwise, but the fan favourite for Friday's main event is the Turnbull family's striking grey Lord Glitters (Fr) (Whipper). The popular 8-year-old was last seen in winning action in the G1 Jebel Hatta in March but appears to retain plenty of enthusiasm. His trainer David O'Meara and jockey Jason Watson arrived in Bahrain on Tuesday evening, and Watson was aboard Lord Glitters as he pranced to the track in the company of Fev Rover (Ire) (Gutaifan {Ire}) some 12 hours later.

“He's an older horse now but the ability is still there and he thrives out in this part of the world with the heat in his joints,” said O'Meara after drawing gate 12 for his dual Group 1 winner. 

Fellow Yorkshire-based Fev Rover is one of two 3-year-old fillies in the field and her trainer Richard Fahey has also made the trip to Bahrain. He fared better at the draw with stall four for the Nick Bradley Racing-owned filly who was third in the 1000 Guineas.

“I'm delighted to get the opportunity to run this filly over a mile and a quarter on quick ground,” said Fahey, who added with a laugh, “I've been trying to find quick ground all season in Europe and every time I've entered her it's rained all week, so I'm just warning everyone it's probably going to rain heavily tomorrow in Bahrain.”

German trainer Andreas Suborics has recently taken over the training of Penja (Fr) (Camelot {GB}) from Jean-Claude Rouget after the Group 3 winner sold for €1.2 million to Jurgen Sartori at the Arqana Arc Sale. The 3-year-old will be reunited on Friday with Cristian Demuro, who has ridden her in all five starts in France this season. 

“She only arrived in my stable six weeks ago but she arrived in perfect condition,” said Suborics of Penja after drawing stall eight. “I couldn't be happier than I am with her at the moment. She had a good, fresh canter this morning and we have a good gate number. She will love the fast ground and there's nowhere else we can find good ground at this time of the year so everything is positive so far. Of course as a 3-year-old it is not easy to run against these older, experienced group horses but we are confident that she will perform well and if she is in the first four we will be happy.”

Ireland is represented by the Jessica Harrington-trained Cadillac (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), who was ridden by Shane Foley during an easy canter on the turf and who has Richie and Emma Galway and Patrick Cooper among his support crew in Bahrain this week.

Pogo (Ire) (Zebedee {GB}) and Victory Chime (Ire) (Campanologist) boost the British challenge, representing the stables of Charlie Hills and Ralph Beckett respectively, while a strong local defence will be launched by leading Bahrain trainer Fawzi Nass, who won last year's International Trophy with Simsir (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}).

The leading light from Nass's trio of runners appears to be his recent recruit Emperor Of The Sun (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), the 4-year-old half-brother to Zoustar (Aus) who was previously trained by Donnacha O'Brien.

“I've only had him for a few days–for the last six weeks he has been with John O'Donoghue in Ireland so we have only got to see him here for the last five or six days but he seems fine,” said Nass, who will also saddle Naamoos (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) and Qaader (Ire) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}), while his compatriot A Jaleel Al Mallah fields the outsider What A Welcome (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}).

It is clear that the team behind racing in the Kingdom of Bahrain has its sights set on bigger things to come, starting with the launch of the £550,000 Turf Series on Dec. 10. But for now, International Pattern recognition is a source of satisfaction for Shaikh Isa.

“It's been three years in the works now and we now have our Group 3 status but we need to build on that,” he said. “We won't stop at just one Group 3.”

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Setback Rules Addeybb Out Of Australian Trip

Addeybb (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}) will not travel to Australia for next year's Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival after receiving treatment for a blood clot in a hock.

Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum's 7-year-old gelding recently spent two weeks in an equine hospital after the clot became infected. He is now back at trainer William Haggas's Newmarket yard and while expected to race next season, he will not be ready for Sydney in March and April, where his targets would have included an attempt at a third straight G1 Queen Elizabeth II S., and a second G1 Ranvet S.-he was runner-up there last year to G1 Melbourne Cup winner Verry Elleegant (NZ) (Zed {NZ}), who he beat in both his Queen Elizabeth wins. Addeybb is a Group 1 winner domestically, too, having taken the 2020 G1 Champion S.

Haggas said, “He came back home from hospital on Monday. I think and hope he's going to be OK. He's definitely made some improvement but that's going to scupper him [going to Australia]. He won't be able to leave England next February.

“His infection markers have improved, we're not out of the woods, but I think we're making good headway. Those sort of things can be nasty. They can be no good and it's good he's better. I very much hope he'll be OK for next season. He owes us absolutely nothing and we won't take any risks with him. From an Australian point of view this is a bad time, but from any other point of view it's a good time to have a bit of a setback.”

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Irwin: Robust Investigative Force Critical For HISA To Effectively Combat Cheating

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) is not scheduled to begin operations until July of next year, but with release of the initial guidelines issued for public consumption last week and any number of Op/Ed pieces appearing in industry trade publications, the direction of the Authority that will steer the ship seems to be given plenty of helpful hints for its future navigation.

As the one who got the ball rolling in a 2004 Op/Ed in The Blood-Horse by urging industry members to consider a way of hiring the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to oversee drugs in horseracing, I must at this early juncture in the start-up of the Authority register my fears regarding the ultimate success of the new entity and its potentially sweeping changes.

Germination for wishing to get USADA involved in the struggle to rid cheaters from the game was to use CEO Travis Tygart and his team to devise a plan to form an investigative unit capable of discovering through traditional and new-wave policing methods which designer and human drugs were being used to tilt the playing field in North American racing.

If the world of international sport had learned one thing from the 2002 Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) it was that testing was best used not to apprehend suspects but to confirm that they were cheating. The gold standard in catching the crooks was by finding the actual illegal substances first, then developing a test and using that test in the future to nail the bad guys. Testing without knowing what one was testing for was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Good old-fashioned cop grunt work and sophisticated FBI-style surveillance is required for the best results. In the eyes of those individuals who formed and drove the Water Hay Oats Alliance, it was foremost in mind that Tygart would use his agency's skills to offer relief to racehorse owners who played the game straight and true.

However, other initiatives, introduced by other stakeholders with alternative agendas, have gotten in the way and now threaten to derail the Authority from their original appointed rounds. And adding further insult to injury, everybody with an agenda is making noises about the Authority widening their sphere of influence by tackling such areas as pari-mutuel wagering.

The last thing HISA needs is to be accused of overreach by encompassing an agenda that goes too far afield from its original mandate. HISA was never envisioned as a so-called “league office” or end-all and be-all to govern the entirety of racing.

HISA is basically divided into two aspects of racing: integrity (preventing cheating) and safety (protecting the horse). While I am extremely interested in protecting the welfare of racehorses, I was personally disappointed in its inclusion in the final legislation, as I thought it could be handled better outside the confines of the law and because it detracted from the focus on cheating with drugs.

I daresay that very well may have been the intention of those proposing and supporting the safety element of the legislation. But I fully understand that with any sort of seminal legislation there must always be compromise and I am positive that without the safety aspect, Churchill Downs would never have been able to use its influence to convince Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell to back the bill.

In reviewing the Authority's releases so far and in reading reports in the media as well as interviews with key members of the Authority, it seems likely to me that testing for illegal substances is being given too much weight, as opposed to investigations. If this turns out to be the case, it would be a misguided, potentially detrimental and disheartening.

I understand why the “safety” advocates pressed so hard to have their initiative appear to be on an equal footing with “integrity.” By shifting the focus away from a single-minded attempt to zero in on drugs, the “safety” crowd hoped that racing would not be placed in a negative light. I get it. I do not agree with this gambit, but I understand it, especially where a major racetrack is concerned.

But unless the industry as a whole is ready to tackle cheating with drugs head on, the specter of altering the results of racing will never cease.

So this is my pitch to members of the Authority, no matter what side of the fence you are on, no matter how you managed to get your seat on the boards and committees and no matter what your agenda: please do all in your power to make sure that Travis Tygart is given adequate funding to carry on investigations that will yield the type of results those of us who have committed our lives to cleaning up the game can feel that all of our work has been worthwhile.

This message is not directed at USADA. It is not directed at Travis Tygart. It is directed at those individuals who may seek to over-fund their own aspects of the legislation.

Without a robust investigative force that is fully funded this entire initiative will fail and HISA will go the way of all other alphabet soup groups in racing. This is our one last chance to get horseracing right, correct the wrongs on the racetrack and clean up the game enough to present it as a viable sport to fans and horseplayers. We owe them that much.

Barry Irwin is the founder and CEO of Team Valor International

 

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