Turf Club had no choice but to reverse void race decision

As appeal hearings go it must have been the shortest on record. The 'void' race at Killarney on July 20, which caused such a furore, was dealt with in a hurry at Leopardstown on Thursday night when the Turf Club raised the white flag of surrender and declined to contest the appeal lodged by Roger Brookhouse against the decision of the Killarney stewards to void the race in which his Stars Over The Sea passed the post five lengths clear.

That an appeal was necessary was both understandable and predictable, and that it was allowed was unquestionably the right outcome.

The fact the Turf Club held its hands up says all that needs to be said about what it thought of the whole business.

What happened at Killarney was no better or worse than what happens frequently when races are started by tape. Since the Killarney race there have been at least two races, one at Tipperary and one at Ballinrobe, where for whatever reason horses gained a greater advantage than Stars Over The Sea at the start.

All the talk about the Henry de Bromhead-trained gelding gaining an unfair advantage after being led in to the tape just doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

Having watched a re-run of the race several times, and afraid that a visit to Specsavers might be required, the most Stars Over The Sea and rider David Roche gained was four lengths.

None of Stars Over The Sea's rivals showed much urgency in pursuing him for much of the race. Yet he was never in what could be remotely described as an unassailable lead. To this observer, he was a worthy winner who was well on top in the closing stages of the race.

Ignoring the relevant rule that states the starter has the final say on whether a fair start has been performed was the error the Killarney stewards made in reaching their decision, and was the main basis on which Brookhouse's appeal was lodged.

Joe Banahan, the starter at Killarney, is an experienced official. He knows that getting horses to jump off in line at a tape start is no easy task and often nigh-on impossible. He felt no need to question what happened. The decision to declare the race void was, in the circumstances, bizarre in the extreme.

The Turf Club is to examine the rules in relation to starts in the coming weeks. When it does it would do well to set aside a slot to consider how much time difficult horses should be allowed to line up and, in relation to the Flat, how much time horses who are reluctant to load should be allowed when most horses are already in the stalls, often for many minutes.

Dynamite could go one better

For all the newer races at the Galway festival, the Plate and the Hurdle remain the main events. As ever they are tricky handicaps to work out, but A Toi Phil could be the one to give Gordon Elliott a second consecutive Galway Plate, while Max Dynamite, who we haven’t seen for some time, is an intriguing contender for Thursday’s Galway Hurdle when one recalls his fast-finishing second in the same race two years ago.

Gannon's spirited defence

Many deserved tributes have been paid to Cathy Gannon following her enforced retirement from the saddle. One memory of her goes back to her early days as an apprentice with John Oxx and a meeting at Dundalk – old Dundalk and not the Polytrack version we have become used to in recent years.

After riding in one of the early races on the card, she came into the press room after weighing in, heavy saddle in hand and sweat on her brow after her exertions. After watching a re-run of the race, she heard a member of the press express the opinion that she wouldn’t want to leave it so late on her next ride.

Her response as she exited towards the jockeys’ room was both colourful and to the point and was along the lines of what the hell would you know about race-riding.

A spirited young lady even at that stage of her career, and one not prepared to take what she deemed unfair criticism lightly, she went on to become champion apprentice before embarking on a successful career in Britain.

We wish her well for the future.