Pacemakers: a problem or part of racing? My radical fix for the sport's divisive debate

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York's Ebor meeting has always been one of my favourite meetings and I enjoyed plenty of it this year even though I didn't manage to attend.

It proved profitable overall, although it would have been a lot more profitable if Saturday hadn't happened. Then again, it would have been a lot worse if it wasn't for the extra places bookmakers now offer, at least three of my bets at big prices during the week squeezing into the all-important fifth spot.

That's racing, though, and you have to take the rough with the smooth, my rough day coming right at the end.

Not everyone likes taking the rough with the smooth in racing, though, particularly connections of top-class horses when they get beaten.

John Gosden was at it again at York when Ombudsman was sunk in the International, blaming the ground for "having gone soft on watered ground".

Interviewing a trainer when their horse has just been beaten is probably not the best time, but I can't remember the last time a top-class horse was beaten without an excuse, and this one got my back up a little bit.

There was no evidence that the ground was actually soft, and personally I think it's a little irresponsible to make such assertions without the benefit of all the facts, because all that does is prompt a social media pile-on, which York didn't deserve.

Two of the races on Wednesday were run in times faster than a year earlier, when the ground was officially good to firm, while another was just four-hundredths of a second slower and the International was barely half a second slower.

I can buy that the surface was slightly softer than a year earlier, but not in a million years was it soft enough to result in Ombudsman being a stone below his best form.

Subsequent events suggest it was the Gosden horses who were not performing as a group.

Let's compare last week's top trainer Andrew Balding's performance at the meeting compared with the Gosdens.

Balding sent out 25 runners at the meeting for six winners, a second, six thirds and three fourths, while the form figures of the Gosdens' 13 runners were 4477090068460.

Andrew Balding won the Juddmonte International with ItemCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

According to Racing Post Ratings, 11 of Balding's horses ran their clear best race over the last 12 months, while none of the Gosden horses did.

Indeed, on RPRs eight of the Gosden horses were at least a stone below their best performance of the previous year, some considerably more than that.

They were just not on song last week, and there's no more to it than that.

If a whinge was justified it would have been about the riding of Aidan O'Brien's Action in the International.

Everyone assumed he was going to be a pacemaker, and O'Brien himself alluded to that even after the race, suggesting that missing the break had messed everything up.

However, when a pacemaker misses the break it is usually rushed up fairly quickly afterwards, and that just didn't happen with Action, who instead pretty much matched Ombudsman on his outside furlong for furlong for the best part of a mile.

Item (left) runs down Almaqam in the Juddmonte InternationalCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

That is not what stopped Ombudsman from winning, of course, but it certainly didn't give William Buick an easy time of things.

The stewards on the day should have at least asked the question, although unsurprisingly they didn't.

The subject of pacemakers has always been a thorny one, and I'm not really sure where I stand.

I often think they are a good thing because they ensure a truly run race, but sometimes they are a complete waste of time because they hare off too fast and the rest of the jockeys just ignore them.

That's what happened in last year's International when Birr Castle turned for home 25 lengths clear. Ignoring him, the race was essentially just run at a steady gallop with a big sprint finish, and he didn't provide cover for anything in behind as he was too far clear.

Birr Castle goes well clear in the 2025 Juddmonte International under Robert HavlinCredit: Racing TV

On other occasions they spoil the race completely for the same reason. That's what happened when Qirat won the Sussex Stakes last year.

The jockeys simply assumed he was going too fast because he was a pacemaker, but it turned out he hadn't overdone it in front and he won, much to the embarrassment of everyone else involved.

I do also find it slightly unedifying watching the big yards, particularly that of O'Brien, use top-class horses as pace fodder for better ones.

Hawk Mountain went into the International as a French Derby runner-up and Eclipse third, but went off like a bat out of hell and finished legless, being beaten some 25 lengths.

That horse, and many others, would be a superstar in 95 per cent of other yards, feted by their owners and trainers.

Qirat: pacemaker ran out a 150-1 winner of the 2025 Sussex StakesCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

You can argue, of course, that owners can use their horses for whatever purpose they want, but that's not actually true.

All horses are supposed to run on their merits.

Now I'm not one of those people with rose-tinted glasses who thinks every horse in every race is trying every time, but according to the rules they should be.

And pacemakers, by and large, are not even pretending to be trying, so why are they accepted?

I know most people are aware when there's a pacemaker (although Hawk Mountain wouldn't have been obvious and was a perfectly plausible each-way bet at a massive 20-1), but I also know from one stint helping a bookie at Epsom on Derby day a couple of years ago that loads of people bet on horses just because of names and numbers – almost every rag was the biggest loser in the book all day.

Just because they know no better, it doesn't mean they should be able to bet on horses who are not there to win.

This would be my solution, which I know will be considered daft and won't be picked up, but what the hell:

All pacemakers are declared as such and do not count either for prize-money or betting purposes (I don't believe in pooling owners' horses, especially these days when there is so much power in so few hands as plenty of times there will be horses in the same colours with serious chances).

All are instructed to peel away from the action at some defined point, let's say three furlongs out (earlier if their jockey feels they've done their running) or, using Ascot as an example, just before the final bend. They are to peel off wide, away from the rail.

Should pacemakers be declared as such before a race?Credit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Any pacemaker who misses the break is ordered to pull up straight away if it cannot then get to the front or on the heels of other declared pacemakers, within the next two furlongs.

Personally, I'd go even further and suggest all pacemakers wear hi-vis silks that bear no resemblance to their owners' colours.

Mad idea? Probably, but that would put an end to pacemakers falling through the pack and getting in the way of those who are actually there to win or acting as spoilers at other moments.

It would also prevent the less-clued-up punters from unknowingly backing horses who aren't there to win.

At least those ones anyway.

Fortunately the stewards already do such a good job with the other ones!

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