Horse racing has suffered a tough time in Great Britain of late.
Intrusive and unnecessary financial checks on bettors have been a subject of much debate over the last year or so, threatening funding to a sport which relies heavily on the levy.
The tough economy has also led to poor ticket sales, still evident with advance sales for the upcoming Glorious Goodwood meeting which have not met expectations. Despite all this, there has been some good news too.
Just when we thought we were losing some key allies from within the Tory government, it seems new PM Keir Starmer is a big fan of the sport. Another cheerleader for horse racing, Labour MP for Barnsley South Stephanie Peacock, has now been handed the role of gambling minister.
Despite some bright spots appearing, the sport still suffers. People tune in to see the stars of the turf. A number of injuries this year however, both to our human and equine heroes, have put a dampener on the 2024 flat season and the timing couldn’t be worse.
Top Jockey on the Sidelines
After losing Frankie Dettori to America and semi-retirement, there was a big hole left in the jockey pool in British racing.
We’d already seen a long absence in recent times for Oisin Murphy, banned for a number of months, but right now we need our top jockeys all performing and creating stories on the track.
️ “I couldn’t undo the lies and deceit.”
Champion jockey Oisin Murphy has been banned for 14 months.
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) February 23, 2022
The brilliant William Buick and Ryan Moore are relentless, and we now have rock-solid PJ McDonald back in the saddle, but a genuine rising star has suffered another blow.
Cieren Fallon, son of former champ Kieron Fallon, had been in full flow this season having already suffered a bad injury over the winter.
After returning, he began to peak with the 25-year-old steering home seven winners in a fortnight including superb rides for William Haggas aboard the first two winners on Northumberland Plate Day, one of which was in a Group 3. It was in rather inauspicious circumstances he suffered his latest injury blow.
No Timeline for Back Injury Victim Fallon
After finishing 12th in a maiden at Windsor on Monday July 1st, Fallon was heading back in to the paddock aboard Nanna Western.
Without ever seeing it coming, his mount unshipped him leading to a fall, Fallon breaking his back in two places.
No injury comes at a good time for a jockey. For Fallon however, in his mid-20’s and riding out of his skin, this incident really did come at the worst possible moment.
Fallon now misses the busiest part of the flat season. Still, having recovered well from his last injury there are hopes he won’t be out too long, though no timescale has been given to him for his return to the saddle.
No doubt Fallon will get the best treatment possible. He needs to be back, and we need him back too which is something the racing public shouldn’t take for granted.
Equine Stars Missing Too
The racing public really do need to latch onto the star names to keep interested. We need jockeys battling for titles but much more to the point, we need the best horses running in the best races.
King Of Steel, a Derby second, Royal Ascot winner and Group 1 scorer, suffered a bad setback earlier in the year. He would have been among the favourites for races such as the King George later in July and the Juddmonte International at York in August.
Having won the Classic Trial in good style, Arabian Crown was installed as favourite for this year’s Derby. He too suffered an injury that ruled him out of the race and there is no definite comeback yet.
The Derby suffered as a result, with the Classic generation also deteriorated temporarily with former Commonwealth Cup favourite Vandeek’s injury. He is back fit now thank goodness, but another big Royal Ascot date has already been missed.
Sir Michael Stoute looked in May to have uncovered another star when his Passenger took down the Chester course record. He is a banker Group 1 winner, but we haven’t seen him since owing to injury.
Oaks heroine Ezeliya will not be seen again. Her terrific three-length win at Epsom marked her out as a real star and she had the ultimate target of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in the autumn. After a setback of her own, she has now been retired from the track in yet another huge blow for racing.
These absences have left our Group 1 races short. With any luck, this year can be seen as a temporary blip but boy do we need our top stars on the track and in quick time.