Gambling on horses can take many forms

Ronan McNally rarely stays out of the limelight for long. The former trainer orchestrated some audacious gambles prior to having his licence withdrawn by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) for a record period of 12 years for integrity breaches back in January 2023.

McNally appealed the original Referral Committee judgement in May 2023, but was largely unsuccessful. A number of his grounds for appeal were deemed inadmissible by the Appeals Body, as they should have been brought up at the original Referral Hearing and in the end McNally’s only small win at the Appeal was to have the final four years of his ban suspended.

McNally hit the headlines again around this time last year when a horse he used to train, Petrol Head, was controversially withdrawn from the Galway Hurdle on the day of the race having tested positive for a prohibited substance following a routine test after an earlier victory.

McNally in court this week

Ronan McNally will be back in the spotlight again this week as his High Court case against the IHRB is due to have an initial airing in Chancery Court 5 on Monday.

One would presume that his legal representatives will introduce the evidence that was deemed inadmissible by the Appeals Body and it will be fascinating to see how this case plays out over the coming months. Whatever the outcome, this exercise is likely to prove very costly.

Tramore gamble raises intrigue

With McNally presumably busy preparing for his High Court debut, I wonder if he noticed that a horse trained by a neighbour of his in the training ranks landed a McNally-esque gamble at Tramore last Tuesday.

Figaruso, trained just outside Banbridge in Co. Down by Matt Quinn had been off the track for 1,065 days prior to his reappearance at Tramore.

Add to that the fact that Quinn had only trained three previous winners in the past 25 years with a licence and his most recent victory was 681 days ago and you begin to understand why the bookmakers initially dismissed the horse’s chances in a seven runner Claiming Race.

Bookmakers priced Figaruso up at odds of 50/1 the night before the Tramore race, but by midday on Tuesday the six-year-old maiden had contracted into a general price of 7/2.

For reasons only known to the bookmakers themselves the odds for Figaruso then drifted alarmingly in the hour before the race and by the time the on-course bookmakers at Tramore priced their boards the horse was again available at 25/1 and bigger.

It is hard to fathom why any bookmaker would put 25/1 to Figaruso at that stage, considering that the horse had been flagged up as a potential contender for the race by the earlier market moves.

In any case, that price didn’t last long as in the final few minutes before the off a second gamble gathered steam on the horse, with Figaruso’s odds quickly contracting into a returned price of 15/2.

'Gamble landed'

In the race itself Figaruso was sent to the front from the outset and despite looking a little keen and green he showed a determined attitude to win by three parts of a length. Gamble landed.

I wonder who backed Figaruso? It is hard to imagine it was Matt Quinn alone. The trainer, who also owned the horse, doesn’t appear to have even travelled to Tramore. He was represented there by his assistant trainer, his daughter Bernie.

The return journey to Banbridge must have been a little bittersweet for Bernie Quinn.

In a post-race interview immediately after the victory she had said: "He is a nice horse and everything he does at home he does easy. He is a wee bit keen, so it just worked out that he got to the front like that. He can go anywhere, in front or behind, it doesn't matter to him.

"I've no plan for him now, we'll have to see. He could go back over hurdles."

Unfortunately for Bernie she drove an empty horsebox home to Banbridge as Figaruso was claimed after the race by trainer Gavin Cromwell for €8,000.

It is most surprising that the Quinns didn’t bother to enter a ‘friendly claim’ of their own following the race. After all, they looked to have a nice horse on their hands and Figaruso had just provided them with their first winner in two years. And, if it was the Quinns that punted the horse, the €8,000 claiming price would hardly put a dent in their winnings from the race.

Cromwell’s claim was the only one lodged for the horse.

The changing face of bloodstock sales

At the opposite end of the Flat racing scale, the short-head victory of Distant Storm on debut at Newmarket last Friday is also interesting.

This two-year-old colt was purchased at the Arqana Breeze Up Sale just two months ago for €1.9 million on behalf of Godolphin.

The son of Night Of Thunder is out of a mare that was the only foal sired by the subfertile George Washington, which makes him rather unique, but it was his breeze over two furlongs that saw his value soar rather than his pedigree.

He was consigned to Arqana by Cormac Farrell who picked him up for £90,000 the previous October at Tattersalls Book 1, so his page alone doesn’t merit the lofty Arqana figure.

Breeze Up Sales are really breaking the mold when it comes to the value of unproven stock. For centuries it was the horse’s pedigree that trumped everything else when it came to their value at the Sales.

Now the horse’s page seems largely incidental if it can produce a blistering time in a solo sprint over a couple of furlongs.

In a way these Breeze Ups are becoming Flat racing’s version of the four-year-old point to points where wealthy owners are happily parted from their cash once they have seen the horse perform. No need anymore to explain the minute details of a pedigree page, just show them the video instead.

Evidently, pictures now speak far louder than words when it comes to taking a punt on a future stallion prospect.