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Friday 9 January 2009

The turf

Team tactics

The rules of racing state that no horse must make any manoeuvre in the interests of another horse from the same stable, whether or not interference is caused.

What happened in the Juddmonte was that Colm O’Donoghue, riding Red Rock Canyon, set the pace. Around half a mile from home he looked over his shoulder. Soon after that he moved away from the rails, leaving a clear route through for Duke of Marmalade, who came through the gap and went on to win. Like Red Rock Canyon, Duke of Marmalade is owned by partners in the supremely effective Coolmore partnership and trained by Aidan O’Brien.

The raceday stewards at Newmarket perceived no breach of the rules and took no action. But after the race Murtagh told reporters: ‘I was always going to follow Colm [...] I said to him, “When you get to the four marker just ease off and give me the passage through.” It’s what Ballydoyle is all about.’ And in the light of the media storm which followed, the BHA called the Ballydoyle team in for the inquiry, although curiously at first they left Johnny Murtagh out of it.

It was not just the Juddmonte that was sticking in our minds. The Ballydoyle boys had some ‘previous’ too. Ballydoyle desperately needed a win at Royal Ascot from the ex-Australian Haradasun before he headed off to stud. They duly secured that victory. But not until David McCabe, another of Ballydoyle’s substitute bench, had looked over his shoulder after making the pace on Honoured Guest and then eased clear of the rail to allow Murtagh through on Haradasun.

There was a big barney back in 2006 when Frankie Dettori accused Ballydoyle of employing team tactics with its runners in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes to force him wide on Librettist. Uncharacteristically O’Brien then accused Frankie of ‘throwing his toys out of the pram’ and, yes, he did call him ‘paranoid’ too. On that occasion an inquiry found Ballydoyle guiltless, but it did lead the BHA to redraft the rules in their present terms.

More articles from: Robin Oakley | this section

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