After a fantastic Dublin Racing Festival, with the record breaking and history making mare Honeysuckle taking pride of place at the top of the long list of fantastic winners over the past two days. It really has been extraordinary to witness some of these fantastic horses in action. It has allowed us to take our minds off all that is bad, and embrace every single thing that is incredible with the industry.

However, I want to tackle something that has been hitting the headlines recently again that has brought racing under dim lights again. Not only for what had happened, but how the governing bodies policed it. And the reason why I consistently persist in covering these pieces is because the only way to make a change is not to focus on all that is good, but focus on things that need tweaking and offer advice, as a collective, on how to fix them.

Mick Easterby is a man that is well liked by racing fans world wide. It isn’t hard to see why when you look at the type of personality he has when the camera comes on him. But in this situation, we have to look at the incident and not the person in the spotlight.

I like Mick, I think he’s been a great ambassador for racing for the general public and has always been a great character on camera. I will always have a great respect for him as a trainer and a comedian in front of the camera, but I am not going to hold sway or bias towards anyone here apart from the small number of facts that were presented on January 27^th.

The incident that surrounded Mick Easterby is a race at Newcastle on 21^st September 2018, where Ladies First, a 6-4 favourite was beaten a total of 22 lengths in a contest that was held over a mile. The horse was later disqualified for testing positive for a banned substance called Timolol, a beta blocker. A form of dope in layman’s terms.

The horse was seen to be apparently fed in the hours prior to racing and hence this seems to be how she came in contact with the drug. The two lads caught on racecourse CCTV were named as Neil Waggot and Stephen Walker, both of which were banned for ten years while the trainer, Mick Easterby was fined a total of 1p. I have some serious bones to pick with this. There are some major holes in this story.

Firstly, I want to look at the feeding situation. Racehorses are not fed in the hours prior to racing. It effects performance and ability through metabolic stress, so the horse puts all its energy into breaking down and taking essential vitamins and minerals from food instead of putting the energy into racing. So it slows the horse down. In a stable yard that should be run with high standards, how did two lads with a bucket of feed get by race yard stewards?

It was found by stewards on the day that Mick Easterby had no involvement with the doping of the horse. I can see one and only one situation which would prove Mick Easterby had no involvement. Unless the situation was that the two lads were not involved in the Easterby operation itself and they essentially broke into the horse’s stable… Who was there to stop them? If no member of the Easterby team was there to monitor the welfare of the horse in question then it is a completely different story and something a whole lot worse. It would indicate that the horse was left unattended.

Cast your minds back to the Charles Byrnes case, and the controversy behind it. The massive hunt for blood and the shocking allegations made towards a man that could not be proven to have or have not doped Viking Hoard in Tramore as there was no CCTV footage to prove anything, only he admitted to leaving the horse unattended to get himself something to eat.

In my own personal opinion, the cases are almost identical to each other, only one could be proven by CCTV and the other one couldn’t. The one with no CCTV proof fined the trainer a total of €1,000 and banned him for 6 months while the case with CCTV proof fined the trainer with 1p and no ban. It is a seriously hypocritical policing method and it all falls back on the governing bodies. Double standards at its finest.

Regardless of whether Mick Easterby had anything to do with this or not. It is in his duty of care for the horse, the jockey riding the horse and the owners who pay him to look after the horse to do just that. Whatever way you want to paint the picture of this case, he did not have the duty of care needed to look after the horse on the day. There is clear evidence there to show the horse was doped on the track. Whether it came from his team or not, he is the man that should be held responsible. Because he is the man responsible for the welfare and wellbeing of the horse.

It is then, up to the governing bodies to police this fairly and consistently in accordance with similar cases in the past. A fine of 1p is pathetic. It makes a complete and utter mockery of the industry and the people breaking their backs working hard for the horses they love. The small man gets hung, drawn and quartered while the bigger operations walk away without a scratch from the stewards, media and general public.

Kevin Blake has said it in the past when it comes to stewards and their policing regarding dangerous riding in jockeys and it falls right back to this here. Jim Bolger highlighted the use of drugs being rampant in the industry and it shows here. I am sick to death of seeing the racing industry be made a laughing stock through the incompetent work of the stewarding system. Not only in Ireland but now Britain aswell.

What I would propose is something to make everyone’s life easier. A list of rules and regulations to be published followed up by a series of punishments that go in accordance of severity in breaching said rules to highlight to jockeys, trainers and stable staff what exactly they will face if said rules have been breached. I believe this would allow a more level racing society to come into play and therefore the smaller trainer would have a more equal chance at coming out on top in these situations. Transparency is what all of us want in racing. It is what we deserve.

I envisage an equal society in racing that simply is not there at the moment. I want one governing body in Ireland to simplify the situation. When the IHRB say one thing, and HRI say another, of course there is going to be massive confusion. Scrap one and make the other head governing body for all racing in Ireland. Finally, both governing bodies for racing in Ireland and the UK must do much better when it comes to situations like this. Racing is becoming a laughing stock at the hands of the double standard racing governing bodies.

It is time for change and that time starts now. I said it in my previous piece, a grain of rice will tip the scales. A monkey could be trained to come up with a list of punishments for the list of rules we have. So what is the delay when it comes to actually doing it? The small man and woman deserve their voice in the industry but it has never, and more than likely will never, be the way until someone grabs the reins and makes the difference. I never want to see something as pathetic as a 1p fine again for something like this. It is up to us to make that difference.