To pay or not to pay...?
Goffs Orby sales last week took centre stage in the Bloodstock world when the great and the good gathered to see some of the best bloodlines and horses on offer but it wasn't only horses coming under the microscope after the shock news that Gigginstown House Stud (aka Boss of Ryanair) has removed 60 horses from Willie Mullins after a disagreement over training fees, which are understood to have risen to €385 a week from €350, the trainers first price increase in ten years.
Quite ironic when you consider messrs O'Learly and Ryanair once invoked utter outrage in the wider world when charging passengers one pound for the privilage of using their loos when on a Ryanir flight. A price rise of five euros a day for a racehorse in training with the best jumps trainer on the planet seems very resonable, while a pound for a pee does not.
On the home front the BHA have announced new measures to ensure fairness at Disciplinary hearings when it was reported in the Racing post that.....
FORMER jockeys and trainers should sit on a disciplinary panel that is currently "not structurally independent", a QC has recommended in what represents the most radical review of racing's judiciary in years.
In a 151-page report compiled in three months, Quinlan also recommends that active racecourse stewards no longer also sit as disciplinary panel members, in which function they had previously been occasionally asked to pass judgement on the decisions of peers and colleagues.
The existing panel, Quinlan says there is "insufficiently representative of the sport" and should be opened to all, especially former professionals, with an open and transparent recruitment process."
This is of course a big step forward and very welcome, you cannot beat experience in any field.
George and I headed off to Ireland last week for the Goffs Orby sales and were delighted to bring home lot 53 who is a stunning filly from a super fast family. By First season Sire "Society Rock " a multiple Group performer and six time winner at six furlongs, in fact he earnt over a million pounds and is one of the best horses his sire "Rock Of Gibraltar" has produced.
She is out of a mare by the great Teofilio and from the family of "Formosina" - Blue Point" ( this years Gymcrack winner), Tumbleweed Ridge and Gilded.
