Back in the day, the late politician, writer, chef and dog-food salesman Clement Freud would go to Ballybrit to write about the Galway races. He once stood incredulously behind then taoiseach Albert Reynolds in a queue to bet with the Tote. He tried, and failed, to imagine then British PM John Major doing the same. Sigmund’s grandson felt the Irish approach to gambling was much healthier.
That was when politicians of all kinds wanted to be seen at the Galway Races. It smacked of an elbow-to-elbow egalitarianism that played well publicly. But there was more to it than that. Reynolds genuinely liked his racing and having a bet. Other political heavyweights across the spectrum were the same and having various ears in Government that spoke racing’s vernacular was valuable to the sport.
But that was then and now is different. It will be a rare politico that shows up at Ballybrit next week. Even if they’re interested in the gee-gees, and it seems many aren’t these days, the legacy of the 2008 economic crash, particularly the infamous Fianna Fáil tent, makes Galway “off brand” for much of the political brass. There’s also the reality that queuing to have a bet is a Freudian slip that mightn’t play nearly as well as it used to.
For that, racing can blame gambling corporations that spent years exploiting the unpoliced badlands of digital betting for enormous profit. Ruthlessly pushing algorithms that restrict those rare creatures able to make betting pay while preying on compulsives who can’t, these conglomerates sowed the wind that’s reaping a reputational whirlwind. An activity once viewed as attractively louche has an increasingly tacky vibe.
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The consequence of that was stamped all over how racing went to war with the Government over its new gambling legislation and lost. Dire warnings were given about the impact of a ban on gambling advertising on day-to-day coverage of the sport here. In a sector where unanimity on anything is rare, this was a rallying call, but one comprehensively rejected by Fianna Fáil Minister James Browne who pushed through the long-awaited and needed Bill.
Time was when an exemption for something all of racing felt so strongly about would have been regarded as just a phone call away. One of the game’s heavy hitters would take care of it. Maybe such calls to the Government were made, but they didn’t work. Browne was backed to the hilt. Politics takes its cues from public opinion, and years of unrestricted opportunism by gambling firms have had their impact.
Just how uncertain a future racing faces on the back of a wild west gambling industry, finally getting legislatively roped, was underlined recently when the Racing Post interviewed new Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland chief executive Anne Marie Caulfield. The former principal officer of the Department of Public Expenditure was sure-footed until she rejected claims about an intrinsic link between racing and betting and any impact on advertising.
“I remember Alex Higgins walking around the snooker table with a well-known tobacco branding in the background and they, as a sport, found another way forward,” she said. “I do think there are other opportunities there and a way forward if they’re explored.”
Something inside a lot of racing people fell on its side reading that. A comparison between betting and smoking isn’t comparing like with like on any number of levels. That the person in charge of policing the gambling sector doesn’t seem to appreciate that is a worrying sign of shifting official sands. Because the reality is that, however much one mightn’t like it, racing as we know it is intrinsically linked to betting.
Caulfield’s comments recalled the 1989 movie Let It Ride, where Richard Dreyfuss is on a roll at the track until his angry wife turns up, asking: “I mean, really, I don’t see why you people can’t just watch the horses run around the track and not bet on them.” Cue widespread merriment and Dreyfuss’s wonderfully pompous response: “Because there is no racing without betting.”
The days of putting officialdom right on such a point with a quick phone call appear to be in the past. Broad political commitment to the Horse & Greyhound Fund remains intact. But popular momentum towards the gambling industry is only going one way and it means any special consideration for the sport inextricably caught in its wake risks sliding too. Such comments by the gambling regulator only reinforce that worry.
Much of the Galway festival’s appeal has always revolved around betting. It still does to an extent. The Ballybrit betting ring mightn’t bankroll the sport any more, but it will still generate an average of more than €1 million per day during next week’s action. Galway also still attracts almost 10 per cent of Irish racing’s annual attendance figures. Last year’s official tally of 116,374 was down on 2023 but still reflects hefty public interest in a cherished annual summer ritual.
Some of what will go on next week still won’t be particularly healthy or logical. And little of it will impinge on most people’s enjoyment, whoever they are.
Something for the Weekend
All five starters for tomorrow’s King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes are Group One winners, even Continuous, the pacemaker for Jan Bruegel. It makes for a tactical puzzle and one where jockey Mickael Barzalona has to compete with a one-dimensional run style for his mount Calandagan (4.10pm). But if it comes down to a finishing burst, the French star still looks the one.
Emit (2.50pm) was hung out wide in Royal Ascot’s Hampton Court on his last start and is upped in trip for tomorrow’s Marble City Stakes at Gowran. He’s top rated and the apparent Joseph O’Brien number one.
