Equinties - bizarre response

Gm Equinauts

We’re still waiting on that damn rain. We’re now officially in a drought and the hose pipe bans are out.

The second half of the flat season is when the rain comes.

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUND UP

MURPHY BITES BACK

The Oisin Murphy drink driving case has been rather prominent in horse racing currently. It was the sport’s worst-kept secret for months, and since he was officially charged, it hasn’t been plain sailing.

His court hearing saw the judge royally dress down a member of the general public for trying to take a photo of Murphy in court, Murphy had been pretty quiet in regards to further comment (apart from the standard statement on his social media), and, of course, people online were creating speculation about both Murphy and the girl that was part of the crash.

Oh, and the BHA added new items to his license that haven’t been publicly advertised. Wonderful stuff.

In many cases across wider society, when someone is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, sometimes the best decision is to come out and do an interview to clear the air.

In this case, Matt Chapman caught Murphy at Windsor for an interview on Monday, and they went into detail about the whole situation. The crash, the case, and his license were all covered.

So, did we learn anything from this interview?

Well, firstly, there is plenty of chat on social media about this being an “embarrassing interview” on Chapman’s behalf. That’s probably too far, but it certainly isn’t perfect.

In a situation like this with a sportsperson, it’s never going to be a Jeremy Paxman-style interview where the interviewer rips the interviewee a new one on live TV. He’s not a politician, and it’s a somewhat delicate case.

But still, that doesn’t mean that Chappers was completely in the clear here either. Ultimately, Chapman is an easy interview, and to be honest, not many interviews from the ‘ITV Racing gang’ (yes, this was on At The Races, but he is an ITV Racing presenter) are very hard. They are fairly kind, and Chapman is a relatively kind interviewer, especially when it comes to someone for whom he has defended publicly time and time again.

Chapman asked all the questions that people have been asking at home – notably the one about the victim’s well-being, whether his BHA license details should be made public, and what actually happened that night – but Murphy played a pretty straight bat with these items.

Where Murphy strays into the lane of ‘controversy’ is when he talks about the media, and how his case has been handled in the media. Bearing in mind that when the initial police report came out in April and all the speculation was flying about, the daily newspapers reported the case as best they could in compliance with general media laws.

Like this:

No speculation about drink driving; all this article says is that he has been involved in a car crash, which is something his agent confirmed. They couldn’t say anything until the jockey had been officially charged, and when that happened, they started reporting more on the story.

And yet, Murphy was keen to paint a picture that he had been victimised in the media for something that was his fault. Wild strategy which would have raised plenty of eyebrows.

This, unsurprisingly, did not go down well on Racing X.

Is it true that wild speculation and misinformation were spreading on social media from general horse racing accounts/fans/people? Most probably, but this isn’t horse racing media’s fault? We all know what type of place social media is, but comments that have caused displeasure to Murphy have not come from the official, accredited horse racing media. It’s very harsh and unwise to go after them.

The closest the media got to having a poke at him came from Jack Keene in the Sun with his Saturday column.

And ultimately, how he has come across on this point and a few other points in last night's At The Races interview doesn’t put him in a great light. He showed a distinct lack of remorse, absolutely no sympathy for his passenger he hurt and really, came across wildly out of touch from where he needs to be.

He caused the crash. He is responsible for the victims injuries.

He is not the victim here, and yet it comes across like he is shifting the blame!?

Oisin is a person with problems, and yeh he might be working at changing things behind the scenes but he needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

We all want him to solve these issues, so stories like these can stay away from the sport. However, if he and his advisors think coming out and pointing fingers is going to help his image, they may be in for a bit of a surprise.

SPRINTING DIVISIONS

When Eve Johnson Houghton won the Group 2 July Stakes last week, she was asked to compare the winner, ZAVATERI, and her recent Royal Ascot winner, HAVANA HURRICANE. She gave a pretty quick and simple answer. “HAVANA HURRICANE is a sprinter; this lad wants further.”

She also mentioned where HAVANA HURRICANE could be heading next, and the Molecomb Stakes at Glorious Goodwood was initially mentioned. However, Johnson Houghton has slightly changed her tune with the prospect of the valuable Super Sprint on Saturday at Newbury also on her radar. The Vintage Stakes is worth £100,000 to the winner; the Super Sprint is worth £122,925 to the winner.

So, what’s the decision that Johnson Houghton has to make?

She said: "We've confirmed him for the Super Sprint and it remains a possibility. He's in great form and has done well since Royal Ascot, where I was impressed with how relaxed he was and his lovely turn of foot. He doesn't do too much at home – he just looks after himself.

"We'll see whether we go to Newbury or the Molecomb – it's a nice problem to have. Going from a stiff track at Ascot to an easy track like Newbury would be a little bit of a worry. He'd have a good weight and it looks like it could be a good race for him, but nothing has been decided yet."

On the point about his weight, he would have 8-11 to carry. He was only bought for 9,000gns as a yearling, and his weight is decided on that, though he gets another 5lbs for his Windsor Castle Stakes win.

This weekend could be too hard to ignore for connections.

EMULATING STABLEMATE

Our race planning has come true!

In yesterday’s newsletter, we speculated whether connections would bring BIG MOJO back in trip for the Group 2 King George Qatar Stakes at Glorious Goodwood.

Because he ran such a good race in the Group 1 July Cup over six furlongs, it would obviously be a bit of a gamble to bring him back to five, but the same connections won the race with BIG EVS last year, and we know that trainers are creatures of habit.

Anyway, we got confirmation yesterday that this is the plan!

Mick Appleby said: "He ran an absolute blinder on Saturday. It's just unfortunate the winner came from the other side of the track but he ran a great race and we're really pleased with him. He's genuine, brave and you wouldn't think he'd had a race given how well he's come out of Newmarket.

"We wouldn't be opposed to dropping back to five furlongs now. I'd imagine the King George is the most likely target for him next, or the Prix Maurice de Gheest. We wouldn't rule out going over six furlongs in the future. We'll just keep our options open because he's so versatile.”

If he is to head to Goodwood, last year’s winning tactics onboard BIG EVS could be used for BIG MOJO.

Tom Marquand positioned BIG EVS at the front and used his grit to fight from the front. ASFOORA was closing at the line, but the turn of foot between the two and one-furlong pole made the task of catching him pretty difficult.

Could they do the same with BIG MOJO? It’s definitely an option. They have held him up in the past, notably when winning the Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood, but when he was second to AESTERIUS in the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes, he sat a bit more near the front and ran a big race.

Dropping back to five could just see these tactics used!

STATS OF THE DAY

One stat, one winner yesterday, we’ll try do the same again today.

Normally, Tracy Waggott’s strike rate is a lowly 7% but when she runs them again within 7 days of a win, that strike rate jumps up to 1 in 4! WITHOUT DELAY won last Wednesday and is out again in the 21.00 on a workable mark.

RISK ON

We’re just checking a couple on the shortlist and if we decide to hit them, will post on X @equinties.