The Turf Club is being seriously hampered in its efforts to police movements on Betfair by the absence of a memorandum of understanding with the betting exchange company.

For the past five months it has employed a betting control officer, Hugh Hinds, to monitor bets placed on Irish racing and liaise with the stewards. However it has only access to general information from Betfair and it is not allowed to ask if a specific individual laid a particular horse.

According to chief executive Denis Egan, no memorandum of understanding can be signed until Horse Racing Ireland finalises a deal with Betfair on the amount the company pays for Irish racing. This payment will be backdated to the start of negotiations, which have dragged on for a long time because Betfair is not prepared to pay what HRI considers a fair price.

Egan shares HRI’s view but points out that in the meantime the Turf Club “is the meat in the sandwich and it is affecting our ability to police the exchanges”.

The Jockey Club in Britain has had such a memorandum in place for quite some time and as a result it was able to warn off jockey Gary Carter for five years for passing on information that certain horses would not win. Betfair was praised for its co-operation after that long-running case concluded last week.

However what the Turf Club is doing is building up a dossier on those punters who are making consistent profits out of laying horses. So far the punters are only known to them by their fictitious user names but their identities should be revealed when the memorandum is eventually signed.

‘Talking horse’ on the drift

Time is running out for Pescatorio if this much-vaunted colt is to make an impact on the racecourse before the season is out.

This son of Storm Cat is a three-parts brother to Balanchine, the last filly to win the Irish Derby, and reports of impressive gallops at Ballydoyle saw his 2,000 Guineas price slashed by half to 16-1 under a month ago.

However, Aidan O’Brien took him out of both the Dewhurst Stakes and the Racing Post Trophy at recent forfeit stages and, if he makes it to the track this year, he’s most unlikely to have more than one run. Most bookmakers have eased the colt to 25-1 for the Guineas.

Essex misses crack at double

A notable absentee from today’s Irish Cesarewitch is Essex, right. This five-year-old won the Hackett’s Bookmakers-sponsored two-miler 12 months ago and trainer Michael O’Brien had long planned to attempt the double.

He says, though, that the gelding failed to scope clean. If he recovers in time, he could reappear in next Sunday’s Paddy Power Naas October Handicap. The well-bred Essex — he is by Sadler’s Wells out of the 1990 Irish Oaks winner Knight’s Baroness — is essentially a hurdler and has not raced on the Flat since this day last year. He went up 9lb for that win but, judging by the improvement he made over hurdles subsequently, he could be well handicapped on the level.

Low returns for Irish owners

Despite record prize money, Ireland has dropped down the economic ladder. The latest statistics, based on prize money earned by owners in relation to their costs in 2004, shows Ireland 37th out of 48 racing nations compared to a much more respectable 31st position the previous year.

The government grant increased by E2 million to E53 million but only E31 million of this went into prize money and it was not enough to offset the increased cost of keeping a horse in training.

Turf Club turns spotlight on poor performers

Horses whose poor performances result in them being liable to suspensions of up to 60 days are now being posted on the Turf Club’s website.

The Turf Club is intent on putting out much more information on this and in the past week it has begun posting veterinary reports, and reports from trainers and jockeys on anything that might have affected a horse’s performance.

Previously people had to wait for the Irish Racing Calendar to see these published. Now they appear within 24 hours of the reports being received.

Wolfe Tone to go under hammer

Wolfe Tone, winner of the Aston Park Stakes at Newbury in May and fourth in the Ascot Gold Cup, is one of 15 Ballydoyle horses to be sold at Newmarket on October 24. Others include Avalon and De Laurentiis.