Racing needs will to implement the rule book when it comes to pacemakers

Various metrics of success will be applied to this weekend’s Irish Champions Festival (ICF) action, and one will be if headlines about pacemakers and team tactics are avoided. But repeated failures to grasp the nettle on this issue means few would bet big about such a self-inflicted scenario being avoided.

It’s not like Irish flat racing’s €5 million shop-window event can be immune from a problem that usually comes to the boil when the stakes are highest, as they will be at Leopardstown on Saturday and the Curragh on Sunday. There’s even a presumption that it might get amplified further.