Common Sense Prevails

For all the criticism levelled at racing authorities it cannot be denied there is a new found level of pragmatism when it comes to decision making.

There is a willingness to reschedule lost Group Races and even a willingness to stage additional races to allow some of the top Festival runners to have prep races.

Yesterday the pragmatism went a step further following what could have been a farce at Chepstow.

For those who are not aware of the events in the EBF/TBA Free Racing post Form at totesport.com Mares Novices Chase, here is a brief resumé.

The three mile, six runner, contest was run in very testing conditions, where the going was very heavy.

By the time the runners entered the home straight only three were left in the contest with the leader Orana Conti some 70 lengths in front of second placed (and favourite) Moulin de la Croix with the outsider Ringsend Rose a further distance back in third place, coming home in her own time.

Orana Conti came to the open ditch and took a crashing fall, leaving the favourite in front.

Moulin de la Croix then approached the fence, hardly took off and ploughing through the top, unseated his rider Sam Twiston- Davies.

This left Ringsend Rose with Jimmy Derham on board the only remaining runner. (Remember under the new rules Twiston-Davies was not allowed to remount the favourite)

As he approached the fence Derham could see there was a stricken horse and two jockeys on the landing side of the fence. At the same time the vet was running across behind the fence to attend Orana Conti and a fence attendant in front of the fence was waving Derham round the fence.

Derham, therefore by-passed the fence, even though it had not officially been dolled of.

Ringsend Rose then went on to complete the race at odds of 28/1.

The immediate impression in the press room was the race would be declared void as, in by-passing a fence which had not been dolled off, Ringsend Rose had technically taken the wrong course.

In which case Ringsend Rose would be disqualified and the race would be declared void.

I should say at this point the view of the most senior member of the press room was probably prejudiced by the fact he had a substantial “investment” on the favourite and stood to have his stake refunded had Ringsend Rose been thrown out.

Equally, though, there was a group of punters just outside the press room who had backed Ringsend Rose and were hoping the horse would keep the race and were not too impressed with our discussions with the SP reporters when we opined the race would be declared void.

Indeed we were not the only ones thinking the race would be void as we saw more than one person collecting discarded betting slips in the hope of a payout should the race be declared void.

The Stewards deliberated for a good 20 minutes and by all accounts, although not officially confirmed, their deliberations included discussions with “Head Office”.

When the verdict was announced there was surprise amongst the “professionals”. Here is the verdict as reported by the stewards.

“The Stewards enquired into the possibility that the winner, Ringsend Rose (IRE), ridden by Jimmy Derham, had taken the wrong course. They interviewed the rider in the presence of the Clerk Of The Course, Mr Calvin Yates a fence attendant, Dr Leigh Davies a doctor and Mr Adam Jones the Acting Head Groundsman.

“Having heard their evidence, and viewed a video recording of the race, the Stewards were satisfied that Jimmy Derham had failed to jump the second last fence owing to exceptional circumstances, namely that he could see a fallen horse and two jockeys on the landing side of the fence and he was waved round to avoid them.

“They were further satisfied that he gained no advantage since he finished alone and therefore ordered the placing to remain unaltered.”

Speaking afterwards the Stipendiary Steward Simon Cowley explained, “"The rule covering this type of incident allows the stewards to let the result stand if the rider's reasons for taking the wrong course were satisfactory and all the remaining riders in the race took the same course.”

It was good to see a common sense decision made by the stewards, although there have been, as one would expect, the usual pocket talking whingers complaining on the Betfair forum (and presumably on other Forums as well).

A sad postscript to the race though. Despite being treated on the track by vets for almost two hours, Orana Conti eventually had to be put down. Although, on a positive note, it was refreshing to see jockey Tom Phelan remain with his mount all the time she was being treated.

A Curate's Egg

As I write this there are just three weeks to go to the opening day of The Cheltenham Festival, easily the best four days racing of the year.

An added edge this year is the lack of preparation for many of the stars as a result of the bad weather and abandonments.

There have even been extra races staged to help some of the main contenders.

Although I do wonder if, for example, Saturday’s extra hurdle race – set up for Punjabi – would have been staged had a lesser trainer wanted a race for his contender. There seems to be one rule for some and one for others – somewhat unfair I think.

Let us hope the weather improves for the festival and we don’t have the nightmare scenario of the weather impacting our enjoyment.

I have just been firming up my racing plans for the next few weeks and it seems hard to believe that the turf flat season starts in a little over four weeks.

I don’t know if I am mellowing with age but I seem to be enjoying the flat turf a great deal more in recent years and the big question this year is will we have another superstar to rival the performance of Sea The Stars last year? Only time will tell.

To get away from the cold weather my wife and I popped over to Malta for the weekend, as one does, just to get a break from the cold.

The racing scene in Malta is not that big and trotting is very much the scene out there, although there are occasional “normal” flat races . Meetings are generally twice a week “in season”, the season being winter where the temperatures are high teens / low twenties, with racing taking a rest in the blistering heat of high summer.

As this was a flying visit racing was not on the agenda. On Saturday we went past the course and was surprised to see a reasonable crowd in the stands and a sizable number of runners in the saddling area. I say surprised because Saturday is not a racing day.

I though little more of it until I noticed the same on Monday.

In the end curiosity got the better of me and I stopped to find out. It transpires these are open training sessions.

What a brilliant idea, it is a shame we do not have more open sessions in the UK. Here you may be lucky to see an occasional schooling session after racing but all too infrequently and, only then, it racegoers are told about it.

Talking of change the latest suggestions from Racing For Change (RFC) came to the surface today and there are some interesting proposals. Some seem to make sound sense, almost coming into the stating the bleeding obvious category, others could be called “innovative” or perhaps controversial.

One of the more obvious comments is that racing needs to market itself better outside the racing media. Hooray somebody has finally realised it at last.

Unfortunately there are still too many following and, more worryingly, running aspects of the sport who still seem to think racing has some God given right to be in the forefront in the consciousness of the public.

The reality is (and too many seem to be unable or unwilling to accept the proposition) racing is a minority sport.

Yes it may attract 5.7 million attendees every year but has anyone looked into how many individual racegoers there are.

Certainly there are not 5.7 million different people going racing every year.

Now if you say it quickly 5.7 million sounds very impressive, however let us put the figures into perspective.

In 2009 the 5.7 million were shared between 1,427 meetings giving an average attendance of 4,008 a meeting.(1)

In the 2008 / 2009 Premier League season 13.5 million attended 380 games with an average of 35, 592 per game.(2)

If you want a nearer football analogy to racing then the average attendance at a League 2 game this season is around the 3,800 mark.(3)

The simple concept from RFC is to move racing away from the sports pages, a laudable aim but implementation will be more difficult.

Unless the story is related to scandal the non-racing press will, unfortunately, not be interested.
No matter how much those of us close to racing think there are many good stories.

The second “stating the bleeding obvious” observation is racing is no longer the primary sport in bookmakers. Gone are the days when the only sport attracting the punters attention in the bookies was racing, with a spattering of greyhound racing.

Now a punter is more likely to go into a betting shop to bet on a football match or the result of X-Factor.

Linked to that (and it is a significant issue that all in RFC seem to be ignoring) is the funding of the sport, via the Levy is anachronism.

Why should racing and only racing receive a share of the bookmakers profits – it harks back to the arrogant view that racing is somehow special.

If racing gets a share of the bookmakers profits from betting on its product, then why shouldn’t football, golf, tennis, darts or any other sport also receive a subsidy?

Then we have the issue of the exchanges, who are not part of the levy but who currently make a voluntary contribution?

What happens if they change their mind about making a contribution?

The whole issue of the funding of racing needs to be reviewed and the future of the sport should then be developed around a viable financial model.

One good suggestion is a big handicap to be run the same time every Saturday afternoon, to be heavily marketed in the hope of persuading the non-racing punters to have a flutter.

Certainly the concept works in France where they have the daily Tiercé race. OK nobody is suggesting something as exotic as that but the idea has some merit.

Another suggestion is a defined start and close to the racing seasons.

RFC accept the National Hunt season is reasonably well defined, climaxing at Sandown.

However they are looking for more definition to the flat season and are looking at a season ending Champions Day to close the season a meeting which will feature championship races for three-year-old and older horses.

Do we not already have an end of season Championship meeting – staged in Paris the first weekend in October.

Would our French cousins, indeed would racing fans here, want to see the Arc meeting diminished in any way?

There is also talk, once again of some form of “team championships” well, excuse the language, that is absolute bollocks – racing is not a team sport, never has been, never will be.

The nearest we have to a team event in horse racing is Ascot’s Shergar Cup meeting. Yes a great fun day out but it is a novelty event with little bearing on the remainder of the season.

Is it really being suggested that racing changes the very way it works in order to attract followers of other team sports?

Racing is not a team sport and has sufficient merits and attraction to stand on its own two feet.

Yes racing needs to change its image, it does not need to change the nature of the sport.

Like the curate’s egg RFC is good in place but in other areas the suggestions are off.

Sources

1. Racecourse Association

2. The Premier League

3. The Football League

Tool Of The Trade

Regular readers of my musings will know that cars and driving frequently crop up in my writings.

It does not, of course, mean I am a rabid petrol head who is obsessed with cars. Indeed nothing can be further from the truth.

To me a car is a functional lump of plastic and metal designed to get me from A to B in a reasonable standard of comfort and it needs to be reliable.

If somebody talks to me about torque, b.h.p. or anything else technical they may as well be speaking to me in Serbo-Croat. I could not even tell you the “basics” - like my cars engine size without having to look it up.

One of the great joys of my job, and probably one that elicits most envy from others (indeed probably the only aspect that elicits any envy) is I get to spend my days visiting race courses the length and breadth of the country.

I can’t deny it is a great life and one I would be loath to swap, however it does come with its downsides and one of those is having to get to the races.

For my sins I happen to live in the land of concrete cows - Milton Keynes, a soulless town which seems to have ideas above its station and thinks it is a city but that is another story.

It has few redeeming features, although the arrival of a theatre a few yeas ago was a boon, however from my point of view it has one overwhelming benefit in its favour.

Every UK and nearly all the Irish courses can be reached in a day trip. OK for the Irish and Scottish courses the day trip involves flying but with Luton virtually on the doorstep and Stansted just over an hour away that is no great shakes.

However most courses are driven to and the drives can be long and, sometimes, tedious, especially this time of the year when racing ends just before sunset and one is invariably driving home in the dark.

Add in the problem at this time of the year, with racing finishing around 4:00 – 4:45, you are going to hit the rush hour on the way home and the pleasure can rapidly evaporate.

Of course go racing anywhere near the M25 corridor any time of the year and you are in trouble.

Last Friday afternoon I was at Kempton, with the last race at 4:55. A mere 60 miles door to door, it took about 90 minutes to get there, three hours to get home.

Well you try getting from inside to outside the M25 any quicker on a Friday evening!!

Driving home from a long distance meeting in the summer, by contrast, can be a joy. Ask the sat-nav to find a non-motorway route home and a great, relaxing drive can be had.

As I said earlier my needs for a car are simple. A reliable means of transport and apart from that three simple requirements, air conditioning, cruise control and a large service interval.

Therefore my car is as much an essential tool of my trade as my laptop, binoculars, race card and form book.

My mileage is around the 30ka year mark. Not the greatest in the press room by any means, one top commentator notched up a mere 45k last year, but more than enough.

Luckily my car has a seemingly pocket friendly 18k service interval. I say seemingly more pocket friendly but is it true?

Yes the car needs fewer services but those services can be more expensive. A “basic” service with the main dealer is between £240 and £285.

However my ’07 registered car, which I bought two years ago with a reasonably average 13, 000 on the clock. Now two years, almost to the day later, has 75k on the clock and is overdue its 72k service.

Normally I just book the car in for a service and cough up when I get the bill. This time, because there is a new main dealer locally, I asked how much the service would be when I called to book it.

Without pausing for breath she replied £950. After I had picked myself off the floor, then having apologised for my language, I asked her to repeat the amount, lest I had misheard her.

But no, it was quite clear, she had quoted me £950.

The reason, it transpires, is the manufacturer “recommends” that the cam belt be replaced at the 72,000 mile service – even if it needs replacing or not. This is, apparently a major job, costing almost £700 because the engine has to be taken out to get access to do the work.

Now the last bit does not surprise me in the least. Although I am not that technical when it comes to cars I can do basics like change light bulbs. Well I can in most cars, not mine however.

A few months ago, a couple of other drivers flashed me as I was driving back from racing at Huntingdon, when I pulled into my drive I could see my offside headlamp had gone.

No big shakes. I popped over to my local motoring retailer purchased a new halogen bulb for £7.50 and decided I would change it next morning.

Luckily I was only racing at Towcester, my local course, the next day. So I popped out after breakfast to change the bulb.

Two hours later with my arm almost ripped to shreds I gave up – it was physically impossible to replace the bulb. The engine compartment was too “compact” to actually get the bulb out.

I presumed there was some knack to changing the bulb and went to the main dealer for advice. There was indeed a “knack” to changing the headlamp bulb. You need to take off the front bumper, the front facia, remove the light assembly and replace the bulb …. and that will be £72 thank you very much.

And I missed the racing as well.

Was I impressed?

I was even more impressed when, four weeks later, the other headlight bulb went.

Ah ha, I know the trick now.

Was it that simple, of course not.

I began taking the front assembly off and guess what? You need a special tool to remove the two most critical bolts. So it was back to the main dealer once more.

They seemed to sense my displeasure and, full credit, the mechanic did manage to replace the other bulb by just loosening the front assembly and somehow managing to get enough space to change the bulb, only costing me £24.

Needless to say I decided not to have the cam belt replaced and have settled for a “basic service.”

This morning I duly took my car in and, being a cynic, double checked they were going to do just a basic service.

Yep, dear reader, you have guessed, it was booked in for the “full monty” so a full and frank discussion ensued and I came away with a personal assurance from the service manager they would only do a basic service – we shall see!!!

Then to cap off a great morning I had to catch a bus home, in all honesty a very novel experience for me. The first surprise was when the driver demanded £1.70 for a journey of little less than 3 miles. I could swear the fare was about 70p last time I caught a bus in MK last year.

I was the only person on the bus.

Next stop somebody else got on. He had the whole bus to sit down in, he came and sat next to me.

Yes I had attracted “the nutter on the bus”.

He then spent the next ten minutes berating the terrible bus service as if it were my fault and I could rectify it for him. He complained the previous bus had not turned up and this happens all the time.

When I suggested he should complain to the bus company if it was that bad, he just turned round and said ”it isn’t worth it.”

I just got up, got off the bus several stops early and walked the rest of the way home.

I think I’ll take a taxi when I go to collect my car.

I have only been without it four hours but I really do want my car back.

Super Saturday

Dubbed Super Saturday there were several top Festival contenders on display at Newbury and Warwick.

First up was Diamond Harry who put up an average, rather than spectacular, display of jumping in claiming the toteplacepot Novices’ Chase at Newbury. He will need to improve on his jumping if he is to win the RSA Chase at the Festival.

Next up was Long Run at in the totesport.com Kingmaker Chase at Warwick. Like Diamond Harry the jumping has scope for some improvement but he was possibly distracted by the front running King Edmund’s propensity to jump right. Connections are undecided if he will run in the RSA Chase or The Arkle with ground conditions being the deciding factor.

The Aon Chase at Newbury was the next big contest with Denman being ridden by AP McCoy for the first time (a controversial decision in some quarters).
For most of the contest “The Tank” jumped fluently. He made a uncharacteristic blunder four out but worse was to come three out when he made another blunder, this time unshipping McCoy.

To rub salt into McCoy’s wounds and to fan the flames of discussion Sam Thomas, who has previously ridden Denman, stayed on Winterwood at Warwick just 10 minutes later. The Winterwood blunder was far worse than Denman’s and not only did the horse stay on his feet but Thomas not only kept the partnership in tact but rallied the horse to grab victory from a seemingly impossible situation.

The final star on show was Master Minded in the totepool Game Spirit Chase at Newbury. After putting a faultless display of jumping he was a country mile clear approaching the last. However it seems as though he has been taking advice from stablemate Kauto Star as he ploughed through the top of the final fence and Ruby Walsh did well to remain on board. It says a lot for the bravery of the horse that he carried on as if nothing had happened.

Hell Have No Fury

As the old saying goes, “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” and I should know I have scorned more than my fair share in my time – but that is one for the autobiography.

Anyway, as I have recently discovered there is something even worse, even more angry, than a woman scorned and that is an owner scorned, especially when the criticism wasn’t exactly couched in diplomatic terms.

It is said you can insult a man’s wife but insult his horse (and his jockey as well for good measure) and you are in serious trouble.

Interestingly my run-in came not in an article I wrote but on an internet forum.

Ah ha - the good old internet forum.

Internet racing forums are a mixed blessing they allow good lively debate regarding issues relating to racing and most of the time the majority of comment is informed if not sometimes robust.

One of my personal pets hates with internet forums is the anonymous poster who is quite happy to sling abuse at others, hiding behind a nickname like a coward.

The majority of posters, even those who use anonymous user names, are decent people who make valid points, enjoy a robust debate yet at the same time know where to draw the line.

Now I am the first to admit I am not backwards in coming forwards when it comes to criticising something or someone, I freely admit I hold trenchant views on some matters and I am not afraid to express them.

As the old acronym says WYSIWYG – “what you see is what you get”. You may not like me or what I say but at least you know who or what is coming at you.

Anyway I digress because it is, sadly, also possible to overstep the mark when not hiding behind a nickname.

As I have already said, I am one that is not backward in coming forward and many a time I have stopped myself posting something I may later regret or, perhaps, not regret but could possibly phrase better.

Indeed there are certain individuals who, when I respond to them on a forum, I deliberately step back before replying.

With those posters, or if I am thinking of posting something controversial, I tend to write my response out in Word*, go away, have a cup of tea then, usually, delete the response or re-write it before finally posting.

However occasionally, even I sometimes fail to follow my basic rule and that happened a few days ago.

Ironically the thread where all the trouble started was actually quite innocuous, it was about the BHA’s seemingly indifferent attitude to race times clashing.

In the thread, as an aside, somebody asked about what happened to a horse who failed to start a race at Huntingdon.

As I had been at Huntingdon, I responded the horse had planted itself at the start and had refused to race, although he looked OK going down to the start.

A simple enough and innocent enough response, or so I thought. What I hadn’t twigged was the horses owner is also a regular poster on the said forum.

He was quick to respond that the horse had not planted itself at the start. Indeed his horse had been kicked coming out onto the course and that immediately before the start the horse that had kicked him had walked in front of him and his horse had backed off.

However he also added that his jockey, being “unsure of the rules”, held the horse back at the start hoping he would be declared a non-runner.

He, I should also add, said his jockey had called to the starter not to let the field go off but the starter had not heard the request.

Now in hindsight, I should have just had accepted what he said and shut up, or if not ignore it, couched my subsequent response more diplomatically, but I din not.

I picked up on the comment about the jockey and raised a point about it being unfair on punters who backed the horse and I have to admit my response was direct.

Unsurprisingly the response from the owner was very robust, which is fair enough. Unfortunately, immediately below his response was a response from a particular poster who has this ability to, and seems to delight in taking every opportunity possible to, wind me up.

This time I really should have stopped and follow my golden rule of write, sit back, go away, come back and refine the response.

Unfortunately the two posts together, coupled with being absolutely shattered having been up since 04:00 to catch an early flight and the tail end of a bout of ‘flu – none of which are, of course, excuses but are, just maybe, mitigating factors – I fired with both barrels and posted my initial thoughts and response.

To cut a long story short all hell broke loose and I succeeded in not only offending the owner in question but I also attracted a large number of critical, indeed vitriolic, responses from other forum users.

I have to admit most of the responses were justified although some did go over the top and it is no surprise some of the most vitriolic and “personal” comments did come from the cowardly anonymous posters.

I wonder if they are the same people who would be nice to your face and then stab you in the back as soon as you walk away?

However, as I said I did deserve the criticism and I was quick to apologise both publicly and privately to the owner concerned.

It was also an important lesson about the importance of thinking very carefully before you commit your thoughts.

Doing it on paper you have a chance to re-think – with electronic media it is very different matter. It is instant, perhaps too instant. It is oh so easy to fire something off without thinking.

It has been a sobering experience and I have to confess the response to my posting hit me harder than I expected it would (I hope I am not going soft in my dotage) – hopefully it will concentrate my mind and make me follow my own golden rule more strictly in future.

It doesn’t mean, of course, I am going to stop speak my mind but I am certainly going to be more careful in how I phrase my comments in future and everything I post or write will go through the write, cuppa, review process.

As I said a salutary and painful lesson.