Unsung Heroes

I was going to write exclusively about the Grand National in this week’s blog but, frankly, the subject has been done to death and I have, many times over the last year, stated my views on the race.

Nothing that happened this last weekend has made me change my views, indeed it has merely served to strengthen my opinion.

It gives me no pleasure to say this but this year’s renewal, apart from the near dead heat, panned out more or less as I expected. I had even predicted Synchronised’s fate to one or two friend before the contest.

The only other comment I would make is “Racing PLC” really does need to sort out it’s PR, circling the wagons, making crass statements about people not having to watch the race if they don’t like it and simply concentrating on portraying Animal Aid and their ilk as extremists is all counterproductive.

Yes, Animal Aid are idiotic extremists and should be exposed as such, but racing seems to use that approach as its main defence and it is not good enough. It should also be acknowledged that Animal Aid has a far superior PR setup than racing.

Anyway on to the main theme of this week’s epistle and I want to pay tribute to some of racings unsung heroes, the paramedics.

We all know the risks to horses and riders in our sport, especially in National Hunt racing. I think I read somewhere that a jump jockey can expect to fall every one in ten rides.

Most of the time they are quickly on their feet and bouncing back, occasionally the falls are more serious.

In recent weeks we have seen horrific falls for Philipa Tutty, Noel Fehily and Nathan Cook and it is the paramedics who look after and assess them.

When I was younger all ambulance crews did was “scoop and deliver”, now they are highly trained and, frankly, in emergency situations they are better equipped to deal with the situation that most doctors.

Theirs is a role which often goes unnoticed, yet when Nathan Cook had his terrible fall at Ffos Las, if you didn’t see it, he was unseated whilst leading only to have the eventual winner trample on his head as he was on the ground.

The paramedics were there almost immediately and were still treating him on the ground almost half an hour later, when an air ambulance arrived. The air ambulance crew then also treated and assessed him for some considerable time before eventually flying him to hospital.

There is no doubt their quick intervention meant he received prompt treatment but they also ensured he was quickly immobilised preventing any further injury.

Luckily Cook only suffered concussion and he was released from hospital later that day and he expects to be back at work later this week.

There are plenty of television programs like Helicopter Heroes and Emergency Bikers which show paramedics at work but, by their very nature, they only show part of the story.

Yesterday evening I had the fortune or, maybe – depending on how you look at it, the misfortune of experiencing their work first hand and I have nothing but praise for them.

It was 18:45, dinner was in the oven and I was about to serve it up, and I was sitting at my computer when I got this terrible pain in my chest, which then spread up my neck.

Thinking nothing of it I tried to “walk it off” – even getting dinner out of the oven ready to serve.

As I sat down to eat dinner the pain was not easing and I realised it was possibly a case of “Houston, we have a problem.”

Impressively, within four minutes there was a paramedic car parked on the drive.

The paramedic walked into the front room carrying more kit than a Nepalese Sherpa on an Everest climb and within a few minutes there was enough equipment set up to rival an intensive care unit.

All the time he was reassuring, whilst at the same time he was trying to get me to “relax” which was much easier said than done coming from my position.

Before I knew it he was attacking my chest with a razor and I was soon attached to a heart monitor which, thankfully, showed I wasn’t imminently about to shuffle of this mortal coil, which was actually quite a relief.

Despite the “good” heart trace he still insisted I chew the most foul tasting aspirin ever made.     

More tests followed and he was soon joined by two more paramedics, all of whom were thorough but, all the time reassuring.

By now the pain had gone and I actually felt a bit of a time waster but they still wanted me to go to hospital to be checked out.

Even when I was on board the ambulance it wasn’t just a case of taking me to hospital. They probably spent another 20 minutes doing more tests and traces and even sprayed some stuff under my tongue which was, at least, much better tasting than the aspirin.

By this time I was relaxed and even cracking jokes with the duo, in between apologising for having them called out and them telling me off for apologising.

That I was relaxed was wholly down to the paramedics and their manner and approach, they certainly showed to me they are the ones to have around when you need help.

Something, I’m sure, many of our jockeys (and of course stable staff who take falls on the gallops) well appreciate.

(By dint of the fact I am writing this some 21 hours later it’s obvious I’m still here. After a thorough “going over” at the hospital they believe the pain was the result of the infection I’ve had for the past six weeks. I was back home, finally eating some dinner, just before two this morning)   

Looking Forward To Chepstow

For the first time since I have legally been allowed to bet (and let me tell you that is more years than I care to remember) I shall not be having a bet on the Grand National this year, indeed I would be pushed to name more than half a dozen of this year’s runners without looking them up.

In the immediate aftermath of last year’s National my reservations about the race began to come into sharper focus.

I had thought, even hoped, with time my concerns would mellow but they haven’t.

Whilst last year’s race added a few nails to the coffin the final straw was the BHA review into the race and the prosed solutions.

The review was a typical fudge by committee even more that I believe the changes could even make the situation worse.

In their infinite wisdom the committee decided to make a couple of the fences easier. That, in my mind, is wrong. Making them “easier” will mean they will be treated with less respect, they will be approached faster and this will result in more falls, especially coupled with refusal to reduce the safety limit in the contest.

The one mitigating factor in this renewal is the long awaited rain will result in softer ground and, hopefully, the filed approaching the fences at a safer pace.

However too much rain and we have the danger of another Red Marauder contest, which in its own way was unedifying.

I really hope I am proved wrong and this turns out to be a National which makes the news for all the right reasons.

It is difficult to “walk away” from the National, after all it forms my earliest racing memory, watching Nicholas Silver win the 1961 contest, watching it on a fuzzy black and white television.

That was the second time the BBC had televised the race and it is, perhaps, a symmetry that the last Grand National I watched would turn out to be the second last the BBC will broadcast.

When I told one of my racing friends I had given up on the National he summed it up perfectly when he said:-

“The National is a funny race, I can easily see why people might fall out of love with it. For me it's a bit like a teenage crush. You don't want to admit when it's over and you never quite get over it.”

So I’ll be spending Saturday at Chepstow although my attempts to avoid the National may well be thwarted as there is a massive 1 hour 5 minute gap between races three and four so racegoers can watch the Grand National – I may go into town and do some shopping. 

Be Careful What You Wish For

The chatter in the racing world today has been around the offer of Sheikh Fahad to inject £700,000 to the Sussex Stakes prize money if Frankel and Black Caviar both race.

Frankel on Champions Day 2011

Needless to say the usual suspects have been salivating at the prospect and the hyperbole has already begun – without either set of connections confirming the race as a target.

I’m minded of the old adage “be careful what you wish for” for the offer could be more trouble than it is worth.

First of all there is the £1,000,000 purse should both horses turn up. Meanwhile racing has a funding crisis prize money is in a downward spiral and a new funding mechanism needs to be sorted out.

Yet, against this backdrop, one million pounds of prize money is offered if two horses turn up for one particular race.

I accept the extra money is coming from, for want of a better word, a benefactor but it still does not look right and it, potentially, sends out the wrong message.

If I heard an owner pointing out how poor prize money was I would ask him to reconcile his complaint against the money on offer for this one race.

To me it is akin to a family struggling to make ends meet, with maxed out credit cards, receiving a substantial sum of money from a generous uncle and blowing it on a luxury holiday.      

Now I admit I am a fully paid up capitalist and to me socialism is an anathema. I fully accept an individual is entitled to spend their money how they see fit but in the current economic climate even I wince at such a huge amount of money being spent just so two horses can race, even more so when you consider the other concerns I have.

Let us assume the money is not an issue there are plenty of other concerns.

Now Goodwood is a lovely racecourse, there is no better place to spend a sunny summers afternoon enjoying  flat meeting. However Goodwood is one of those courses that could be considered idiosyncratic with it being set on the chalky South Downs.

Now I’m no expert on Australian racing and I am quite happy to be corrected but I strongly suspect there are no courses in Oz configured in the same was as Goodwood. I strongly suspect Black Caviar has never run on an undulating track.

If Black Caviar were my horse why would I want to run her at Goodwood? For such an important race I would not want her running at a course where she will be at a disadvantage compared to her rival.

If there is to be a UK meeting then it should be at a flatter track like Ascot or York, this would be fairer on both contenders.

Then there is the danger the race will not live up to what will be almost unbearable hyperbole in the build up to the race and we all know the hype can backfire.

Remember the Frankel vs Canford Cliffs hype at last years Glorious Goodwood?  
What a damp squib that turned out to be.

All the “showdown” would prove is who was the better horse on the day, nothing more than that.

 You can go 1.01 that the connections of the losing horse will have their excuses ready the moment their charge crosses the line.

Is it also fair that one of the contenders has to travel half way round the world to compete?

If the showdown has to take place would it not be fairer held at a neutral venue where both horses have to travel and to that end staging the race in South Africa would probably be best.

- - - - -

Richard Hughes has also been a talking point at the moment, following his failed attempt to avoid having his Indian ban reciprocated.

Whether the penalty handed out to Hughes in India is deemed to be to severe is, frankly, irrelevant.

He chose to ride in India, he accepted he would have to ride under their rules and regulations, he then chose to show scant regard for their rules (on more than one occasion). He was not forced to ride in India.

Whether the reciprocity arrangement is formal or informal, there is one and the ban should apply here.

For the BHA to refuse the request from the Indian authorities, it would have looked arrogant and patronising to a "smaller" authority.

Hughes legal team can attempt all the mealy mouthed worming they want but at the end of the day Hughes committed the offence so he pays the price - ergo I have no sympathy for him at all.

If Hughes did not want to be in this position the answer was in his hands in the first place.

Whilst Hughes may be a good rider he does seem to have an ego issue - two bust-ups in India and his petulant (and actually meaningless and empty gestured) dummy spitting when he received a ban under the whip rules here shows a particularly nasty character trait.