No Encore

Anyone who has endured my ramblings for the past few years will know I tend to be cursed when it comes to attending Scottish race meetings.

Be it meetings being called off after my flight has landed in Scotland through to Icelandic volcano’s spewing ash into the atmosphere.

I used to be a regular attendee at the Scottish Grand National meeting, mainly thanks to Ryanair.

Anyone who has used  Ryanair will know they do have a flexible grasp of geography when it comes to the location of their airports. For example what Ryanair call “Glasgow” is actually Prestwick Airport, which just happens to be four miles from Ayr racecourse – very handy indeed in this instance but a real pain if you actually do want to go to Glasgow, around 45 minutes away by train, almost as long as the flight from London.

Even better there was a flight which left Stansted at 08:10 Saturday morning with a return flight around 20:00 in the evening – perfect for a day trip to the Scottish National. Indeed on Scottish National day the flights seemed to be racing specials with racegoers, jockeys and southern based media all availing themselves of the service.

The last time I used that flight for the meeting was in 2009. I did have everything booked for the 2010 visit but a week before the National meeting Eyjafjallajökull erupted resulting in all flights in Western Europe being grounded.

2011 I couldn’t make the meeting due to other commitments, then last year I made the discovery that Ryanair no longer operate UK internal flights so the Stansted – Prestwick flight was no more.

I looked at other flight options but nothing was really that convenient or practical. The last Easyjet flights from Glasgow to London were too early in the evening and I didn’t really want to fly to Heathrow.    

This year I decided to take the bull by the horns and drive to the meeting. It isn’t exactly a short drive for me, over 360 miles and a journey time of around 6½ hours.

My plan was to set off at around 04:30 Friday morning to arrive in time for Friday’s racing then drive home straight after racing on Saturday.

Early last week, in a rare moment of sensibility, I realised how unwise it would be to set off on a 360 odd mile drive at stupid o’clock in the morning, especially when I am not a morning person. So I set of on Thursday evening, stopping over in the Lake District on Thursday night, a much more sensible option.

Anyway Friday was a glorious day weather wise and I enjoyed the racing, some cracking finishes and a reasonable crowd but still enough space to move around in comfort.

National day itself was being massively hyped by the racecourse, not least because of the appearance of Auroras Encore, attempting to become the first horse since Red Rum in 1974 to win the Aintree and Scottish National’s in the same season.

Of course many were sucked into the hype when, in reality, the horse did not have a snowballs chance in hell of winning the race. Not only had he been hiked in the weights to carry a welter burden, this year’s Scottish National was only two weeks after Aintree, whereas Red Rum had three weeks to recover.

I hate predicting in advance that a horse will not finish a race but I did write beforehand that Auroras Encore would be pulled-up in the race and so it happened.

I have to say I didn’t particularly enjoy the racing on Saturday.

Although the course themselves will be delighted with the huge crowds it made life really difficult for those of us who wanted to get to the parade ring to see the runners before the races. You just couldn’t move around the place without risking knocking a beer out of someone’s hands.

Couple that with a very flaky wi-fi and a lack of security, which meant racegoers, many somewhat the worse for drink, were able to spill into the press viewing area making reading the racing more difficult, it has to go down as being my least enjoyable days racing of the year.

In the end I called it quits after race six, much as I really hate leaving a racecourse early.

So began the journey home.

It didn’t start well as six miles outside Ayr I came to a standstill for 15 mins as there had been a crash. Five miles later I was sent on a diversion as the A70 was closed due to road works.

It then improved as the A70 took me through some delightful rolling hills, populate with sheep and their bleating lambs.

A quick stop at Gretna Services and I was soon crossing the border and just under three hours after setting of I was pulling into the best motorway services in the country – Tebay.

If you have never visited Tebay they are the complete opposite to all the others. Privately owned the food in the restaurant is generally edible and flavoursome. The down side is it can be a very expensive stop as they have an excellent farm shop with a great selection of food – my debit card winced when I reached the checkout!!!

The M6 through the Lakes has to be one of the most beautiful stretches of motorway in the country, even better when the traffic is light. Once south of Lancaster though the scenery is more drab and the motorway busier and less enjoyable.

With one final “comfort” break at Keel services I was home, six and a half hours after leaving Ayr, tired but glad to be home and in my own bed.

The next day it hit me – I cannot recall ever feeling as tired, as ill, as I did on the Sunday.

It has bought home what I’ve been denying for some time now, that is I’m not as young as I used to be, I don’t have the energy I used to have and I’m certainly not up to doing a 360 mile drive flat out in one go.

I had planned to drive to Perth, via Newcasatle on the way up and Ripon on the way home, later this week – but I have to accept that would be silly. I like my racing but not enough to kill myself.

So no Scottish encore for me this week, I will do Perth later in the year but rather than drive I’ll fly to Edinburgh and hire a car instead.             

Grand National - I Was Wrong

I’m more than happy to shout this from the rooftops  - I WAS WRONG.

After the last two years I was dreading the 2013 National and as I said two blogs ago I had some reservations about the changes bought in ahead of this years renewal.

My fears were wholly unfounded.

Although  I could not face watching the race live my relief was palpable when just after 16:25 on Saturday I received a text which simply said “all seem to be back OK”.

When I later watched a recording of the race I can say, for the first time in years I enjoyed watching the race. The fences certainly looked to be more forgiving and that all the runners were still standing coming to the Canal Turn must be unprecedented.

The race did not look to be any less of a spectacle, so well done to Aintree, the BHA and all those involved in the latest changes – all credit where credit is due.

Let us not get too complacent though, this is but one year, but the signs are good and hopefully the more extreme critics will quieten down now.

I was also wrong in my estimation of the number of viewers who would watch the race on Channel Four. The viewing figures were actually better than those of the BBC in recent years.

I did record the Channel Four coverage and, for me, it was like the Curates Egg.

Some of the background articles were excellent, it was good to see the excellent Gareth O’Brien being used.

There were some oddities though, quite why they went through the runners in reverse order is beyond me.

There was barely any coverage of the runners in the parade ring.

I also found the coverage of the race itself disappointing. It wasn’t their best performance. Too many of the shots were from too far away and it was difficult to identify runners.

It also seems that having gone to the expense of installing a flying camera, it was going to be used to the absolute maximum. To use the camera to show the 14^th fence when the view was blocked by a big screen is absolutely unforgivable.

The shot of The Chair was also poor.

As for the commentary, Richard Hoiles sounded as if he was wearing a muffle and the usually excellent Ian Bartlett just sounded as if he wasn’t really that interested.  Also why did Simon Holt cover the section after Valentines. He clearly had to do it off a monitor, it seems more sense to have had Richard cover Valentines to the Melling Road.

The re-run analysis of the race was unbelievable to the point of embarrassment. It seemed Nick Luck was trying to second guess what was going to happen . At one point he said “We’ll freeze it there” and the VT carried on running.

 
By contrast the RUK coverage with the course commentary was far better. The camera angles were far superior and it was much easier to follow what was happening. The commentary was good and Stewart Machin rose to the occasion was the lead commentator, even resisting his trademark puns.

Farewell Twitter

I’ve written before about new technology and the benefits and disadvantages and the techbnology is something I embrace.

A look at my @orsracing twitter account tells me I have made 18,824 tweets.

My next tweet on that account, pointing to this blog, will be my last.

There are two reasons why this is so.

Many of my tweets have been paddock views and I know from feedback many people have appreciated my views, even if they haven’t always been spot on the button.

Yesterday I was tweeting from Leicester and I sent a series of tweets commenting on the quality of the feature race, especially when comparing with the quality of Sprinter Sacre’s run at Aintree.

Unfortunately one of the tweets was taken completely out of context and it provoked some strong responses.

Let me say I have no problem with people disagreeing with what I say. I love debate and, as many will know, I love playing the part of devils advocate.

However I believe any debate should be civil, even if one totally disagrees with the other persons perspective.

However there was one comment made yesterday which I thought was a cheap shot and, although I am thick skinned,  I found highly offensive.

I don’t see why I should have to suffer such comments.

I do the tweeting as an aside to my other work, it’s not something I have to do and it is not something I expect thanks for, although when I do get thanks it is very much appreciated.

I don’t mind getting criticism or if people disagree with me, wouldn’t life be boring if we all agreed.

I don’t however see why I should go to the effort of Tweeting if I am going to be subjected to snide asides.

The other reason I’m leaving Twitter is, in a way related, and it involves the so called discussions concerning the Grand National fences.

My reservations about the National are well documented and I have no intention of rehashing them here. However I was personally very much affected by the death of Little Josh yesterday.

After the race there was the usual plethora of Tweets from both sides.

What really annoyed me was the utter intolerance of many of those who support the race and purportedly support racing.

There is a near Stalinist attitude with many, where anyone who questions the National or the fences is summarily dismissed as being a crank, ignorant or an animal rights extremists, or somebody who is inherently anti-racing.

They will not or cannot accept there are many of us who love the sport in general do still have genuine concerns about the National course and the National itself.

Why do these people resort to dismissive abuse as their default position? Is it out of desperation because they are unable to offer reasoned explanations to support their case?

I am more than happy to properly debate the issues until the cows come home ….. I have no wish to debate with those who cannot display even basic common courtesy.

Twitter, at its best, can be a great tool but it also has a nasty underside.

I deliberately left it a day before taking this decision, which has not been easy, however having slept on it I feel the same, if not even more strongly about how I feel. 

I have “met” some really lovely people through my racing tweeting and I will very much miss that side of things.

I will still be doing paddock picking and racing reports on my web site www.ors-racing.co.uk and I will still have a Twitter presence in my personal account @PaulOstermeyer.

I don’t tweet on that account very often but when I do it tends to be outspoken, so if your sensibilities are easily offended then please don’t bother following that account.

To all of you who have followed me, thank you and I wish you all very best wishes for the future and if you are that way inclined lucky punting.      

A Seaside Walk

So what will you be doing 16:15 this Saturday afternoon?

If the weather is fine I’ll be taking in the sea air along the seafront at Southsea, what I won’t be doing is watching the Grand National.

I strongly suspect there will be a great deal fewer people watching the race this year, not necessarily due to any moral concerns about the race but due to the terrestrial coverage moving from mainstream BBC 1 to the backwater that is Channel Four.

My prediction is around 2-3 million, at most, will watch the race at its new home. I’m pretty certain very few viewers will have been attracted by the ridiculous and wholly inappropriate trailer for the event being broadcast on Channel Four.

I didn’t watch the National live last year either. On that occasion I was at Chepstow and, as happens across the board, there was a huge gap in their race program to accommodate the showing of the Grand National. So last year I took advantage of the hour and five minute break to leave the course roll into Chepstow town for a walk.

In a way it’s surprising I no longer want to watch the race. The National is my earliest racing memory, 1961 and Nicolaus Silver was the winner.

I hardly missed a year thereafter. I had every race since 1990 on video tape or DVD but in the past few years I have begun to fall out of love with the race.

Perhaps as I get older my sensibilities have changed. Perhaps it’s because I go racing far more regularly than I used to and I am exposed to the darker side more frequently?

I fully accept there is an inherent risk in horse racing both to horses and riders. The thorny question is at what level does the risk become unacceptable?

I, like 99% of those who follow the sport, hate it when a horse is hurt or pays the ultimate price.

There are, sadly, those morons who still cheer when a horse falls and if I had my may I would have them ejected from the course and banned for life.

Everything in life carries a risk but it’s a very personal matter as to where the line is drawn.

For better or worse, and I believe it is for the worse, the Grand National is the “shop window” of racing in the eyes of the wider public. It is the biggest race of the year in terms of betting turnover and that makes many more protective of the race – after all who wants to kill the goose that lays the golden egg?

But what if that goose has the potential to cause more harm than good in the longer term? What if the race has the potential to damage the wider sport?

By it nature the race will carry a higher risk, but has that risk become unacceptable?

Over the years the authorities have tinkered with the race but have these changes worked in the interests of the race?

The fences have become easier. Bechers Brook is all but a shadow of its former self. The drop fences have all but gone but has the “softening” of the fences actually created more issues?

Now the fences are less challenging are they being treated with less respect?

The greatest damage to the reputation of the race came two years ago when the BBC coverage featured some appalling camera angles showing stricken horses in the worse possible way.

I would like to think it was simply an inept editorial decision but I am not 100% convinced on that front.

This year has seen some further tinkering to the race. The most significant being changes to the structure of the fences and the second being the distance of the race.

The changes to the fences are, on the face of it, no brainers. The removal of solid wooden stakes from the core of the fences makes sense.

I have a concern though, will the removal of the wooden cores again reinforce the attitude in the jockeys minds, even subconsciously, that the fences can be approached more aggressively.

I have a greater concern about shortening the distance to the first fence. The previous long approach allowed the field to spread out in terms of width and from first to last, allowing most of the runners to get a good sight of the fence.

With the shorter approach there will be less time to get that important space.

I know some will argue other races have a shorter approach to the first. Yes they do but other races don’t have 40 runners.

The number of casualties at the first has been relatively low in recent years, usually one or two.

I hope I’m wrong but my fear is there will be more runners falling or bought down at the first.

The last two years have been bad for the National with two runners paying the ultimate price in each renewal. Defenders of the race will offer explanations in “defence” of the fatalities, for example Synchronised fell when running free and not in the race.

Those explanations are irrelevant – what is relevant is the number of injuries or fatalities not how they happened. In the eyes of the wider public two horses died in each of the last two runnings.

Consider this, if 20% of runners in all races were killed there would quite rightly be a public outcry to ban the sport and there would be no sane defence of the sport.

Yet when people point out a 20% fatality rate in the last two Grand Nationals they are dismissed by moat of the racing fraternity as tree huggers and activists.

That is condescending and patronising. I love the sport of racing and I am not alone within those who follow the sport closely in having concerns about the race.

I’ve seen comments in the past few days, from journalists who should know better, exhorting the racing media to rally round and support the race and not criticise the race.

Does that mean they are now panicking, forming the wagons in a circle, and coming to the realisation they are beginning to defend the indefensible.

I sincerely hope every horse and rider comes back in one piece on Saturday and I hope my worries and concerns are wholly unfounded.

I’ve also just noticed it has been confirmed Imperial Commander is an intended runner in this year’s renewal, I hope he isn’t 2013’s Synchronised.

I’m personally at a stage where I’m indifferent towards the Grand National. I hope this year’s renewal isn’t the final straw that has me actively calling for its abolition – time will tell.