The Ying and Yang Of Ascot

What a week?

Five days racing in a normally sleepy Berkshire town gave us the whole gamut of racing emotions.

Exciting, pulsating finishes.

Beaten hotshots.

Estimate wins the Gold Cup

Emotional victories for Jane Cecil and The Queen on the same afternoon, with racing on the front pages for all the right reasons the following day.

Thomas Chippendale beats Dandino

Then, 48 hours later, the horrible lows that can sometimes hit this sport of ours when in a 2½ minute period we saw the benefit of plastic rails as Paul Hanagan came off Ektihaam, followed by a thrilling battle to the line with Thomas Chippendale bravely out battling the equally brave Dandino, only for the valiant winner to collapse and die shortly after the line.

Yes Royal Ascot is a special meeting and one that always manages to stir the emotions. For me it is the very best domestic flat meeting of the year, possibly in the world and the only other flat meeting coming near to it in my view is the October meeting at Longchamp and if the Froggies had not had the revolution it would undoubtedly now be known as Longchamp Royale.

Whilst Royal Ascot may be the best meeting in terms of quality it is also the worse meeting of the year for me in terms of working.

It is the most frustrating, difficult meeting of the entire year to cover and after five days I am frazzled, indeed I’m usually flagging fast after day three.

View from the Press Room Balcony

The irony is Ascot is, by far, the best course to work at any other of their meetings. It has a well-equipped press room, with a viewing balcony offering fantastic views, second only to Epsom.

An escalator immediately next to the press room makes it easy to get down to the parade ring and weighing room.

It’s an absolute delight.

The Royal meeting is so different.

Clearly there is much more press interest in the Royal meeting, both domestically and internationally so an accreditation system is used.

Basically a similar system to the meeting itself is used. The “elite” get to use the main press room, the remainder of the racing media are sent to the “media centre” in the bowels of the grandstand whilst the non-racing snappers are consigned to what is normally the Ascot Children's Nursery over in Car Park Two.

Now in theory that sounds a reasonable system, but in reality it isn’t that simple. As with the Royal Enclosure it’s who you know, not what you know that’s important.

Like God, Ascot moves in mysterious ways in terms of allocating the valuable space in the main press room. Of course the “glory boys (and girls)” from the National press are afforded prime positions, whether they actually need the space or not. These are the prima-donnas who suddenly appear at the big meetings and strut around the place as if they own it.

I wonder how many of them would pass what I call the Fakenham test?

The test comes in two stages.

Stage one is, if given a map of the United Kingdom, would they know where Fakenham actually is?

Stage two, having actually located Fakenham on the map, how often have they gone racing there?

Of course you could replace Fakenham with any of the so called “minor courses” – the point is most of the national racing correspondents wouldn’t be seen dead at a smaller course but they expect to be treated with respect and kow-towed to at the big meetings.

I would stress at this point my criticism is not aimed at all national correspondents, just a significant number of them. 

Some of the correspondents, like Alan Lee of The Times in particular, do frequent the smaller tracks, even Fakenham and there are a handful of others who regularly appear at "smaller" meetings.

Something that really surprises me is the number of racing journalists who have been covering the sport for decades yet they still have not visited all the courses in the UK – I find that really incredulous.

By the way, in case you are thinking I’m simply envious of the national racing correspondents, nothing could be further from the truth. There is no way on this earth I would want to work for a newspaper or broadcaster and be beholden to the whims and views of an editor or proprietor.

Indeed I would rather be on the streets and starve than work for anything that is part of the Murdoch empire, which would rule out a fair proportion of the national media.

I like being my own boss and my own editor.

As one national correspondent once said to me “I envy you as you can actually write you want and what you really believe, I don’t always have that freedom."         

Even more annoying about the allocation of places in the main press room though is the number of people who should, frankly, not be there. Notably the retired and the hangers on, who are not working, not filing copy but are taking up space that could be used by working journalists and reporters.

Ascot Media Centre

The lesser mortals of the racing press are confined to the media centre. Now that is an adequate working environment. It’s very cramped and windowless but we have a work area and we (normally) have working wi-fi and a bank of televisions showing C4, ATR and Ascot TV.

That should be enough I hear you say, for most it is but for some of us it isn’t. For example we have no access to the parade ring so seeing the runners before the race is very tricky. There are around half a dozen of us who try to provide paddock reports but we cannot get near the paddock.

Annoyingly there is an area just outside the media centre which is right beside the parade ring, an area hardly used, yet those of us who need to view the runners are denied access. So the paddock pickers have to either fight their way through the crowds to try and get a view of the runners or catch the runners on the horse walk as they come out. Neither is satisfactory.

The other problem is reporting on the races. Those of us with the blue badges are allowed on the press room viewing balcony to view the racing, which is good and better than we have at Cheltenham. However we that have to report on the race based on the one single viewing as, amazingly, the media centre has no facilities for recording races for later reviewing,  unlike the in main press room.

Now I can probably do a reasonable account of an incident free 12 runner contest on a single viewing. However for something like the Hunt Cup trying to write anything coherent about the race on a single viewing through bins is nigh on impossible.

Indeed I don’t even bother trying to do a coherent write-up on the big field races any more but that's ridiculous when you are supposed to be reporting on the races.

After the meeting each year we’re asked for our feedback about the facilities and every year the same concerns are raised but is anything done about it – of course not.

Fakenham Press Room

Is it really too much for a racing reporter to ask for facilities to view the runners in the parade ring or a facility to record and view replays of the races?      

This week I’m back to the "bread and butter" racing.

The setting may not be so grand, the quality not so high, the press rooms will be more basic but, at least, I’ll be able to see the runners in the parade ring and be able to watch as many replays of a race as I need.

RIP Sir Henry

Trainer Sir Henry Cecil passed away on Tuesday 11th June 2013 following a long illness.

A perfect gentleman in the truest sense of the word, he took the, deserved, plaudits with humility and took the knock-backs with dignity.

There won't be another trainer like him, especially in the training of fillies, although his greatest horse was, of course, a colt.

How fitting a tribute it would be, if the offspring of Frankle and Midday were to be a colt, that he be named Sir Henry.

Blighted by ill health in his latter years I cannot help but think Frankel gave him the extra incentive to fight on the last couple of years.

At last he is now at peace, RIP an true gentleman.

Disappointment On The Downs

Well another Derby weekend comes and goes and I have to admit I’ve come away from the 2013 renewal feeling slightly flat and deflated.

It wasn’t all bad, of course, the horrible weather of the previous few days  finally relented and the sun shone on the Downs. The crowds were healthy, 120,000 on the big day itself but those large crowds bring inherent problems as an annoying minority seem to be unable to control themselves after a few drinks.

Friday didn’t get off to a good start as it finally saw the return of Frankie Dettori after serving a six month ban after being caught with traces of cocaine in his system after a drug test in France last September.

With the delays in the returning of his licence I was beginning to find the whole affair more than tiresome.

Of course when he finally did return the frenzy in certain parts of the media was frankly nauseating and one of the worse offenders was Channel Four.

You would think we were witnessing the return of some long lost hero – we weren’t.

Let’s get this straight Dettori was banned after taking a drug which it is a criminal offence to both possess and use. This is not the action of some immature youngster this is the action of a supposedly mature and responsible 42 year old man, father to five children – what a wonderful example to set to them.

He then moves the Dettori PR machine into overdrive claiming it was a moment of madness, a one of mistake. Towards the end of a ban he agrees to the softest of soft interviews with Clare Balding, who by her own admission has been a friend of his for years – so  no danger of a Paxmanesque interrogation there then?

Also, let's not forget Dettori has previous when it comes to cocaine .... he must be a very unlucky person to have only had the drug twice and to have been caught both times. 

Remember Dettori is a shrewd PR operator – switch on the TV cameras and he is the jolly chirpy Italian jockey, away from the cameras and the big meetings the story is different.

I have witnessed, first hand, the other side of Dettori and frankly I think he is an objectionable, obnoxious individual.

For me, after all the fuss about his return, I was actually two of his three mounts came home last.

One of the biggest smiles about his overblown return actually came courtesy of Channel Four.

Emma Spencer, clearly employed for her supposed good looks rather than her racing knowledge, interviewed Neil Callan the winner of Resurgent  and then proceeded to ask him about his “ride” in the next race on Sri Putra – a ride where he had been jocked off by one L Dettori.

He soon put Ms Spencer in her place but how ironic that one of the star presenters of Channel Four was unaware of the jockey change, when the broadcaster she is employed by were having the broadcasting version of an orgasm over Dettori’s return.      

Racing in Friday was good with the aptly named Talent winning The Oaks giving trainer Ralph Beckett an amazing 1-2 in the race, although not in the order expected and it gave Richard Hughes a second classic win in a few weeks.

Saturday dawned and the two feature races were starkly different.

In the Coronation Cup we had St Nicholas Abbey looking for an unprecedented third consecutive win.

With around £9.5k on offer for finishing fifth it was disappointing to see only five runners, especially when two of the five were simply in the race as pacemakers. With trainers complaining about the lack of prize money you would have thought more would have had a pop, even if it were for the decent place purse.

In the end the script worked out as planned with St Nicholas Abbey coming home, barely breaking sweat, followed home by Dunaden.

He can only beat what is put in front of him but with almost £5m in winnings he has been a credit to connections.

Before I turn to The Derby I must mention The Dash over the fastest five furlong course in the country.

Ryan Moore gave Duke of Firenze a sublime ride. I 9^th place and behind wall of horses a half-a-furlong from home, he weaved through rivals to go on and record a neck victory.

Even more impressive was the run of the runner-up, Smoothtalkinrascal, under  Daniel Tudhope, who was as far back as 14^th at the half furlong pole.

Well in the big race itself we had a well touted favourite in Dawn Approach. I have to admit he is a horse I have long admired and I really wanted him to do well in The Derby – as we now know it wasn’t to be.      

I think it's the worse Derby I can remember, a very messy race and I can't recall the last time there were six stewards inquiries into a single race.

Poor Kevin Manning didn't stand a chance in the race - Dawn Approach ran as if a pot of mustard had been shoved up his backside, he took off like a horse possessed and it would have been no surprise if Manning had not returned with arms six inches longer than when he had set out.

Full credit to Ballydoyle who employed perfect tactics, in not employing a pacesetter  they played on the perceived weaknesses of the favourite. Although looking at Dawn Approach I think he would probably have blown up whatever tactics had been employed.

French raider Ocovango probably would not have won but would have been possibly been placed were it not for him getting mullered twice. I wonder  would a jockey with more experience of Epsom have done better on him?

Mars, fancied in some areas, didn't get the best of runs either.

OK The Derby is always a rough race but this one just didn't seem right at all.

Did the "best" horse win - possibly but even that is open to debate.

It was a fantastic day for Ryan Moore though.

Moore often gets slated for “not having a personality” but I would rather have him ride a horse of mine than the coke snorting showman Dettori.