That's (almost) All Folks

Well the day came and went and I walked away at the end of the day with absolutely no emotion whatsoever.

Fontwell Park

My final day’s racing, at Fontwell where it all began over thirty years ago, was just another racing day but with some great company.

My oldest friend Tony, who first took me racing at Fontwell some thirty years ago, was able to join me for the day along with a couple of racing pals who came down from London for the day to join in the celebration.

One of them, Clive, coming to Fontwell for the first time and another to be smitten with the beautiful course.

As an added bonus Lee McKenzie (despite the race card spelling his name wrong, even though he is there almost every meeting) was the raceday presenter.

Two old men at the races

I also discovered a new game to play – trying to find a racegoers who was able to work my camera –

I know I should have bought the “point and shoot” camera as well.

All I wanted was a photograph of Tony and I as a memento of the day but that was easier said than done. Eventually, at I think the fourth attempt, a racegoers managed to take a picture but it wasn’t a perfect shot but the best one could have hoped for.

The plan now is to take a year out from racing and see how I feel in a years time – absence may make the heart go stronger and, who knows, in 2015 I may be back on course as a racegoer.

All the guys yesterday were saying I wouldn’t last the year out without going racing – I wish I had struck a bet as it would have been a good earner, although probably not as good an earner as 16/1 shot Orvita was in my final race.

“If you’re backing that it’s no wonder you’re giving up racing,” said Tony when I told that was my selection in the last – 15 minutes later I was the one smiling.

A report on my final day can be found at here

This morning I shall be cutting down the ORS Racing web site. The beginners and racecourse guides will remain as well as The Beast, comment section.

Although no longer going racing I shall still be keeping an eye on what is happening in the sport and now I am no longer accredited to the sport I will be far less constrained than before in the comment section.

Indeed this week I shall be keeping a very close eye on the Gerard Butler “show trial” taking place at the BHA – a clear example of what can happen to someone who decides to break the omerta which prevails within the sport.

So, to the bitter disappointment of those who think they have seen the last of me, The Beast is now unleashed and will be even more outspoken than before. 

So it’s not quite a complete good-bye I will still be lurking.

Almost There

Thirty odd years ago I attended my first live race meeting at Fontwell Park, taken there by my friend Tony, who had himself been taken there as a child by his Grandfather.

In those days we were usually skint so the racing was invariably in the Silver Ring, now no more at Fontwell and indeed no more at most other courses.

We may have been away from the main enclosures and unable to see the runners in the parade ring but we were close to the action and it was no surprise I was immediately hooked.

Since then Tony and I have spent many days at the races, mostly at Fontwell , although not as much as we would have liked to have done as now living in different parts of the country and with work and family commitments it has never been easy coordinating diaries.

My most memorable racing trip with Tony actually involved a trip to Sandown, when we both still lived in the Portsmouth area. It was, again, in the days when neither of us were well off and before I had a car but Tony had an old classic motorbike with a top speed of about 50mph.

It was Tingle Creek day and bitterly cold, I’m sure racing must have been in serious doubt but we set off all the same. Being a regular rider Tony had all the gear, I didn’t. On the pillion seat I was inadequately and inappropriately dressed. All I had on my hands was a pair of woollen gloves.

We arrived in Esher after what seemed an eternity and I was frozen to the core, I’m sure I must have been clinically hypothermic. I was so cold, my fingers were actually paralysed and I could not bend or straighten them to get any money out of my pocket. I recall we found a chippie in Esher High Street and I had to wrap my fingers round a bag of chips to defrost them.

To rub salt into the wounds I don’t think we backed a single winner between us that day.

As regular readers will know I had planned to finish the end of December but the racing has become increasingly less enjoyable the past few weeks.

I will admit the decision has also been hastened by one sad, toxic mouthed individual.

Our paths would have crossed some point over the coming weeks, so to avoid what would have been the inevitable unpleasant scene had we met, I felt it more prudent to walk away now.

Of course in their particularly warped view of the world they will think they have “won” - nothing can be further than the truth as time will invariably tell.

To be honest I almost, but only almost, feel some pity for them as they do live a sad, lonely life, which probably explains why they have nothing better to do than spout utter stuff and (factually incorrect) nonsense and wallow in their own self-pity.

Thankfully most of the messages I have received in the past few weeks have been very kind, generous and supportive and for that I am genuinely grateful.  

I briefly thought about finishing after Kelso last Saturday as Kelso was, a few years ago, the course that completed the full set of UK courses for me and that would have been a rounded finish.

I then remembered Fontwell is racing this coming Sunday and thought it would be a perfect way to complete the circle. When I contacted Tony to see if he could make it and he said he could the decision was made.

On Sunday I shall be back where it all began.

Will I regret walking away?

Who knows but life is too short to have too many regrets and there are plenty of other things to do out there.

I’ll let you know how I feel on Monday morning.        

Oh What A Circus

This is a slightly modified version of an article I originally published last Thursday, which produced a curious reaction to say the least, more on that anon.

There is a song in the musical Evita which begins with the words,

Oh What A Circus,

Oh What A Show

In the show the lyrics refer to the reaction to the death of Eva Peron.

The words, however, equally apply to the brouhaha surrounding AP McCoy’s quest to reach 4,000 winners.

Another McCoy winner

Let me say from the outset there is probably no bigger admirer of McCoy and what he has achieved in his career than me.

Anyone who reads my reports will know they frequently include plaudits aplenty for McCoy and his ability to win with horses which by any sane measure should have lost.

He is a master of his profession, without equal and he is the greatest jump jockey and probably the greatest jockey ever.

Although, numerically, he is nowhere near the greatest in the world, many riders have ridden in excess of 4,000 winners and McCoy isn’t even half way to matching the 9,530 winners of Laffit Pincay but racing is incredibly parochial.

What has irked me is the media circus surrounding the build up.

Unsurprisingly Great British Racing has been orchestrating the coverage, after all they will try any gimmick to garner publicity for the sport, although I concede the McCoy 4,000 is probably one of the more blindingly obvious ones.

Who can forget the debacle that was The Filly Factor, where not even the best person won but very much the “right” person won as far as they were concerned – whatever did happen to Miss Moore’s commentating career?

Alastair Down is a far better wordsmith than I will ever be and his summation of the impact marketeers, accountants and their ilk have on the sport was summed up perfectly in his article about Future Champions Day.

This is an extract of what he wrote in the Racing Post,

“There is something Orwellian about the new order that chills. You only have to watch our rulers on the racecourse to be struck by the introspection of their ideology. They club together for warmth speaking only to those who swallow the new orthodoxy and never engaging anyone who dares point out that the Emperor's new clothes are kind of embarrassing because he ain't got nothing on.

“Accountants, peddlers of marketing spin and public relations' conjurors hold sway now. Knowledge of horseracing, insight based on experience and the long learning of centuries about the animal at the heart of the sport count for nothing - indeed, such things are perceived as being backward-looking and an obstacle to the great god, progress.”

It was many years ago that McCoy became the most winning UK / Ireland jockey, that was his big achievement.

What is so special about the 4,000^th win that sets it aside from any other – it’s just a random number that just happens to end in three zeros, that happens to fit in with some form of numerical OCD.

Very soon he will be the first UK / Ireland jockey to ride 4,010 winners – that has a zero on the end but I suspect it will not have the same ejaculatory response from racings acolytes.

Of course most of the racing and general media fall for the hyperbole, hook line and sinker – mainly because most of the racing media are so well house trained they do as they are told and the non-racing media gladly accept being spoon fed their copy. So we are greeted by the sight of hoards of journalists descending on courses which are ill equipped to cope with the influx.

Sat-navs must have been working overtime as many of the great and good of the British racing media had to visit courses they may have heard of in the dim and distant past but probably have never visited before and will probably never visit again. Welcome to the real world of cramped press rooms and curled up sandwiches.

Add in the snappers who will eat up all the wi-fi bandwidth and we have a recipe for disaster.

I found it highly ironic the roadshow ended up at Towcester, this is a course where the wi-fi can barely (indeed often doesn’t) cope with the four of us who usually attend their meetings.

Even if one chose not to follow the circus, ones inbox is inundated with a constant barrage of e-mails about the on-going saga. The most annoying one (which arrived three or four times a day in various forms) was the one from GBR explaining the process should McCoy do it the following day. There were two basic mails one for RUK and one for ATR courses with the only thing changing being the course name.

Moderation is something GBR seems to have trouble with. It’s all well and good publicising the sport and accentuating the positives and that is, of course, their raison d’être but constant bombardment of in-boxes is, in my view, counter productive and will result in alienation.

There was great mirth at Warwick on Wednesday afternoon as in the press room all our e-mail boxes pinged at the same time and sure enough it was the latest from GBR and the plans for Towcester.

I have been deliberately avoiding courses where McCoy has been pursuing his 4,000^th winner and I was accused of being in a minority in my disdain at the fuss – I would say amongst those who go and cover racing most days, as opposed to the glory boys who only show up at the big meetings, the feeling amongst the press was we all wanted to avoid those meetings like a plague.

You could see the depression of those who had been allocated meetings where McCoy was going to ride, countered by the delight of those who realised they were avoiding it.

Anyway it’s over now, McCoy has ridden winner number 4,000.

McCoy has been the greatest jump jockey in terms of ability and statistically for many years now, today was, in truth, just another day but a day which has been ridiculously hijacked and overhyped.

Undoubtedly it is good racing is appearing on the front pages of the newspapers for the right reasons, heavens above racing needs some positive news.

However I think the importance of it being front page news is being grossly inflated. As the old saying used to say “today’s front page news is tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapper.” (well it was in the pre Health and Safety days when our fish and chips used to be wrapped in old newspapers – and they tasted better then as well J )

Do the marketeers really and honestly think newcomers will come flocking through the gates because of McCoy’s 4,000^th?

Yes, racing has made the news pages, people may pay some passing interest but those with no interest in racing will probably react in the same way I do when there is news about football, in which I have no interest, i.e treat it as an irrelevance.

As I drove back from Kelso yesterday the big news story (I think it an irrelevant news story – certainly not bigger than the Typhoon) was BT paying £900m to show some European football tournaments. I was aware of the news but would I go to any football match because of it – of course not. I have no interest in the sport and I have little doubt non-racing fans feel exactly the same about the McCoy story.

Yes it’s a big news story for those who follow racing but a story of very limited interest to those who don’t, something those in the world of racing find difficult to accept.

Racing is an incredibly parochial sport and it has an inflated sense of its own self-importance in the wider world. Football and rugby are games that can be played by anyone who has the physical ability to do so. The nearest the great unwashed can get to racing is as a spectator or more likely as a gambler.

Just how many newcomers do GBR think will be attracted to the sport?

How would a newcomer have reacted had they gone to Warwick as their first meeting on Wednesday?

A horse breaks a leg and another has an horrific fall at the final flight in front of the stands in the opening race. A jockey is taken from the track on a spinal board in a later race and the final race is run in near darkness.   

Do you think they would be likely to return – it’s all well and good highlight the positive exceptions – how do they intend selling the reality?

Or how about a newcomer going to a Saturday meeting as a first time experience?

Too many Saturday meetings are now becoming no-go areas for genuine racing fans as hen and stag parties or groups simply out on the lash, become more fashionable.

Maybe these are the sort of people racing want to attract. After all it ticks the boxes for GBR as they can say there are more bums on seats (we have the numbers, sod the quality – see we’ve done a great job) and it certainly suits the tracks as alcohol is one of the biggest earners for the courses.

So let’s make it clear where I stand, although I’m probably wasting my time as most people see what they want to see not what is actually written – too many people’s brains cannot cope with more than a bite sized snippet.

• McCoys career is exceptional and what he has achieved in unprecedented in the UK and Ireland and is a good thing for racing.

• Racing appearing in the news bulletins and on the front pages for the right reasons is a good thing.

• However “racing” has an over inflated view of the significance outside its own insular world.

• There is such a thing as overkill and that can do more harm than good.

Finally let me turn to the reaction, or should I say crass overreaction, to my original article.

I concede I could have been more temperate in my phraseology that’s the danger of writing something topical in the heat of the moment.

However some of the reaction was frankly ludicrous and sometimes worrying.

Needless to say the most offensive responses came from those who chose to remain anonymous, frankly they don’t bother me as I have nothing but contempt for those cowards and they will soon crawl back under the stones from whence they came.

I have no particular problem with people criticising me, it’s like water off a ducks back, I’ve always been used to that.

I remember one fraught week in a previous job when I managed to upset some oversensitive fellow employees of the organisation I was working for, including a senior board member. I recall my boss saying to me “…..remember I don’t pay you to be popular or liked. When you stop ruffling feathers I’ll worry you aren’t doing your job properly.”

What really annoys me is what I consider unjustified personal attacks.

A couple of people have said I write nothing positive about racing. That is completely untrue and not borne out by the facts.

In an average week I write between 10,000 and 15,000 words about racing, the overwhelming amount of which is either neutral or positive.

The one time I am negative is when I write my opinion piece, about 1,500 words every couple of weeks, which I also reproduce as my blog.

The whole idea of those articles it to be critical and, yes, provoke discussion.

Someone from the press room actually had the temerity to tell me I had no right to bite the hand that feeds me. That is complete, utter, unmitigated bollocks.

That single, asinine, comment underlines precisely what is wrong with racing.

With a couple of notable exceptions the racing media are not prepared to be critical of what they see. Even worse they’re guilty of total hypocrisy because they will privately criticise the way the sport is run but will not (or are not allowed to by their editors) say anything detrimental publicly.

So I will continue to “bite the hand that feeds me” when I feel it is necessary and I make no apology for doing so.

Contrary to popular belief I actually loved and cared about the sport, if I didn’t care I wouldn’t bother wasting my time saying anything.

For those who don’t like what I right, tough, perhaps it’s a case of the truth hurting. If I’m “constantly criticising” and “predictable” then why bother reading what I write?

If you disagree then great-  let’s have a debate, I love a good debate.Racing, after all is all about opinion.

I’m always happy to debate what I write, I’m also open minded enough to view the other side and yes, even be convinced to change my mind.

I only have two “ground rules” as it were. I won’t respond to anonymous criticism and I won’t respond to unjustified personal criticism – I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

Press Room Life - Part Two

In my last blog I wrote about life in the press room, this time, as promised, it’s time to look at some of the characters who reside therein.

Catterick Press Room

I suppose the first thing I should point out to the uninitiated is there are two distinct sets of press rooms, southern and northern, with a slight overlap in the midlands.

Although, by nature of where I live, I spend more time in the southern press rooms, I’m one of a small band who ends up working in both sets and I can report there is a distinct north / south divide.

On the face of it the northern press rooms are far more blunt and down to earth but I really enjoy working in them as you tend to know where you stand and there is very little hypocrisy.

Let me give you an example.

I will always recall the first time I set foot in a northern press room, I can even recall the date, it was Monday 15^th, September, 2008 at Musselburgh.

I had barely set foot in the press room when I was greeted with a welcoming “who the f**k are you?”

Let’s just say a few “pleasantries” were then exchanged but after that I’ve always been made most welcome in the northern press rooms and, without exception, have found everyone helpful and friendly – even the gentleman who first greeted me.

In a southern press room when a new person enters there is a general “who’s he?” whispering (I say “who’s he” because the press rooms tend to be over 95% male dominated) and if nobody knows then someone will be quietly delegated to chat to the individual and find out who they are and report back.

As in any workplace there are many different types in the press room and it is invariable you end up getting on better with some more than others.

The commentators tend to be the friendliest bunch and I have managed to get on well with almost all of them.

Richard Hoiles

It’s probably unfair to single out individuals but I have to say the “big two” Simon Holt and Richard Hoiles are undoubtedly two of the most pleasant, genuine, likeable guys you could want to meet in any walk of life.

Some are a surprise. Ian Bartlett has been criticised in some quarters for not showing much personality in his commentaries or TV appearances – yet he has the most amazing dry, irreverent sense of humour – if he’s calling I know it will be a cheery fun afternoon in the press room.

There are two excellent young callers in the shape of David Fitzgerald and Gareth Topham.

It’s great watching young Gareth as he still has the (and I mean it in a nice way) innocence and exuberance of youth and hasn’t yet developed the cynicism which comes with age.  

David is a very assured caller and presenter but away from the microphone he is very quiet and reserved, almost shy.

 I hope he won’t mind me telling this story but a few weeks ago he called at Ascot for the first time and he seemed so nervous beforehand, as if he had the worries of the world on his shoulders – I almost wanted to put a paternal arm around his shoulder to comfort him and tell him it will all be OK – as it was the concerns were unfounded as he called to his usual high standard.

It goes without saying the press rooms at the quieter meetings are a world apart from the press rooms at the big meetings.

Fakenham press room

At the smaller meetings you are most likely to find the Racing Post reporter, the RP / Raceform race reader and maybe the occasional local reporter or the Press Association. It’s very unlikely you will see anyone from the national press.

The one exception probably being Alan Lee from The Times who does, in fairness, attend many of the smaller local meetings all around the country.

The trouble with too many of the journos from the nationals is you only see them at the big meetings and when they do deign to put in an appearance, a couple of them strut around the press room as if they own the place – the old “do you know who I am” attitude.

There is one, who works for a national, who is always having problems connecting their laptop but then demands the IT person at the course drops everything to sort the problem out, berating them if they do not respond immediately. Of course 99% of the time the problem isn’t anything to do with the infrastructure at the course – it’s down to their crap laptop. Having worked in IT front line support myself this sort are “heart sink” callers.

Then there is the vexed issue of seats – some correspondents have “reserved” seats in press rooms, which they don’t bother using at 90% of the meetings but should they consent to grace a meeting with their presence then woe betide anyone who may encroach into their precious space.

Of course seats don’t have to be specifically reserved for there to be a problem. I recall my first visit to Lingfield, not the biggest press room. I thought I would sit out of the way, in the back row in the corner. I set up my laptop and was typing away only to find one of the doyens of the press room standing over me enquiring “are you going to be long?” before continuing, “I’ve been coming here 25 year and have always sat in that seat.”

I felt like saying to him “well a change of scenery will do you good” but I just moved over one seat and ‘normality’ was resumed.

Tommo

I suppose I cannot talk about life in the press room without mentioning one of the Marmite ® characters, Derek Thompson.

Now Tommo gets a lot of stick, especially in the press rooms. I am no respecter of reputations, I take people as I find them and all the many times I’ve met Tommo I have found him a thoroughly likable, personable and pleasant person.

Yes he has an image and he works at bolstering that image. I admit I tease him about his reputation but he takes it in the spirit in which it was intended and he can and does laugh at himself.

My belief is a great deal of the dislike for him in the press room simply comes down to envy.

He does his job well (well maybe not always in the commentating), he can work a crowd and at a family fun day or a mid-week meeting he makes a great compare.

For TV work he is a producer’s delight – if they want someone to fill for 45 seconds then Tommo will fill for exactly 45 seconds, an art most broadcasters are incapable of doing.

Those who criticise him most vociferously are those who, frankly, are not good enough to do his job and make the money he makes and they know it.

There is one journo in particular who will snipe about Tommo at every opportunity, yet oddly enough when Tommo is in the room he is perfectly pleasant to him.

You know the sort of person I mean, there is one in almost every workplace.

The person who has an opinion on everything, who feels the need to share that opinion with all and sundry, yet actually says nothing.  

The chap who would be your archetypical pub bore.

As I said he attacks Tommo at every opportunity, yet he himself is almost an anonymous  non-entity, a perfect embodiment of the Peter Principle.

He slags off colleagues seemingly oblivious to the fact that what he says will invariably get back to those he has bad mouthed.

Yet, like most of his ilk, he is a contradiction. He is one of those characters who will happily dish out the abusive comments, yet when given back to him he behaves like a spoiled brat and throws his toys out of the pram.

Machiavelli

Then we have the “smiling assassin” the one with the ingratiating smile, outwardly always polite and the perfect gentleman.

Behind the façade he takes bitchiness to a level which would out-bitch the bitchiest of women.

He is another who thinks his Machiavellian scheming will not get back to his “victims” yet he plays a dangerous game as he himself has a cupboard full of skeletons.

I will, however,  miss being in the press room.

I’ll miss the hard working journos who are being asked to do increasingly more work with tighter deadlines.

I’ll miss the irreverent banter of the snappers.

I’ll miss watching racing in the company of knowledgeable race readers, who love the sport and from whom I have learned so much.

The individual I will miss most of all though is Lee McKenzie, interestingly another our aforementioned  bad-mouthing  “friend” has taken a strong dislike to, then again there are more he dislikes than likes, so I suppose actually being liked by him would make you a select minority.  

Lee is the sort of guy who will do anything for anyone and has been a great help and encouragement to me professionally and, at times, personally over the last six years. He is one press room colleague I still hope to remain in touch with.