Clerk Of The Course and Darlan

I suppose after watching the news and seeing three feet of snowfall along the eastern seaboard of the United States it is rather churlish to begin complaining about the weather back here in the UK.

However I must confess I am beginning to get more than a little fed up with the ongoing weather we’re having this winter.

If it isn’t snowy and icy it’s persistent rain and even if the racing does survive the elements, the conditions are so testing the form book gets thrown out of the window.

Life is even more difficult for racings favourite whipping boys / girls, the Clerks Of The Course.

Sulekha Varma is Clerk at Huntingdon and Warwick and she would be forgiven thinking the weather Gods really have it in for her.

Having lost far too many meetings to the weather last year 2013 had started reasonably well but this week the weather twice caught her out. Racing at Huntingdon on Thursday looked to be fine until the temperatures decided to drop at the last minute forcing an unscheduled inspection at 10:00, which the course thankfully passed.

Two days later, at Warwick, Sulekha called a precautionary inspection for 10:00 due to a forecast of frost and fog. In the end neither materialised and the inspection was called off and racing given the go ahead.

A wet but snow free Warwick

Mother nature was only playing games though as within half an hour of the inspection being called off it began to snow. Initially it wasn’t a problem as the snow wasn’t settling but as time went on it began to settle. Again another impromptu inspection had to be called. Again luck was on Sulekha’s side and the meeting passed the inspection, with the caveat of there being no more significant precipitation as the ground was becoming saturated.

I know it is easy to criticise Clerks and let’s face it I’m one of the biggest critics of the rolling inspections, but they do have a difficult job at times.

As in all walks of life there are varying standards of Clerkship, some clerks you trust implicitly, a few have taken so many happy pills their optimism verges on the obsessive and their utterances are taken with a cellar full of salt.

I can think of one clerk who, even if the course was under three feet of water, would still manage to find one patch of “good” ground.

Sulkekha is definitely one of the clerks who falls into the first category so it’s a great sham she’s the one the weather Gods have chosen to play around with.

Any discussion about Clerks would be incomplete without giving a mention to Fakenham’s redoubtable David Hunter. His going reports are legendary amongst the racing media and have been known to include heartfelt pleas for the snow to go away, he’s even resorted to verse on occasion – at least with David you know even if the weather is going to win, there will be something in his going report to make you smile.

AP McCoy

The unfortunate loss of Darlan at Doncaster on Monday has caused a great deal of debate, some of it frankly nauseating to the extent that some are blaming AP McCoy for the accident.
McCoy is a very driven jockey with a strong will to win, however he is also an excellent horseman and the finest judge of what he has underneath him.

Yes he can somehow get horses home to win when they “shouldn’t” but he also knows when a horse he is riding has no more to offer and when that point is reached he does stop pushing the horse.

Whilst the loss of Darlan was, of course, sad it has been almost forgotten two other horsespaid the ultimate price the same day.

Sadly losing horses is something which goes with this sport of ours and it doesn't, indeed shouldn't, ever get any easier, when it does happens.
If I ever reached a stage where I wasn't moved by an equine fatality, no matter how good or bad the horse, then I know it would be time to walk away from the sport.
Darlan has hit the headlines because he was a horse with great potential and we will now never know how great he would be.
It's human nature that we concentrate on the "high profile" casualties.
Hundreds of people die in car crashes every day across Europe, most barely get a mention in the local rag, but if a Princess is killed in a Parisian car crash it makes headlines round the world. Why? because of who she is - it does not mean any of the other deaths in car crashes are any less poignant or tragic.
In the same way when a high profile horse gets killed it hits the headlines more than one known only by its connections and a few punters.
I also don't think constantly looking for someone or something to blame is the answer. These things happen.
Darlan's loss was upsetting but, frankly, I was a lot more upset by the loss of Function Times at Catterick on the Friday before in what was simply a freak accident in a bumper - her leg went as they turned for home and that night, in bed, every time I shut my eyes I could still see her leg dangling as they waited for the vet to arrive.
One thing to bear in mind is horses can be killed by accidents anywhere. At Leicester the week before last, a runner broke down and had to be put to sleep.
I mentioned to the judge, Di Clarke, that was one side of the sport I really dislike but her reply was very sensible, she said, "at least at the racecourse the vet will be will be straight away. I had a horse break a leg at home and had to keep hold of it for 45 minutes before the vet arrived."

Piss Up In A Brewery?

Two of my “favourite” bugbears have come to the fore in the past few days, so it’s time, once again to go into full Victor Meldrew mode and say “I don’t believe it”

Or that is what I should be saying, the sad reality is I do believe it, as once again racing shows how it has the ability to make itself look absolutely stupid without really having to try.

The first is repeated inspections and in the last three days we have seen examples of them going both ways.

On Friday Musselburgh played the rolling inspection game but with a new twist, whereby they moved the goalposts, along with the first race time.

After a couple of failed inspections they called yet another inspection for 12:00 and moved the first race time back from 12:10 to 12:40.

When the course failed to pass the 12:00 inspection they moved the first race back to 13:10 pending a further inspection but had to, eventually, call the meeting off at 13:00, some 50 minutes after the original scheduled time of the opening race.

Roll forward two days and it was the turn of Leicester to play musical inspections and an almost similar pattern followed.  This time the controversial decision was taken to race just after midday, with the first race scheduled for 12:50 being put back 20 minutes.

I say controversial decision as the decision to race was not met with universal acclaim with, apparently the jockeys being more happy to race than the trainers. As a consequence 31 of the 62 declared runners did not run.

It’s also clear the course could not have been fit to race when the meeting was given the go ahead as ground staff frantically continued to work on the course right up until the off time of the first race.

Now I can understand courses wanting to give meetings every opportunity to go ahead, especially in the case of Leicester who have lost eight meetings already this year, including five on the bounce.

However is making such late calls fair on racegoers, their customers, or is getting Levy income more important.

Not all racegoers live within ten miles of a racecourse, is it acceptable for them to be expected to make what could be long and ultimately fruitless journeys.

On Friday, whilst the Musselburgh saga was unfolding I tweeted, “If I were cynical I would say it's a case of getting punters in and into the bars, mitigating losses if off”.

In truth I wasn’t being cynical at all – after all the bar and catering staff will be in place and will presumably need to be paid, so why not get the punters  in the doors and get some income from alcohol sales?

I recall driving to one of our major racecourses where they were having an ongoing inspection saga, it was a really frosty day and it looked like going to the line.

Listening to the radio as I drove to the course a spokesman for the course was interviewed and they, maybe inadvertently, gave the game away when they said, “racegoers should still come to the course because even if we call the meeting off all the bars will be open and the away racing will be shown.”

The trouble with these ongoing inspections is the decision ultimately comes down to the course in the shape of the Clerk Of The Course and the Stewards.

The former is an employee of the course and the latter (apart from the Stipes) are appointed by the course so will therefore be disinclined to upset the course.

The course, understandably, has an interest in the meeting going ahead so will always tend to err on the side of proceeding where there is even the remotest glimmer of hope.

Whilst in no was questioning the professionalism of the Clerks, they are put in a difficult position because of their closeness to the course.

Where the decision to race is a close call it is my belief the final decision should be taken away from the courses themselves as they have too big a vested interest. The BHA employ course inspectors and where it looks like being a close call as to whether racing can proceed the decision to race or not should be made by the course inspector and stipendiary stewards.

Additionally a meeting should be called off if the course is not fit to race two hours before the scheduled off time of the opening race. Yes it may mean some meetings may fall which may otherwise have gone ahead but it would result in less inconvenience to racegoers and trainers and would be better PR for the sport.

The other bugbear is race times.

The big race on Saturday was the Hennessy Gold Cup, one of the biggest handicaps of the season, a race that takes around 6’30” to run and it was scheduled to start at 15:10 on Saturday.

Towcester’s final race of the afternoon, an insignificant bumper, was scheduled to begin at 15:15, so it was guaranteed to clash with the Hennessy.

Racing cannot organise even the simple things.

First of all it was crass bad planning to schedule the Towcester bumper to start at that time, why could it not have been scheduled for a 15:20 start?

However it was announced over the PA at Towcester that the start of the bumper would be held back until after the Hennessy finished and the Hennessy would be shown on the big screen, with commentary – excellent planning on the part of Towcester.

So what happened?

The Towcester bumper went off just as the leaders cleared the last in the Hennessy.

Why the hell could they not have held the start of the bumper back for a matter of another 30 seconds?

The starter has absolutely no excuse for not knowing about the Hennessy as it was being shown on the big screen with the commentary on the PA and the Towcester start was immediately in front of the stands - so unless the starter was deaf and / or stupid he could not have failed to have been aware the Hennessy was still running. Indeed even some of the jocks were watching the big race on the big screen.

It is telling that as soon as the field was off the starter sprinted to the car park - presumably to make a swift exit.

Commentator Ian Bartlett was left with something of a dilemma - did he start the commentary of the bumper or did he allow the Hennessy commentary to finish - we ended up with both being broadcast over the PA.

At least the director in the scanner van didn’t cut off the end of the Hennessy on the big screen, I think there would have been a riot had he done so, as I would say 97% of the crowd (and 100% of the press room) were watching the Hennessy as opposed to the bumper.

The words piss-up and brewery spring to mind.