TOO LATE NOW TO TURN BACK AND CORRECT THE MISTAKES MADE

The Horses In Training publication has gone through varying phases down the years with levels of engagement from the yards changing - some who had dutifully responded to the publishers for many years suddenly deciding not to respond, then others who had not provided details of their strings and looking unlikely ever to do so again, electing out of the blue to be included again.

While we should never forget is that this is a commercial publication produced to make a profit for the publishers who rely on the yards to contribute with details of their strings when they are under no obligation to do so, co-operation benefits the image of the sport.

Moreover, with the stakeholding groups within racing all acknowledge that the sport is in a struggle to win over, then retain new fans, it is a mystery why the BHA along with the governing bodies who preside over the sport in Ireland and France, haven't come together and agreed to set up a free access, regularly updated website, detailing the animals in all of the yards.

As it is mandatory for trainers to inform the jurisdictions of horses going into training with them, or leaving their premises, then the information is already held by the authorities and making the details public could only help to reduce the impression that covertness is a hallmark of the sport in times when those who reckon they know best, insist that the sport should be opening up.

Can you imagine if the FA deemed that there was no need to make the names of the playing staff of professional football teams available to the public, resulting in a name or two out of nowhere appearing on the released team sheet an hour or so before kick off.

Well, it's not quite so dramatic in racing but it would be possible for a situation to arise in which the public   only first became aware of an animal belonging to a given yard at the time of the five day declarations on its racecourse debut, provided the horse held no engagements in early closing events and it involved a reticent trainer who wanted no press contact.

Thumbing through Horses In Training 2021, released in the past couple of days, a curious aspect is that Aiden O'Brien, who at one time went through a long spell of choosing not to complete the details of his inmates for the book, now provides the full string, as do both Joseph and Donnacha O'Brien while Dermot Weld, who for many, many years, you could bank on providing full co-operation, is now a notable absentee.

Furthermore, only a small number of French based trainers have entries. The likes of Andre Fabre, Alain Royer- Dupre and Jean Claude- Rouget were all once regular respondees to the publishers requests. All now fail to appear. And if you've browsed through the Ballydoyle juvenile battalion numbering seventy nine, you may then turn to compare the strength with the Gosden youngsters only to find on this occasion John and Thady have decided not to provide details of their two year old string.

It must also be taken into consideration that this book, once published by the Sporting Chronicle, then after that by the Raceform organisation, is now under the banner of the Racing Post stable, a struggling organisation that is a pale light of its earlier years and has gone all weird by embracing the daft modern concepts which do not fit in neatly with a sport whose traditions are amongst its most appealing strong points.

This opens up the possibility that some handlers choose not to co-operate through lack of respect towards the paper and its staff -  though on that, we can only speculate. It is indeed curious that Richard Fahey's name is listed with the note "trainer did not wish details of their string to appear" - which indicates that the trainer has taken the effort to return the form as opposed to not corresponding at all, in order to make a point.

This would increase the likelihood than rather than it being due to wanting to conceal that, say for example, the number of juveniles for the season within the yard has taken a hit, the action is due to something penned that has caused offence, however unlikely that may seem given how neutered the approach of the paper has become. So we can only guess, and probably guess wrong too.

Roger Charlton has as usual contributed fully though looking through the Beckhampton two year olds the Juddmonte breds are absent, as they are from the other yards who have given details of their juveniles and were on the Khalid Abdullah roster. This indicates that the exors of the late Prince's estate have been late in deciding how to apportion the new horses put into training - though the older Juddmonte horses in training are listed at the likes of Charlton's yard.

The 1970's rarely saw trainers failing to support this publication. If on the odd occasion a name was absent, it would almost certainly be a result of the form being returned late in which case you would then find it published in the Sporting Chronicle Handicap Book, from which you would then neatly cut it out and sellotape it into your copy of Horses In Training. It's an irony that the trainers and owners respected these publications and the people behind them back then, despite being far more aloof to the media than they are now.

Perusing a copy of this publication from 1950 ( which at the time was it's 57 th year of publication) it becomes apparent how many handlers in those days held military titles - not just the Captains and Majors that were still plentiful in the 1970's, but Colonels, Commodores and Rear Admirals too!  Still, it was only five years after the end of WW2 so it should not really be surprising.

Bruce Hobbs was then training a string of nineteen jumpers at Letcombe Regis, his two riders being Geoff Wragg and Bob Turnell, who the trainer had a second claim on, while M V O'Brien overlooked a string of twenty nine at Churchtown including Cottage Rake, Hatton's Grace, Royal Tan and Knock Hard! 

The strongest flat team listed in the book that year, rivaling those of Noel Murless and Captain Boyd - Rochfort, was the one based at the Fitzroy House location of Marcus Marsh who was the principal UK trainer at the time for the Aga Khan family. Marsh overlooked a string of sixty five, a number up at the top end numerically at the time, and whose riders were Gordon Richards, Charlie Smirke and Edgar Britt. 

Marsh would train that year's 2,000 Guineas winner Palestine for the Aga Khan 111, with the owner's retained rider Smirke aboard. All of the other English classic winners of that season were trained in France. Two years later Marsh, Smirke and the Aga Khan took the Epsom Derby with Tulyar, helping the Newmarket trainer achieve his sole trainer's championship.

Forward to the 1958 publication, and the Marsh string had halved. The Aga Khan 11I had passed away the year previous, and the overall strength had fallen some way behind both Murless and Captain Boyd-Rochfort, as well as the yard of Jack Jarvis plus the leading Northern based trainer, Captain Charles Elsey.

There can be no other sport from which dipping in and out of time windows provides such fascination which is why the rich, in depth history of it should be shouted out to all, not brushed under the carpet by the obtuse for fear that it would make the modern day representation of the sport too outdated, by linking it to a colonialist past or whatever similar bilge the likes of those that support nonsense such as this stupid, impending summer team competition would spout out.

Anyway, it's sadly now too late to turn back and correct the mistakes made by those driving the sport, beginning from when the opportunity of an off course Tote Monopoly was forsaken. As it goes downhill and regroups as a fringe sport away from the spotlight, there will always be those long gone time windows to dip into, obsess and learn more about. That is at least some consolation. 

image from wiki

A track from the last album before this once great band sold out and turned into a resemblance of a part cabaret act. Released at the end of a great sporting year, with racing providing vintage seasons in both the jumping and flat spheres.

IF ONLY THE FESTIVAL RESULTS WERE THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN UK RACING

Memories of that dazzling but ill fated chaser Noddy's Ryde came to mind for two reasons this week. The first because the setback that led to the withdrawal of Energumene from the Arkle deprived racing fans of a mouth watering clash that could of been the race of the week, possibly even the season, with Energumene being the front running Noddy's Ryde, and Shishkin being a Bobsline, the rival that beat Gordon Richard's charge in the never to be forgotten 1984 Arkle.

The second relates to Noddy's Ryde demise - he was killed in action at Exeter that Autumn after making the journey down there from Greystoke as Richard's had roots in the area and in his words, wanted to give the local racing fans the opportunity to see a real class racehorse.

It all sounds a bit hard to grasp now but at the time the West Country was weak for housing quality racehorse. Admittedly, Martin Pipe was just beginning to move himself  up the pecking order, this now three years after Baron Blakeney's Triumph Hurdle success, but it still wasn't really registering the impact he was about to make, his previous three seasons showing successes of 20, 23, and 32 wins. This season he would tot up 50. 

There was no real indication that that part of the country would eventually grow to be the powerbase of English National Hunt racing, outpointing even Lambourn and the north of the country which would slowly be decimated as retiring trainers were not replaced like for like.

Put it this way, when the David Barons trained Bootlaces won the Schweppes Gold Trophy in 1980, it was celebrated a win for a region bereft of regular big race success. This is something that should be noted when we hear of a so called impossibility of overturning the present Irish domination in the jumping sphere of the sport - not to mention holding a consistently good hand of cards on the level too.

Come to think of it, it was baffling to hear the ITV racing team speaking of post mortems into the poor overall performance of the British runners at Cheltenham, and whether a 'shake up' was needed, while in reality, in light of the true state of affairs, we can only wish that an imbalance in the respective quality of the animals in training on each side of the Irish Sea was the dominant worry.

Strengths in respective economies change for better and worse at various stages, and these turns directly affect horse racing industries. We already have Michael O'Leary allowing his influential operation to wind down, and it would only take the likes of Ricci, along with a couple of smaller owning operations to pull out or change direction, and the balance could soon even up - though no one would truly yearn for the reverse inbalance during the second half of the 1980's when at one festival Galmoy in the Stayer's Hurdle was the sole success from the other side of the sea.

Right now, racing's stakeholders are settling down in the theartre, waiting for the red velvet curtain to open and the horror show to begin, which will reveal the true, permanent damage that an already in trouble sport has suffered from the effects of the plague. Cheerfully colored pantomime costumes will not be able to gloss over the grim happenings that will play out. It must be noted that Ireland too will not escape similar adversities.

Ironic really then that the ITV racing team were using the term ' shake up'  for a comparatively trivial problem when there will indeed be a ' shake up' of another sort occurring, one that will involve downsizing of the sport with the numbers of unwanted horses in and out of training increasing dramatically, trainers cutting down on staff, - that is if they survive -, notable job losses all through the industry, and some racecourses being forced to pull down the shutters for good.

The only speck of light for many racing fans in the UK would be the scaling down of the head spinning, wall to wall fixture list cram packed with dross. Many over a certain age who have fond memories of a programme that ticked over at a gentler pace, one that you could comfortably keep tabs on, have long hoped for this though admittedly have not thought it over carefully as the present Levy system based on bookmakers gross tax profits is centred on the need for continuous action.

This wish for downsizing is also done in the belief in a rosy image of an increased concentration materialising from a smaller programme, but maybe all should be careful just what they wish for. We could also be left with the remnants of a real horror show which would be a fixture list cut to the core and overall poor quality prevailing, leaving everyone on the losing side.

It can't be repeated enough just how close to the edge racing's financial workings were before the health crisis hit. We had racing professionals taking strike action over prize money, along with a desperate need for a replacement to be found for the present Levy system, or at least a reset in the way funds are harvested, with the three main stakeholder groups unable to reach a compromise in their aims.

Government had now put the Levy discussions on the back burner. In fact everything racing related will be down the list of priorities. It is after all well and truly a minor sport nowadays and in a changing society with some weird pholosophies being given a platform and having influence on everyday life, the worry is that it's an outdated sport on a one way downslide to oblivion. 

image in public domain

Those who remember flicking through the album covers in record shops back in the 1970's cannot fail to have forgotten this one - this a strong opening track from a classic album, resting in thousands of households at a time when no one could seriously have envisaged that horse racing in the UK would go downwards in status to the extent that it's future was in peril. 

RACING'S WASTAGE TRUTHS MAY SOON BE PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE

The reality that the two main racing forums covered the bizarre hullabaloo of the past week in a far more insightful and thought provoking manner than any of the racing publications or broadcasts, is testament to how vapid the increasingly diversity obsessed coverage of this struggling sport has become.

The writers we respected have sadly passed on, retired and in poor health, or have been driven out as they don't fit the profile to tick the enlightenment steered boxes, with in recent years one of the most respected journalists on bloodstock matters being stabbed in the back and ostracized for exercising his right to speak freely when making a couple of half hearted quips relating to the new push within racing to embrace what are considered to be under represented groups.

In fact the main Betfair Racing Forum,  (linked with the Betfair Ante Post Forum plus the ones Betfair set up for the big festivals) along with the unconnected The Racing Forum, have posters who have been in the media in the past along with many excellent fan contributors and it is no surprise that for many racing fans over a certain age, these are the first port of call for racing news and views with no opinions deemed out of bounds unless they contravene forum rules which routinely permit free broad thought.

The Racing Forum had arguably one of it's best threads in recent years that was up and running soon after the Elliot photo went into circulation, while on the more volatile Betfair Forum, the thread starting around the same time, now containing nearly 1,900 posts, was arguably one of the most heated but at the same time skilfully debated threads in the two decade history of it's existence and in recent times only the Frankel v Brigadier Gerard debate would have outpointed it, with the Brigadier's stable lad, who posts under the forum name of  'Brigust '  making the strongest case for his old bud, the same poster also prominent on the Elliot thread.

Oddly enough, on all the various Betfair Forums, the most enthusiastically participated thread would perhaps be the one on the old Betfair Chit Chat Forum that stemmed from the tragic Joanne Yates case in December 2010. It was a whodunit scenario with many putting up their theories of who was responsible, weaving finely constructed theories as to who, where and why, almost as though they were playing a fictional game having forgot there was a real victim involved. Some became obsessed and contributions appeared during all times of the day and night. Eventually, the culprit who was finally arrested, charged and found guilty of her murder, had never previously been mentioned by the press leaving one Forum wag to comment rather distastefully that all bets were voided - it must however be added that hardly any of the regular Betfair Racing Forum posters were involved in that particular thread.

Returning to the rumpus of the past week - everything that could be said has now been said. One thing that we will never know is what else,if anything at all, was discussed off the record. As alluded to on one of the aforementioned Forums, did the panel, before handing out the punishment to the trainer ask for assurances that there was no possibility of other similar images surfacing in the future?

Irrespective of how distasteful this photo, and the similar one involving rider Rob James were, they do not constitute per se evidence of any mistreatment to the animals involved. In fact whenever imaginations begin to run wild in circumstances where many, many people will have known the inside workings of things, such as large racehorse stables with many staff passing through, then one has to wonder why no single person has come out into the open with grim anecdotes.

Most of the staff at these set ups comprise of horse lovers first, racehorse fans second. The majority are female who are likely to pass through faster due to maternity duties, along with many also coming from abroad then deciding to return home. Right now, the mainstream newspapers will be actively seeking out any evidence of horses being abused in racing yards and would give a listening to all first hand accusations with a view to releasing a story in print.

In the circumstances, if no such stories emerge, then we can be optimistic that cruelty to racehorses in training is a rare occurrence. Unfortunately, this will not convince the majority of the public who are indifferent to the sport or the fate of its future. Thus it would not be wise to take it in light heart, which some of the news bulletins unintentionally invite you to do -  one on a radio station reporting on the Elliot and Rob James cases sounded like something that Thc Two Ronnies would have reported on their news programme.

The biggest fear is what will be unearthed to the general public as a result of the industry coming under more scrutiny. Try chatting to members of the general public and probe as to whether they have any notion  of the wastage rate within the industry.

Each year in the United Kingdom alone, four thousand racehorses leave training. ITV Racing like to impress upon us that most go on to safe and happy homes and to often partake in a less hazardous second careers. What many of the general populace are not aware of is that a shockingly high number, many healthy with years left on the clock but who lack the talent to pay their way as racehorse, will end up in the abattoir. 

This is an issue that the sport has managed to sweep under the carpet for many years. It may not be able to do so for much longer and the backlash of hostility that the sport will feel, along with the consequences that could change and damage its shape in the near future, does not bear worth thinking about.

This track from an album released a couple of weeks before Crow won the St Leger, a month before Ivanjica won the Arc, and would have been filling many households as Night Nurse started his campaign to retain his Champion Hurdle title in the golden era of great hurdlers. As of the ELO, well this would be their last album before they sold out to the commercial model, the following album Discovery a clear sign that they had past the peak.