HOW WILL THEY FILL THE FINANCIAL VOID?

One would struggle to pinpoint a period during the last half century in which UK horse racing was under siege like it is now by a myriad of real threats to its health, even its existence.

You are spoilt for choice for delving into each lingering peril but top of the list at the moment has to be the    prospect of bookmakers being forced to impose affordibility checks with a view to restricting punters to  maximum monthly loss limits - a situation that could not be made up as this is a ruthless game where the bookmakers natural instinct is to turn the punter upside now and shake him until his pockets are emptied.

Against the checks, Parliament will be taking into consideration submissions by representatives of the racing industrywho quite rightly believe that restrictions will result in a massive black hole in racing's finances. 

Let's face it, only a small minority will be willing to allow bookmakers to view personal information including bank statements and wage slips. The result will be a mass emigration to using online black market firms, both home and abroad. It's a trend that has happened in other countries with monopolised systems which result in too much state take out, or where mass affordability checks have seen maximum stakes limited. Across the whole gambling spectrum some countries even estimate that something  approaching two thirds of wagers are now placed on the black market.

No doubt anyone playing in these murky waters would be advised to still use the big high street firms for those potential life changing multiple wagers popular at the big festivals and on Saturdays. It's not just the bigger limits, it would also be removing the angst that an unregulated firm would welch in the face of a big pay out, and the over the counter stakes for such bets for the majority are not going to be large enough to trigger any proposed affordability check.

Nevertheless. for normal single bets, the liklehood is that the black market would be fairly reliable given the increase in competition. And the potential financial damage to UK horse racing would be catastrophic if, as likely, punters are asked to provide non essential, private information to a firm of bookmakers.

It will certainly test the rickety assertion of some that racing can survive without punter's money. The courses which are not able to attract the summer cult attendees, or are neither grand enough in status to hold the major festival meetings, would struggle to survive and will be lost to the sport. UK racing would be left with a small number of showcase venues, reliant on these cult attendees paying large entry fees that in many cases will try and be justified by the inclusion of a concert, with the purchasing of over priced food and drink throughout the day built into the profit forecasts.

To what may sound appealing to the casual none serious racing fan attendee, will be the stuff of nightmares to those who are finding it hard to come to terms with the grim fact that racecourses now increasingly pertain much more to other interests than the racing itself. In fact, it would not be unreasonable to envisage a situation where as the weekend approaches, York, Chester and Haydock, are all advertising aggressively for competing audiences, the gimmick of one venue trying to outdo the gimmicks offered by the other two, or the aged, croakey voiced singer at one course, proclaimed as the real thing and therefore better than a younger more vibrant Abba tribute band at another.

At the other end of the country, a similar tussle for the paying attendees could be playing out between Newbury, Salisbury and Sandown, the onus on the ingredient in the adverts that would lure in the undecided. Stuff the fact that one track may have a card chokker full of high class thoroughbreds, while another may be littered with 0- 80 handicaps, an amateur riders event, and a maiden auction juvenile. It will sadly matter not anymore for the horse racing will be secondary.

The warning signs were there many years ago - maybe not as far back as the 1980's when the evening meetings at the Newmarket July course would play host after racing to the likes of Suzi Quatro and Tom Jones. It seemed harmless at the time and certainly no threat to the core sport on offer.

But once we moved into the noughties the whole ball game had changed with a realisation by many venues that for the emerging generations, the racing itself was not enough of a lure.This did not hit home with me until approximately twenty years back when I paid an inflated entry fee for a run of the mill evening Aintree card that included an after race concert by Peter Andre, who I honestly would not recognise in a photo never mind being able to name a single tune of his. As I left during the running of the last event, a considerable numbers of 'racegoers' were still arriving in anticipation of the billed main attraction of the night. 

Times have moved on and fixtures with non racing 'extras' topping the bill occur throughout the week during the summer months. Once the consequences of affordibility checks take hold they will become the norm as a smaller number of operating venues than ever before compete for the new audience brand.

And not to forget that a twin threat may yet emerge to consolidate the impact of these measures. For in a  financial climate in which the chancery seeks to claw back as much back into the coffers as possible, it would not come as the greatest shock if a return to the days of taxing the punter were under consideration.

Make no mistake there are owners and trainers who blindly overestimate the value of their product and who believe that the punter should be paying more into the game.They really should be careful what they wish for.

This was released the day before Henry Cecil first hit the big time with Wolver Hollow in the Eclipse. Not even a full glass empty person could have predicted that half a century on the sport would be struggling as all the other major sports thrive and survive. And you definitely could not have envisaged how music would be all washed up fifty years on. It would not be unreasonable to claim that along with Bohemian Rhapsody, this was the greatest UK chart number one ever.

REMEMBER RANDOLPH

Becoming over familiar with predictable trends can render a subject less appealing - in the area of various sports fascination can slowly turn sour. Formula One is a sport always in the firing line for this sin, and more so in the past three decades than in earlier times.

Jacques Villeneuve, Damon Hill, and more recently Lewis Hamilton - all conditions fitting into place giving them the platform to be be world champions. Michael Andretti given a similar opportunity failed abysmally but these setbacks are requisite to keeping engagement within at least the wider public sporting fanbase.

With horse racing, one of its most riveting aspects is that being blase over how future careers of certain animals pan out can result in embarrassment. And in an era where under both codes of the sport engagement can go stale due to the domination of a smaller number of power bases than ever before, things turning out not as they would in a perfect world are a plus for the sport.

This came to mind when Bob Olinger renewed rivalry with Gaillard Du Mesnil at Punchestown last month. He had beaten the Mullins animal convincingly in the Ballymore at Cheltenham and seeing that Timeform's physical description of him is "rangy, good sort, every inch a chaser " compared with the just "sturdy" applied to Gaillard Du Mesnil, everything is in place for Bob Olinger to be the horse that is going to succeed in the perfect world.

In fact, with the present staying chasing ranks packed out a bit mish and mash at the top, an animal arriving on the scene and stamping himself the best by some way would not be a bad thing. Bob Olinger won that Punchestown event indicating that the gap between him and Gaillard Du Mesnil is even more superior over the larger obstacles. So far so good, all going to plan, but there'll be some twists and turns in the story - who knows, Gaillard may revert to hurdles and stamp himself a the best stayer around, while Bob Olinger's career over fences goes off path.

This brings back memories that there was once an animal by the name of Randolph Place, who if everything went to script would develop into a top class chaser. Owned by the Edinburgh Woollen Mill and in training at Greystoke with Gordon Richards, he physically looked every inch a chaser, a  "big, good topped chasing type " according to Timeform, and had showed himself a useful novice hurdler, finishing a creditable eighth in the 1987 Sun Alliance Novice Hurdle, but having the potential to prove the best in that field when they switched to fences. There was an extra fascinating angle involved too in the sense that Randolph Place had a great grand dam in his pedigree who was a full sister to the dam of Arkle.

I remember being at Cheltenham and watching that  Sun Alliance Novice Hurdle down near the final hurdle, the race eventually won by the blinkered The West Awake, hailing from Oliver Sherwood's yard and who went and followed up in the stayer's novice hurdle at Aintree. 

But looking ahead with a view to making the grade as a top class chaser, Randolph was the one to take from the race. In fact, Timeform suggested that The West Awake, who they physically described as "workmanlike", should stay over hurdles for at least another season. While with one of the beaten joint favorites, Bonanza Boy, while stating that Philip Hobbs's inmate was " one of the more interesting chasing prospects around ", they did include the proviso that he was physically "close -coupled" and "sparely made", and not the standard chasing type.

The fortunes of these three journeyed on their own different paths with twists and turns along the way. The West Awake was sent chasing and was successful in the Sun Alliance Novices Chase, before finishing a below par fourth in the stayers novice chase at Aintree behind  Delius, an animal worth a chapter in any book. An injury kept The West Awake off the course for the whole of the following season -  he only appeared on a racecourse three more times, last seen when pulling up in Carvill's Hill's Welsh Grand National. Still, the Festival victory over fences marked his shortened chasing career down as a successful one.

Bonanza Boy too went over fences, beginning with three successive wins  before he suffered from a poor jumping technique with Timeform describing him as a "deliberate jumper of fences". He ended up reverting to hurdles, over which he reached a place in the Stayers Hurdle at the Festival, but there was a twist to his story.Transferred to the yard of Martin Pipe, he went back over fences and proved a revelation and one of the most popular National Hunt animals in training, best remembered for winning consecutive above standard renewals of the Welsh Grand National, though he never quite perfected his jumping technique.

And as for Randolph, no one needed to worry about over familiarity as his career did not map out as it should in a perfect world. Falling on his first chase outing, he then got on track winning five successive races, despite most of his performances being marked by jumping errors. In the final success of that sequence, he destroyed the future Cathcart winner Private Views up at Ayr, putting in a blemish free round. At this point in time his stock had never been higher.

Then, it all began to go wrong. He hit the deck four out in his Cheltenham prep at Nottingham, though confidence remained in him despite the Arkle Chase being chosen for him over the Sun Alliance. I was there that day and many expected that he would mark himself as the best novice chaser around. In a solid renewal of the race he started 4/1 third favourite and was trackng the leaders when taking a heavy fall at the open ditch, five fences from home. Randolph Place then reappeared at Ayr for his final outing of the campaign, where he again came to grief. Timeform commented with a touch of understatement that " he needs to pull his socks up if he is going to realize his potential."

But the bubble had burst. He appeared three times the following season, remaining on his feet despite making jumping errors, but finding one too good on each occasion, his weight and measures form below that of the previous season. He won a handicap chase at Ayr during the 1989/90 campaign but never managed to tidy up his jumping and reverted to hurdles towards the end of the season, over which he remained for the rest of his career under rules, winning four more times and finishing third in the 1991 Coral Final at Cheltenham.

Randolph Place finished his racing days in the pointing sphere, winning on five occasions, making an appearance in the 1993 Cheltenham Foxhunters, when he unseated his new owner/trainer Ian Stark, and was last seen when finishing runner up as a thirteen year old in a Scottish point one year later.

The gist of this is that in an era where the jam is is barely spread and so few strongholds dominate, it is essential that things not to always work out as prescribed. In the domain of novice chasers, we need the Bonanza Boys and The West Awake, and for the got it all types such as Randolph to fail. Admittedly it's  absorbing to witness an animal bearing an impressive, rangy physique, making it to the top of the chasing tree but we also need the ones that don't fill the eye to be in the mix too.

And going all the way back to Battleship, then just forty years back to Silver Buck, and more recently Tiger Roll, an encyclopedia could be devoted to the scrawny types who made stardom, and another  devoted to the Randolphs of the world who play a much needed part in spicing up a sport presentlygoing through rough times.

After the 1970's the following decade was an appalling one music wise - so on the subject of steeplechasers without physical stature, this was prominent in the charts when Silver Buck first properly  announced his arrival in the big league when winning the rescheduled running of the 1979 Embassy Premier Chase Final, beating Night Nurse in a thrilling, long fought duel,