THE FLOTSAM AND JETSAM OF THE DOCUMENTARY WORLD

'Searching for Shergar' did nothing except confirm that compared to the many excellent documentaries revolving around other spheres of the sporting world, those that cover horse racing invariably lack in factual accuracy and tend to be threaded together with crucial aspects missing.

We know those at the helm of making racing documentaries are mostly general film makers with no feel for the sport and no desire to maintain a long term involvement. After they've produced their botched piece of work, they nonchalantly move on to their next project .

This seemingly umpteenth documentary about the disappearance of Shergar shown on BBC 2 at the weekend was woeful and full of glaring omissions and errors. It was also a testament to how those who agree to partake can be made into caraciture like figures.

Stan Cosgrove, who was a driving force behind the Moyglare Stud operation was portrayed a dotty old eccentric with a propensity to drink and someone who would have slotted in well to an episode of the Vicar of Dibley or Father Ted, or even been a Harry Enfield character.

Cosgrove was also Shergar's vet which drew Alison Millar and her team to him. They must have left with a good few hours of live footage which they have gone through and put together with an emphasis on light hearted viewer entertainment over the subject matter.

IMDb's entry on Millar describes her as a 'critically acclaimed film maker with a reputation for making emotionally compelling films'.

Her work on Shergar would have attained more credibility if, for example, she had given the viewer a brief overview into the reality of racehorse breeding in the sense that the majority of top class horses do not make truly successful stallions

A passing viewer with little racing interest could have been forgiven for believing that Shergar was siring future champions all over the place. Despite Millar's assertion, the horse was never at any stage the most sought after or valuable stallion in the world.

Those of us who are racing fans will be able to recall that the one crop that saw the racecourse included an Irish Leger winner in Authaal, that grey thing of Paul Coles in the orange silks, Tisn't,  and Maysoon who was placed in the 1,000 Guineas and Oaks.

It was a fair if not spectacular beginning. Whether he was any sort of significant loss to the breeding world cannot be proven either way, though it's is unlikely that he was.

Other gripes with the documentary included no explanation being given why Lester Piggott was aboard in the Irish Derby. It was reported as though Swinburn was just randomly replaced, truth being of course that he had been suspended for a careless riding offence on Centurius in the King Edward at Royal Ascot.

And the documentary gave the impression that Shergar's career ended on a high, with no mention of the St Leger defeat which led the viewer into believing the horse had won on all of his three year old starts.

Finally, we were subjected to the often repeated anecdote, this time by Clare Balding, that John Mathias, the rider of the runner up in the Derby, Glint of Gold, believed he had won, so far ahead of him Shergar was. By all accounts, Mathias did come out with these words but surely it was tongue in cheek and delivered to pay respect to the winner.

The good racing documentaries made by general film makers are few and far between. Back in the 1970's  there was one following a teenage lad who was going to Doncaster races to see his hero Lester Piggott and Nijinsky in their Triple Crown bid. It had a bit of the 'Kes' about it.

This was a time when the BBC seemed full of daytime documentaries about hippies in caravans with the Moon and various other celestial objects painted on them. The narrative was very restrained, the narrator speaking with the customary BBC accent.

I recall one in the late 1970's about Trevor Kersey's Rotherham yard. Not a lot happened but there was no attempt to jazz up the programme, though I doubt it would have been possible. Rather an insight into a small family run yard operating near the bottom of the ladder. Humble reality but enjoyable.

Then we have the pieces made for the specialist racing channels. Those start of the winter Lenny Lungo trainer talks, that Cash Asmussen piece that was shown one Christmas Day on Racing UK,  and that baffling one fronted by Miriam Francome where she was asking trainers who their favourite Paris Chef was!

But arguably, of all the programmes made about racing from outside the sport, the most eyebrow raising would be an episode of After Dark, which used to be broadcast on a Friday in the late 1980's.

After Dark was fronted by that cult legend Anthony H Wilson, and each week it focussed on a different subject. As its name suggests, the programme started around 11pm and went into the early hours of the morning.

When racing was chosen as the subject, those present were Barney Curley, journalist  Brian Radford, ex-jockey Duncan Keith, John McCririck, an anonymous problem gambler who sat in the dark throughout the broadcast, and a self-confessed Communist who stated he was an 'Aintree resident'.

It was entertaining stuff. Duncan Keith revealed that he used to stop horses by going too fast in front. McCririck thought it was a shame that a once great front-running jockey was now resorting to telling tales to earn some money. Wilson intervened and suggested to McCririck that what many of those rides he perceived to be attempted all the way successes, were, in fact, Keith stopping them. McCrickrick then repeated that it was a shame how Keith's life had panned out. Keith then retorted that he was doing fine, running a successful pub business.

The 'Aintree resident' believed that the Queen should be 'serving the auld fish and chips', and added that every year, when the Grand National meeting is staged, the traffic is held up by 'Hoorah Henrys' crossing the road. Curley interrupted, accusing him of having a chip on his shoulder.

Brian Radford revealed he was about to produce a story that would rock the racing world. He described that a well known successful trainer was putting slabs of lead beneath horse bandages on their legs to slow them down, even to hide their ability on the gallops. It was put to him that this sounded too ridiculous to be true and would damage the horse's tendons, and that there are far safer and less complicated ways of stopping horses. Needless to say no such story made it to print.

It would be a shame if the reel of this programme was no more. It's certainly not on You Tube. The broadcasting companies began transferring old reel to digital at some stage but plenty were discarded or lost, and being realistic After Dark would hardly have been high up on the must preserve list.  

image - Shergar prior to the Chester Vase - taken by author

KEEPING REPUTATIONS INTACT

The withdrawal of Masar from the Eclipse followed on by the announcement that the colt's setback was sufficiently serious for him to miss the rest of the season sends out a message that the stumps may be ready to be drawn on his career.

Prior to Masar, there have been four Epsom Derby winners in Maktoum connected family ownership, with only High Rise racing on after three. And when you add to this that only Island Sands from their half a dozen Newmarket 2,000 Guineas winners have raced at four, the omens for seeing Masar next year are far from encouraging, despite the stated intention to keep him in training.

Masar had more races under his belt and suffered more defeats prior to Epsom than most winners of the race but to some, there is a feeling that it had all just clicked into place, that there was plenty more to find out about him over twelve furlongs, and that he could not be considered a complete warts and all case.

Still, he holds a completely opposite profile to the family's Lammtara who is an example of unbeaten records and hype fooling no one. After a single winning start as a juvenile, he raced three more times, winning the three most significant twelve furlong events in Europe. Yes, he was an above average Dery winner but many will go ahead of him who don't have the protected unbeaten record. Even in the last couple of years, Golden Horn would be a Derby winner looked upon as at least his equal.

There exists a belief that the shackles put on animals to protect their value are less tight than forty or fifty years ago. But the figures reveal, at least to the start of this current decade, that there has been no big change in direction by connections of those whose animals triumph in the races that are perceived to matter most to stallion values.

In the four completed decades from 1970 to 2010, the number of Epsom Derby winners remaining in training as four year olds have been, three, three, two and three, while the equivalent for the Newmarket race read, three, one, two, and three.

In the eight years of the present decade prior to Masar and Saxon Warrior, three Derby and three Guineas winners have stayed in training the following year, Camelot figuring in both. Admittedly, Wings of Eagles, being himself by a retired after the race Epsom Derby winner who is now seen as a dual purpose stallion, would probably have raced on too but for his injury after the Irish Derby. Not the most marketable, there was no aura to protect with him.

We cannot be sure that the figures for this present decade are just incidental rather than a sign that attitudes have changed. But it must be noted that in the cases of Workforce and Camelot, they had time and reputations to lose by going on at four.

Workforce being in that elusive clubs of Epsom Derby winners going on to win the Arc, while Camelot, though losing out in his Triple Crown bid and following up with a disappointing run in the Arc, was hardly damaged goods.

Both stayed in training at four without enhancing their reputations. Workforce is away in Japan as stallion but Camelot may just yet make it as a high grade sire. While we normally rejoice in the success stories of the Pivotals, Kodiacs, Acclamations and Dark Angels, the ones who the power bases would turn their noses up at until jumping belatedly on the bandwagons, Camelot becoming a hit at stud could be for the greater good as it would dwindle the belief that running in the St Leger carries a stigma.

Interviewed after US Navy Flags July Cup success, Aiden O'Brien mentioned that breeders nowadays like to see horses fully tested and are not so easily fooled by intact reputations.

This obsession with keeping horses profiles dent free reached its peak in the first part of the 1980's.  It was very much a European thing though. Even in that golden 1970's  period over in the USA,  Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed suffered defeats.

Secretariat did not stay in training at four but suffered a defeat two races after his incredible Belmont Stakes win, and still raced on. Seattle Slew was in training preparing to race on at four but suffered a setback, while Affirmed raced on at four.

Moving back to the Epsom Derby, 1982, 1983 and 1984 were the most eventful and ironic three years in recent times in relation to the do we race on or don't we dilemma.

Golden Fleece was a monster in physique, so many sure that he wouldn't act around Epsom in 1982. Barney Curley took a sabbatical away from punting after the race after reputedly losing a considerable amount backing the rest of the field so certain was he that this was no Derby winner.

For Golden Fleece, it was his fourth and would be his final racecourse appearance. Pat Eddery rounded Tattenham Corner with the backmarkers but got an incredible response from his mount who rapidly cut through the field, hit the front just before the furlong marker and won in the style of a vastly superior horse.

The visual impression left an overwhelming feeling of brilliance. Tony Stafford, writing in The Racehorse (see image above) who a year previous had announced that Shergar was the best horse he had ever seen, had now had a change of mind. It was now Golden Fleece who was the best he had ever seen !

The first indication that we may have seen the last of the Nijinsky colt came when it was announced that a nasal infection would rule him out of the Eclipse or Irish Derby. We were later told that this virus lasted for three weeks and when they got him back into training, he had a swelling which meant it would have taken another six weeks to get him ready so they decided to call it a day.

With hindsight, they might as well as persevered  with him as the future was a bleak one. The horse died young of cancer and from the progeny that saw a racecourse, it was clear that he would be a profound failure as a stallion.

When the 1983 winner Teenoso was kept in training as a four year old, only those inside the bloodstock world would have been privy to when the decision was made, the reasoning behind it, the figures involved, and the lack of availability of other options.

Certainly, the emphasis on the reports at the time gave the impression that sporting reasons were at the centre of the decision.

It was only by chance that what may have been the biggest influence in the decision came out in the open. And this was connected to the 1984 Derby. The fact that connections of the winner Secreto never allowed their colt onto a racecourse again only confirmed the general consensus that they had got lucky.

In the aftermath of the race, the forecasted 're-match' was priced up with El Gran Senor a warm favourite to attain his revenge. And when the O'Brien colt beat Rainbow Quest over a less testing twelve furlongs at the Curragh, that settled the issue in most minds, though of course, we can never know for sure.

El Gran Senor himself picked up an injury after the Curragh and was never seen again. We are told that the intention was to keep him in training.

In a revealing televised interview with Julian Wilson at an afternoon race meeting, Robert Sangster was asked to comment on the decision to retire El Gran Senor. He reiterated that the intention had been to keep him in training then was highly critical of an article in the Daily Telegraph penned by Lord Oaksey.

Sangster was of the opinion that Oaksey was talking ' rubbish'  by praising the Moller family for being sporting and keeping Teenoso in training. Sangster said the only reason he was in training at four was that after the Mollers sounded out that he was for sale as a stallion, no one was interested enough to match a price anywhere near what they wanted for him , so in the end, they had no choice.

As things turned out Teenoso had a terrific four year old career disproving those who had him marked down as a plodder who needed soft ground. The highlight of his year was beating Sadler's Wells , Tolomeo and Time Charter under an inspirational front running Piggott ride in the King George V1 and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes.

It would be pleasing to think owners now accept that breeders are not easily fooled anymore by polished records with barely any dents showing, but in the case of those few races that matter that little more, the jury is still deliberating.

SHARING THE SATURDAY PLATFORM

In 1985, John Smith's Magnet Cup Day fell on the 13th July. The fixture shared the UK racing day with Chester, Salisbury, Ayr and Lingfield.  In the wider sporting world it was also the third day of the Trent Bridge Ashes Test Match, and out of the cocoon of everything sport, this was the day of the Live Aid benefit concert.

Two days earlier, the July Cup owned the stage with no rival attractions, Never So Bold producing his lethal turn of foot under Steve Cauthen to beat Committed comfortably. Other highlights of the Newmarket July meeting had been Al Bahatri winning the Group 3 Child Stakes, beating a similar quality field to what Alpha Centauri did in the modern version of the same race, the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes.

The Princess of Wales was won by Petoski who would shortly turn over Oh So Sharp in the King George V1 Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes, while Green Desert, who has left his mark on the breed, took the July Stakes under Walter Swinburn by a head from the Martin Pipe trained  Atall Atall.

In the modern free for all fixture list, we had seven meetings in the UK yesterday. Ascot was in on the act, with a card fitting nicely with the modern Saturday racing TV agenda. The meetings did not complement each other in any way, the July Cup and John Smith's Cup detracting from one another, and over at Chester, a racing fan waking up from a long coma that had been induced in the late 1970's would note that what was the highlight of the then sole Summer meeting card, the Chester Summer Handicap, is long gone.

The Chester race would typically attract a small but quality field and throw up some popular winners such as the Peter Robinson trained Mr Bigmore who won it in 1976 before winning the Goodwood Cup. Mr Bigmore's Chester success took place on the day Dick Hern's Bold Pirate won the York race. You would link one with the other.

In 1977, the winners of both races were two of the most likeable animals in training, both genuine and regularly raced. Bill Watt's immensely popular Mountain Cross winning the Chester race, Bill Wightman's Air Trooper taking the York event.

Many racegoers on the way home from both venues would have been tuned into Radio 2, engrossed by the commentary of the last few holes of the Open Championship at Turnberry ( it finished on a Saturday back then ), as a long fought duel played out with Watson eventually beating Nicklaus.

It was a day that won over many new fans to Golf, but little would anyone be able to predict the level that sport would grow in the conscience of punters, who would come to bet on it week in, week out.

Try telling someone back then that people would exist who would have gambling problems induced by Golf ! It sounds as daft as when Paul Merson revealed that the substance at the centre of his drinking problem was lager top.

In the eighties, they restricted the ratings band of the Chester race. This increased the number of runners but the quality suffered. It was the beginning of the end. It's bookmaker friendly but it's the sort of move that's killed off some fascinating small field contests. In the jumping sphere, the Mandarin Chase would be a primes example of this.

If you were at Chester you'd watch the big York race on a TV in the bar. If having the choice you'd probably choose York, though the Roodeye was a long way off being turned into a remunerative carnival. Except where the jockey's board and Tote building stood, you enjoyed an unobstructed view all around the circuit at ground level as they did not facilitate for corporate tents.

Back in 1985, those cynical over the reasons for so many giving their free time to Live Aid and who were destined for York would also have been keeping their eye on the cricket. It was the third test. The score was one apiece in a series that England would go on and win 3-1.

By the start of Live Aid day. the situation at Trent Bridge already exuded a stalemate feeling with England batting first and reaching 456 all out, David Gower making 166. The Aussies were batting on Live Aid day and would go on to reach 539 with opener Graeme Wood reaching 172.

The John Smith's Magnet Cup started at 3.02 and was won by the Robert William's trained Tony Ives ridden Chaumiere. At that point in Live Aid the uninspiring Sade had the stage at Wembley, while over in Philadelphia it had just gone 8 pm and the revered Led Zeppelin (in picture) were stepping on to do three numbers, a performance that rightly received wide ridicule. Bob Plant unable to find his true singing voice, the overrated and out of place in the band Phil Collins on drums, and a combined performance by the band that is for them unfortunately on You Tube for all to scoff at.

As the dust settled on the racing day, Live Aid was reaching its high. Just after 6.30 pm, Queen appeared on stage to perform six numbers, highlighted with a still applauded to this day stirring rendition of Radio Ga Ga. Bowie followed on from Queen. The Who came next.

Yesterday, ITV race times were structured so that the July Cup did not clash with the dead wood Football match, but the John Smith's Cup was not afforded the same respect on a day which it should still own. Both races are worthy of being given a day when they top the bill.

It does not sit comfortably that the so called home of racing cannot rise above commercial greed and retain its values and dignity. It is now portrayed as being less quaint and more akin to the other Saturday cult courses, packed with too many non-racing fans who have zilch chance of being won over to the sport, some high on a cocktail of alcohol and recreational drugs, and a deterrent for those who would like to come along and enjoy the sport.

image author 'Squelle' - creative commons attribution

MIDSUMMER MUCHNESS

It was a tiring weekend trying to keep tabs on all the overlapping, frenzied sporting action. And apart from the card at the Curragh, racing was lost on most people, including no doubt many of those attending the UK meetings up and down the country.

Newmarket had a long established fixture just about respectable enough for a track of its calibre, but York( in picture) and Chester staged more recent additions to their expanding fixture list and willingness to host crummy cards.

But none are as disconcerting than Newcastle staging its showcase flat meeting and once revered Northumberland Plate Card on a synthetic surface. So difficult to feel at ease with, it's a spectacle that stinks in contrast to some of the wonderful renewals we had of the traditional Pitman's Derby in its original form.

Every time now that Newcastle racecourse stages a flat meeting it has become recently established custom to remind that this was the scene of Enable's winning racecourse debut in November 2016. With horse racing facing a variable future, there is no knowing whether this connection will be repeated for as long as Haydock Park being linked to the Epsom Derby winner Tulyar winning the Buggin's Farm Nursery there in 1951, or Salisbury being the location where Mill Reef defeated Fireside Chat on his racecourse bow.

These nostalgic titbits are mentioned less often nowadays as the succession of passing interest in the sport down a generation has come to a standstill in a Football dominated world. Unlike in the time of Mill Reef's debut, and most definitely Tulyar's Nursery victory, there is high definition footage of horse racing and means of accessing archives without cost, not to mention the saviour for those with large collections of mouldy, ruined VRH tapes -  You Tube.

It's all so simple to access, something that racing fans of many decades back could not have envisaged happening, even when they believed commercial flights around the moon would be in existence before the millennium.

Problem racing in general has though is that the interested has plummetted and the numbers who like watching archive footage are a fraction of those that would have drooled over this facility had it been available 40 years back.

And as trumped up on ITV's coverage of racing on Saturday, added now to the Gosforth Park list of honour are Without Parole and Stradivarius. It all very much had the undertone of an attempted justification come apology for broadcasting a fixture ruined by Arena Leisure's unpopular move to sand over the track.

If you want to stretch things and polish the crown of the AW scene even further, you can claim that Galileo ran at Southwell, which he did one midweek morning in a prep gallop for his Breeders Cup Classic challenge.

But just like all those years ago when Luton Town, QPR, Oldham Athletic and Blackpool laid down those synthetic football pitches, these all-weather surfaces emit a tinny aura and remove much of the grace that a turf fixture at the height of summer contains.No one can possibly deny this.

With plenty of water streaming under the bridge since this form of racing was introduced on the basis of providing horse racing to LBO's on frozen winter days, the UK now has half a dozen AW venues.

When playing fair and searching for a reasonable positive over the introduction of sand racing, we automatically jump on the issue of trainers needing somewhere to introduce their juveniles late in the season when the turf up and down the country is cut up.

Moreover, even the majority who fail to get stirred by this form of racing will at least when looking at the results pay plenty of attention to the two year old maiden races, as these unearth their fair share of future big race performers.

For those who had been paying scant respect to these contests, Ghanaati proved perhaps the game changer. She first appeared at Kempton in September 2008, finishing third. She then followed on by winning at the same location the following month.

The next time we saw her was in winning the 1,000 Guineas the following year before following up in the Coronation Stakes. Her career never began at Kempton by fluke. They clearly thought something of her at the time and saw no problem in using a synthetic surface for her juvenile starts.

What is a curious aspect of this need to keep quality horses away from testing ground is the willingness of all the Irish trainers to start their best charges off in testing ground at the beginning of the season.

Almost all of these animals improve when they step on better ground and of the multitude of high class performers who start the season off in testing ground, you would be hard pressed to name a single horse who has had his or her season compromised by beginning their campaigns running in unsuitably testing conditions.

Sinndar ran in the Ballysax on his three year old debut in the soft, Galileo won the same race in soft ground on his seasonal debut after winning a backend maiden in heavy. Add to this Harzand winning the Ballsax on heavy, two weeks on from winning a Cork maiden on his three year old debut in similarly described ground. Not forgetting that Sea The Stars won a two year old maiden on ground described as 'soft to heavy',

Even Vincent  O'Brien started The Minstrel off in such appalling ground that they needed to start the races off by flag. This was in the Ascot 2,000 Guineas Trial on the same day that Red Rum won his third Grand National.

These were all subsequent Derby winners, all in the hands of trainers who knew the talent they were nurturing. In every case, all of the horses needed better ground to display their true talents. This is just a small sample but the gist is clear, it's all a load of nonsense about the potential that testing conditions have to spoil the future of top class horses.

It is now hard to imagine a situation in which racing will exist here without any all-weather courses. Even if a crisis hits the sport and a spate of course closures follow, business requirements dictate at least one or two of these venues will continue and will be there if and when the sport finally drops another tier as to not warrant media acknowledgement it presently receives.

And on this current run of Summer weekends where we are spoilt for choice for high quality televised, thriving sports that do not depend on revenue from betting for their survival, the masses of self-proclaimed 'sports fans' will not spend too much time musing over the sport's struggles.

image taken by author