AT THE CREST

The time arrives for a change of the guard in all sports. It's mostly a gradual but predictable process which ends when you step back and acknowledge the new order. In some cases the transition can happen in a surprisingly short time period.

Tiger Woods took grip of the golfing world very quickly, turning pro then beating Davis Love III in a play off weeks later to secure his first top level event, then straight to the number one ranking the following summer.

Sebastian Vettel took a few years of successive world championships to be accepted at the pinnacle of the pyramid, same with Lewis Hamilton who stepped into a competitive car at the start of his career and took a while to be accepted by the multitude of cynics. Ultimately the day would arrive when observers would quit with their ' pound for pound Alonso is the best'  claim and accept that the younger pair were now at the summit of their sport ability wise.

In football the change in the pecking order at the top often coincides when a player moves to one of the showcase clubs giving him the platform to perform at the highest level.  Being acclaimed pound for pound as the next coming is conjecture without stonewall solid evidence.

For racehorse trainers an Epsom Derby or  Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe victory will not get you there alone. The big races have to come from several horses, the success sustained.

In the British Isles there have been several candidates who have threatened to make the step up to the very highest stage but have been unable to secure their place. They hover in what could be termed the 'Barry Hills tier'.

Hills was a consistent high-class trainer from the days of Rheingold all the way through to his final classic winner Ghanaati. He held a trainer's licence for over forty years but he was never right at the very peak of the pyramid, though lasted longer than most who were. He saw many go past him and take the step up on to the highest table, then pass him again on their way down several years later.

A Barry Hills juvenile winning a back end two-year-old maiden would not get the publicity and hype than one hailing from the three or four showcase yards would receive. And while Robert Sangster was a great supporter and friend, the very best prospects would go to Vincent O'Brien, then later to Peter Chapple-Hyam. Just like in the early 1980's when Dunlop would have a better quality Maktoum family intake, and Jeremy Tree a better quality Khalid Abdullah intake. Still, after the Michael Dickinson Manton episode, it was his trusted pal Hills who Sangster brought in to clear up the mess.

Michael Stoute has held his seat in the highest room for many years. More recently he has on more than one occasion looked on his way down to the floor below only to confound the doubters.

In his first year with a licence in 1973, Stoute took the Ayr Gold Cup with Blue Cashmere. The numbers and quality began to increase. By the beginning of the 1977 season the owners included Gordon White of Ever Ready fame, Sir Charles Clore, Bob McCreery,  Baroness Oppenheim, Captain McDonald - Buchanan, the Duke of Devonshire and the William Hill organisation.

There was also Sven Hanson who owned a two-year-old filly he had purchased for 13,000 guineas at the Houghton Yearling Sales. By Petingo, she was named Fair Salinia and would go on to win the following years Epsom Oaks, the pivotal moment that made people sit up and take notice.

Going into the following year the Wigan family had a talented, game juvenile in the yard named Final Straw, who would train on to be involved in the big mile races as a three-year-old. The Loder family had the Mill Reef Stakes winner Lord Seymour, who raced in the colours that his famous full sister Marwell would soon carry. Lord Seymour had a big reputation but eventually fell short of expectations. Gordon White owned Hardgreen who ran in Troy's Derby. And there was Vaigly Great, one of the best sprinters in training during that year.

Shortly after it was announced that the Aga Khan was sending yearlings over to England to go into training. The trainers selected were Fulke Johnston-Houghton and Stoute. Amongst the first batch that Stoute inherited was a colt named Shergar.

So it was in 1981, led by Shergar and Marwell and supported by numerous other smart animals that Stoute reached the ceiling alongside M V O'Brien, Henry Cecil, Dick Hern, and Guy Harwood who had stepped up to the very top tier in tandem with Stoute. John Dunlop was close behind.

From this 'big four, Stoute is the only one to remain. Only A P O'Brien and John Gosden sit alongside. Charlie Appleby cannot be counted amongst the group yet. He is an in-house trainer for an organisation that those of us on the outside understand too little to decide where the credit lies for the upsurge in fortunes.

We must also remember that Gosden joined the high table later than many would be led to believe. For so long he was performing to no more of what would be expected given the quality of animal he was receiving. Even when Benny The Dip won the Derby, Gosden remained in that group directly below the top of the pyramid. And further on, when he guided the wonderful Oasis Dream to champion sprint honours in 2003, there were no other individual Group 1 winners for the yard during that season.

Having been successfully established in the States, Gosden came to Stanley House with a readymade yard, the core of which were Sheikh Mohamed owned. There was a steady drip of success but he was very much on the Barry Hill's level until as recently as the past half dozen years where everything has taken off up to a new level, star after star after star, the biggest prizes regularly plundered, something only the smug back fitters would say was to be expected.

Room at the pinnacle will be available soon. We have to take note of the ages of Gosden and Stoute, and how long they are going to go on for. Gosden is 67 years of age, Stoute approaching his 73rd birthday.

Luca Cumani had had one foot on the summit but despite training two Derby winners never truly had both feet in. Richard Hannon junior inherited his father's strongest ever team and was champion trainer, but overall he belongs on that floor one down. So does Roger Charlton. When he took over at Beckhampton, he was left the Epsom Derby winner that JeremyTree must have wished he stayed on for. In addition to Quest for Fame there was Sanglamore who would win the French Derby in the same year. Charlton operates consistently on a high class level just below that superclass bubble.

Andrew Balding kept Kingsclere ticking along at the level his father had in his final dozen or so years with high-grade animals appearing in turn but is having a terrific time of it this summer. Maybe he just has the inmates bouncing, but this is lasting for long enough to make you wonder if things are about to go up another level, particularly considering some of the youngsters are highly promising individuals.

William Haggas promised to go to the elite sphere after Shaamit had won the Derby relatively early in his training career but is rooted on the step below, while the one caution over Motivator's prospects going into 2005 was whether Michael Bell could be trusted to handle such a high quality colt. He came through with flying colours but the trainer's career has returned to the norm since.

David Loder was flirting with breaking through, both when 'Indie', and when being under full Maktoum family control. But Loder did not have the application. The support was always there but the words silver spoon in mouth and spoilt rotten come to mind when before one sabbatical he expressed that he wanted time to travel and explore the world.

The late Alec Stewart was a contender to reach the highest echelons. Just a few years in with a licence, he built a following with his handling of the magnificent  Mtoto. I can recall being at Haydock Park on a Friday evening in June 1986, Stewart and Sheik Ahmed Al Maktoum had made the journey. Mtoto obliged in the classily named Chipmobile Stakes. In his remaining races of that year, he looked between handicaps and Group class, and one who would be hard to place.

Then to the Brigadier Gerard the following season. A completely different beast with an electric turn of pace. That was the beginning of a heady spell at the top level for Mtoto, two Eclipse's, two Prince of Wales's, a King George, and so unlucky not to cap it off with a Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe success. All the time his emerging trainer's name was on the ascent

Starting the 1989 season with Mtoto retired,his Clarehaven yard numbered eighty six and he looked set to kick on upwards but despite being a thinking more than a scattergun placer of his horses, Stewart never even got near the Barry Hills tier, turning out an average of twenty or so winners in his final dozen years with a licence . Admittedly there were still some fleeting big races successes but the horses often did not seem right. It's not as if the numbers of inmates dropped dramatically, for example in his penultimate year when he trained twenty six winners, he had a yard of sixty five horses. He was of course very ill by this time.

Marcus Tregoning is another who looked set to kick on. Taking over the seat at Kingwood House Stables after the retirement of Dick Hern, he made an early impression with Nayef and Mubtaker. It was taken for granted that he would be playing at the top tier for years to come.

In 2004 and 2005, he started the season with over one hundred and thirty inmates, Danehills, Kingmambos, Danzigs, Sadlers Well's, they were all there. To say that his patrons had faith in him would be an understatement. It cannot be doubted that he was given the platform to showcase his talents, and despite hitting the heights with the 2006 Epsom Derby winner Sir Percy, failed to take advantage and has not trained a winner at the highest level since.

Mark Johnston is your flat equivalent of W.A Stephenson. Just like when you use to open a fresh copy of Horses In Training and would peruse the strings of at least half a dozen fellow jumping trainers before turning to Stephenson's entry, the Kingsley House team will never be the first you'd want to scan.

It is unlikely the Johnston modus operandi will ever change and he will forever be comfortable in his own unique niche.

Out of Hugo Palmer, Roger Varian, Ralph Beckett and Clive Cox,  we could put Varian in his old guvnor Michael Jarvis's mould. A seamless transition but it looks an operation that will remain just off the pinnacle for the foreseeable future.

The other three have all had Group one successes but the most curious fact is that out of the quartet Clive Cox, who has upgraded himself to this group from the basement and trained amongst others a Prince Of Wales Stakes winner who had started his career with Donald McCain jnr, is the only one without an Epsom Derby entrant for 2019.

He is wrongly being pigeonholed as a handler who can only excel with speedy types and needs that announcement that a big owner is sending him a number of yearlings with creme de la creme middle distance pedigrees. It would be the platform to show what he can really do, as it's nothing but pound for pound speculation at the moment.

Image - NASA/Josh Valcarcel and Bill Stafford

GOSSIP AND SPECULATION

That book, The Coup by Ken Payne, one that every racing fan over a certain age must have read. Triumphs, tragedies, highs and lows, a fictional like existence from a real person but one who at the end of the day will chiefly be linked to doping moderate horses with anabolic steroids to land gambles.

Come to think of it, whenever doping in racing was openly discussed in those days it invariably revolved around anabolic steroids. Some suggested the practice was nothing new and that in the 1960's, these drugs were rife in the sport and that a trainer needed them as part of his armory to ensure it was a level playing field for himself.

Things then evolved. We had Francois Boutin's Trepan winning the Prince Of Wales Stakes and Eclipse Stakes in 1976, then losing both after testing positive for the cocoa based theobromine. People linked the reduction in French raiders soon after to an assumption that they were 'all at it', with rumours that all sorts of drugs and illegal practices were common in the Gallic racing community.

Moving into the 1980's we became accustomed to the frequent discussions centred around the permitted used of Lasix and Bute in the USA, whether the European trainers should do a 'when in Rome' when sending horses over for the derogatory termed 'Bleeders Cup', and the long term effect these drugs may have on masking defects and weakening the breed.

Paul Haigh has written some excellent pieces on the subject of drugs in racing down the years. But it is a testament to how drug and chemical use has branched out when you read his feature on the subject in the August 1987 issue of Pacemaker, concentrating on Lasix and Bute, and compare it with the startling series of articles he did on the subject for the Racing Post in May 2005.

We were now talking of 'milkshaking' and 'blood doping'. Haigh quoted Richard Bomze, the president of the New York Horsemans Association, saying, " Only in racing do guys become superstars at the snap of a finger. It's chemicals and painkillers and we all know who the bums are."

The article highlighted a trend whereby many high ranking trainers first started to perform at the top level exactly at the same time as they employed the same vet. 

'Milkshaking' which would involve administering a bicarbonate mix to an animal through tubes fed through the nose, delays the development of lactic acid and the process of becoming tired during a race. Evidently, in a series of unannounced tests at Del Mar racecourse, 39 % of horses had abnormally high levels of bicarbonate in their system.

With the use of this particular booster being ideal for national hunt racing, tongues wag, and any handler who builds up a pattern of drawing improvement from acquisitions from other yards will be subject to accusatory whispers.

Blood doping has a more sinister feel altogether. Images of Peter Cushing, laboratories and bubbling  blood-filled test tubes. In fact, referring back to French racing circles in the 1970's, allegations were made at the time that horses were being given blood transfusions. 

Monica Dickinson was once quoted saying words to the effect that she had heard a certain trainer was using disturbing procedures to enhance racehorse performance. It was believed she was referring to blood doping. It was rumored to be happening but a leading vet within racing was of the opinion that it would be ineffective as a performance enhancer for racehorses as they carry a natural reserve of oxygen producing red blood cells.

The image of this process became less gory after scientists developed a drug called Epogen (EPO) in the 1980's to treat anemia, and this is what cyclists and athletes have been caught using, tennis players have been accused of using, and is what is alleged to have been in use in horse racing.

Trainer and qualified vet Mark Johnston is another to doubt whether this practice enhances racehorse performance. In his opinion, expressed again recently, blood doping would not give trainers an edge. Like other sceptics, Johnston cited the natural reserves that horses carry.

If you want to be cynical, you could point to the fact that Johnston is racing political savvy, and is of the opinion that punters will turn away from the sport the more they believe sinister forces are at work. A sort of, 'keep mum for the image of the sport'.

When vets and scientists offer a completely opposite view what on earth are the great majority of racing fans who have scant veterinary knowledge expected to make of it all?

In 2001 Charlie Mann came out and stated that EPO is being regularly used in British racing. The common retort was that his training abilities were limited and he was tarring others who were able to do the job better than himself.

On a winter morning in 2002, Jockey Club investigators carried out simultaneous raids on the yards of  Martin Pipe, Paul Nicholls, Venetia Williams, Lenny Lungo and Alan Jones. Tests were carried out for EPO but all came up negative.

Since the advent of the internet world or should I say the Betfair Forum, the accusations against racing people have been more blatant, many libelous whether containing any truth or not as this is an area where you have no hope of backing up your allegations.

There are posters on that forum who are adamant that they know that unofficial warnings are dished out in the sport. And that practices are unveiled that are kept secret from the public for fear of damaging the reputation of the sport even further.

With the Betfair Forum you often have no idea if the person you are conversing with is genuine or a Walter Mitty. There used to be a character who if offended would write,' If you knew who you were addressing you would not be talking to me like that'. He claimed that if he found out who the offending persons were, they would first beware of him then they looked out their window and saw a black car parked outside with darkened window screens.

Another regular poster was shot in the legs a few years back when taking a radiator out of his car boot on waste ground. It's a forum where you treat most with an open mind. It would be foolish to believe that all of the accusations against racing people are made without foundation.

Whenever one reads those appeals put out by the Police when old unsolved murder cases are subject to fresh investigation, the statements always include the bit about, ' allegiances may have changed in the time that has since passed'; the subject of skulduggery in racing comes to mind.

Let's say a trainer was administering the 'magic carrots', twenty, thirty or even forty years ago. Staff employed by the trainer will very likely have moved on, some still within the sport, many leaving it all together.

Admittedly, many will have been kept in the dark about practices occurring, they may have heard rumours but will probably have forgotten most of the details and the names of the substances and procedures involved. But there would have had to have been a small inside circle perhaps involving the trainer, a few owners and a handful of senior staff. Racing is a sport where allegiances can be fickle, where irretrievable fall outs are common.

So with so many allegiances changing, why have we not had a single red top exclusive where we are told about how a certain, highly successful trainer, gained a massive advantage on his rivals through the use of illicit methods?

There is a fear within racing that inward scrutiny with none of the findings hidden would damage the sport and result in punters turning their backs on it for good. The converse is that emerging punters are not much interested in the sport anyway and in the Dick Francis spirit of things, there is nothing like a bit of cheating and fixing to get people curious.

Truth is, the majority of people indifferent to the sport believe it's fixed anyway.

image - the cover of the August 1987 edition of Pacemaker International

OVER FOR ANOTHER YEAR, THANK GOD

Yesterday was give racing a wide berth day. Those dipping in and out of the ITV coverage did not need to loiter on the channel for too long to confirm that the whole hullabaloo that is the Shergar Cup is a nonsense created by marketing men in collaboration with broadcasters and the modernisation nuisances.

What would someone belonging to the large majority who are indifferent to the sport make of the Rishi Pershad interview with Corey Brown (pictured) where the jockey was asked how the Shergar Cup compares with the great days around the racing world? The rider was composed and polite and played along with the gist intended.

Your indifferent viewer could have been left with the belief that this gimmicky race day can be put aside the grand showcase occasions such as the Cheltenham Festival, Grand National day and Epsom Derby day. At least Fran Berry half gave the game away during his interview when mentioning it was a 'once a year novelty'. And with all due respect to the Swedish rider Per-Anders Graberg, from what he normally experiences it probably was a fairly big occasion for him.

Racing fans with a feel for the sport, a love of its customs and traditions, plus a belief that a programme where change is, well at least up to recent times, done after much consideration which leaves a big race programme similar to that of fifty, seventy-five and even one hundred years ago, is a strength and something to boast of; these fans will cringe at the thought of the Shergar Cup and its stupid team concept.

Come to think of it, is the Shergar Cup complicating or simplifying the sport? It would be interesting to know how those that support the competition view it. For most who applaud these dreadful new innovations are modernists who also believe in binning in-house speak for a language understood by all.

Problem is the absurdity that is the Shergar Cup actually complicates matters. Once they get their heads around the scoring and familiarise themselves with the teams, the soul's who endear themselves to it, and God forbid there isn't many of them, will then have to re-adjust and learn about the sport in its normal format which those who invented the competition  considered was not dynamic enough to pull them in in the first place. I heard it mentioned that ' the girls took 22 pts from the first race', but had no wish to get to grips with the points distribution, so foreign it is to what makes the sport pleasurable.

During Glorious Goodwood ITV Racing did a piece on Charles Gordon-Lennox, who is the present Duke of Richmond, involving Ed Chamberlain visiting him at Goodwood House and asking for his thoughts on racing matters. Gordon-Lennox though ITV were providing an excellent service for the sport and he was happy, that like him, Chamberlain and the broadcasters supported a dumbing down of how the sport is presented to keep tabs on the other sports.

Truth is this, Gordon-Lennox may be business savvy and know how to utilise his estate and how to project the image of Goodwood racecourse whereby it pulls in fresh investment and corporate sponsorship, but it is an unchallengeable, agreed fact, that racing cannot fully function without its central lifeblood of money from punters. He will be clueless on how to attract a new generation of punters to the sport.

What is curious about this wish of many that the sport should be made less complicated to keep up with other sports is that all of the other major sports have been broadcasted with an extra, intricate depth, and have thrived as result.

For example, in the 1970's, 1980's, and the 1990's too, did you ever hear kids when talking about football mentioning ' assists '? You knew of the partnerships where a goalscorer would have a regular supplier who would be credited for his role, but no figures were available. Similarly, did you ever hear Grand Prix fanatics discussing 'third sector lap times' which they do so now to the hundredth of the second?

Today's all angle miss nothing coverage owes some gratitude  to Kerry Packers World Series initiative. Controversial at the time, we saw the introduction of gizmos we now take for granted. Screen graphics that were way ahead of their time for the era, floodlights, intrusive microphones.

Remember, this was a time when you'd watch a John Player Sunday League match and the camera would only be situated at one end, so you'd watch an over with the batsman's back to the screen and the bowler delivering towards the screen, then vice verse for the following over.

Like Cricket, Tennis is awash with Gizmo's measuring speeds and pinpointing exactly where a ball has landed. Every possible worthwhile stat is collated as a match progresses. And Grand Prix racing, from those days when during routine pit stops the crew appeared to be giving the car a lengthy MOT, to the present where a split second lost could cost a position or even the race.

In contrast, we have those watchable laid back parts where Ted Kravitz will wander through the Village past the team vans and walk over and randomly chat to any 'face' that he spots. Matt Chapman has done this on ATR, marching around the paddock pre-race. One of the few new ideas that come across OK.

The jockey cams have been an excellent innovation over the past few years, offering an insight which we could previously only imagine. Far more useful than that period during the final years of BBC's coverage of racing when they had the likes of Peter Scudamore or Norman Williamson tracking the field in the back of a car and giving a brief, mumbly jumbly report as how the race was developing. They were funny those.

The modernists realise that the other major sports have moved on and thrived. But it certainly has nothing to do with the false belief that they have dumbed down, quite the opposite in fact. Indeed, the appeal of racing would be enriched by the sport treading the same path. 

Why not a workshop on how to compile speed figures and the pitfalls of assessing the going allowance. Or handicapping in general. Or a stallion statistics focus. These things will make the viewers realise that there is a fascinating depth to the sport. Regrettably, the focus is shifting in the wrong direction and partially because of this, the sports share of the betting pie is continuing to dwindle.