WEIGHTY ISSUES

The final declarations are through for Saturday's Cambridgeshire Handicap, a race typifying the look of today's valuable showcase handicaps. A quality entry but one resulting in a compacted field with a weight spread of just fourteen pounds.

The monetary boost that many of these events have received in the past few years is something that on the face of it should be welcomed. After all, many of these events are mainstays of the calendar and arguably have a stronger nostalgic feel than all but the very top level Group events.

Those throwing stones at this trend tend to bring into the mix the fact that handicaps which pull in a group quality field with a limited weight range, make redundant the old traditional method of readying one by protecting its handicap mark. Connections of an animal with such a profile would now justifiably fear not making the cut.

Another issue that is inextricably linked in here are the limited opportunities now available for the natural lightweight riders. There existed a popular school of thought that for the big handicaps you could obtain an edge by securing the services of a rider whose natural weight would be close to the weight allotted, minimising the amount of dead weight in the cloth, though admittedly this theory does not sit comfortably with the career long brilliance demonstrated by the legendary Bill Shoemaker who had a natural body weight of under six and a half stone.

Moreover many would reply that some riders are so mediocre that it's better to have dead weight than the individual making a mess of things when shifting and bouncing around !

One wonders over how the path of William Fisher Hunter Carson's career would have meandered had he been setting out now. Remember, his rise was a steady one. From his first ride in 1959, his first winner in 1962, he broke into the top ten in 1968, finishing ninth with sixty-one winners.

Carson was never champion apprentice but won the first of his senior titles in 1972, the year he also had his first top-level success on the Bernard van Cutsem trained High Top in the 2,000 Guineas.

It is undeniable that his low natural body weight paved the way for him to work upwards while with the Armstrongs to establishing himself as a sought after rider in the big handicaps, then becoming van Cutsem's stable jockey.

From 1969 go 1972 Carson's advertised minimum riding weight increased from 7st 6 lb to 7st 8lb. When he got the number one position with Dick Hern in 1977, his weight had stabilised at 7st 10lb ( going into that year he was listed at 7st 9 lb). Standing at five feet, he did not have to push himself to the extremes of wasting, had a comparatively healthy appearance, and was able to comfortably make weights under eight stone for the remainder of his career.

You wonder how it would have panned out now. Would he have ridden out his claim too quickly on the AW scene then remained on the second tier indefinitely? With a compacted weight spread now the norm in the most valuable handicaps, he would not be the prize asset whose claim would have been protected so he could be utilised in the Summer months.

The counter to what now appears is a bias set against the ultra-lightweight riders is that the average height of people, according to demographics, has increased and opportunity should be apportioned with this in mind.

Look at the list of jockeys riding here who are able to do today's minimum weight of eight stone, then compare it with the jockeys who were able to ride at under this weight going into 1977. To make it meaningful, they cannot be apprentices who may eventually lose their fight with the scales - they have to be established, experienced riders who have at least ridden winners of at least one of the showcase handicaps, and were popular choices to take the mounts for those near the base of the handicap in the valuable events. I have purposely not taken into account female jockeys as this would make an inaccurate comparison

At the beginning of 1977 those that fulfilled the criteria were, Taffy Thomas ( 7-7), Richard Fox (7-7) Ernie Johnson ( 7-8), George Duffield (7-8), Carson (7-9) Kipper Lynch (7-10), Geoff Baxter (7-11), Mark Birch (7-12), Paul Cook (7-12), John Reid (7-12), Philip Waldron (7-12), Ron Hutchinson(7-13). Pat Eddery, incidentally, was listed as being able to ride as low as 8st 1 lb.

Fast forwarding to the present, the equivalent list of those able to ride at eight stone and fulfil the aforementioned criteria would consist of  Francis Norton, Joe Fanning (in picture), and Luke Morris. Paul Hannigan is able to get down to 8st 1 lb while champion jockey Silvestre De Sousa can do 8st 2 lb.

These are without bias lists. It must also be noted that many in the 1977 list had, or where to ride winners at the highest level. Australian Hutchinson was a long-standing big name in the sport who won many of the biggest races in the calendar including a St Leger and 1,000 Guineas, Ernie Johnson had ridden an Epsom Derby winner, John Reid would ride numerous Group One winners, while Kipper Lynch would go on to partner the impressive 1978 Dewhurst winner Tromos on his big day.

The flat jockey ranks at the top level now contain more lankier, wafer-thin riders in the Fred Archer or Richard Hughes mould than ever before who struggle to keep on the lighter side of nine stone. James Doyle manages to get down to 8st 11 lb when needed, Adam Kirkby's minimum is nine stone, in France Pierre Charles- Bourdot is listed at a minimum of 8st 9lb, while in Ireland it is doubtful whether Donnacha O'Brien will be able to keep on top of the scales much longer, following on from his brother who announced his retirement from the saddle at the age of twenty-two.

It all means that being pint sized with a naturally low body weight, something that was once desirable in order to strive to be a jockey, stacks the odds against you more than ever before. To look how the general picture has changed I found a dusty Sporting Chronicle Raceform Up-To-Date, for 1952, the oldest form book I have

That season's Cambridgeshire was run on October 29th and was won easily by the 16/1 shot Richer, carrying eight stone, trained by Staff Ingham and ridden by Ken Gethin. The field size of forty-two was not significantly higher than that of the thirty-five intended for Saturday but the spread in weights ranged from Noholme at the top with 9st 2 lb, down to Merry Prince whose reduction with the 7 lb claimer on board took the weight carried down to 6st 3 lb. That is a spread of 41 lb versus Saturday's 14 lb!

In the context of whether this is good or bad for the sport, it is far from conclusive. You can argue that the sight of a large field contest run at a true pace, with most of the runners capable of acquitting themselves in Group 3's, some having the potential to reach higher, is far more satisfying than a falsely run small field Group 2 or 3 event.

But this is balanced against the fact that there are less shop window opportunities for the natural pocket-sized lightweights who have been synonymous with the sport from the very beginning. They are not yet extinct but you feel they will soon become the exception as opposed to the norm. Who would have ever thought that.

image taken by author

PROMOTING IN THE MODERN WORLD

Monday, April  15th, 2019. It's 10am in the conference room of the Bedford Lodge Hotel in Newmarket where a well spoken well dressed lady, tablet in hand, walks on to the stage and makes a brief address to a small audience of journalists, two TV crews, and a bunch of onlookers from the local community.

"Good morning", she says." I will quickly run through the itinerary. Mr Gosden will be on shortly. He will discuss his sole runner at Windsor today, run through his plans for the Craven meeting, then finally give an updated bulletin and latest plans for the big names in the yard."

''After he's concluded you will be allowed to ask questions but we must be finished for twenty-five past. William Haggas will follow at 10.30, Sir Mark Prescott shortly after, though he 's already told me not much will be happening from his yard in the next couple of weeks; Michael Stoute will follow at 11am, then between 11.30 and noon, Hugo Palmer and Robert Cowell will give short briefs, followed by Roger Varian between noon and 12.30."

"There is a correction I need to make to the handouts which I left on your seats. At 1pm following the short recess, an as yet unnamed Godolphin representative will give a statement, and not as stated Charlie Appleby. Though I have it in good faith that Mr Appleby will appear himself at next week's conference."

John Gosden, casually dressed and sporting a Juddmonte baseball cap with 'Kingman' emblazoned across the top, takes a seat at the table on the stage, there are a couple of camera flashes. He nods to acknowledge someone in the front row.

Then, bearing a grimace he opens with a quip about an article written in the racing section of a regional newspaper then proceeds to offer thoughts on the handful of runners from the yard in the past week, going into some details about those that ran at the Newbury Greenham meeting, expressing that he is satisfied with the health of the yard despite not having had a winner since the 5th April at Leicester, then goes on to detail the fast pieces of work some of his showcase performers have had.

"I was pleased how Too Darn Hot quickened up to finish upside his lead horse on the Long Hill Polytrack on Saturday morning, he'll go to the Guineas without a prep but I am happy with him and he will not be wanting on the fitness side come the day -  though I might add he's got a whole season of targets ahead of him if fingers crossed all goes well."

After revealing his plans and hopes for all of his runners at the Craven meeting, the open questions start.

"Sorry John, is it me being dozy or was it the intention not to give an update on Calyx in the bulletin. Last Monday you, to use your own words, 'guaranteed' that the negative rumors surrounding his well being were unfounded and that he would appear in the Greenham. Now, he's out until the Autumn,... I wanted to ask when will the horse's retirement announcement come? "

Silence bar a few sighs in the room. Gosden casts a contemptuous look at the reporter who resembles a young Milton Johns, and asks, "Are you insinuating that I would lie and confirm him a certain runner at Newbury knowing full well that he had already sustained another injury? What would be the point of that ? Maybe you should go back to the Cambridge Evening News reporting on the local rock band scene or whatever you did."

The atmosphere has turned sour. Gosden rises quickly to his feet, makes an inaudible comment in the direction of the compere, muttering something about the thanks he gets when trying to be helpful, then calls the offending reporter a ' nauseating dude,' before storming off through a side door to gasps, laughs and a wolf whistle from an unknown at the back of the room, the compere coming on stage appealing for the assemble to 'grow up.'

Of course, this is all fantasy, but if those who think that change is the way forward to keep racing on the tail of the other thriving sports that don't rely on betting levy for their survival, then such a press conference merry go round should be considered.

It's something that works well in the hyped world of Premiership Football, with all the managers throwing those Friday press conferences. It drums home the importance of each coming weekend. The conferences are discussed in workplaces, with excerpts played on smart phones when something amusing has occurred.

Managers will lose their tempers and storm out, sometimes these conferences just turn into a farce - like when Jurgen Klopp faced questions before Liverpool's match in Russia last season when he had to explain to a female Russain journalist that Quincy Promes was a Spartak Moscow player, and even took a pen and spelled the name for her.

A similar occurrence could happen in racing, if for example, a representative of a local newspaper attended whose racing knowledge was found wanting.

It's baffling that many equate modernisation with simplifying. There is no evidence whatsoever that attempts at this have had any benefit. But weekly press conferences that are broadcast live on SIS and the specialist racing channels, and available to watch on the ITV racing website, with racing talk language used. It might just be an avenue worth exploring. Interesting titbits would be shown on Sky Sports News.

Monday morning would be ideal. Every Monday morning throughout the turf Flat season for the flat trainers, then the beginning of November through to the end of April for the National Hunt trainers.

They would be spread out across the country. For the flat they would occur in Newmarket, Lambourn,( or changing locations within the Swindon, Oxford, Reading triangle) and Middleham or Malton, which could alternate. For the jumps, Lambourn, a West Country location and Malton.

Of course, some trainers would be told that attendance was not compulsory. Where would Dan Skelton go ? And what about Donald McCain Junior and Lucinda Russell ? And that small pocket of trainers in the Welsh Valleys?

And just like in football where Premiership managers have the longest lasting and most frequent conferences, in racing the trainers at the top would be expected to be in the seat for up to thirty minuites. Similarly, as when a small team goes deep into a cup competition and the manager gives a full press brief, a Mark Tompkins, John Berry or George Margarson would only be expected to appear when they have a horse of significance in their care who is due to run, even a fancied one for one of the showcase handicaps.

It would relay the message to those who just watch the odd race from time to time that the Dubawi colt running in the Wood Ditton whose been backed for the Derby is something to generate far more interest than the photo finish to the 0-55 handicap on the sand at Southwell, that Sky Sports News have been showing on their loop.

It will leave many feeling the need to satisfy their curiosity. They may wonder why so many are interested in some horse running in a race called the Geoffrey Barling. They catch part of a sentence and wonder what the hell the trainer means when he says, " like most Invincible Spirits ". They might as well be talking in Spanish but by God, they need to find out more about this crazy world. 

Some trainers would be more willing participants than others. You would expect those with a progressive profile to be ultra keen. And in the spirit of out of flavor pop stars cynically using charity events, those who are beginning to wilt may just see it as an opportunity to talk themselves back into the mix of prospective patron's minds

It must, of course, be compulsory and subject to action by the BHA disciplinary committee for failing to show. Is it really that much harsher than trainers being fined when their horses enter the paddock late?  A representative would be allowed to appear providing that the excuses given were valid.

If the sport is not going to capitalise on a history richly unique when put aside the histories of the contemporary major tier sports, it should at least try and bring in the world of the press conference jamboree that serves those other sports so well.

image CCO creative commons

DO I HAVE ONE MORE BID ? HAHA

A few decades back a prominent bloodstock agent, when asked how would someone come about becoming one, replied that you would need a minimum of twenty years working day to day amongst thoroughbreds on a stud farm. Only then could a person properly have developed an eye, feel and understanding as to how the horse develops.

For those of us on the outside, it is one of the most mysterious areas of the sport. To be honest, if we go to extremes we could all probably tell the difference between a Bungle Inthejungle juvenile lining up in the Brocklesby, and a strapping Fleminsfirth five year old appearing in a Carlisle bumper. Whether we could tell the difference between a two year old at the Goffs UK Breeze Up Sale in early April , and one making his racecourse appearance in the Convivial Maiden in August,.. hmmm I'm not so sure.

But what about the faces you see assessing yearlings at the sales who don't even look twenty yet alone have twenty years working day to day with developing thoroughbreds. Surely some then must pick up the skills and develop the eye quicker than others. Some perhaps very quickly, others may not ever pick it up at all.

As a starting point we would reasonably expect a sixty year old stud hand who has been in the industry all his life to be superior at assessing a yearling than a twenty five year old, though it's likely that the former will lack the flowery vocabulary and use of in vogue buzzwords that the younger generations are adept at using.

It's hard to find a comparison with other sports. Maybe there is one in the putting side of Golf. There are no physical demands in this sphere of the game so you would expect it to improve with practice and age, especially reading the greens.  However, it is this area of the game that starts to suffer first. Hand and eye co-ordination and all that. You could draw a similar comparison with darts, and snooker.

So do these bloodstock agent characters actually reach a peak at a relatively early age, then either stay at this level or deteriorate. Maybe some have beliefs so long built that they will never be able to accept changing wisdoms.

Apparently, when Anthony Stroud was Sheikh Mohammed's racing manager from the mid-1980's to the millennium, he was said to possess the ability to go out and assess a couple of hundred yearlings and be able to form a picture memory of each individual and provide a detailed description of their conformation at random.

Stroud achieved that position chiefly on the strength of his buying record in the National Hunt arena . I guess he talked a good game too.

Indeed, in the misty world of buying and selling bloodstock, there are those who consistently hit lucky above the norm and must possess a degree of innate ability to have the knack of picking up bargains from the maze. The Doyle family would be prime examples

The late Jack Doyle bought many of Ryan Price's best flat horses, including his most famous, the 1975 St Leger winner Bruni, and his highest rated by Timeform, Sandford Lad. He also bought Deep Run who would go on to be the perennial champion jumping sire, Champion Hurdle winner Another Flash and the mighty Mill House.

His son and grandson, Peter and Ross, have a long association with the Hannon's and have found most of both the Hannon's best horses for middle to lower level price ranges.

Pacemaker ran a three part series of feature articles on Jack Doyle from December 1981 to February 1982. Doyle was quoted saying, 'the Lord knows when it comes to this game just how little we know'. 

He was never put off by the bottom part of a pedigree producing animals that had done well in the National Hunt sphere. He termed these 'rough families' and reckoned that all the good two year olds he bought for Ryan Price and the Prendergasts contained this element.

 He also stated, 'the only thing that makes a horse expensive is pedigree. But there is no such thing as a bad pedigree. Some families are better than others because they have had more chance'.

What of the ones whose viewing skills are not as fine as others? It would depend on how much emphasis you attribute to this part of the exercise. Mark Johnston has revealed he begins with pedigrees as his starting point, whereby the dams must have achieved a certain level of form racing or have beared foals who have gone on and achieved a certain level of form. Once he has his short list Johnston will not examine any entrants outside of it.

It makes you wonder how much of an eye you need when a qualified vet puts more accent on what is showing in print. While you probably do need many years of experience to 'develop an eye', it's conceivable that anyone with the right connections could get through a crash course in pedigrees in a few weeks, then be able to compile their own short list, set of rules, and then just hit lucky.

If setting up with a leaning towards the pedigree side I suppose you would be best advised to play down the physical assessment and intuitive part, to sully those who claim to have a 'feel' and spot a 'presence' in one after a live viewing, to play up the pedigree assessment angle and to claim that it takes years of studying pedigrees to effectively assess a catalogue page.

The sport is full of famous horses with ' defects' or who 'weren't correct', as they like to say. Mummy's Pet a great progenitor of speed apparently had dreadful hind legs, while we are told it is not uncommon for Northern Dancer male line horses to have parrot mouths, with Dancing Brave being a prime example. Championing such examples helps those who put the main emphasis on pedigree.

It's certainly not a business where you would excel with any self doubt. Most would also caution that it's one to tread carefully if you are an outsider with bulging pockets.

Every so often a story will break away from the inside of this clique and will shed an appalling light on the industry. The sale of the Tale Quale gelding eventually named Pru's Profile springs readily to mind.

It is a well-documented story involving collusive bidding involving trainer Paul Webber who then worked for the Curragh Bloodstock Agency, and Oliver Sherwood. It was found that the animal in question had it's price falsely inflated and the episode ended with the High Court awarding the buyer over £50,000 in damages against the bloodstock agency.

One of the most disturbing aspects of this to an outsider was that both Webber and Sherwood received a good deal of support and sympathy from within the business. The general consensus seemed to be that it is a practice that is common and that Webber and Sherwood were unfortunate to be made scapegoats.

We are now approaching the height of the sales season.  Doublespeak and doublecrossing, corrective surgery, rumours that some consignors have means and ways of nurturing eye-catching but temporary physiques in their stock, the loss-leading buys to hype up stallions. We'll see the sales reports and results not knowing half of what is really happening.

image Auctioneer and assistants, Cheviot,Ohio, 2004 by Rick Dikeman CC BY-SA 3.0