JUST A SUPPORTING ACT

The Queen single Now I'm Here, taken from arguably their best album Sheer Heart Attack, is about Brian May's experiences when the band supported Mott The Hoople on a US 1974 tour. That they were subordinate to a band many have half forgotten about reminds one that influence is never static, that no perch is ever secure.

On Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe day in 1975, horse racing was far off being swamped and crowded out by the other major sports. That its significance is now on a lower perch that could ever of been envisaged is there to see in how the coverage of the race compared to what was taking place in the now magnificently promoted world of Formula One.

On Sunday 5th October 1975, Ferrari driver Niki Lauda secured the first of his three driver's world championships in winning the USA Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. The time difference meant the event took place a few hours after the dust settled at Longchamp. But unlike this week we would of only known that the Grand Prix was approaching by a couple of columns in the sports pages of the daily newspapers. Indeed, apart from the British Grand Prix, it was custom to have to tune into Radio Two on a Sunday evening for the result.

The sports pages of the dailies may have included a black and white picture of the winning car taken during the race though grimly, the only time you could be certain that there would be a picture on the actual back page was when a driver was killed. In such circumstances we would pick up the paper to be met by a horrific image of the body of the driver being taken from the car, the burnt corpse usually plastered in melted materials.

For colour pictures of the race, you would have to purchase Motor Sport the following weekend. Needless to say, the in-house publications would act with dignity in showing more respect when tragedies occurred, choosing not to follow the path of the dailies.

It is hard for anyone now to believe that this is how the coverage of the two sports once compared. Racing had never had it easier, we all now had colour televisions and racing performed on a stage shared by only a few other sports

Set that against the present. The build-up to the Japanese Grand Prix has been covered on the news channels all week. Sky broadcast the event in fine detail with their competent team. As usual a driver can't contract the hiccups without it being reported. Practice sessions, qualifying sessions, the build-up and post analysis of them is at our disposal.

The races are are covered with a skilled professionalism that arguably only the cricket coverage can match. If there is too much of it you can dip in and out. But by God it is driven into us all that this is a sport near the top of the pecking order and it is impossible to conduct your life and not be aware of who is who at the forefront of this sport.

Now, back to the 1975 Arc. Two of the best mares of that decade that still to this day deserve to be called all time greats in their category, lined up for the event.

Allez France, the 1974  winner of the race owned by Daniel Wildenstein and in the care of Angel Penna was hailed by Timeform  as 'one of the best racemares in our experience', the organisation adding that 'if we also rated horses on looks alone she would be near the top of our handicap too.' 

Dahlia won the King George V1 Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes twice and had recently won her second Benson and Hedges Gold Cup, the race where Grundy, looking far past his best, was last seen. She ran in the light and dark green check colours of oil billionaire Nelson Bunker-Hunt who was associated with a plethora of top-class horses during that period.,

Allez France's 1974 Timeform rating of 136 remains the shared best for a female racehorse, with Dahlia a pound behind. Incidentally, Enable received an impressive 134 in 2017, though a weights and measures look at the 2018 renewal suggests she will not have surpassed that.

Both mares finished unplaced with the race falling to the 119/1 German trained Star Appeal, who stormed through to win in visually striking style under Greville Starkey. The winner, who had taken the Eclipse Stakes a few months back, began his career in the hands of John Oxx senior but was now under the care of Theo Grieper, a name that evokes images of a character who wanders mysteriously around mist covered graveyards.

Among the also rans was the filly Nobiliary who had finished runner-up to Grundy in the Epsom Derby, the beaten Epsom Derby favourite Green Dancer who would go and be the stallion success from the race, the wide margin St Leger winner Bruni, and Ivanjica who would win the race the following year.

There was more in depth quality than the 2018 running though admittedly this year has seen an unusually ordinary crop of middle distance three-year-old colts in Europe. In short, classwise, it is widely accepted that the race overall produces the best field of thoroughbreds in the whole of the sport worldwide, defying the general reversal that the sport is suffering in many countries

The 1975 running would have been viewed by a considerably larger television audience than that which viewed this year's race. It was of course in the days of three television channels for all. We also could not have envisaged the arrival of wall to wall live football coverage that would have mopped up many potential passing viewers away from Longchamp.

The ITV team again came out with the ' if you happen to be watching for the first time' which is condescending if not insulting. Similarly to when Mark Johnson in a commentary the previous day felt it necessary to mention that ' they are passing the four marker which means there is half a mile left to run.'

Where are the surveys that lead the producers to believe that up and down the country a fresh audience sits patiently, waiting to be won over?

If curiosity got the better of you when watching the 1975 renewal you would have had to make more effort than now to satisfy your knowledge. The 'wanting to know more urge' may even have been stoked by Julian Wilson's method of talking to his audience in a manner which suggested he expected them to have the same knowledge and understanding of the sport as himself. 

There is something within this approach that instills a respect in you for the sport. Rather this than smug persona's, whether real or obeying employer's edict, talking down to you. There is likewise something satisfying by building up knowledge on your own accord.

This weekend, a smaller number of individuals than ever before would have been aware of a race called the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe being staged. And this, even taking into account that the winning rider, along with AP McCoy and John McCririck, are the only names many will know of in the sport. Anyone not believing this is a general truth should ask themselves why it is that when they mention the name Richard Johnson, they find themselves having to include the words 'champion jump jockey'.

There is no doubt that the influence of racing in the sporting world is on a lower perch then ever before. And the 'we'll change for you' path that is being taken by those put in the position to turnabout this trend is a futile one that will not be met with the response hoped for.

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