The rumour that plans are afoot to abolish the whip from racing in the UK will come as no surprise to those us who became highly sceptical of that piece done on ITV racing twelve months back involving John Francome and Tony McCoy.
What was an attempted impression of a couple of national hunt legends engaging in offhand, often light-hearted chit chat while having a casual stroll stunk then of an attempt to tinker with the details of their own established beliefs. This to cater for these imaginary, potential young racing fans that those holding influence are ingenious enough to have come up with their overall character portrayals of.
It only lasted a few minutes but anyone paying attention who is a lifelong follower of the sport could not have failed to have been baffled by both former riders assertions that they never really needed the whip and would have been fine without it.
What had happened to the ' this is horseman's domain keep your nose out of what you know nowt about' method of dealing with those critical of some areas of jockeyship?
If suspicions are true then it is a dire state of affairs in which there exists a small number of self-righteous individuals behind the scenes who hold an amount of influence and power that far ouutweighs their level of intelligence.
On these mini televised pieces these stakeholders are able to set the scene, the gist of the word spoken, how they perceive it will be received, and the desired outcome.
And for those looking even deeper into this and to try and work out how it will all pan out if the hold is not put on the self destruct button, there is an inkling that shortly after the ludicrous clamping down and removal altogether of the whip, the unique, unmatched in its offering, sport of national hunt racing will be at best neutered and at worst sacrificed.
If this sounds far-fetched then muse over the willingness to push this cold, soulless, All Weather game into our everyday lives. And the time window could be smaller than we think. Some are sprouting rumours that they have it on good authority that plans are afoot to remove the whip in as little as three years from now.
We are on the eve of a chaotic, exciting mid-season jumping bonanza with the King George Chase to top it all yet racing and Sky Sports News, are eager to inform us of the announcement made that a horse called General Tufto has been retired.
The New One retiring, that was worthy news, so too if it was shortly announced that the likes of Faugheen or Coneygree had encountered setbacks that hastened an end to their terrific careers.
But General Tufto? The amount of publicity given to his retirement would make a casual viewer think that he had been a rag to riches star. We had a recording of an emotional trainer being interviewed by an almost equally emotional Simon Mapletoft, which was repeatedly shown on the Sky Sports News loop.
Without being miserable and unjustly picky for a horse who won seventeen times in a long stretched out career, the reality is we are talking of an animal who raced off a highest rating of 75.
Operating from the basement, trainer Charles Smith has a handful of moderate animals. He reached double figures once, training eleven winners back in 2000. This year he looks to be emulating 2007 and 2008 where he failed to train a single winner.
Put it this way, when racing feels the pinch of the wholly correct decision to drastically cut the minimum stakes on the FOBTS, the arena for horses of General Tufto's quality will be smaller with fewer pickings up for grabs.
If would have been justified if we had been praising the nurturing of an animal from raw bottom of the basement beginnings into a high-class animal, as for example the fondly remembered Soba, bred for buttons by a dam bought for buttons.
In her juvenile career Soba managed a single place from nine starts. Then on to the following year, opening up winning her first six starts, which ended up eleven from fourteen, including a scintillating all the way success in the Stewards Cup, in which she lowered the course record.
On her previous outing she had trapped a nerve when well beaten at odds on which prompted John Garnsey to write in the Daily Express the day after the Goodwood victory, that her win ''heralded the return of the disabled'', and noted that ''she went down to the start bucking like a rodeo horse'', which led David Chapman to express concerns beforehand that her back was playing up.
On to the following year, 1983, it was only one of the outstanding female racehorses of all time, Habibti, that barred the way to sucess for Soba in the July Cup, William Hill Sprint Championship, and the Vernons Sprint Cup.
If All Weather racing had been in existence when Chapman was guiding Soba up through the ranks then she too would no doubt have been a regular on these surfaces in her early days. And there would have reached a time when she deservedly would have been covered on Sky Sports News loops.
In allowing General Tufto's retirement to receive an unwarranted amount of press coverage, it is taking time and space away from what would ideally suit a stable visit to one of the many true stars who will be running over the Christmas period.
It's akin to being back in the days when footage of your favourite bands were not available on tap on YouTube, or the numerous non-stop music channels, and you discovered Lieutenant Pigeon taking up the airspace that could have been afforded to Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Queen or The Rolling Stones
If you want small stable stars they should remind us of Sam Spinner, who is now going through a chapter of his story where a spanner has been thrown in. For longevity, there is the teenager Raz De Maree lining up for another crack at the Welsh National. But then again, that's probably a little too delicate. Old horses, obstacles, the concern over the viewers that won't approve.
Horses performing at the top end of the tree with humble backgrounds are commonplace in the winter game and while such as the Dream Alliance story deservedly was the subject of a documentary, there are many others that go untold.
Ashley Brook (in picture), for example, a thrilling top class two-mile chaser at his best from a small set up. Or Sunset Cristo, who finished third in the Cheltenham Gold Cup from Ray Hawkey's Stockton yard that in some editions of Horses In Training had one other animal in training, while sometimes it was Sunset Cristo alone.
Unfortunately, the willingness to broadcast the General Tufto story contains the dabs of yet another propaganda exercise. A sort of look at how happy and safe this horse has been racing for so long and with a happy retirement ahead. They are telling the casual viewer that this is the norm. They are standing on dangerous ground.
image taken by author
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