SHARING THE HOUSE WITH A FOE

We have for some time adopted phrases, mannerisms and in vogue pastimes from the United States. Irrespective of the merits or lack of originality of this trend, it's all pretty futile and harmless; that is until a change occurs that, if adopted here, would have potential drastic consequences for a pastime that is also an industry.

When news broke that following the spate of deaths at the esteemed Santa Anita racetrack. the Stronach Group are allowing on board the People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals (PETA) organisation into the decision making process that touches upon the way forward to make racing safer, most could not have failed to be left a little gobsmacked.

This remember, is the land where many of its prominent sportsmen proudly list ' hunting, shooting, fishing'  as their hobbies, and which in the sport of horse racing has a claim that the show it put on in the 1970's, exhibited the sport at a previously incomparable level, and one that has not been equalled since.

A look at the PETA website makes it depressingly clear that they are not an organisation that seek sensible solutions. They are clearly not there to be turned . They describe horse racing as a sport in which the horses are," whipped into submission and end a race sweating and exhausted  often with debilitating injuries - if they survive at all."

Amusingly, they encourage punters to boycott betting on the sport and to bet instead on a football match or sports where the contestants are ' willing participants.'  I'm not sure if they know that this is already the trend with the under forties generation in the UK. Not for perceived animal cruelty, more for the fact that they have been brought up with the explosion in sports betting and are unlikely to be won over by packed to the rafters fixture lists of, in the main, dreary cards.

And with the recent relaxion of the rules which is allowing betting on general sports on a fixed odds basis in an increasing number of states, PETA are receiving happenstance help in their aims from another source.

If those that pull the strings in the USA racing allow a body hostile to the sport to be party to the decision making process, then God forbid it to be a trend that makes it's way over here, for PETA, a world organisation, founded by an English born lady, make the RSPCA look tame by comparison.

Back in the 1980's, the then editor of the Sporting Life, Monty Court, would produce his Court Circular column on page three every Saturday. On one occasion, he penned an article in defence of allowing the RSPCA to be part of the official chatter on horse racing welfare issues, not least the push for changes to the Grand National course.

He even described the RSPCA officer representing the organisation on racing matters as a ' horse racing fan' . At the time the alarm signals were ringing in many people's ears realising that once you allow a body aboard such as the RSPCA, then it is acknowledgement that you cannot run your own house. Their concerns were ignored.

This unnecessary yielding was also the beginning of what was a slippery slope and at some point in the future, if racing continues dialogue with hostile bodies, it may be viewed as the beginning of the end - for national hunt racing at least.

Returning to the 1970's; we had a heady start to the decade with Nijinsky, Mill Reef and Brigadier Gerard all showing their greatness in the early part of the period. Then, from soon after until the decade end, stateside was the centre of attention.

Three Triple Crown winners in the revered Secretariat, Seattle Slew (pictured) and Affirmed. Then at the end of the period Spectacular Bid who failed to lift the crown but some considered him on par with the others. Connections of the colt even tried to tempt Troy across for a match race in 1979. Troy would have had to do the travelling but the race would be on grass. Troy's connections did not take up the offer.

Although the breeding industry remains incredibly strong in Kentucky, there is no contest when matched with it forty odd years back.

As an example, I pulled out an old copy of the July 1978 edition of Pacemaker International. As well as containing a preview of the forthcoming Keeneland Sales, which was staged earlier then in latter times, there was also a feature on the powerful Claibourne Stud, also situated in the Bluegrass State.

The magazine contained a Coolmore Castle Hyde Stud advert on the first two pages. Fourteen stallions were listed on the roster, the national hunt wing headed by Deep Run who would dominate the 1980's, with the ten flat stallions including Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Rheingold, Mount Hagen, Home Guard and Thatch. Oddly enough, the only name missing from the advert was Be My Guest, who was standing his first season at stud there. He would go on to be the Coolmore's first recognised flat champion sire in 1982.

In 1978 Ireland was less than ten years into Charles Haughey's removal of tax on stallion profits and still had a long bridge to cross to compete with the power of the North American industry. This is evident when returning to the Claibourne feature and the stallions on the roster. It was like a pack of cards full of aces.

Nijinsky, Sir Ivor, Forli, Ack Ack, Hoist The Flag, whose son Alleged would be winning his second successive Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe in a few months time, before retiring himself to Walmac International in the same state. There was also a certain Secretariat on the roster, who would  ultimately not live up to expectations in his second career.

This is only a snapshot using just one of the many big name stud farms to show the power that the American racing and bloodstock industries held. It's still very much alive if less dominant. But there is no knowing what awaits around the corner. This latest hullabuloo may blow over but might begin to stigmatise and weigh the sport down. If it's not going to end well, we don't want it catching over here.

image author Pawneese - reproduced under creative commons license

A BAD WEEK OUT OF THE BLUE

It's probably a good thing for racing that the many who dip in and out of all the main sports have been spoilt rotten over the past couple of weekends, with racing playing no part in the fest.

Thankfully, this means that they will have been spared the sight of the dirty laundry hung out on a long line. Negativity coming from within the game, with some voices actually admitting that they feel the future of the sport is under threat.

It all sounds a bit too dramatic. When the build up to the King George V1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes should be in full flow along with the first jigsaw pieces of the big Goodwood meeting, looming dark clouds were formed needlessly by those within various sectors of the sport.

They arise from two areas. The first allied to an arrogant insistence that some are able to read the mood of the general public. This relates to the welfare issues, or should it be said the visual welfare issues, as the big black mark of over production wastage, is something that the general public are oblivious too.

Instead, some within the sport deem it wise yet again to stir up the imaginary topic of whip abuse, though it has been proven as far as it possibly can that modern air cushioned whips do not cause physical pain.

Never mind that though, there is an insistence to clean up what some believe the general public view as unsavoury images. In fact it was mooted this week that some emerging sponsorship outlets would not touch racing because of the whip.

We are told that we live in a changing world, but in reality the agendas of the the broadcasting companies who provide us with the bulk of our news feeds is to increasingly state their beliefs or wishes as fact, without any solid source of proof.

No idea whether these people actually mingle with the general public. If they did they would find that firstly, people with even a passing interest in horse racing nowadays are a rarity, and that secondly whether they are interested or not, whips are not a hot topic. In fact you will find that those who may have the odd bet, or a socialising day at the races, would be disappointed if the jockey on the horse carrying their money did not pick up and use the cosh.

These  people are the true barometer.Not the ones that automatically sign petitions on the internet to support the groups they are aligned to. Instead of what should be redundant discussions over the whip, those within the sport who have influence should instead be concentrating on how to defend the wastage issue, because some time soon it is something they will have to form a defence over.

Those entrusted with the responsibility of covering live coverage of the sport craftily highlight the good news stories about retired racehorses finding new careers and pastimes in re training centres, leaving out the hard truth that no matter how excellent the work of these centres are, they are few and far between and can only cater for a small number of inmates.

Then, there are the missing numbers from the number of foals born to the number that enter training. This sadly is something that can never be put right, but if it should be discussed in the political arena in the near future, something entirely possible, then those who speak for the sport better have a measured response that offers some sort of reassurance.

And coming from the other direction is now a concern that a future Labour Government may seek to limit the extent of gambling on real life sports. It would be seen as atonement in repairing what they would view as the damage inflicted by their in house foes New Labour who permitted the introduction of the dreaded FOBTS just after the millenium.

It is hard to believe that some cannot or will not distinguish between FOBTS and flesh and blood sporting events. We have a nanny state that gives blessing to parents having official letters sent to them stating that their children are too fat, a climate where people who suffer from normal inflictions such as anxiety are encouraged to seek a medical diagnosis and take wasteful medications, and a climate where the safe weekly level of alcohol units has come down to a bottle and a half of wine a week, from a bottle a day back in the 1970's.

Now there is a concern that they'll forcefully wrap punters in protective blankets. Stripping this issue bare, if you asked a punter for an estimate of how much betting on live sports events had cost them  down the years, then asked them to work it out how much that would be weekly, and then suggested they could have done something different with the money, then what would the answer be ?

Destroyed their livers by increasing their alcohol intake, destroyed their brains by dabbling in drugs, bought brand label clothes that impress nobody, bough more fancy modern electrical goods that will go on the blink not long after the guarantee has run out, a fancy car that depreciates in value straight after the sale and eats up more regular expensive that your punting costs, or an extra holiday so good that you need to take a book to read.

I recall speaking to a former work colleague who had been on and won Sale Of The Century in the 1970's. Apparently, before you choose which of the main prizes to pick, Nicholas Parsons would take you to one side off the camera and strongly advise against the holiday on the basis that when it's over you've nothing left to show for it.

For all of us, probably 99%, who lack discipline in punting, who throw in the odd chasing spell, the odd playing up spell, undoing any good work done, then this is where we've been going wrong all long. We should have been saving up our would be stakes and investing in antiques and ornaments instead.

Of course, in reality the whole modern day charade is all box ticking dressed up to suit modern interfering edicts that proclaim to be a sign of a more caring society than those nasty 1970's

Rigsby, Paula Wilcox, Richard O'Sullivan, Sid James, Basil Fawlty and Spike Milligan. Give me the glowing, warmer, safer free speaking world of that era anyday.

image pixabay licence

A DAY TO YAWN OVER

Even without any distraction from the modern day God of football, we are now immersed in what is arguably the busiest and most important sporting weekend of 2019 in Great Britain. Horse racing is involved but the drawback is that the few quality events are lost in a maze of endless handicaps after handicaps.

The race many of us still fondly refer to as the Magnet Cup has terrific prize money on offer but this produces what is now the norm in valuable handicaps; a compact weighed field that renders it unlikely for a progressive three year old brimming with potential to get into the race.

It is not only the unexposed maiden or conditions winner from a showcase yard that will not make the cut; even the progressive handicappers from the classic crop tend not to have attained a rating high enough at this stage of their careers. And anything that fits that rare but pulse racing category of one who has shown themself a different beast since the weights were framed, would be just as unlikely to have the rating to get a run.

These events yearn for the extra angles they once offered. A  runner in the Medicean mould would have had today's event buzzing. After the framing of the weights for this race back in 2000, he showed himself a high class colt to finish a close third third behind Giant's Causeway in the St James Palace Stakes.

We know he ran disappointingly, never getting into the thick of things from an outside draw, but his presence was the talking point on the run up to the race. It grabbed the attention. Side with him or against him. A poser that may have endeared a few new people to the game.

Medician did eventually win two Group One events. The rating he raced off at York, a 102 on the strength of successes in conditions events, would have gained him access on the 2019 final line up but that is generally not the norm now.

The pattern changes in the heart of Autumn with most of the slow maturing three year olds who are potentially Group class showing a tangible level of form by this stage to make the cut in these events. As an example, even Halling would have got in by the skin of his teeth in last year's Cambridgeshire.

What would benefit from addressing though is the fact that up to and including the Ebor meeting this is rarely the case, with most of the progressive three year olds now finding themselves rated out of these races.

This is not to say that the massive prize money injection into the Ebor itself is not welcome. The sight of Listed and Group class horses, some still on the upgrade with the potential to reach the top, racing in big field events run at a true pace is far preferable to a six runner, tactically run Group 3.

What would add a welcome arm to a race of this status would be a potential St Leger winner taking his place in the field. The chances of this would be secured by going with the spirit of the day and having quotas, whereby say for example three places are reserved for the three year old entrants with the three highest ratings.

Understandably, if you were connected to an older horse who under the present rules would have got in you would be raging by your place being stolen by a lower rated animal, but for the good of the game it would surely be worth it.

Some would say that the three year olds now have their own valuable Ebor in the Melrose, not to mention that the Great Voltigeur is there for the Leger horses. But the Voltigeur is hardly going to be damaged by probably no more than one entrant being diverted and adding oomph to the Ebor.

Come to think of it, when was the last time an Ebor winner was considered a serious St Leger  challenger?  Probably Mediterranian eighteen years back who was to be pulled up after sustaining an injury at Town Moor. But before then you have to go back to Guy Harwood 's grey Crazy after his York success under Walter Swinburn in 1984.

Three three year olds ran in that renewal, all winners in handicaps last time out and reappearing under penalties. Joining  Crazy, who had won at Newmarket, were two Epsom trained runners. The Geoff Lewis trained Rough Pearl was backed down to 3/1 favouritism after a comfortable success at the big Goodwood meeting. The other in the category was John Sutcliffe's Diabolical Liberty, another winner from the same festival.

The presence of these three added that something little extra to the race. It took little away from the following race on the card, the Great Voltigeur as nothing stood a chance with Rainbow Quest anyway.

Crazy next ran the race of his life in an above standard renewal of the final classic, finishing fourth, beaten less than two lengths by the superb Commanche Run.

And to hammer home the sparkle that those of classic age can add to a race like this, how about 1976, with Ryan Price's Sir Montagu, another arriving after a comfortable success at Goodwood, taking up the running before three furlongs out on the Knaveshmire and drawing clear under Willie Carson to win by eight lengths pulling up.

Another three year old, the Michael Stoute trained Shangamuzo finished third. He would win the 1978 Ascot Gold Cup. Oddly enough, the runner up at York was the future Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Alverton, then a six year old.

Returning to the Magnet Cup; it's thirty six years since the admirable and future top class Bedtime won the race off  7st 9lb. Since then, ten three year olds have taken this prestigious event but signficantly none since Wigmore Hall in 2010. This is unlikely to change today and this is to the detriment of these events.

It cannot be repeated enough that a love for the sport will result in lifetime punting. Apart from the July Cup it is mainly bland fare on offer today in which those looking into the sport are more likely to be put off than drawn in.

Fields of mainly exposed solid stalwarts are all good and well but these showcase handicaps need the conundrum of a runner that gets the fizz into the fans. We seem to remember these runners years after, far more so than your win in turn horses. Unfortunately, the valuable handicaps run today will pass by unoticed and soon forgotten, something that is becoming the norm on most weekends now.

image in public domain