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
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