Toward the end of its days, each Waterloo Cup was staged amid the speculation of will it, or won't it, be the last ever one. For fans of National Hunt racing, irrespective of their thoughts on hare coursing, the Altcar event could be viewed as a protective buffer between jump racing and the animal rights alliances.
Admittedly, racing had to fasten up for a rocky ride for a couple of weeks after the occasional Grand National weekend, but overall it was a sport in the clear if not quite in the untouchable zone.
When Dark Ivy fell to his death at Bechers in the 1987 running of the Grand National, the fall out that followed and the authorities response to it, shows by comparison how the racing powers have now become jittery and over reactive to almost all incidents that they feel cast a negative image on the sport.
As was the norm during the 1970's and 1980's, decades when the numbers opposed to racing far outweighed those of today, the Sunday newspapers each carried a picture of the deceased animal, along with quotes from those who demanded change.
Criticism of the most feared obstacle in the sport was not confined to those on the outside. John Oaksey had long been of the opinion that the fence was a trap, and once, during a Channel 4 broadcast, added that all drop fences were traps. The Timeform organisation too were of the belief that the slope on the landing side of Bechers needed levelling with the brook filled in.
The Jockey Club held an investigation involving Aintree officials and the RSPCA. The resultant finding was that racing's ruling body concurred with the course committee that the obstacle was a fair one and did not require any modification.
So the race that formed the window to the sport in the UK looked a long way away from becoming the 'Grand National In Name Only Chase ', the future of National Hunt racing was safe and secure, the buffer that was the Waterloo Cup was still eighteen years off being stripped away, and from a global perspective the sport of horse racing had far more years ahead of it than behind.
Oh Jesus how things have changed ! And this in an environment that the opposition to the horse being used for sport is grossly exaggerated by crafty utilisation of social media, akin to a small posse of Gremlins gaining access to the control room of the national electricity grid.
Those rocky rides for the sport now occur weekly instead of annually. These meticulously organised opponents of horse racing are firing bullets from all angles in all corners of the globe, doing untold damage by stirring fear into the authorities who give them credibility by backing down and attempting appeasement.
The impression given going into the Breeders Cup meeting last weekend made you think that a full force of the the anti racing brigade were somewhere near with an artillery of bulldozers, cranes, lorries and freight containers, ready when given the signal to go in and dismantle Santa Anita. They had to wait until the very last race for a fatality to arise, so the whole saga will continue on to its next chapter and there is much to be worried about.
In Australia, the powers that be ridiculously stating a belief that the way forward for the sport was for the whip to completely go, does not yet register in the light of the fall out of the secretly recorded footage of healthy racehorses being abused prior to being slaughtered in an abattoir.
Let's face it; we probably knew this sort of thing happened. The gruesome case involving the top class globetrotter Exceller, was an eye opener for many, though just like when we dig in to our meat, poultry and offal, we really don't care to think about these matters. But it should not surprise many; I would guess the mental balance of those wishing to work in abattoirs is overall less stable than, for example, someone striving for a position as a librarian.
Then back home we have a journeyman rider chipping away, hoping for a break, who is now left wondering whether his career is over after an oversight caused an elastic band to remain on his whip which caused marking on his mount.
The rider has not only been disciplined but has had to endure threats to his self on social media including a wish the he ended up in a wheelchair. In retrospect these should not have been alluded to by both the rider and the media, as it is almost certain that the intention was to give the perpetrator a feeling of achievement by putting his deed in the limelight, something for his scrapbook.
Finally, if all this hasen't been enough, there was then the stupid city racing issue, something many hoped would go away, raising its ugly head again. And this time the omens are not good for those vehemently opposed to the concept, for it would seem they have progressed far more than we could have imagined.
They now are far enough down the line to name the first venue which is The Strand on Liverpool City centre waterfront. This is a total recipe for a grim happening that would do untold damage to the sport.
The iconic location is capable of pulling in large summer weekend family crowds from a highly populated catchment area. Any sensible racing affiacionados will keep clear but will rightly fret over the possible consequences of it all going pear shaped.
What happens if there is a fatality amongst the horses ? This cannot be hidden. The venue is surrounded by high buildings in which the mobile cameras will be clicking away. The pictures will be all over social media, and what better click bait could you find for a newspaper website - a time frame montage. Pictures of children laughing and sharing an ice cream with their parents, then disaster strikes, glimpses of a horse carrying a catastrophic injury, then the children again, now with tears replacing the laughter.
The prospect of city racing could not be summed up better than by that of a poster on the Betfair Forum who warned the idea is " ....rolling the dice with the whole future of the sport." Hopefully those in power will take heed before it is too late.
image in public domain
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