Anyone really believing that this flat season will be looked back at with any sort of fondness due to the unique close down, restart and catch up sequence in which it's being staged, is well wide of the mark.
This spoilt and blotchy programme, where the winners of many of the major races should be carrying an asterisk beside their names in roll of honor lists is one in which there is an urge to wish time away to the season's end, draw stumps, with the scorecards filed away in a locked room.
With one or two exceptions, the circumstances under which the season is unfolding have only gone and highlighted more than ever how a smaller number of 'associations' than ever before are in a position to mop up the showcase prizes at the very top end of the sport.
To make derogatory comments over the downhill direction in which the once restlessly awaited King George V1 Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes has been going for some time now is not to criticise a magnificent mare like Enable, whose campaign allied to her yet again remaining in training, would be an excellent advertisement for the sport if only the emerging generations took an interest.
On the other hand, despite a facile success the lack of opposition means the we will have to wait until later in the season to find out whether she is still capable of producing her very best as we are certainly none the wiser using Japan as a yardstick who is developing the profile of a messed up performer having looked to have finally arrived when taking last year's Juddmonte.
The fact that the midsummer Ascot showpiece event has for a while been hit and miss is one of the most lamentable developments in UK flat racing in recent times. It's not uncommon for the three year olds to be completely absent, with the French runners now being more welcome than ever as many follow the pattern of giving their top performers a mid season let down before building up to an Arc prep, a route that is not a proven path to sucess, as highlighted with the contrasting paths taken last year between Waldgeist and Sottsass
There have also been some very strange looking renewals. You still have to pinch yourself to take in that in 2015 Clever Cookie started at 4/1! Well, I suppose the ground was pretty testing, the field ordinary by normal standards, and didn't Brunico turn over the top notch Shardari in the mud in a running of the Ormonde.
Being fair, the last real celebrated Derby winner Golden Horn was set to line up after already taking in the Eclipse but connections withdrew late when conditions worsened. And the eventual winner Postponed was a likeable high class colt - nevertheless it was still an uninspiring renewal.
On the other hand, despite a facile success the lack of opposition means the we will have to wait until later in the season to find out whether she is still capable of producing her very best as we are certainly none the wiser using Japan as a yardstick who is developing the profile of a messed up performer having looked to have finally arrived when taking last year's Juddmonte.
The fact that the midsummer Ascot showpiece event has for a while been hit and miss is one of the most lamentable developments in UK flat racing in recent times. It's not uncommon for the three year olds to be completely absent, with the French runners now being more welcome than ever as many follow the pattern of giving their top performers a mid season let down before building up to an Arc prep, a route that is not a proven path to sucess, as highlighted with the contrasting paths taken last year between Waldgeist and Sottsass
There have also been some very strange looking renewals. You still have to pinch yourself to take in that in 2015 Clever Cookie started at 4/1! Well, I suppose the ground was pretty testing, the field ordinary by normal standards, and didn't Brunico turn over the top notch Shardari in the mud in a running of the Ormonde.
Being fair, the last real celebrated Derby winner Golden Horn was set to line up after already taking in the Eclipse but connections withdrew late when conditions worsened. And the eventual winner Postponed was a likeable high class colt - nevertheless it was still an uninspiring renewal.
To give Enable credit - there is more to her than than the hardy, concentrated constitution that allows her to come through each close season and retain the ability to win at the very top level. Of all the various ratings, rankings, course records, Group 1 victories attained, that fans will cite to support their assertion that one famous horse is better than another, the one boasted of most by long term racing fans would still be the best rating awarded by the Timeform organization, which in the case of Enable, has her on a peak of 134 which is only 2 lb behind the trio topping the best of all the fillies and mares since the end of WW2.
Admittedly, there are flaws in obsessing over such figures as they take no account of versatility in addition to also adding a subjective input in cases of wide margin winners, along with those winning without being stretched. Reference Point attained a 139 best, Nijinsky a 137 best, but we know which one was the superior animal - at all distances.
Still, as measures of ability the figures supplied by the Halifax based handicappers down the years will be referred to more frequently than other measurements of merit and on this basis we have it carved in stone that at her very best, certainly at the time of her 2017 Arc de Triomphe victory, she proved herself to be in the mix with the best of her sex over the past seventy five years.
The other real speck of light emanating through this strange season comes through the widely acclaimed feats of Stradivarius, returning yet again to the top of the stayer's league. Truth be told, if he's a Le Moss there is no Ardross to test him which is why it's a much needed boost to the season that he will now be concentrating on proving his worth in the middle distance sphere, with a crack at the Arc on the agenda.
Ardross himself produced a wonderful effort when narrowly failing to get up to win in Paris and with the Gosden horse carrying enough surplus when he made his seasonal debut in the Coronation Cup, hope remains that he still may be involved in the finish at Longchamp - it would certainly add some welcome spice to the season if he was able to put the wind up his stable bud.
And from a nostalgic point of view there is a link to a more pleasurable racing era as Stradavarius's third dam is no other than the Wildenstein's Pawneese who shone in the drought hit summer of 1976, when trained by Angel Penna to notch up a unique treble by winning the Epsom Oaks, French Oaks and King George.
For those who think the sport is not demeaned when the power is in so few hands should note that in the Epsom race the fourteen runners were represented by fourteen different owners and thirteen different trainers with Harry Wragg responsible for the third and fourth fillies home, African Dancer in the Oppenheimer colors, and Laughing Girl carrying the Moller silks. Thirteen different sires were represented with Sassafras being responsible for two runners.
In the King George the eleven runners were covered by ten different trainers and owners, with Penna and Wildenstein fielding Ashmore in addition to Pawneese, but not in a pacemaking role with the winner leading from the start. Eleven different sires were represented.
Ending on a brighter note; irrespective of whether the action will be unfolding before live audiences or not, once the jump season 'proper' swings into action during October it will be an asterisk free programme with the quality of the action out on the track unaffected by what has been happening in the wider world. Michael O'Leary's winding down of his involvement will be welcomed by many on both sides of the Irish Sea so there looks to be plenty to look forward to.
The other real speck of light emanating through this strange season comes through the widely acclaimed feats of Stradivarius, returning yet again to the top of the stayer's league. Truth be told, if he's a Le Moss there is no Ardross to test him which is why it's a much needed boost to the season that he will now be concentrating on proving his worth in the middle distance sphere, with a crack at the Arc on the agenda.
Ardross himself produced a wonderful effort when narrowly failing to get up to win in Paris and with the Gosden horse carrying enough surplus when he made his seasonal debut in the Coronation Cup, hope remains that he still may be involved in the finish at Longchamp - it would certainly add some welcome spice to the season if he was able to put the wind up his stable bud.
And from a nostalgic point of view there is a link to a more pleasurable racing era as Stradavarius's third dam is no other than the Wildenstein's Pawneese who shone in the drought hit summer of 1976, when trained by Angel Penna to notch up a unique treble by winning the Epsom Oaks, French Oaks and King George.
For those who think the sport is not demeaned when the power is in so few hands should note that in the Epsom race the fourteen runners were represented by fourteen different owners and thirteen different trainers with Harry Wragg responsible for the third and fourth fillies home, African Dancer in the Oppenheimer colors, and Laughing Girl carrying the Moller silks. Thirteen different sires were represented with Sassafras being responsible for two runners.
In the King George the eleven runners were covered by ten different trainers and owners, with Penna and Wildenstein fielding Ashmore in addition to Pawneese, but not in a pacemaking role with the winner leading from the start. Eleven different sires were represented.
Ending on a brighter note; irrespective of whether the action will be unfolding before live audiences or not, once the jump season 'proper' swings into action during October it will be an asterisk free programme with the quality of the action out on the track unaffected by what has been happening in the wider world. Michael O'Leary's winding down of his involvement will be welcomed by many on both sides of the Irish Sea so there looks to be plenty to look forward to.
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