AN EMPTY VOID THAT MAY NOT BE FILLED

Investment in National Hunt horses for keeping and racing is a costly hobby requiring a full on passion for the game and a willingness to accept that it's a pastime that will be operated at a long term loss, often a substantial one.

The big investors in the game have made their fortunes by entrepreneurship and shrewd business moves, and it will not come natural to them to enter a venture that is certain to result in a loss. Nonsense comments about age just being a number is no consolation to those who are alert to the fact of how big a worry for National Hunt racing it is, when the age of those who have been investing heavily long term is noted. These are supporters whose massive, sustained contributions are somewhat taken taken for granted.

Michael O'Leary announced that he would be winding down his substantial interest in National Hunt racing well before the Covid pandemic was even on the horizon. At the time he did not rule out a turnaround with fresh reinvestment at some stage in the future but in light of the devastating damage that the plague has had on the airline industry, that change of heart is very unlikely to ever happen. He is now 60 years of age.

J P McManus's continued support for yards up and down the country in both Ireland and England is something which no one really takes time to step back and consider that nothing lasts for ever. From the days of Jack of Trumps when Eddie O'Grady was his main trainer, McManus began to expand the trainers used and in many instances his support has been a lifeline for some operations.

McManus is now 70 years old. The time will soon arrive when he begins to wind down his interest and it is most unlikely anyone else will step in to fill the void. As a general rule the younger entrepreneurs would be less likely to become involved in operations were loss making on a large scale is assured, irrespective of the pleasures derived from.

Graeme Wylie became attached to racing relatively late on in life. After being part of the team that developed the Sage computer software, then sold his share off for an astronomical sum, he bought Lord Transcend who turned into a cracking performer at Howard Johnston's, the success resulting in Wylie investing heavily and being rewarded with some great equine contributors to the game, Inglis Drever and Tidal Bay leading the way, along with several other smart performers. 

He was faithful to Johnston in light of some sniping comments about how better he'd do if expanding the number of trainers he used. Once Johnston lost his licence, Wylie turned firstly to Paul Nicholls and Willie Mullins, to train the horses in his colours, then lately Mullins alone. The success with Johnston was never reproduced though the Mullins trained On His Own failed by inches to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Wylie is back in business developing a product to compete with Sage. He is almost certainly not going to be returning to racing - and to think we took it for granted that he'd be a prominent player in the game for the rest of his life.

Robert Ogden once had a cracking string of jumpers and there was a period when he brought Paul Carberry over as a retained rider for a three year spell in the second half of the 1990's. After they split Ogden continued with a string of forty odd quality jumpers. The striking Marlborough a real star in his own way and an important part of the jumping scene, Voy Por Ustedes ( in picture) a cracking two miler, Exotic Dancer a player in the big championship events, and who can forget how well Ad Hoc was travelling when brought down four out in Bindaree's Grand National.

Ogden long ago wound down his jumping string and will shortly be reaching 86 years of age. While Trevor Hemmings had now passed and his colours will gradually leave the scene. Just have David Johnston's have, and soon the Andy Stewart colours will have gone.

Yes, it's all very gloomy but there is a point to this. All these owners had a passion for the game that drove them to blank out their normal strict requirement to reap a financial gain because the reward of watching a National Hunt animal realise its potential and make it to the high grades was privilege worth paying for.

Though it's more of a subjective hunch than an objective fact with figures to back up the argument, there is no doubt whatsoever that the emerging owners are much, much less likely inclined to want to own National Hunt owners and more drawn to finding a juvenile on the flat that will be ready to go and bring some money back in and maybe attract some big offers from other parts of the word.

Richi Ricci seemed to appear from nowhere and could just as easily disappear as quickly. His patronage cannot be taken for granted while who know how long Noel and Valerie Moran will stay on the scene. It's a humbling thought that it only takes a few of these names to drop out ( they all will eventually, some sooner than others) to create a void that finding new investors to fill it may just not be possible.

image taken by author 

A famous opening track from a vintage album released shortly before Bright Highway won the Mackeson, and would have been in thousands of households when he followed up in the Hennessey. A time when the future of National Hunt racing seemed perpetually safe and secure.

CHRISTMAS READING

 

This is always a fitting time to restock on reading materials. In horse racing this is a process that offers a wider, historically deeper, and a more varied choice of delights than in all of the other sports.

And it's just as rewarding to track down some of the older publications than the recently reviewed offerings, some of which have been released to coincide with the Christmas period. Indeed, it's probably best for the dust to settle, then to consider a year or two down the line whether you think they are worth a read.

Two years to the month have past since the release of ' Our Honest Charlie Wood', a book that is clearly the result of author Josephine Carr painstakingly searching through the newspaper archives to chronicle the career of a rider originating from the slums of Hull to progress to be Fred Archer's greatest rival.

He won all five English Classics, including three Derbies, but his fortunes took a severe dip when he was away from action for a decade after being warned off. The book details his fight to clear his name, the powerful, influential cliques involved in the sport, and one cannot fail to be aghast at the the mind boggling amounts that riders bet on horses in those days. Well worth a read.

It's four years since the release of Henrietta Knight's  'The Jumping Game' which is a project that the former trainer set out to complete as part of the healing process after losing her long time partner Terry Biddlecombe. It involves her visiting twenty seven different trainers in Britain and Ireland, describing their training methods and adding personal comment.

These books are rarer than one would imagine. I can recall reading a book on training the racehorse by Tim Fitzgeorge Parker many, many years back, but off the top of my head am unable to name any similar books, which makes the Henrietta Knight publication even more welcoming.

It's notable how many handlers now, influenced by dressage, eventing and show jumping, work their animals in tack to encourage them to carry themselves in the correct shape with heads low, necks arched and backs curved. Some however stick to their traditional methods learnt from their masters, such as Alan King taking forward what he was taught from David Nicholson, including the short fuse.

Gordon Elliott originally picked up plenty from what he learnt from the Pipes, but turning full circle, David Pipe has now installed a short circular gallop made from Wexford Sand, which many have copied from Elliott who has utilised this gallop to maximum effect. Willie Mullins has a similar installation and there appears to be nothing out of the ball court in his modus operandi that accounts for his devastating run of big race successes.

Henry De Bromhead, like Elliott, has paddocks attached to each box, allowing the inmates to spend as much time in the open as they wish, while Venetia Williams's charges are turned straight out into fields after work and literally live outdoors during the day, are permanently caked in mud and only groomed before going to the races.

It's fascinating stuff, it really is, and it would great if a similar publication was penned on the top flat trainers. There can be no turning out in muddy fields for the big Newmarket yards and contrasting their approach with this return to nature approach, would be a thought provoking read. A retro publication looking at the  methods of  the trainers of the sixties and seventies would also appeal. 

On to an older publication but arguably one of the best racing publications ever, is ' Treasures of the Bloodstock Breeders Review' published in 1990 by the esteemed J.A.Allen & Co Ltd. The book is compiled by Ametican Leon Rasmussen who worked for Daily Racing Form for five decades, and former Jockey Club handicapper Miles Napier.

The Bloodstock Breeders Review was published annually from 1912 to 1979, and Rasmussen and Napier set about salvaging and reproducing the very best from the publication and have produced the best dip in and out racing book you can wish to read, and it's as good a read from start to finish too!

As an example of the delights contained in this book,there was a reproduction of an interview journalist Arthur W. Coaten conducted with legendary trainer John Osbourne jnr in 1917, the handler 84 years of age at the time. God knows what he would have made of the compressed weight range often seen in handicaps nowadays as he was bemoaning the gap from top to bottom a hundred years back and comparing it with the previous century, when a mare he trained, Alice Hawthorn, finished runner up in the Chester Cup giving away 5st 8lb to the winner!

Going back to books published even earlier, I managed to finally secure a copy of 'Classic Lines', to add to my copy of ' A Decade Of Champions' both narrated by Patrick Robinson with stunning template size paintings by Richard Stone Reeves. 

And for value, many of the old Timeform Annuals are available for buttons on eBay and I have now completed my collection for the 1960's. When good condition memorabilia is available so cheaply it is a sad sign of how the popularity of horse racing has dipped compared to half a century back. I also obtained a 1965 Raceform Annual from Lester Piggott's own library for sixteen quid, signed too. And anyone doubting authenticity should maybe try sticking a book on eBay, state that it's from the library of a famous person, and see how quickly they receive contact from a legal source.

Away from racing Roger Daltrey's ' Thanks A Lot Mr Kibblewhite' was an enthralling read for those who are fans of the traditional rock bands. And for the many who are still fascinated by the Cold War era,  'Stalin's Englishman' a metacilously researched book about the life of Guy Burgess, is unputdownable. And topically, books about Australian cricketers tend to be good reads and I'm presently enjoying Mark Taylor's 'Time To Declare'. It doesn't contain the shock and sleaze element of Shane Warne's ' No Spin' but is nevertheless very entertaining in its own way.

This multilingual lady from Switzerland has enjoyed a three decade long career on the European continent and is still going strong. Let's pretend this was released in December 1974 when Captain Christy prevented Pendil from achieving a hatrick of King George Chase victories.

SMALL DELIGHTS WITH BIG CONCERNS

You often have to search pretty hard nowadays to find aspects of horse racing to give credit to, particularly when it comes to visiting racecourses, something that on the majority of occasions has increasingly become more of a chore than a pleasure.

For those who now become unsettled amid the throngs who fill the cult courses or those the themed race days on almost any course, December is arguably the most suitable month to spend a day on track.There is something eerily attractive about National Hunt racing on those days when it never gets properly light, and the other seasonal elements come into play.

Aintree hosted an excellent card last weekend which included Grand National and Gold Cup winners of the past, plus plausible winners of those races in the future, along with an opening novice hurdle where the first three home all look smart animals in the making.

Although it was themed ' Christmas Party Day', there was thankfully no partying attendees on show - maybe they congregated in one of the indoor private suites but if they were they did not venture out. For those more than content to watch the action live outdoor, visit the paddock, view a race by the final flight of hurdles, view the first half of the Becher Chase on the embankment standing level with The Chair, and only going indoors to watch a race or two from Sandown, then the twenty quid paid for a Tatts ticket on the racecourse website was a bargain, a rarity to find given the types of attendees the courses openly court nowadays.

The Grand National course is a tribute version to the one that existed when the famous race provided a daunting test but it's still a sight to see a horse in rhythm leading the pack and Snow Leopardess ( in picture) being a grey in conditions where visibility was poor, added to the occasion.

Robbie Dunne has never had his name in lights more than at this moment. His mount in the closing event Pounding Poet was headed in the dying strides, and watching from railside as the two principals passing as they fought to the line, it crossed my mind that it could be a long time before Dunne was in the heat of action again - this less than an hour after Greaneteen had taken the Tingle Creek with Byrony Frost aboard. 

As things have transpired he had a losing ride the following day at Kelso, his last before his harsh punishment was handed out by the authorities, given that a good proportion of the evidence centered on in what context comments were made, on heresay, and even more bizarrely included evidence from a fence attendant relating to what he is supposed to have heard Dunne shout at Frost as the runners passed during a race.

ITV Racing have been discussing the case, along with the presently running Tylicki v Gibbons civil action case.Those fronting ITV racing claim that both cases are bad news for the sport and appear to be under the illusion  that they are bold in openly discussing them - even informing their ' younger audience' who in reality are non existent, that the weighing room hullabaloo is not the norm.

Truth is, many indifferent to the sport fail to appreciate how brutally dangerous and competitive it actually is. When riders are killed in action the amount of newsprint the reports take up are a small fraction of the coverage a fatality would receive in other sports. Furthermore, those taking no more than a passing interest in racing do not appreciate how dangerous falls in flat racing are.

As for the weighing room carry on - well, the more publicity it receives in the wider press, more of the general public will realise that it's a deadly serious sport swirling with bitterness, jealousy and some intimidation which are aplenty in all top level sports. In fact, this is not something that will turn potential fans away from the sport.

It cannot be repeated enough that the area in which the sweeping under the carpet takes place is that of the high wastage rate within the thoroughbred industry, something which is now out in the open and will eventually do untold damage to the game as apart from the betting angle, it's the animals themselves that form the biggest attraction in the game.

Admittedly, those within the thoroughbred section of the sport, many who have links with farming, will understandably wonder what all the fuss is about, coming into contact with abattoirs on a regular basis or even having to dispose of animals themselves - but at the end of the day horses stoke up sentimental feelings in many, unlike pigs or poultry, and until the Panorama programme was broadcast ( other documentaries  are sure to follow), it's amazing to how few realised how many animals leave training each year and how difficult it is to find second homes away from racing, with many such establishments relying on charitable donations and having no room at the inn.

There was a pleasant enough lady handing out small, rainbow patterned ' Racing is for Everyone' badges at Aintree last weekend.This alone can do no harm but one can't help wondering that with the political leanings of the rainbow groups often close to those of some of the animal liberation factions, those being invited in might take a look around their new sport then wish to lobby for radical changes that would at the very least put National Hunt racing in even more peril than its already in.

image taken by author 

This from another household name in Central and Northern Europe who is almost unknown here. This from 2005 but we can return to when racing was in better shape and pretend it was released the weekend when Father Delaney won the Massey Ferguson.