HAVING A REALISTIC PERSPECTIVE

The BBC now have a curious but distant relationship with horse racing. They completely washed their hands of it, look for the negatives first when reporting stories related to the sport on its websites, but curiously are happy to give it a reasonable spot of publicity on SPOTY.

Maybe this was helped last year by the fact that the award winner from the sport was a lady, which would have ticked the corporations diversity boxes. Whatever, come this December last weekend will be relived on the established awards show, not for a horse race that took place, but for the achievements of an Englishman in Kitzbuhel.

The first thoughts that come to mind when this famous skiing location is mentioned, concern a singer by the name of Hansi Hinterseer ( in picture) who is Kitzbuhel through and through and even represented the Austrian national team at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. 

Every time you turn on the telly in that country, Hansi is never far away and must be the most recognisable character in the nation, never seeming to age, his flowing long hair defying nature, while having some famous buds, such as Franz Beckenbauer, plus a nephew, Lukas Hinterseer, who has played first team football for Hamburg and is now with Hannover.

But now, this picturesque location will be linked first and foremost with Dave Ryding, who in winning the Kitzbuhel Slalom became the first ever British winner of a skiing event at World Cup level. From someone who learnt his trade on dry slopes, this is a story that will run and run and will rightly put a certain horse race from last weekend in its place.

That's not to say that the Clarence House wasn't a cracker, but to talk it up as though it was the race of all time would be daft -  for specialist two miles the Moscow Flyer v Well Chief v Azertyuiop  renewal of the Tingle Creek will go down in history as the superior. And for proper duels in the two mile chasing ranks, well, you'll never see a more stimulating one than the Bobsline v Noddy's Ryde clash in the 1984 Arkle, the rematch we sadly never got to see for the Greystoke animal was fatally injured at Exeter that Autumn.

Still, the race at least lived up to its billing with both of the lead players bringing their top game to the table - something that often fails to happen, and the rematch in the Champion Chase is already and rightly being plugged as the feature of this year's Festival. And this time they will battle for the most coveted prize in two mile steeplechasing, arguably the most exciting division of National Hunt racing.

It's something that can be looked forward too without needing to place it outside of its context by pretending that there is some national importance attached to it, which in the case of the achievements of Dave Ryding, there very much is.

It really is a futile exercise to pretend that horse racing is thriving and holding the same significance in the national psyche as it did forty, fifty, sixty years ago. How common it once was to have a photo of a horse or two adorn the walls of a public house. The Schweppes calendars were a common sight on the walls behind a bar. Wonderful items that began to go downhill when they changed from the posed portraits taken in the yard, jockey up with colours, to a calendar full of all action, over arty photographs.

The only race action photograph that consistently got in would be the Schweppes Hurdle itself, while both Night Nurse, Monksfield and Red Rum also had inclusions from races. You'd also get the odd home gallop image - both Wollow and The Minstrel were photographed in home gallops. But the overriding trend was to have the animals with race jockey in silks, taken in the yard.Most of the animals who made the calendar deserved their place though the company can be forgiven for including the Michael Stoute trained early season juvenile speedball Schweppeshire Lad in the late 1970's.

And though it may seem hard to believe now, there were collectible cigarette cards portraying top class horses and famous jockeys - most were absolutely delightful and though the status of the smoker and cigarettes have declined, you would be gobsmacked now if a bubbly gum maker, or cereal producer, introduced a series of collectables connected to horse racing - the footy cards are still very much as alive and as popular as ever but sadly the horse racing equivalents are something from the long past.

Wills, Players and Ogdens, brands from an age back but testimony to the respect and popularity of a sport when it was in the truly major category, when the jam was spread wider in both the National Hunt and Flat spheres with a higher number of trainers housing hopefuls for the top races, coming from numerically manageable strings.

The whole sport now has a colder, more mechanical feel to it and has seen its best days. In fact it has a most uncertain future in a society where some really weird notions can quickly become the mainstream norm. Magnifying its importance is unhelpful and serves no purpose. And as the whole show will soon be forced to downsize, probably best just best to make the most of what is left.

image by Robert K CC BY - SA 2.5

This was the opening track on a solid throughout album. Was also released on single and would of been prominent in the charts in Cheltenham week 1973, when Comedy of Errors won his first Champion Hurdle, and The Dikler took the Gold Cup.

NO ROOM IN THE CALENDAR FOR THIS HYPED UP, FANCY TITLED FARE

So, we have another eycatching set of of race titles, the invention not surprisingly the work of the ARC group. A completely needless and folly one in an attempt to pretend the UK now has a mid winter equivalent to the Dublin Racing Festival which class wise will show itself to be in a different stratosphere and having much greater significance in relation to the Spring festivals.

It is baffling why the fixture list is not more strictly regulated. We already had a perfectly good and long established January weekend fixture list that had been subject to gradual, sensible changes down the years but was not in need of sudden meddling. This set of ‘Winter Million’ contests, staged on Friday and Sunday is seeing an overall result of fields not worthy of the prize money on offer.

In the 1970’s the main race on the Ascot card was the Blue Circle Cement Chase, a two mile handicap in which the mighty Bula carried 12st 3 lb to victory in 1975. The following year another class act, Royal Relief, who had twice won the Champion Chase in his earlier years, carried the famous Edward Courage colours to victory, belying his advancing years.

Newcastle had a card on the same day with the 3m 6f Northern Trophy Handicap Chase going to the progressive Forest King, who beat future Grand National winner Rubstic who was at the time trained by Gordon Richards.

After the Blue Circle was discontinued, Ascot hosted what had been one of Haydock Park’s jewels in the crown, the former Embassy Premier Chase final which now carried the name of Lambert & Butler. The first staging at Ascot was in 1981, the race game falling to the hardy Arthur Moore chestnut Royal Bond. Elsewhere on the card a certain Corbiere won the staying novices chase , a race in which another future star Bregawn hit the deck.

There was tragedy too when one of the prominent support players of the greatest hurdling era ever, Kybo, lost his life in the Jock Scott Handicap Chase. The race was won by Henry Kissinger, who beat Bueche Giorod, who both won showcase handicap chases during their careers. Back in third was the now ten years of age Night Nurse, giving away a full two stone to the first two.

Looking through the results in Chaseform Note Book, one cannot help wondering whether the esteemed race reader John Sherratt, who was writing the close ups for Raceform that day, had had a good bet on the Fred Winter trained Brown Chamberlin who was beaten into second by Sir Gordon in the closing novice hurdle.

Those of us old enough to have been fully immersed in the sport at the time may recall that this future Sun Alliance Novice Chase and Hennessy Gold Cup winner, and runner up to Burrough Hill Lad in an above average renewal of the Gold Cup, was talked up right from his early days.

Of the defeat on this day, Sharratt wrote; “ If this is taken at face value, is no more than an average novice for he was slaughtered by the strong gallop of the winner from the second last. A factor in any false assessment, if such it be, is the style of Francome. Like Lester Piggott on the Flat, his mounts so often seem to be on the bridle, with a ton in hand, whereas in reality there is very little left.”

Haydock Park’s Peter Marsh Chase was introduced in 1981 in an era when the North of England had a level in quality of National Hunt horses in training that made it the most powerful region in the sport. That running was staged the week after the aforementioned Ascot card, the race won by Little Owl who would go on and take the Gold Cup just less than seven weeks later.

Richdee beat the enigmatic Derring Rose in the opening Premier Long Distance Hurdle, while the two mile handicap chase was won by a certain Rathgorman who would go on to be victorious in that year’s Champion Chase. The Champion Hurdle Trial saw the previous season’s unfortunate Triumph Hurdle loser Starfen make the most of the seven years in age he received from an ageing great from the seventies, Bird’s Nest.

In 1982 the corresponding Ascot fixture was snowed off but one week later Haydock escaped the elements  to see a climbing quickly upwards through the ranks Bregawn take advantage of the 19 lb he received from Night Nurse to claim the prize. However the day is probably better known for more solemn reasons.

In the Haydock Park Champion Hurdle trial the exciting Celtic Ryde, known for being able to produce a highly effective turn of foot coming from behind and who went into the race with his stock higher than ever  before, went from cruising approaching the second last, to being a lifeless corpse in a split second, appearing to break his neck in a sickening fall.

I recall being in the stands and witnessing someone dressed like a racing professional, late forties, with tears streaming down his face as he lowered his binoculars. The front page of that Monday’s Sporting Life had the image of jockey leaning over the rails sobbing moments after the fall.

There have been some compelling renewals of the Peter Marsh since, with the most two recent Northern trained Cheltenham Gold Cup winners, The Thinker and Jodami, both winning the event but overall it’s significance in the calendar is not quite as important as it once was.

Ascot reintroduced a two mile showcase handicap to its main January card in the late eighties, sponsored initially by Victor Chandler and whose first ever running was not surpassed for excitement levels, Desert Orchid giving a mountain of weight to Panto Prince and running him down after Brendan Powell’s mount typically got away from the last in his customary slick fashion.

The race then morphed into the Graded conditions race that it has now become. It was an absolute cracker today though there was no need to wheel out Brough Scott to claim that it was up there with the Arkle v Mill House clash, two great champions, one undisputedly the greatest National Hunt horse ever. None of today’s protagonists are champions in open company yet. One at least probably will be but that dual today was stimulating and did not need any outlandish claims attached to it.The  crowd did not look particularly large, the noise clearly exaggerated by the broadcasters microphones, and the so called vocal adulation of Nico De Boinville sounded like drunken football style chanting. 

But all in all January does not need tampering with. The quality of National Hunt animals in the UK is overall way below those on the other side of the Irish Sea and cramming new, valuable events into the fixture will dilute the quality of the feature races even more, giving them a half bare cupboard look.

Let’s just hope those behind this ‘Winter Million' nonsense have a change of heart and this proves to be a one off.

This catchy glam pop tune was prominent in the charts on that weekend when Royal Relief triumphed in the Blue Circle.

A SPORT FALLING APART

Both world wars aside, there can never before have been a beginning to the year with so little to look ahead to in the UK horse racing arena.The cracks cannot be papered over anymore and those inside the racing bubble will, if it hasn't dawned on them already, realise they are aboard a stranded, leaking ship.

Make no mistake, away from the glamour yards at the top of the pyramid there are a multitude of trainers close to breaking point, operating at a loss or at best minuscule gain not worthy of the hours put in and the stress endured.

These trainers have owners who are in businesses likewise in perilous positions. Realistically, all knew there would be a massive financial backlash to the sport from the covid fall out but have sat with fingers crossed hoping in vain that it would pass by. 

Now the situation is worse than imagined with energy costs, inflation, and many cutting their cloths accordingly, all in the process of taking their toll on the sport. And it's no good pointing to prize money increases at the venues that are part of the Jockey Club portfolio. Many of these are the creme de la creme of the British racecourses that serve in the main the relatively small number of operators at the summit of racing's pyramid.

It's a sport fit for downsizing and God knows what will be left. Maybe a Dubai type scenario where there is a limited number of meetings, all with attractive prize money, but with only a few dominant owners and trainers involved, many inter connected.

It's important to remember that long before the plague appeared, the sport was pressed with troubles and the future uncertain. We had racing professionals going on strike to protest at what they considered to be pitiful prize money at the courses under the ARC banner. Not unconnected was the fact that the racing proportion of the gambling pie continued to decline in relation to other sports.

Examining what the sport is doing to try and reverse this decline leaves one concluding there is ultimately nothing that can be put in place to turn things around. Far, far too late for that and it's probably best not to get irked and instead sit back and chuckle at some of the dimwitted projects put into action to address the the mess that sport is finding itself in.

The decision to continue with the totally absurd ' Racing League' in 2022 is testament as to how out of touch those pulling the strings are with what ingredients are truly required to draw in souls to the game and have them become truly smitten with it, and lifelong punters too.

The fact that this nonsense will this year be broadcast on ITV racing tells all you need to know about the direction the sport is going. I wonder how they will excuse a run of six Saturdays that will have good grade handicaps with smaller, lower quality fields as a result of this Thursday hullabaloo.

What is even more comical is the belief that the concept will make newcomers look at the team concept as they do with the ultimate glamour sport of Formula One. There is no contest as one of these sports sits on a different plain to the other.

To demonstrate this; imagine a racing fan who has had the sport as his main interest and hobby in life. This person follows other sports with Grand Prix racing fifth in list of preferences. Now, our imaginary character is given the choice of a pass for the weighing room for a days racing at one of the showcase meetings, or a pit lane pass for qualifying day for a Grand Prix - there is no need to include race day as we know that even Grand Prix qualifying is far more popular with sporting TV viewers than horse racing.

Anyone who says they'd rather wander around and observe proceedings in the weighing room than the pit lane is either fibbing, or in a small minority. For even those who have lifelong affection for the racing game could not fail to recognize that the buzz, allurement and fabulous aura emanating from Formula One, make it a sport that racing should not attempt to mimic in any shape or form.

It's easy to have the mind overflowing with such negative feelings on the back of a Monday to Friday that that must be in the reckoning for the worst five consecutive days of racing in the past fifty years. But to let the odd stimulating weekend card kid you that all is OK would be folly.

This is going to be one hell  of a bad year for UK horse racing.

image from Wikipedia  - CC BY- SA 2.0 de

This from a performance just days after Bula won his second Champion Hurdle,and Glencaraig Lady took the Gold Cup. Bolan did not have the voice of the ultimate great singers but he had presence in adundance.