September flashed past with nothing much positive happening on the UK racing front, though at least there was enough in house criticism of the Racing League to give real hope that this stomach churning concept will now be dispensed with.
It was likewise encouraging that two leading National Hunt trainers took a swipe at the summer jumping programme, with its low quality small fields, in which they called to a return to a proper break. Of course, many will recall the days when the season ended at the beginning of June and restarted on the Saturday of Glorious Goodwood - Nassau and Chesterfield Cup Day, the Stewards Cup then run earlier in the week on the Tuesday.
This was when jump racing was permitted on ground described as 'Hard', and cards would be littered with three and four runner events with walkovers being commonplace. Milton Bradley would make hay and it was a situation that John Jenkins would capitalise on, teaming up regularly with John Francome who'd notch up plenty of early winners in his quest for the rider's title.
If we returned to a two month break the restart would be staged in conditions ensuring more contestants but whether it would guarantee an improvement on what we have now is a moot point. The opening Chepstow fixture trundled into action with relatively poor quality fields compared with most past renewals of this meeting
With Ireland now more dominant than ever before the jumping arena there are going to be many UK weekends holding cards that don't inspire at the level they have done in the past. Sundays in Eire are increasingly the centre point of the jumping season. They not only hold superior quality novice hurdles and novice chases to the UK, but also have regular highly valuable handicaps that attract large fields. The Graded events are inevitably smaller in field size but are again overall higher in quality than the equivalent events here.
In fact I cannot remember approaching a National Hunt season with as little relish as I do for this one.Not only are the Saturday's going to be overall lower in quality than ever before - we are going to increasingly see races spoilt through fences being cordoned off at the last moment due to low sunlight, something the makes a mockery of the very nature of the sport and a requirement that was not needed for the sport to operate until relatively recently.
We also have theme days attached to meeting after meeting.So much so that one of the most attractive days to go racing for a racing fan is Becher Chase day on the first weekend in December. It now consistently attracts a good quality card but the limited daylight hours and cold and miserable weather turn off the party racegoers, creating a peaceful heavenly atmosphere. Only the card only payment policy brought in sneakily through the back door with the help of Covid prevents this day from ticking every box.
A further note of caution that tempers optimism is that the course has been emailing customers inviting them to nominate a band who they'd like to see perform - it's certainly not racing as we know it and testament to the fact that almost every venue now views the actual racing as mere support to the chief aim, which is to create a large, lucrative day long party.
We had yet another clueless fibber on TV at the weekend, faking enthusiasm for the future of the sport in this country, boasting of the initiatives of allowing free admittance for juniors along with a focus of drawing in large numbers of students.
Truth is that none of this guarantees any worthwhile future patronage. Has anyone ever spoken to a modern day student? You can spot them on course, they'll be the ones referring to the horses by numbers. Nearly all of them would happily see the horses go back home and be replaced by motor bikes racing around the track. They'd also be targetable recruitment material for those who want horse racing wiped off these shores.
And in the wider world there exists a continuation of concerning issues threatening the existence of the sport here. The news that three prominent charities who have worked with the greyhound industry in attempt to increase what they considered an unacceptable level of fatalaties are now calling for the sport to be phased out.
This is a story that has received coverage in the national newspapers, presented in a style that will likely tempt many to jump on the bandwagon. Around thirty years back this sport was dragged through the mud when it was revealed that hundreds of ex racing greyhounds each year were packed off each year to Spain to be got rid of, with many being dispatched by means of being hung alive from tree branches.
Problem is, as this real threat to the greyhound racing industry receives wider publicity, not only will the after racing welfare of these docile, gentle beings come under scrutinisation again, but the answers that will need to be solid and convincing are also going to have to be found by those in the horse racing industry as all of the arguments for ending greyhound racing could equally apply to horse racing.
Those believing that there is widening light at the end of the tunnel for UK racing should think again. The problems are mounting, seemingly by the week, and instead of adopting the futile exercise of trying to ‘force’ the sport on the uninterested younger generations, it would be best to respectfully allow their enthusiasm for the other surviving and thriving sports to continue without interference.
Racing was in a good place in August 1978, the month the final really good album from The Who was released for the album which followed in 1981, Face Dances, was a shocker.
