GOOD FRIDAY GARBAGE DAY

It's a great historic race that once attracted the soon to be immortal Sceptre, a race where those names on that Totopoly board up in the loft came from, and one that up to relatively recent times had an important place in the calendar

Last Saturday's Lincoln stood up to scrutiny with the best renewals of the past forty years, boasting a winner and runner-up that will both win in Group company this season, and that's something, at the beginning of the time window, the likes of Captain's Wings and Fair Season never achieved despite finding roles as stallions.

It deserved better but crammed into a disorderly fixture list a casual viewer of the sport would have had to look hard to find the event. No build up from January onwards as was once the case, the relentless and expanding AW game now meaning that you don't see the race approaching anymore.

Moreover, the concept of the ' Spring Double'  that was once very much alive with all and sundry feeling obliged to link a conversation about an upcoming Lincoln with one about the Grand National, has vanished.

Twice from the seventies onwards there were periods when the Lincoln's future was far more assured than the Grand National. Remember when the prospect of losing Aintree as a racecourse became a distinct possibility and how it was mooted whether the race should be allowed to pass away.

Alternative venues were put forward to stage the race. Newmarket was a strange one,  Haydock Park a more realistic alternative, with the other name bandied about being Donny.

Now, the Lincoln would benefit greatly from a renewed link with the Grand National, while the Aintree race, although an imitation of the one that is no more, carries a massive prize fund, publicity, and is the best known horse racing event in the British Isles, even though along with the lowering profile of the sport, is a tier or so less important than in past times.

That was how it once was. You would be familiar with the Lincoln ante-post market as soon it was established, mark a couple down that caught the eye. Cataldi, surely he'll start off in Group events, not beaten far in the Champion Stakes for God's sake ...Hastings-Bass taking Better Blessed to Cagnes to gain a fitness advantage--- Clive Brittain bullish about his planned runner but look at his trainer's talks and it's positivity about everything.

When people talk of an absent 'buzz factor' the accusation is that they live in the past, that familiarity and cynicism is something that will remove the knots in the stomach with all the sports over time. That is all very fine but this is not as common in other sports.

Ask those same racing fans who now think of the Lincoln as just another decent handicap whether they are looking forward to the Masters Golf. They will be rubbing their hands, already developing their betting portfolio for Augusta, and while they will be looking forward to Aintree the following week, everything racing will be second in the queue for those four enthralling days.

No, this is not just down to ageing familiarity. This is more to do with the sport of horse racing losing appeal within its own fanbase as well as an absence of new enthusiasts.

Today we have the hullabaloo of the nonsense that is 'All Weather Championship Day'  with seven races carrying the word 'Championships' in the plural in the title, and all non-deserving, some more so than others, and very confusing to someone who is at home and randomly tuned into ATR today.

I suppose the excuse for attaching it to the opening apprentice handicap is that it is just a race of that description on 'Championship's Day' - but why then are all the other races in the plural. Even with the conditions races, it's not clear whether any particular race is designed to be a British AW championship for that particular distance and category.

And is this doesn't grate with traditional fans, take a perusal of the prize money on offer today in some of the races at the now degraded Gosforth Park, and even over at the turf fixture at Bath. Then compare this with the funds on offer when the Newmarket Craven and Newbury Greenham fixtures come around in a few weeks time.

That is during the spell when fans will have switched truly into 'flat mode', where every three year old maiden at the big southern tracks has a 'talked up' contender, and where the Craven and Nell Gwyn, Fred Darling and Greenham can still have a bearing on the classics despite the trend to go to Newmarket without a prep.

They are the type of meetings that can still make a prospective fan bite. A Leonardo Da Vinci or Armada in the Wood Ditton, the race that produces more false dawns than most others until you become dismissive and then a Harbinger turns up.

Then all those other three year old maidens; Commander In Chief won one at Newmarket, Quest For Fame one at Newbury. Then there are those objects of glowing gallop reports of which we have our own that we remember for one reason or another.  Banana's Foster of Stoute's beat in his Newmarket maiden and turned out to be very mediocre. Cecil's Mr Flourocarbon won his Newbury maiden and would be taking the Queen Anne a couple of months later.

The point is that these fixtures have a soul, produce tingles, are fuel for hours of lively discussions packed with the customary 'what if'' and 'could be' scenarios, and more importantly of all show that the sport has a fascinating depth to it.

It's far away from hyped up soulless garbage on show at Lingfield and Newcastle today. Best to hope that anyone staying indoors and channel hopping doesn't stop the button on ATR because they may be put off the sport for good.

image © Michael Trolove 

IT JUST GETS WORSE

 

That familiar sight of swarming enclosures and packed grandstands that the TV cameras regularly focus on was accompanied by smooth Ed Chamberlin's statement that the Cheltenham Festival ' just gets bigger and better'.

The fixture is unquestionably being stretched so is indeed bigger in the context of number of races, number of runners, day on day attendances and money spent by the attendees.

But as the likes of the Guinness Village and the other all day drinking and loitering areas continue to expand, it would appear that the racecourse is more interested in the Glastonbury style festive racegoer than the connoisseur racing fan, which is after all surely what an event that styles itself as being the 'Olympics of jump racing' should be designed for.

Looking at it from a Glasto perspective, this is not pie in the sky for it is only the weather which is the main barrier to an idea that is workable and a potential big money spinner. There is room for the festival goers to pitch their tents, room for stages to be erected, and all without the density of adjoining residential properties for council permission to be attainable.

Aintree also has ample space for this to be introduced. Indeed the venue has a place in modern history for accommodating big crowds for concerts as thirty years ago this September, 125,000 eager souls flocked to the venue to see Michael Jackson perform.

And if anyone wishes to profile the modern racegoer that these venues cater for, they can note that the pre-race concerts Aintree have in their indoor school now continue throughout the racing with some 'racegoers' watching the performances against the backdrop of a giant screen showing the racing.

Don't ever be shocked if very soon one of these trashy concert Summer evening meetings becomes an all night music festival. Would have to be somewhere out of earshot of highly populated residential areas to be given permission but the Newmarket July Course that initiated this trend thirty odd years ago when having the likes of Tom Jones and Suzi Quatro on the bill might start the ball rolling.

The nearby National Stud would have plenty to say though. It's not a prospect which that establishment would be over the moon about.

As to Ed Chamberlin announcing that the Cheltenham Festival is better than ever, just take a look at Laurina who stirred up a bit of a wow factor but one very much tinged with regret knowing that in the past she would have lined up in the Supreme Novices or the Sun Alliance Novice Hurdle.

When you consider the choice of targets now available, you cannot help but mull over some vintage renewals of these events and realise how lucky we were to have them at the time.

As an example, the 1984 Sun Alliance Novices Hurdle when Sabin Du Loir beat Dawn Run and West Tip. If that was 2018, Dawn Run would have ran in the Mares Novices event, West Tip in the three mile novices hurdle, with Sabin Du Loir, who was only four at the time, in the same event, the Ballymore as it is now called, or the Triumph.

And for good measure, the unplaced horses in the race included Lettoch, Ballinacura Lad, Mister Lord and Duke of Milan.

To show these examples are far from isolated, two years before the needless introduction of the three mile novice hurdle, the same race was won by Hardy Eustace, followed home by Coolnagorna, Pizarro and Lord Sam.

Nowadays, almost certainly Lord Sam and highly likely Pizzaro, would have lined up for the three miler.

This is dilution at its finest and you can go through the card each day over the past ten years and find clear examples of the quality of events being watered down.

It was disparaging to hear Willie Mullins interviewed after Laurina's victory when he suggested that the ideal race for her would be a mares only chase, which he had heard that the course were planning to introduce.

This truly is not what Cheltenham is about. The idea surely is to mould your charge for the event, not for the course to produce a race for your needs. Think Anaglog's Daughter or Lesley Anne. If they fancy fences with Laurina then it is either the Arkle or RSA where she will have the mare's allowance.

What irks is that this stretched out diluted festival will not be turning back. Quevega is already a legend from a race that should not exist. If they did have a Glasto style festival they would probably have a Quevega Stage.

The Fred Winter well and truly killed off the buzz that would emanate around the Triumph Hurdle. The cavalry charge to the first, horses who had not run in a hurdle race with such a lick on before. Sometimes a once or twice raced could be anything type from a fashionable yard would win. Other times it would be a real hardy sort who had been on the go all season.

Ironically, many of those who were against the introduction of this event, and still regret it's existence, are now up in arms about Boodles wanting the Fred Winter name dropped from the title.

Well, although the race had played its part in degrading the festival it will always be known as the Fred Winter. The name Boodles conjures up the advert from around twenty years ago with Thelma from the Likely Lads revealing to a friend that she is one of their customers.

Now Thelma and the Cheltenham Festival; far from compatible.

picture from Wiki Commons Library

WORRYING TIMES FOR PIPE

The Professor Caroline Tisdall colours, Tom Scudamore with his coloured gumshield, plus a perceived feeling of hopefulness without any real expectation, are thoughts that come to the fore when the name Pipe is mentioned.

It all seems a long way away from all those machines, many of them front runners who galloped on with seemingly limitless reserves, and who progressed upwards at a rate of knots through the ranks until reaching their ceiling.

From a region whose flag bearers were David Barons,  John Jenkins and even Milton Bradley, and one that was the weakest area of all and put in the shade by Lambourn, the North, Ireland and even the Midlands, Baron Blakeney's 1981 Triumph Hurdle victory kicked off a trend that would by the end of the eighties make the true West Country the most powerful UK arm of national hunt racing.

Overall though, the quality of animal that came into the yard was no better than the rival trainers and the costly Irish stores would mostly evade him, with most of the patrons not prepared to spend fortunes and a long time waiting.

The most impressive aspect of the regime had been the ability to recondition - if that's the correct word - intakes from other yards that had hit a dead end in their careers then revitalise them, often having an attractive handicap mark to play with. Beau Ranger being a fine example of this.

But sometimes there were horses taken in from proven trainers in reasonably fair shape that suddenly jumped to a higher level, such as Bonanza Boy from Philip Hobbs and the mighty Carvill's Hill from Jim Dreaper.

Everyone can come up with numerous examples from either of the above scenarios, there were just so many.

While nothing lasts some things last longer than others and in a sport like horse racing it can never be an individual. It is always a combination of factors, sometimes a couple, often several.

So when the time arrived a couple of decades later for Martin Pipe to hand over to son David, the dominance of Pond House had been whittled away, and in his last two seasons with a licence, Pipe Snr was beaten to the championship by nearby rival Paul Nicholls.

We were told that other trainers began to ape the Pipe method of training which leads to the conclusion that there was a hell of a lot of pretty dumb handlers with a licence in the first place.

There had also existed the exploitation of the French marketplace and building up a contact network to ensure a continuous intake of promising young recruits before the crowd followed and pushed the demand and cost up.

It cannot be denied that the alarm bells are now ringing at Pond House. Look at it this way, ten consecutive years that saw the million marker in prize money surpassed on eight occasions, and close to being reached on the other two, and topped by a Grand National success with Comply Or Die (pictured).

Then came last season.A fall to the three-quarters of a million mark and a comparatively meagre number of winners, fifty-nine in all. If ever a good bounce back season was needed then this was it.

Even allowing for the fact that the yard had has had its share of misfortune, with Starchitect being the notable example, the season has been catastrophic, with a dearth of winners that those connected to the famous set up are not used to experiencing.

Twenty-six winners, striking at under 10% and £359,000 in prize money, meaning a grandstand Spring performance is desperately needed, albeit from where it will come is not apparent.

With David Johnson gone many of the quality horses in the yard carry the Professor Tisdall colours, some owned outright or some in partnership.

Vieux Lion Rouge has been a flag bearer for the yard but is most likely not going to win an Aintree Grand National now, which he had promised to do. It must be said that the decision to run him in the Charlie Hall before the Bechers was a strange one for an animal whose preference for a good break between appearances is well documented.

The talented Un Temps Pour Tout is long term sidelined while Dell Arca is one you feel they have never truly got to grips with, and may have benefited from a switch elsewhere two seasons back, not something you would once have recommended for a Pond House inmate.

And the tale of woe continues with Champers On Ice not developing into the animal he promised to be,Celestial Path who looked an exciting recruit from Sir Mark Prescott's yard but has been dire from the outset,while Moon Racer who was destined to put the yard back on the map has suffered from an interrupted career though may still be worth a second look in the County Hurdle this week.

Being realistic, the big hope for the near future comes in the shape of the Angrove family owned Know The Score. He lines up in the Bumper this week and as with many of those likeable Flemensfirths, he will need conditions reasonably testing to have any chance.

Most owners go with who's in vogue. The most extreme example when Howard Johnson revealed that he was approached by several different parties previously unknown to him but all wanted a horse with him in light of the publicity generated from the money invested in new inmates for the yard by Graham Wylie.

Another example and a bizarre one at that would be Richard Phillips being selected to take over at Jackdaws Castle from David Nicholson, on the basis of him having nous for the modern day world or some similar nonsense. This was in the face of Nicholson recommending Alan King who appeared the logical choice to all onlookers.

With the vogue theme in mind, there is nothing like a festival winner to put your name in the reckoning, particularly from a race designed to throw up horses that go on to better things.

Cue Card's Champion Bumper victory did wonders for Colin Tizzard and took him to a new level. With David Pipe, it is a case of returning him to a level of success he was accustomed to, and an unlikely success for Know The Score could kick-start the comeback that to be truthful is looking in some doubt.

REGRESSION AT ITS FINEST

"I wish I was in Greenhall Whitley Land....", sang the chain gang prisoner with a footballer's perm, cracking stone in a sun drenched quarry as he dreamt of being back in the homely atmosphere of his local. 

We never did find out what wicked deed he'd carried out to receive this punishment in the first place but the makers of the advert wanted us to imagine him more of a safe-cracker than someone who mugs pensioners.

The Greenhall Whitley Gold Cup would have been run on last Saturday's Haydock Park card. It was once a race of some significance and advertised the chances of Cheltenham Gold Cup as well as Grand National hopefuls.

A version of it still exists, but is called the Betfred Grand National Trial and is a morph of the race originally carrying the Grand National Trial banner at the venue and the Greenhall Whitley. It is run over three and a half miles, the same distance as the former and two furlongs further than the race that carried the local brewery name, but is run at the same fixture as the latter, the Grand National trial originally being run in early February.

First run not long after WW2, the Grand National Trial was won by Aintree winners Freebooter and Sundew in the early years.

Red Rum won the race in 1975, drifting from 4/1 to 6/1 and described as 'backward' and in need of the run by the Raceform representative around the paddock. Three weeks later he started favourite for the Greenall Whitley but made several jumping errors and finished fourth to The Benign Bishop.

Those Haydock Park drop fences took some jumping and were ideal for prepping for Aintree. On his next start Red Rum chased home L'Escargot in the big one.

The Greenall Whitley Cup was introduced in 1968. It was won by Gold Cup winners Royal Frolic and Alverton in the 1970's, and by Gold Cup runners-up Righthand Man and Yahoo in the 1980's.

The first one I saw live was the 1977 running when Harry Wharton's grey  General Moselle landed a popular victory, being the headline horse on the front of that morning's Sporting Life.

And I remember lucidly being at the venue for the1978 running when Jonjo won aboard Rambling  Artist, having been handed the race when Ron Barry and Rambling Jack folded on landing at the last when having the race in the bag. Barry sitting still and letting the horse pop over quietly - he was a veteran rider at that stage and was getting some stick from the crowd, arguably deserved even if from the pocket.

The second horse home in that running, Lucius, would go on and win the Aintree event on his next start.

An also ran in the race was Red Rum, who was never traveling after making a bad mistake at one of the fences in the back straight and who would be making what would turn out to be his final racecourse appearance.

Shortly after he was diagnosed with a hind leg injury that led to a retirement announcement which in hindsight was probably a good thing as it prevented an animal considered public property from running at Aintree as a thirteen-year-old.

The Grand National Trial disappeared from the fixture list in the early part of the 1980's until it's reappearance in 1991, when for a few runnings it carried the Greenall Whitley name. During that decade Party Politics joined the roll of honour of those who would also win the Aintree race, along with two further Gold Cup winners, Cool Ground, and Master Oats.

Highlighting firstly the progress of the two original Haydock Park races followed by the tinkering is  an example of how messing about with something that was fine in the first place can have confusing consequences.

It also is a reminder of what a needless, disgusting move it was in ripping up that fantastic old course with its drop fences and replacing it with portables.

Oh well, they have their wish. Extra trashy summer fixtures, some shockingly poor for a track that was in the Grade One category. And they get the type of crowd they wish for too, an example of a quick fix for short term gain but long term irreversible damage the penalty for it all.

Then there is the irony of calling the present race the Grand National Trial with the alignment of the changes in the sense that like the old Haydock Park course compared to now, the present Aintree race carries the name of a race that is no more, despite it being a hugely valuable and interesting handicap chase.

So you now have animals prepping on a track that demand wise is a shadow of its former self, for a race that has similarly changed considerably in the tests that it once presented. Neptune Collonges (pictured) being a recent example.

It is very despairing when the powers that be make it a priority that racing paints an agreeable image of itself, and in doing creates a myth whereby racing is seen to have acknowledged and ironed out most of its wicked ways such as whip usage, drop fences, stiff fences, downhill fences but at the same time breaths a sigh of relief that they out there don't yet know the truth about wastage and the thousands of healthy animals who are disposed of or are lost through the system without trace.

As image is geared by visual impressions, those high up may not have approved of what last Saturday was visually a grueling pain inducing contest, won by an animal without a Grand National entry.

It won't be in their mandate to educate audiences about going too fast over long distances on testing ground, let alone trying to assure viewers how relatively safe such conditions are, when they could replay Red Maurader's Grand National as a prime example.

Not a chance of that.

Image taken by Author

ANOTHER OBTUSE PROPOSAL

Tomt S CC BY-SA 3.0

Before leaving Stanley House for a spell at Manton, John Gosden suggested that the community of Newmarket are fenced off and have their thoughts dominated so much by horse racing that if a nuclear war was raging, they would go about their lives oblivious to it all.

Judging by some of the opinions emanating from some of the town's inhabitants recently, there are also plenty of deluded out of touch individuals when it comes to considering problems in their own profession.

William Jarvis, who has had a training career laid on a plate for him but still underperformed, is concerned how a drop in the minimum stake on the cancerous FOBTS may jeopardise those in his profession.

"The racing industry cannot absorb a drop in prize money and that's a fact. " Jarvis stated, rather pompously.

There is no escape that the intention that FOBTS are designed for is to turn vulnerable individuals upside down and shake them until every remaining penny tumbles from their pockets.

Horse racing in the UK has a bloated fixture list dominated by poor, unattractive fare that fails to inspire not only the emerging generations but the long term fans too. As a result, many are happy to see the shortfall in revenue resulting from the increasing trend for punters to turn their attention to other sports, subsidised by the slot players.

A sport that once took for granted that its position as the dominant source of activity for punters has not only stood still as the other major sports have thrived; it has with its gimmicky makeovers, wall to wall trashy cards and misunderstood 'forward thinking', taken a step backwards and fallen out of the major sport tier.

Fellow Newmarket trainer Mark Tompkins at least understands that if racing is having to rely on FOBTS, then something must be wrong with the model in the first place.

In the USA there has since the millennium been an increase in the number of racetracks turned into what they term as 'Racinos'. These are basically racecourse with large halls full of slot machines which are in operation during the race meeting.

In locations where the racetrack is near to the main river, there have been situations where large riverboat casinos have parked up nearby on a race day to try and entice the players away from the race track, in turn threatening the very existence of the venue as many only survive because of the additional income from the slots.

Curiously, I found a so called  'academic study' from four American University professors who concluded that there had been an increase in the actual horse race wagering at tracks where the slot machines were allowed. They also noted that there was spike on the racing awareness graph in the aftermath of the film Seabiscuit.

One of the UK team covering stateside racing of an evening once stated that the USA is the 'heartland' of the sport. If so, then the sport worldwide is doomed. True, the sport in that country had a golden period in the 1970's that was arguably unrivaled anywhere else in any other country in the world, but in the four decades that have almost passed since there has been no repeat.

In short, the tormented empty minds hooked on the FOBTS are not the same as those who may risk and lose a sizeable amount of money after spending a few days getting stuck into the form for an Ebor day card.

One group would understand and accept the risk and consequences of a poor day, month or year.They garner enjoyment from the challenge. The other would have no idea why they are doing what they are doing but moronically press away at the buttons.

And returning to that comment about Newmarket during a nuclear world war, John Gosden has in the past day added his support for some dreadful sounding new concept that he describes as a ' timely initiative' in light of the predicted fall in revenue from a reduction in maximum per spin FOBT stakes.

This stupid, stupid planned series comprises of a dozen teams with thirty horse each partaking in a series of six £100,000 handicaps.

This in light of the fact that we already know that the team sport concept in racing does not appeal and shows the sport in the wrong light, that valuable handicaps are ten a penny throughout the season, and that all recent new initiatives have failed to broaden the appeal of the sport.

Gosden is out of touch with reality and from his position on the inside knows less about what makes racing truly appeal to those on the outside, than those of us on the outside know about training racehorses, which is not much at all.

Will they ever learn that what they are doing is slowly chipping away at the part of the sport that is unique when put alongside other sports, apart from athletics. A fixture list that retains the same shape as a century ago and one that until recently added new events after careful consideration.

It's now a free for all and more new events, meetings, changes in planning have been introduced in the past thirty years than the previous one hundred and fifty years, without any benefit to the sport as a whole.

In years gone by those who wanted to look ahead to the flat season would already have burnt a considerable amount of midnight oil looking to the Lincoln. Remember that competition run by the Sporting Life where you would pit your skills against the handicapper by trying to predict the Lincoln weights.

One winner impressed them so much that he was given a private handicapping job for the newspaper in days when those jobs paid comparatively well compared with now.

Unfortunately, with the soulless all weather nonsense appearing daily throughout the Winter no one really talks of the Lincoln or Spring double anymore though I suppose some trainers are glad they don't have to run a horse at Cagnes - sur - Mer to try and obtain a fitness advantage.

And with the Ante -Post markets for the classics dominated by masses of pretentiously named Ballydoyle representatives, the Ante-Post markets from Cheltenham a minefield with the multiple options for horses available, we just have the Grand National In Name Only Chase weights to peruse during this week, and that's an event that is merely an imitation of the real event which has now passed by.

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

The black and gold John Player Special Lotus cars that carried  Emmerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti to Formula One titles could be said to be the symbolic high point of the relationship between sport and the tobacco industry.

Horse racing in the UK formed its own mutually beneficial relationship with the now scorned upon manufacturers, most notably with the introduction of two new events to the calendar in the 1970's.

One of those, the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup made a tremendous impact from the onset and remains as strong as ever under a different name. The other, a two and a half mile event for first and second season chasers, was discontinued in 1986.

The race, first known as the Wills Premier Chase Final, had its initial staging at Haydock Park on Saturday 17th January 1970.To make the line up, you had to of finished in the first four in one of the several qualifiers staged in the first half of the season.

Run at 3.15 with the light beginning to close in, the race was won in the Sir Ivor colours by the Dan Moore trained L'Escargot. He would go on and win the Cheltenham Gold Cup two months later, retain his crown in 1971, then win the Grand National four years later.

The second running of the Wills Final went to the Tom Dreaper trained Leap Frog who would go on and finish runner up to L'Escargot in the Gold Cup.

1972 saw a third Irish winner in as many runnings, the winner Colebridge again hailing from Greenogue, with Jim Dreaper now at the helm.

There then followed a sequence of home-trained winners. The John Francome ridden Floating Pound was Fred Winter's second winner in 1976, the result perhaps altered by Cancello unseating his pilot two out. The name of the race had now been changed to the Embassy Premier Chase Final. It was, of course, the same sponsor, the Embassy brand having been founded by WD & HO Wills.

There was a particularly vintage renewal the following year with the event falling to the Ron Barry partnered Border Incident who came home ahead of Bunker Hill and Mouse Morris. Amongst the also rans was Tied Cottage, who had taken the field along at a good lick, and the future Grand National winner Lucius.

Border Incident was physically fragile and Richard Head struggled to keep him sound. It has been said that he should be remembered as one of the best chasers of the 1970's not to win a Gold Cup, though factually this is based more on unrealised potential than weights and measures form.

I remember walking past Peter O'Sullivan going into the course. Sedate expression, dark tinted spectacles, carrying binoculars and his bulky Raceform loose leaf as it was called, which sounded in itself like some odd brand of tobacco. He had napped Border Incident in his Daily Express column.

The 1978 running was another success for Fred Winter in the shape of The Dealer who beat the Tony Dickinson trained True Wish. There was speculation that The Dealer was considered at home to be on par with his stable companion Midnight Court, who would win the Cheltenham Gold Cup that season.

The Dealer was to be targeted at the Sun Alliance Chase but we will never know how his career would have panned out. He became unsound after the Haydock run and was never to be seen again.

The 1979 running was run on a Friday in early March, the originally planned fixture lost to the weather. It was undoubtedly the most celebrated running of the event when after a prolonged duel, Silver Buck came out on top over Night Nurse.

It was one of those occasions when you boast of being in attendance. A bit like a footy fan speaking more passionately about some third round FA Cup replay over being at the final, this was one day where you were glad you were there, felt part of an exclusive club to have been there, and wouldn't have swapped it for any Breeders Cup, Melbourne Cup or the like of.

I guess it would be the same for those who were present at that Red Rum versus Crisp re-match race at Doncaster, one that is hardly ever spoken of.

Some will have a dig and belittle the 1979 Embassy Premier Chase Final race by pointing out that Night Nurse was rumoured to be short of full race fitness, but the truth is that despite the Peter Easterby trained gelding arguably being the greatest hurdler of all time, in the steeplechasing sphere Silver Buck was the superior of the two, albeit only marginally.

The 1980 running returned to Ireland in the form of Daletta who would go and won the Irish Grand National that same season. That would be the last time the event was staged at Haydock Park.

The final five runnings took place at Ascot. The hardy Royal Bond won in 1981, the mighty Wayward Lad in 1982, the popular Comb's Ditch in 1983; these were followed by Ballinacurra Lad taking a substandard renewal in 1984, the meeting abandoned in 1985, before the likeable Very Promising took the honours in the last ever running of the race.

Imperial Tobacco made an announcement that it would cease to sponsor the race. No new sponsor could be found and the event was left to perish.

There was a welcome place in the calendar for the event during its decade and a half existence. But the sad truth is that with the onset of several valuable novice events throughout the winter, particularly in Ireland, the event would have had a limited shelf life if it had been maintained.

This weekend we have had a cluster of now established events put together with an eye-catching name given to the occasion. The Irish fixture list had had a notable prize money boost from the Celtic Tiger period.

When a weekend rarely passes by without a valuable novice chase there would be no incentive to run a tip-top novice chaser in a qualifier then travel to England for a final in January when there are a plethora of rich pickings to be had at home.

Similarly, there are plenty of nice prizes at home for connections of  British based novice chasers to weigh up rather than obsessing themselves with a Wills Final concept.

So while there will be no rebirth of the race , its marked contribution to the sport in such a relatively brief time period is something that must be acknowledged and retained in the archives as a reminder of the benefits of a controlled and sensibly managed fixture list.

A DISJOINTED MESS

Natalie Express got her head in front close home to win a 0-70 handicap at Lingfield on Wednesday. It wasn't a news worthy item but Sky Sports News showed a clip of the finish, which would have given many viewers the idea that this event was of some significance.

Look at it this way. The Sky Sports News loops generally begins with a football story, sometimes cricket or rugby, but always concentrating on topical items of importance. So for a non racing fan, which form the vast majority of Sky Sports New viewers, it would not be unreasonable of them to believe that Natalie Express's win was the most important happening in the racing world on that day, just as the Sanchez transfer news had been in the more understood one of football.

They have been doing this for years and it is something that adds to the overall disjointed picture in which the sport is portrayed.There exists a general order of importance in all of the sports, a structure that can be grasped by most.

If, on a quiet racing day, they revealed that Nicky Henderson had announced that Buveur D'Air would be taking on Faugheen in the Irish Champion Hurdle as his Cheltenham prep, then that would be a topical news item and one of some importance.

They could broadcast a recording comprising of the trainer speaking to a reporter on the phone accompanied by an archive clip of the horse in his box or on the gallops. The viewer would be able to appreciate that this concerned something from the top end of racing's pyramid. A briefing of high priority.

Instead, we are shown the finish of some low grade affair supported by a script that has been dumbed down and is read out by someone with not the slightest interest in the sport.Sometimes it can have amusing consequences.

When One Man folded up in the closing stages of the 1996 Cheltenham Gold Cup, Moira Stewart, on the evening news, reported that the "favourite Old Man dropped away to finish sixth".That must have caused some chuckles.

There can be no other sport where those from within shape a favourable angle to its news. As an example, the headline article in the Racing Post this week of, ' Young Person's Game: millenials to fore in driving down age of racing crowds.' turned out to be far from what the headline promised.

Evidently, yet another survey, one carried out by a marketing company called Two Circles for  Great British Racing, revealed that 44% of the racegoing public were born between 1980 and 2000.

However, the results were taken from advance ticket purchases, which is generally how the work party groups will obtain their tickets for the 'cult' courses such as Chester, York, along with the Cheltenham and Aintree festivals.

We know that the racegoers who make up these parties are almost all out for a day of drinking and feasting, something backed up when you delve deeper into the survey and discover that for 66% of those asked, the 'social aspect' was the main reason they went racing.

And for those who really did think that the future was a bright one for the sport, one revelation from the survey that really hit home was that 40% of the racegoers were female.

In fact, the picture accompanying the report of the survey on the Racecourse Association Website has a picture of two twenty something ladies on the course with staged smiles. One has tenner notes in one hand and a drink in the other.Some of those in the background also appear to be smiling for the camera.

No doubt some of these venues could put on an event with a concert, best dressed awards, Karaoke, and even lay some mats over the racetrack and have motorbikes whizzing around. Give the day a theme name with a local connection and you have the makings of a booming success, and all without any horse racing.

When Frankel was running Teddy Beckett was enthusiastically claiming that the horse will have won over a new generation of racing fans. Admittedly, for those already embedded in as racing fans the magnificent animal was truly appreciated.

However, flat horses rarely win over new fans.With some the flat game may eventually go on to equal or even surpass the winter game in personal affections, but the large majority are first hooked by the jumping game and most will still have it marginally ahead.

Late summer 1975. Grundy beaten in the Benson and Hedges. October and the eclipse of another star in the Arc de Triomphe, the mighty Allez France. The following month the reigning Champion Hurdler Comedy Of Errors reappears but he has challengers emerging. Night Nurse, Sea Pigeon, Bird's Nest, Dramatist. They seemed to run every couple of weeks, different combinations of them facing one another. If you never got hooked by this then you never would.

Frankel retired six years ago. There is no sign of a 'Frankel generation' of new racing fans appearing. They don't exist.

These good news interpretations of the sport tend to directly avoid the fact that racegoers are are of didly squat all use if they do not turn into regular horse racing punters. So unless these ladies are Laura Davies type characters, this will take out 40% of the audience.

So too with the majority of others who will enjoy their Summer Saturday day at York or Chester this year then return home and punt only on the World Cup ,pre-season friendlies, Cricket, or even the Grand Prix. Events at Saint Cloud, Naas or Pontefract on the Sunday, or Windsor on the Monday evening will play out unnoticed to them.

Sharing the headlines with these so called good news stories is the concern about the knock on effect for racing if as planned the maximum stake on the FOBTS is reduced to £2. We are told this will cause multitudes of LBO's to close, severely reducing media rights payments from the bookmakers. And the powers that be quite rightly realise that FOBT players will not suddenly turn their attention to betting on the nags.

It may just be that bookmakers have to turn back to taking racing seriously as a betting product and not just as the bacon in the mouse trap for potential FOBT addicts. It will be fascinating to see how it all plays out if the proposals go ahead as planned but it is probably too late with the emerging generations weaned on football betting.

They'll arrive home on a midweek winter day, watch the sport news and with it a clip from some low level, insignificant event from one of the AW tracks.They won't have any perspective for it and will conclude this was the chief newsworthy story in the sport.They'll think what a bloody awful sport it is.