A MOUNTAIN OUT OF A MOLEHILL

The 'Rooney Rule'  has been the subject of topical discussions over the past few weeks. Named after an NFL owner, the 'Rooney Rule' requires that a quota of applicants from ethnic minority backgrounds are interviewed for certain positions within that particular sport. 

Detractors claim it results in many of these candidates being pure 'token' ones who are, knowingly or not, assisting in a box-ticking exercise though supporters of the rule and variations of it can cite a notable increase in the number of NFL coaches stateside from an ethnic minority background.

The chief reason it has resurfaced in the UK stems from that Patrick Vierra statement regarding Arsenal's public interest in him for the vacant manager's position as being, in his words, 'token'. It's left open to interpretation but it is hard not to be drawn to the obvious conclusion as to what he was inferring.

Whatever an individual's regard for Arsenal FC, no one can deny that they can be considered along with other major football clubs of long standing, an international institution and one which has to consider its business model in every action and statement it makes.

In short, in order to look after this business model in all corners of the world, being inclusive is not enough, they need to be seen to be inclusive in what is a very delicate PC environment where you tread on hot coals.

Surely, as with players, if a manager or prospective manager is considered suitable enough then his race will be no bar to his prospects of being offered the position. The name Frank Rijkaard is proof in the pudding that in all of the modern, stable nations, skin colour will be no barrier to progression for management positions at the highest level.

What's this got to do with racing? Well, it's a topical issue in light of Sean Levy's recent classic success. In what is a colour blind sport, there has been an unjustified level of discussion about the perceived lack of coloured faces in racing.

Sadly, it may only be a matter of time before racing to has its own 'Rooney Rule'

Last September the BHA set up a Diversity in Racing Steering Group (DirSG) containing sixteen members from the racing industry. One of the considerations of the group was to look at bringing in policies that have been adopted in other sports which are claimed to have  ' led to real improvement in diversity and inclusivity metrics.'

It would be appalling if racing had to go down this path of making statements that don't have a clear meaning but give a general gist that there exists institutionalised racism within the sport.

Anyone with common sense knows that any talented kid, good hands and all that stuff, with a hunger for success and reliable in character, will get a chance if he looks after himself.

The UK's present champion jockey is Brazilian and in racial terms one who many would class as being from an ethnic minority background. The ranks of stable staff, not least amongst the big yards that pay the best wages, have a global representation amongst their workforce, many Asian and Black.

As long ago as the 1970's we had the Guyanese born Compton Rodrigues among the jockey ranks. It was two decades later when Royston Ffrench appeared. He made a considerable impression as a stylish apprentice, adopting that streamlined posture that apprentices were now preferring over the Pat Eddery style.

Ffrench was the most sought after claimer during a terrific 1997 season and promised to go to the top ranks. But like all dynamic apprentices, it gets tougher once the claim goes. Still, unlike many others, Ffrench established himself successfully in the jockey ranks, partnering winners of some of the major handicaps and winning Group One events in mainland Europe.

Whatever, there is no evidence that his heritage has had any impact, positive or negative on his career. The only reason you would raise his skin colour would be describing him to someone asking who he was, who was new to the sport.

This is a sport where the jockey ranks stateside are an array of most of the races on the globe. And in Europe, Germany has the dark skinned Panamanian Eduardo Pedroza ( in picture) still going strong in its jockey ranks over there. He won a Group 3 race earlier this month.

Surprisingly, the UK has always lacked oriental representations amongst the jockey ranks. Perhaps even more surprising when this race had more than its fair share of persons small in stature.

There was Neil Pollard who has part Chinese ancestry.  A real stylish apprentice, another with a low seat, he was trusted with the job of David Elsworth's stable jockey on losing his claim but things did not work out. One or two owners lost faith in him, others followed, rides were lost and the confidence evaporated.

Another point to touch upon with budding riders is that while you have some successful flat jockeys who have not sat upon a horse until leaving school, nearly all national hunt riders have been involved at an early age, most jumping poles on ponies. And the image of pony clubs is a white one, accurate or not.

Still, I can think of two mixed-race riders who competed in and won races in the national hunt sphere, Josh Apiafi, one of the DirSG members, and Marvin Mello.

Mind you, the wider subject of inclusivity can throw up some potentially amusing scenarios. When these theme days began to expand, Brighton held a 'Gay Day' and encouraged attendees to 'get into the spirit of things'.

A Racing Post journalist mused over whether John Gosden would turn up dressed as Boy George, or Michael Stoute as one of the Village People. Unfortunately, the way all this overprotective nonsense has escalated in very recent times, I doubt such comments would now be published, even allowing for the fact that they were made in levity. That is a shame.

From past experiences or misconceived but long rooted beliefs, all of us will not view all religions, nationalities, races, and various identities and leanings, with equal consideration. But thankfully, at the end of the day, the PC brigade have not found a way of forcing individuals to think as their doctrine would prescribe. 

Horse racing has no racist stigma attached to it. If a  'Rooney Rule' variation was applied, those who pour scorn on the sport, whether for political reasons, ie 'class war' and all that, or animal welfare issues, would then have the option of another angle of attack.

The sport has more pressing matters concerning its immediate future to deal with and should not be making an issue of what is a non-issue.

Image by author

GOOD RIDDANCE !

Most of us just don't get the appeal of FOBTS. Just like when we see those videos taken in public places in broad daylight of those characters standing stone still holding an unnatural gait debilitated by the drug Spice, we cannot spot anything that remotely tempts us into joining them.

It a makes a mockery of the arguments put forward by some downright liars that most FOBTS players enjoy this pastime and play the machines responsibly. All sorts of figures have been given airtime to throw in their two bob's worth over the past few days.

On one news item, they interviewed someone called Christopher Snowdon, who is the ' Head of Lifestyle Economics' at the Institute of Economic Affairs. With a rather smug persona, reminiscent of a member of the Howards Way cast, he casually remarked that playing the FOBTS did not differ from other forms of gambling.

Let's consider it comparatively with racing.

You go the races, you return light in pocket. As you recount how that one missed the break, how another was cruising on the snaff with nowhere to go, how you had narrowed the wide open handicap down to three, spit stakes on two of them and deserted the one that eventually won. How different it could have been if you had the rub of the green.

Then you'll probably add that apart from nothing going right on the punting front it was a decent day. You may even wonder whether you have seen a future star in that one that won the two year old maiden.

What do FOBTS players do when they return home? How do they recount and assess their day? Did they learn anything to take forward for their next session? Is there an equivalent for them to a horse racing punter noting a tenderly handled one for the future. In fact, is there any form of enjoyment at all that can be had from these cancerous machines.

We know that in addition to being an LBO's biggest and most assured earner, they provide a fix for people who are so addicted to them that they are bordering on being mentally unwell.

Consider again, you're a punter who has had a bad run on horses, footy, cricket, golf or other sports that are real and not computer simulations.

You take a sabbatical to reassess, take stock and get some funds back together. You may want to get stuck into something in the Ebor ante-post market, or plan to turn the year around on Oosthuizen at Carnoustie. It's aimed, considered and measured.

There is no equivalent on FOBTS, they just get straight back playing and keep on playing. One wonders where they get their supply of money from.

FOBTS have played their part in taking the traditional punters away from LBO 's. What at one time would be a losing slip scrunched up and thrown to the floor in disgust accompanied by, " that Mercer is a bin man ! ", then a stomping exit, does not emit the uneasiness created around the premises by a zombie continually sat at the machine for hours on end, gradually starting to show outward signs of agitation but concealing the furore of the volcano building up inside, with the unpredictability as to what may come next.

I've been inside an LBO less than ten times in the past five years. But I've witnessed someone freaking out on a FOBT and have been asked by a  manager whether I'd like a free spin voucher. Only doing what his superiors have ordered him to do but it's enough to make you not really care if he does lose his job when the changes finally take effect, which is not soon enough.

Hard to believe it now, but there was a time when many standing in an LBO would have their own copy of the Sporting Chronicle or Sporting Life - and it was not completely rare to spot someone with a Timeform Black Book or the bright red coloured Raceform Note Book.

And before racing started it was an everyday sight to see a punter carefully take the drawing pins out of the front page of the LBO's Sporting Life, turn it inside out, and note down the Dick Whitford ratings, then pin the page back as it was.

Many of those have either passed on, lost their enthusiasm or like many, conduct their betting via online accounts. These establishments are completely unrecognisable than those of thirty or forty years ago. They may be cleaner, smell nicer, but they can be very intimidating. If horse racing suddenly ceased to exist you would barely notice the difference from its final day to the first day without.

It was absolutely shocking on the televised ATR forum two weekends back when  David Williams was not challenged when he spouted some falsehood about FOBTS being a precursor to betting on the horses in the sense that all these zombies who step inside to play the FOBTS will eventually graduate to betting on horse racing. 

We know it's the other way round, that those with the finger in the high street bookmaking pie would dearly love the regular horse punters to migrate over to the machines hence the free vouchers from characters that Robert Helpmann would portray well.

Finally, despite all the warning shots fired by the bookmaking fraternity, and the noises made by some inside horseracing proper who convey the impression that the lives ruined by FOBTS are acceptable wastage for the greater good of racing, it's coming to an end on the scale we know it.

This means that all those who shamefully towed the line so as not to bite the hand that feeds, such as that infamous Alastair Down piece in the Racing Post where he played the FOBTS in an LBO, would look silly doing a U-turn and supporting the new legislation.

Just like all those MP's who supported the invasion of Iraq but now pretend they were against it all along, they have to either stand with their original published thoughts or be principled, hold their hands up and concede they were all along put under pressure by their employers deceive their audience.

If jobs go in LBO's then its not a great loss in the sense that the demands of working in such an environment will make these workers employable in other areas dealing with the public where they will most likely be better rewarded and work in a safer environment.

As for a shortfall in levy which further down the line may cause racecourses to shut, a reduction in prize money in the middle to lower tiers, and trainers to go out of business -  there is too much bland fare that is impossible to keep tabs on and makes the overall sport less appealing than it was years ago which has been one of the main reasons why the sport's share of the betting pie has been dwindling.

A culling of the fixture list would be fantastic news, racecourse closures less so. If trainers are forced out of business; well no one has a right to make a living out of a hobby. Many are barely keeping their heads above the sand anyway.

To be involved as outright owners or trainers, you need deep pockets and it is still very much the Sport Of Kings in that sense. We can at least come along and enjoy it, and can buy a ticket in where the outcome of a race has a bearing on our direct finances.

We can even turn it into a situation where say, for instance, the progress of Clive Cox's 2018 juveniles, or Nicky Richard's 2018/19 season novice chasers has a bearing on our standard of life. Something like that makes us feel very much a part of it all.

image by EdwardX attribution  creative commons

A WASTED OPPORTUNITY

We often fail to forget that today's bank holiday was very much a Scottish affair, not being observed by the rest of the UK until 1978. The way in which this day was first utilised by the UK racing authorities, then allowed to decline, is something to consider when dwelling upon where the hell it all went wrong with the running of the sport.

There are some sports, Golf along with its impressively packaged and managed showcase PGA Tour for example, that when making comparisons with the past, taking all angles into account, you are left feeling that it's in better health than it's ever been.

The same cannot be said of horse racing in the UK.

May Day 1975, is a good starting point to consider the impact of May Day Monday in racing. Two days earlier, Pat Eddery had suffered a reversal when the apple of his eye, Grundy, had been beaten in the 2,000 Guineas by Bolkonski, with Gianfranco Dettori aboard. That had been the day when stable staff strike action famously reached it's highpoint, with Newmarket racetrack under siege.

Eddery was at Wolverhampton on the Monday where he guided the Gordon Smyth trained March Crusader home in the Midlands Spring Handicap. The only other fixture was Edinburgh, where Kevin Leason rode the winner of the feature race, Daveti from the Tommy Craig yard. Nothing unusual about the day except there would have been a larger than normal crowd at the Scottish venue to mark the Bank Holiday.

When the holiday went nationwide racing grabbed the opportunity the day presented to advertise what it had to offer with Haydock Park taking the grand initiative of introducing the Royal Doulton Hurdle in 1978, a race that was initially a spectacular success.

The following year, like today, May Day fell on Monday May 7th. The second running of the Royal Doulton saw Beacon Light, in the Jim Joel colours defeat the legendary Monksfield.

Kempton, Doncaster and Wolverhampton also had fixtures. The feature race at Kempton was the Jubilee Stakes Handicap, with a prize of over £11,800 to the winner, more than the winner of the Lincoln had received a few weeks earlier.

The Jubilee pulled in the quality turn out it deserved, with the race eventually being won by the John Winter trained Smartset, with the promising apprentice Philip Robinson aboard. The highly popular Baronet followed him home with the 1977 Dewhurst runner up Camden Town, who started favourite, in third with 9st 11 lb on his back. The top weight incidentally was the unplaced Crimson Beau, who would later give Troy a race in the  Benson and Hedges Gold Cup.

The feature race of the day at Doncaster was the Irish Sweeps Spring Handicap, also carrying more prize money than the Lincoln. That was won by the Brian Taylor ridden Harry Wragg trained Fluellen in the Oppenheimer colours.

So what did we have on May Day 2018? If anything, it typified how the sport has gone down the wrong track. Six mainland UK fixtures and all decidedly ordinary. The most valuable race being the 'Matchbook VIP Handicap Chase' with a first prize of £14,388, and a mildly interesting field, but evidence that the day in racing terms has taken a lamentable drop in importance in recent times.

This is brought home when you consider that the most valuable flat race in the UK on the day is a one mile handicap at Windsor with a first prize of £7,439, roughly a third less than that for the two feature flat races 39 years ago!  And that's not event putting into the equation the prize money available for the Royal Doulton.

To look at it another way, this years Lincoln carried first place prize money of over £62,000. So while in 1979 we had two flat handicaps on this day with a bigger monetary value than the celebrated Doncaster race, the 'feature'  flat race in the UK today has a value eight times less than that of the 2018 Lincoln.

What is so baffling about it all is that today would be a free shop window for the sport if it played its card right. Admittedly, there is competition from family commitments and the weather, but that is something that applies to every 'free' day.

We have smaller tracks putting on some pretty dreadful fare but chuffed at being able pull in some impressive crowds when the sun is shining. This is not necessarily to the sport's long term benefit, as it's lifeblood is money generated from people betting on it, not from purchasing overpriced beer and everyday Greggs quality food with a fancy name added.

Hopefully, the FOBTS maximum stakes will be cut to £2. If this results in reduced revenue for the sport then so be it. It will have to adjust, return to roots with a sensible fixture list with emphasis on quality and making the most of the days that it has the house to itself. Like today.

There was no competition today from what is, rightly or wrongly, the God that is Premiership Football. And likewise none from the now mini God that is Grand Prix qualifying, something that those who pull the strings in horse racing acknowledge as a 'rival' that they lose out in direct confrontations with.

The Saturday obsession shows that horse racing is picking a fight it cannot win. Long gone are the times when racing could take for granted television coverage free from the competition of rival sports as well as thriving in house daily newspapers.

Lost in a vibrant mix of sports that previously were not fortunate enough to enjoy the exposure they are now granted, we have a sport that is not widely acknowledged to be in the very top tier as it once was and a sport that cannot compete with the others on a level playing field.

And on a day like today it looks a gift horse in the mouth.

Image licensed under creative commons attribution - author Ralph Jenson

SITUATIONS VACANT

There remains an insistence on blaming the staff shortage crisis in racing yards on the so called unsociable working patterns. The issue, one that is receiving growing publicity in the written press,  was covered in The Daily Telegraph earlier this week.

Whenever this is under the spotlight very little thought is given to the consideration that for healthy energetic youngsters, being a stable lad or whatever they are called now, provides a livelier, happier working day than being a gimp in a call centre with grim evening shifts, the bullying atmosphere of being a robot in an Amazon warehouse, or even being conditioned for laziness by studying for some odd named and probably worthless degree.

And while the overall employment situation is brighter and offers more opportunities than in the 1970's which reduces the number of staff obtained due to limited openings elsewhere, at the centre of the staffing crisis lies a growing indifference to the sport in general.

It is a sport which simply fails to get the adrenalin pumping in the younger generations.

Nowadays there is no regular method of feeding interest in the sport to youngsters. If you grow up equating betting with football and live in a household with, as is commonly the case now, no printed newspapers lying around, you are not really going to be aware of its everyday existence.

If there is a racing fan residing under the roof there will be a possibility that a copy of Horses in Training is within sight, inviting to be picked up, even out of curiosity, even for someone who doubts they will ever have much time for the sport. A youngster will not conduct an internet search on a subject he or she holds no regard for.

Even allowing for the overall decrease in the sales of printed publications, it would be fascinating if sales figures were available for the Horses in Training publication down the decades.This was a publication that opened the world up to a young racing fan. Trainers strings with pedigrees, trainers phone numbers and addresses.Wow, imagine looking after a Vulgan store, or a Sir Ivor two year old.

This appeal would be driven beneath by the image of the sport being attractive. It was still a major tier sport then. Horse pastimes themselves would be high up on the consideration list for someone fancying an outdoor sport to get involved with.

With the function of the horse in modern society disappearing just like coal bunkers, Subutteo and Chopper bicycles, those inclined to find a hobby away from computerised fantasy games now have modern trendy pastimes on offer to contend with all the traditional ones.

Hang Gliding, Skydiving, Segwaying, and not to forget that sport where those giant kites lift you off the ground. There is also this increasingly popular lark of 'flying' across valleys attached to overhead zip wires. A pastime strongly opposed to by those who term this oddity as 'sound violence'.

I was chatting to someone who is a member of a rambling club and who was incensed at the so far defeated proposal to install one of these functions in Thirlmere, in his beloved Lake District.

"I'd still go the Lakes if it ever went ahead, " he told me, "I'd just keep away from the particular valley that will have these morons passing above".

Truth is, these 'morons' might in another era have been inclined to join a riding school where they may have got bitten and wanted to take it a step further and work amongst horses, with the racing world being one of the most open gateways for them.

And this would have been at a time when there was no racing industry structure as there is now, such as schools where the kids learn to ride, strap horses and learn all the required stable duties. They are also coached how to conduct themselves properly.

No doubt there will be tomfoolery,  horseplay and initiation ceremonies but surely nothing like in times past.

Many years ago I was in conversation with someone who had a lifetime in the sport. He recalled when he worked for a famous trainer in the 1940's. If the lights were not switched off in the lad's dorm by a certain time, the trainer himself along with a couple of high ranking staff would enter the dorm and beat the boys with long toms.

Someone who worked for two well known northern national hunt yards in the 1970's recounted to me of how in one of the yards they would carry out mock hangings on new recruits which would involve taking them to a barn, standing them on a couple of bales of hay stacked up, placing a noose around their neck, throwing the rope over a beam and pushing the newcomer off the bale.

It would be surprising to find that settled staff at Asda, John Lewis, or B &Q,  thrash young boys with whips or place real nooses around the necks of new starters

However, this should not mask the issue that in Newmarket there has existed for many years a serious drug problem, higher than the national average, in addition, a higher than normal suicide rate. Though no link between the two has been proven it would be no surprise if one existed.

Trying to move forward, the appeal of working in racing could form television advertisements in the style of those army ones.

A montage beginning with a mucking out scene on a dark morning, then riding out on a snow covered landscape, feed buckets, gatherings in the tack room, travelling to the races in the horsebox, racecourse stables, leading up a winner, a late return to the yard with darkness having fallen, then ending with lots of beaming faces in a homely pub.

It is a sport that must once more be made attractive again from its soul.

For the real dilemma is that the appeal of horse racing itself has never been so low. The liars who equate racecourse crowds with the popularity of the actual sport are spinning a myth. A sport that a lower percentage of the betting public than ever before wish to bet on, a sport that nobody wants to work in, and one that has too many key figures outwardly in denial of the crisis it is enduring.

image in Public Domain

A BATTLE OF THE FESTIVALS

A tightly packed fixture run of Spring festivals, no time to reflect but plenty of action to digest whether from attending or watching from afar. Cheltenham is the lucky one, it gets the first bite and even allowing for the unwise decision to stretch it an extra day and dilute the quality, it is and will continue to be the strongest and most anticipated.

In the tussle that ensues amongst the rest to keep their rank in the pecking order, Aintree is the venue most disadvantaged in the sense that it has to contend with a Fairyhouse Irish Grand National meeting that is growing as a whole, a Punchestown Festival that is now on a higher summit than it ever has been, not to mention other fixtures with eyecatching prizes.

There are those surviving 'support' races at the old Sandown Whitbread meeting that were originally designed as a one off to give opportunities for some of those animals who missed their chances when Cheltenham was lost due to the foot and mouth epidemic.

They are still in the calendar and this year a certain Altior will be appearing in the two mile chase. Admittedly, there is no Champion Chase equivalent at Aintree but surely it is in the spirit of the sport to step up in trip in the Melling on a track that beckons specialist two milers giving them a chance of getting home over half a mile further - there have been some magnificent renewals of this.

One can also not help to notice some of the prizes on offer at Fairyhouse this week and some decent quality turning out. It's all competition to Aintree.

Fact is that despite the three big championship races at Cheltenham all falling to horses trained in the south of England, the pool of horses towards the top of the pyramid is top heavy with those trained in Ireland.

They have a programme of festivals, mini-festivals, plus the regular Sundays all have an attractive structure to them with good prize money on offer. In short, apart from Cheltenham or the King George or Grand National, there is enough booty in their backyard for them to stay at home.

Last week there were more notable names missing than normal from all quarters. Thank God we did have Might Bite (pictured) appearing, a wonderful animal of the highest class with character, quirks, good looks and probably the most popular national hunt horse in training at the moment.

It was regrettable that Native River did not face him again but still an acceptable field. It is debatable whether the same could be said of the juvenile hurdle, which those with long memories will remember as the Weetabix Hurdle in the late 1970's.

This year none of the first three home in the Triumph Hurdle appeared in the race. Even the winner of the Fred Winter, Veneer of Charm, chose the Fairyhouse Grand National meeting , and for good measure also ran again at the same venue this week finishing fourth, one place behind the animal who finished fifth in the Triumph. 

Other notable absentees from the meeting were Footpad, Sandro, Presenting Percy and Shattered Love, who was another who ran at the Easter Fairyhouse  fixture. There was a time when the last two named would possibly have lined up in the staying novice chase at Liverpool

Each year you can go through the Aintree programme and note by their absence, the horses 'claimed' by rival fixtures.

In lazy mind mode it is easy to consider the fact that Aintree as a racecourse went from being lost nearly twice to becoming a modern renovated arena with terrific facilities, an expansion in fixtures, and attracting massive crowds for its showcase meeting; then to link this with a belief that the meeting as a whole attracts better quality horses than in the past.

The two issues exist side by side but are separate from one another. While again this year the meeting went down as an unqualified overall success, we must accept that the large majority of those swarming the enclosures are increasingly becoming a separate entity from the racing fan attendees, something that we would expect less in the jumping game.

A fair summary of the racecards would be that they are standing up fairly well but on the whole the quality of the three days bears some dents. Does anyone really believe Dawn Run, if she existed now, would have been appearing at Liverpool the same number of times that she did in her short career?

After finishing second in the 1983 Sun Alliance Novices Hurdle at Cheltenham, she reappeared on the Friday of Aintree to win the Page Three Handicap Hurdle; this at a time when The Sun sponsored the Grand National.The very next day she lined up in the Templegate Hurdle and ran the reigning champion hurdler Gaye Brief to a length, in receipt of only 6 lb.

The following year after winning the Champion Hurdle, she followed up at Aintree in what was now the Sandeman Aintree Hurdle. Then, after her famous Gold Cup victory in 1986, she lined up at Aintree for the race Might Bite won last week, getting no further than the first fence.

As it was down to injury why Buveur D'Air did not take his place in the Aintree Hurdle it would be unfair to cite the below par turnout for this year's renewal. Still, long gone are the times when the likes of Night Nurse, Monksfield and Sea Pigeon would line up, connections leaving the impression that it was their duty to do so.

Away from the essence of what the sport is about, there is now a growing tendency for groups of ladies to book the day off work for Aintree ladies day, dress up, meet, then spend the day in a pub.

And the following is even more concerning; I was talking to a lad in his early twenties who had gone on Thursday. There was around eight lads and girls who had gone together and booked expensive seats in one of the stands. They had not been before.

As it turned out, they felt that the atmosphere in their stand was not up to their expectations, so after a couple of races they promptly left their comfy specks behind and spent the rest of the afternoon in the marquee in Tatts, where live music played all day to a packed audience.

The racing per se was not high up on their agenda and there must be serious doubts whether any of this young party will ever be racing fans. Aintree racecourse as a business would be happy knowing they will probably return, but as the whole structure of racing needs people like these to place bets on the sport when away from the course, then they are merely wallpaper to cover cracks.

I enjoyed my Thursday with a full house of a gang of four. Two of us lifelong fans, the other two not particularly stirred at all, just content to stand with a beer and waffle about anything but racing. But no doubt God willing they'll return again next year and the year after which will of course please those doing the wallpapering.

pic by author

LIES THAT SERVE NO PURPOSE

'Scu, Francome and Jonjo:Three great jockeys who never won the Grand National.' was a short piece broadcast on ITV racing during Aintree 2017. It promised more than the run of the mill educational material aimed at the general public, but turned out to provide a classic example of how out of sync those that pull strings in the sport are with this imaginary fresh audience they want to welcome aboard.

Hugh McIlvenny suggested it was an unfortunate omission in the riding careers of Francome, Scudamore and Jonjo not to have ridden the winner of the Grand National. But the piece contained another omission that was a truly shocking exercise of tampering with history.

Moreover, they have gone and swept away their crafty prints from the video,  which can be found on the ITV racing site with a few notable seconds erased -  the part where Jonjo is asked how close he ever got to winning the Grand National as a rider.

Jonjo's reply was that he was never in with a chance was worrying confirmation that a body of people, maybe topically a ' leadership group', want to bin parts of the sport's  history that they believe won't sit comfortably with the illusory masses they wish to invite in

Alverton was a chestnut gelding with a white marking down his face. He ran in the pink and green cheque Snailwell Stud colours and once ran in the Ebor. In the Spring of 1979 he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, led into the winner's enclosure by future Ayr Gold Cup winning apprentice Kevin Hodgson.

Run in a snowstorm, he may or may not have still won if Tied Cottage had not come down on landing at the last but off a mark allotted without this improvement taken into account,  connections  allowed him to take his chance at Aintree for which he would be only the third Gold Cup winner since World War Two to run in the Liverpool race in the same season as his Cheltenham victory.

Starting favourite, Alverton travelled supremely well from the outset under Jonjo. Down to Bechers for the second time, racing towards the outside where the drop was less severe than the inside, he was catching the eye travelling with ease when tragedy struck.

The visual facts are that short of room, Alverton took off early, clipped the top of the fence and broke his neck on landing. It was an incident that took up more news coverage than the rest of the meeting put together.

The back page of the most of the Sunday Papers displayed a photo of Alverton laying dead with a distraught Jonjo knelt alongside him. It was a bad news day for the sport if ever there was one and came at a time when the animal liberation activists put more numbers, more regular demonstrations and more spite into their attacks on the sport than is the case now.

So, the question is who connected to ITV decided that this was something that would serve no purpose to revisit and that it would be best for all to pretend that it never happened, and then as an afterthought to cover their tracks edited out the part where the rider was asked about whether he was ever in with a shout of winning the event as a jockey.

Those of us with long memories will remember Jonjo affirming the visual impression that Alverton was lobbing along and was adamant that he would have won. He was also quoted as saying that he thinks the horse may have had a massive coronary or haemorrhage and been dead before hitting the ground.

The Grand National was a hell of a test. A dangerous one for both horse and rider but let's put things into perspective - all equine sports carry a degree of real danger. In relatively recent times Kieren Kelly, an emerging talent who had partnered Hardy Eustace in all of his hurdle races during his novice season, a partnership set to continue, lost his life after being injured in a fall.

Worldwide, there have been numerous riders who have not survived from injuries sustained during a race. In eventing there have been over fifty deaths worldwide in the past twenty years.

And in show jumping, it's scary to think that thirty five years have passed since Caroline Bradley collapsed and died at just 37 years of age shortly after dismounting during a competition in Suffolk . It was a coronary but her body had gone through a hell of a lot of punishment in her life, breaking most bones at some time or another.

The show jumping personalities were household names in those days.Paul Shockemohle, Man About The House ( pictured),  Rigsby, Caroline Bradley, Chicory Tip, Bowie, Harvey Smith, Are You Being Served, Gillan, David Broome, Peter Cleal,Eddie Macken and Boomerang, Brian Connolly, Nick Skelton, Gordon Jackson, Sparks, - hard to believe but those show jumping names where not out of place in that mix.

There was no real forewarning that the sport would lose its mainstream popularity in the years that have passed since. If you search hard enough you may find it on TV.The priority is not high though. When was the last time you heard it mentioned on Sky Sports News? That runs wall to wall for twenty-four hours but show jumping does not exist. Many people have to actually be told what the sport comprises of. The Puissance hmm .....

Don't ever doubt that a similar fate could not await racing. Some clueless people with too much power want to paint a cosy John Craven's Newsround picture of the sport. For reasons without foundation, they believe a rose garden image will attract more interest and increased betting turnover. Alverton, by Christ, lets forget what happened to him.

They are pandering to an audience that exist only in their imagination. They should go out and speak to normal working people, the category of persons they need to bet on horses to safeguard its future. They should ask them whether they believe horse racing is cruel. If they did they will find they don't have an opinion either way. Many of these will pack out the cult courses but will bet on sports other than horseracing when away from their visits to the course.

The anti-racing brigade reached it's summit in the 1970's and continued strong to the 1980's. But the modern emerging generations that wish to change the world are more preoccupied with the pollution of the Oceans, and rightly so too.

Horse racing should embrace and proudly boast of it's rich in depth fascinating history, warts and all. It does not want to be led astray by misguided individuals with more power than brains because soon, as with show jumping, it may fall to a tier so low that newspaper editors will not guarantee space for racecards, and who knows, like show jumping the sport may not be considered worthy enough to merit a mention on Sky Sports.

image fair use c Thames Television

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