10-furlongs, midak, pricewise & 'The Great Match'.

​Imagine a 2-mile 4-furlong chase labelled as either a ‘Grand National or a National of some kind’. Stupid, it would go against all we expect a ‘National’ should be. In Ireland, a country that should know better, they have at least two local nationals run over a distance short of 3-miles. Nationals should have a precise definition in the racing vocabulary and that should include ‘a test of stamina’.
Likewise: if the question in a quiz night is ‘what is the distance of a Derby’, the answer on the page would be 12-furlongs. That is the traditional Derby distance. In the precise definition of what can be termed a ‘Derby’, the distance of 12-furlongs should be the first requisite. Hence, I do not regard the French Derby as a proper Derby, which is why I have scant regard for it. It is one of the prime examples of why the thoroughbred breed is becoming weaker and weaker, when speed is given priority over stamina.

I viewed film footage of Midak, supplemented for the Derby, working on the Les Aigles gallops and was impressed by him. He strode away with the look and appearance of a horse who wanted to gallop, looking every bit a horse of stamina and not pure speed, which may be a factor if the ground turns soft. I was taken by him and though it would be Disney if a horse owned by the Aga Khan’s daughter should win a Derby named for the year in honour of her late father, if first impressions are to be believed, it might happen. My three for Saturday’s race are now Ruling Court, Stanhope Gardens and Midak.

Peter Thomas, the Racing Post’s senior contributor, David Ashforth excluded, is a busy bee in today’s paper. He authors both the ‘Another View’ column and the feature-piece on the clash of The Flying Dutchman and Voltigeur at York in 1851.
In his first piece, Peter Thomas, who claims to be a recreational punter even though he mixes with most of the country’s leading betting analysts, makes the false claim that Tom Segal, the legendary Pricewise at the Racing Post, puts food on the table for his family through money bet on horses. It is as if Segal works for the Racing Post as a kindness to the bosses and draws no salary, when I suspect he is paid a very healthy salary, with his winnings from his exchanges with bookmakers merely paying for holidays and picnic hampers from Fortnum and Mason.

Peter Thomas’ main contribution to the Racing Post today is his piece on the match race between The Flying Dutchman, Derby winner in 1849 and Voltigeur who triumphed at Epsom in 1850. It is great example of Thomas on best form, beginning with the regret that public hangings are no longer a spectacle on the Knavesmire. It is a thought when ideas are bandied about when comparisons are made between the numbers who attended Epsom in the past against the fewer numbers who will grace the Downs next Saturday. There are a good number of bad people I would willingly watch in chains in or from a gibbet.
What is remarkable is not that The Flying Dutchman won the race known historically as ‘The Great Match’ and the 1,000 sovereigns put up by the losing owner but that Peter Thomas neither blanched nor commented on the fact that the victor went on to win the Ascot Gold Cup and then a race at Goodwood (Goodwood Cup?) over 3-miles 5-furlongs. There was no spearing the rod in those days. Modern-day trainers would go weak at the knees if it were suggested a horse should run twice in a week. After his defeat over 2-miles in The Great Match, Voltigeur was asked to run again the following day. He was beaten, giving 37Ibs to a mare who went on to win both the Goodwood Cup and the Ebor. Proof alone, if proof were needed, that the past was indeed a different country.
When Voltigeur won the St.Leger, which he dead-heated for, only taking the prize in a re-run, he was also asked to run in the Doncaster Cup 2-days later, with a supposed run in a handicap in between. Fortunately, no other horse was declared and the handicap became a walk-over.
I recommend you search out today’s racing Post, if only to read the full account of ‘The Great Match’. Those perhaps were not the good old days but then we would be happy to see one third the number of people who witnessed The Flying Dutchman V Voltigeur at Epsom on Saturday.