a genius idea? THE HEATH, AIDAN, LORCAN & MY HOPE FOR FLEXIBILITY.

​The Affordability Check saga has raged now for something like far too long, with the same defence seemingly brushed aside with aplomb by the bad guys at the Gambling/Grumbling Commission. Yet today, in the letters’ column of the Racing Post, a letter from an Italian racing journalist, Carlo Zuccoli of Como, might have given racing’s generals a new combative weapon to trump government’s wish to control betting and racing, which is in-line with their aspiration to control everything and everyone.
As I have said, there is a gulf of difference between a bettor and a gambler. Yet Carlo Zuccoli has cut through that simplistic differential by defining the bettor as an investor, in-line with those who ‘bet’ far more substantial amounts of money on the stock exchanges. I hope, in time, that for his insightful contribution to this endless saga of control over freedom, Carlo will get to be carried shoulder-high, the Italian flag draped around his shoulders, from Newmarket to Epsom, from Epsom to Cheltenham, which will be enough heavy-lifting for all concerned. New light was needed to be shone on this subject and I will have my fingers-crossed for as long as it takes in hope messrs Ellis and Barber, Tom and Bill, to give their stamp of approval to this, crossed-fingers, remember, genius thread of hope.
In Italy, apparently, bookmakers are forbidden to promote their prices on any event, sporting or otherwise. As in Italy, as in Ireland, as, any day soon, in Britain, I suspect.

As someone who refuses to get involved in the warm weather crisis, knowing after research that it is as fictional as covid was the killer decease of allmankind, I rarely applaud the woke-sayers who stand in-line with all this ‘the seas are boiling’ claptrap. Yet I do applaud Jockey Club Estates initiative in restyling Newmarket Heath in replica of Chantilly by planting miles upon miles hedging plants and thousand upon thousand of saplings. The Heath may be the oldest training centre in the whole wide world (guess work) but it is also a habitat, the likes of which are becoming rarer all around the whole wide world. Newmarket Heath, as well as the other broad and windy sweeps of greenery across the country that provide trainers with the land to train their horses, as well as all racecourses, especially those that are now encircled by urban development, provide green lungs for both racing people and others and are in need of protection from the advances of the concrete jungle.

Aidan O’Brien is the greatest record-breaker of the 21st Century. Who could argue against such predictability? I have always wondered that should ‘the lads’ have a moment of gay abandon and buy a two or three-year-old out of a seller, whether Aidan could improve it up to heritage handicap standard? Perhaps Matt Chapman could suggest it to one of the ‘lads’ the next time he assails one of them in the winners’ enclosure at Newmarket, Epsom or Ascot.

Lorcan Williams is in the dog-house, and I suspect, given Paul Nicholl’s has publicly expressed his anger with him, that he would not find shelter on a stormy Ditcheat night even in a kennel, due to his ‘lack of professionalism’ in going three, possibly four, over the proscribed limit of seven-strokes at Newbury yesterday. What a woeful waste of an opportunity with both Harry Cobden and Freddie Gingell being injured at the moment. Given he is a longstanding professional who should know better, I suspect Williams might be in for a period of inactivity far longer than Paul Nicholl’s has predicted. I know it is something Nicholls and the majority of his colleagues will whinge over but disqualification should be mandatory for even one strike over the seven. It is the only way to limit use of the whip, the main reason people are put off our sport. The greatest priority for our sport at this time in its history is protection of the horse both as a partner on the racecourse and with aftercare when retired. The whip is an aid, not an accelerator pedal. The horse is flesh and blood, sentient like you or me, and very much unlike a motor-bike or motor-car.

If I could have one wish for 2025 – and this will change and change about, I have no doubt – is that the race programme becomes more flexible, with conditions for races more imaginative, with slightly less emphasis on betting turnover and allow for greater emphasis than now on trainers to find better opportunities to run their horses in the sort of races that will benefit the development of the younger horses. I would go with on a six-race card, five being for the ‘industry’ and the sixth being for the ‘sport’. I rest my case.