A SNATCH OF CATCH-UP.

​Last week’s series of article in the Racing Post focusing on horse welfare, with emphasis on the retired racehorse and equine research, was a prime example of what the newspaper for the industry should be known for. Horse racing is a many faceted sport, encompassing the thoroughbred from pre-birth to death. The efforts of the horse on our behalf, and that joins owner, trainer, jockey, punter, stable staff and race-goer as one, should be respected both when in training and when retired, and when they stand on our toes, kick us in the groin, bite us on the arm or dump us without ceremony on the gallops, in a muddy puddle or in the stable yard, we should shoulder half the blame as usually it is our mistake that led to the incident.
As I have said before, those of us who follow horse racing in any capacity are nothing without the horse. I suspect last week’s articles preached to the already converted and it is a pity the Post is not aligned to one of the mainstream national dailies as that is where such articles would do the most good, would open the eyes of readers who have always believed that to horse racing horses are a little but a throwaway product used and abused for the entertainment of ourselves. The Post has a team of great writers, tis a shame their work cannot be read by people away from the sport.
What heartened me the most from last week’s articles is that it is clear the B.H.B., unlike when the Jockey Club ruled the turf, are making horse welfare a priority and not allowing owners to renege on their responsibilities to both the horse and the sport when their horses are retired.
Alastair Down, as always unafraid to tread his own path, decried the call from Ed Chamberlain and his bosses to dumb down racing terminology. I side with Alastair on this issue. Horse racing has a history that no other sport can boast; its peculiar language derives from the shallows and peaks of that history. To those of us who have followed and derived immense pleasure from the sport for fifty years or more the journey is one of accumulating new knowledge, of light being shone on the shadowed corners. To this day I have no idea how the odds for doubles and trebles are worked out. Yet I do understand, and deeply disapprove, of the method for defining the champion jockeys of the flat and though my tone might betray my disapproval I could explain the method to a someone ignorant of the sport. Our races may be measured in old-fashioned furlongs whereas the youth of today only know metric but in asking questions of our sport they will gain knowledge of the ‘old ways’ of our country as at the same time learning about our sport.
The answer to the problem may lie either in providing a glossary of racing terminology in all race-cards or as a booklet that can be bought at the entrance of all racecourse. Once you start down the road of dumbing-down what can only happen is that standards can only continue to slip. The Welsh and Cornish fight to keep their native language alive and racing folk should do the same. We should try to raise up the knowledge of people, not talk down to them.
This week is Derby week. I am a racing man from my grey hair to gnarled feet, yet this week feels like any other week during the flat season. They refer to the Derby as ‘the greatest race in the world’, which clearly it isn’t, even if its history should demand it to be the ‘greatest’. Thus far I have seen no mention of the Derby in any of the National dailies, unlike the Grand National and Cheltenham week which can be featured a week in advance. Even if it is only the fashion element that arouses the editors of the daily papers Royal Ascot is more eagerly awaited than the Derby these days.
There are, in my opinion, two reasons for the slump in interest in the Derby. 1) It is run on a Saturday. When it was run on the first Wednesday in June it was an excuse for people to take a day off work. Now it is just the big race on a Saturday. The specialness is removed from it; its history adjusted to suit modern living. 2) The romance has been removed from the race. Although the race has never been able to rival the Grand National in the romance stakes – very few long-priced winners, very few winners trained in reduced circumstances, and even when an unknown like Padraig Beggy wins, as last year, the romance is consumed by the fact the horse is still a Coolmore horse. And that’s the other real problem with the Derby – the predictability. Every year one horse dominates, usually a horse owned by Coolmore. This year Coolmore might provide half the field. I admire Aidan O’Brien and his family, they are a credit to themselves, their country and the sport. But what is happening to the Derby is that it is threatening to become a Coolmore benefit and that will always scupper the romance of the race.
Mind you, God only knows what anyone can do about it, but not allowing the likes of Gina Mangan to ride in the race does nothing to increase the Derby’s popularity with the public. Coolmore, if they are to run seven horses on Saturday, could at least consider putting up a female jockey on one of the seven, just to give the neutrals something to focus on, to give the race the chance to provide a little romance.