autism, going stick & skelton or mullins.

​Although I am a born cynic, I recognise, appreciate and applaud the work others do for the disadvantaged in society. It would be fair to suggest that if Jane and William Buick did not have an autistic son, they would not be so immersed in helping other families with autistic children. Others do not do what the Buicks do, though, of course, with William being one of the world’s best flat jockeys, they have the profile to have doors opened to them. That said, William may be a very wealthy man, though it is easy to recognise in interviews that he is also a good human being. Jane must be, too.
I have read today in the Racing Post that Autism in Racing has paired with the Newmarket Pony Academy to give (I guess) local autistic children the opportunity to get to know what it is like to be around, and also, to ride a pony. If you watch YouTube or subscribe to social media platforms like TikTok, you will come across hundreds of examples of young children interacting with every type of horse, including toddlers leading horses out to the paddock or back to their stables, sitting with horses on the ground, the horse gently making friends with the little human. So, it is no surprise that horses and ponies make for a safe environment for young children, whether handicapped or able bodied. One day there will be an autistic jockey in the weighing room who may not be able to communicate and interact with humans but he or she will be envied for their communication with horses. It will be their super-power.

The Going Stick, the digital walking stick that clerk of the courses stick into the ground to measure the water content is becoming a source of controversy. James Sanderson, clerk at Thirsk, seemingly does not like the mandatory use of them and has admitted knocking a point or two off the official reading. He is not a radical but a pragmatist. He is of the opinion that different soil composition will give different readings at different tracks. Although it is not exactly comparing apples with apples, I have just carried out a quick survey of the Going Stick numbers for tomorrow’s racing. At Newmarket, where the going description is Good-to-Soft, the Going Stick figure is 7.0 At Cheltenham, where the going description is described as good, the figure is 7.1 At Ripon, where the going description is also good, the figure is 8.0 At Ffos Las, where the ground is good-to-soft, the figure is 6.4 The lower the figure, the softer the ground.
It is mandatory for a Going Stick reading be published alongside the clerk’s official going description. Frankly, I do not see where the controversy is coming from. At the end of a race, three different jockeys might describe the going three different ways and they will often say that the ground rides either faster of softer than it walks. And James Sanderson is right, turf tracks can differ from one course to another. At one course you see divots of turf being thrown into the air from the hooves of the horses, while at another track hooves sink into the turf, with very few divots seen. I would imagine Kempton ‘good’ will be a whole lot different to Aintree ‘good’, for example.
I would advise James Sanderson to keep publishing the Going Stick figure and then use his own opinion in his going report and then ask the opinion of jockeys if they believe the Going Stick figure is closer to reality than his own description. If this is done at every day at every racecourse, the data will prove very informative. 

Unless Willie Mullins wins every race in which he has a runner today at Cheltenham, the championship will not be decided until at least the Easter period, with Plumpton perhaps the unconsidered racecourse where the two men shake hands. I would not be at all surprised though if Dan Skelton grabs victory from the jaws of defeat at Sandown by winning the Old Whitbread with one of his horses. It has been one of those rollercoaster championships since before the Cheltenham Festival where anything can happen and often does, with Skelton looking odds-on for a comfortable win, then Willie winning enough money at the Festival to keep himself in touch without actually getting to a point where Dan was twitchy and not sleeping well at night. Then Willie bulldozed his way into contention at Aintree, achieving a Michael Dickenson-like haul of the Aintree National prize-money and turning 1/10 on Skelton into 4/1 against Skelton. Dan, of course, is still, remarkably, in front by £9,000 as I write. Come Plumpton, Mullins might have hit the front, and still be on top by the time the last meeting of the season is about to start. But as long as the numbers still give him a fighting chance, I feel it in my waters that Dan will have tears of joy running down his face in the winners’ enclosure. It has been that sort of post- Cheltenham.