bloodstock industry, 32-week suspension & kg & qe stakes.

​Present state of mental acuity – depressed. Considering applying to be made a ward of court or have my other half take out a power of attorney to protect me from financial embarrassment. As far as modern life is concerned, I am not fit for purpose.
Let us crack on.

Sorely troubled by the prices paid in the auction ring for racehorses. Compared against what might be guessed to be the value of classic and Group I winners, a great number of fairly average horses are selling for inflated figures that to the outside observer would make them think that the racing industry is in tip-top shape, which it is not.
Yesterday at Tattershall July Sales a horse named Humam sold for 190,000 Guineas on the strength of having won 3 minor races, including last time out at York. He is Racing Post rated 91 and is related to Vadream, Mirage Hero and Midream, all half-decent, though way below top-class. Humam originally cost 260,000 guineas, so can be considered a disappointment on the racecourse, and before that he had been pinhooked for 230,000 guineas. This horse has so far achieved 680,000 guineas in three appearances in the sales ring. Why? I doubt if he made a profit for the pinhooker, even with 3 victories, I doubt if he made a profit for the vendor and there is a long haul ahead of the new owner if Humam is to pay back his purchase price this time around.
3 other moderate horses reached 6-figures at Newmarket yesterday, Rose Arbour who went for 170,000 guineas, Spring Lantern 150,000, Jorge Alvares 150,000 guineas. Yes, I realise that the purchasers of these horses may be trying to buy into blue-blooded pedigrees but I do not believe this is a good look for the racing industry as a whole and at a time when we are pleading poverty in light of the government’s proposed hike on betting tax. Yes, the value of anything is what someone is prepared to pay to acquire it and breeders, at least outside of Coolmore, Juddmonte and Godolphin, do not always make big bucks every breeding season. But breeding, as with betting, go hand-in-hand with horse racing and it sticks in the mouth a little that the owner of an ordinary racehorse would have to win up to 10-races on the all-weather to pay his or her expenses, yet the sales market, at the top level, remains buoyant to the point of obscene if compared to the struggle to remain financially viable of trainers, for example.

I ask this question: when was the last time a trainer was banned for 32-weeks for a doping ban? In the past, trainers were excluded for life. Recently, though, the B.H.A. has become more lenient when it is clear the trainer was not liable for the offence. So why did little known Hannah Roach, formerly assistant to John O’Shea, twice winner of the Aintree Foxhunters, receive a 32-week sentence yesterday for the administration of Lasix to a horse that ran in a point-to-point? I am sure there is a back story that only those in the know have access to, and perhaps that is why the B.H.A. applied the lash rather than a sympathetic hand on the shoulder.
This was a first offence and Roach was only in charge of John O’Shea’s stable while he was recovering from heart surgery and he spoke in her defence, even though she no longer works for him and has had little contact with him since her departure. O’Shea even admitted that Roach was directed by him when the Lasix was administered. As the point-to-point season does not begin until November, the point at which the ban takes effect, Roach’s ban is not 32-weeks, close-to the length of the point-to-point season, but also from now till November. It seems harsh justice and as with so much on the fringes of the sport it is not a good look for horse racing.

Soon it will be the King George VI & Queen Elisabeth Stakes. Firstly, the title needs to be shortened. It is a mouthful, unlike the Arc, The Derby, the Gold Cup, etc. Why not the Queen Elisabeth II Stakes, with Memorial added to separate it from all the other races here and around the world named in her honour. Also, it is worth a staggering £1.5-million in prize-money and yet on perusal of the possible runners it might not attract less than 8-runners, depending on how many of the Ballydoyle entries take part and if they choose to use a pacemaker. There might be 1 French runner, perhaps 2 if Sosie takes part, with half the field likely to be from Ireland. No entry from Japan or the U.S. Is this race value for money. Would the half-million part of the prize fund be more beneficially awarded to other Ascot races, the Gold Cup, for example? The K.G. & Q.E. is not the Arc, it is simply the Coronation Cup at a different racecourse and with an obscene amount of money thrown at it in order to attract quality runners from all around the world, which it is not achieving. Again, it is not a good look for a sport that pleads poverty on a daily basis.