blowing my own trumpet.

​Because no one else will, of course.
In today’s Racing Post (Sept 8th) Jack Berry, one of horse racing’s greatest treasures, wrote in his guest article that there should be races restricted to both trainers and jockeys with less than a certain number of winners in a set period. This idea has been mooted by several other people in recent times, (and here is where I blow my trumpet) though I have championed this idea for many years. Many, many years. The powers-that-be, though, the people who know best, the rulers of our sport, continually pour cold water on an idea that, at worst, cannot do any harm to the integrity of the sport. The reverse is the case, as showing benevolence to the under-privileged or the under-achiever can only show horse racing and its administrators in a positive light. This is not hand-outs; it is opportunity.
My continuing criticism of our sport, and this perhaps applies more to the flat than the jumps, is that every innovation only benefits those at the top end of the sport; the people less in need of a helping hand.
I am convinced that the powers-that-be believe that stables with less horses and less winners than the larger, more fortunate, stables are the seedbeds of corruption and to make their integrity units more effective they would like to see every ‘small’ trainer go to the wall. Indeed, if I were a conspiracy theorist, which in some respects I am, I would suggest ignoring the plight of the down-trodden to be the first step in restricting the sport to those at the top end of the sport’s pyramid. In effect, returning the sport to the days when horse racing was entertainment solely for the ruling classes and the aristocracy.
What harm could possibly come from staging one or two races a week restricted to jockeys who have not ridden, for example purposes only, twenty winners in the previous twelve months or for trainers who have not trained a similar amount in the same time frame? All it amounts to is offering a helping hand to hard-working, conscientious people who doubtless struggle to pay their bills on time.
In the Question & Answer feature in Sunday’s Racing Post the question is posed What Does Racing Do Best? I would answer it brings together, virtually as equals, every level of society from working class to monarchy. In our sport, the Head of State competes on equal terms. She receives, and does not ask for, any favours. And in the winners’ enclosure she (figuratively) brushes shoulders with a groom who might hail from the lowliest of backgrounds. This mingling of the social classes is an element of the sport the powers-that-be should be proud to proclaim. The rulers of empires who own racehorses ride on the shoulders of the working classes. It is a hand-in-glove relationship that has two-way benefits.
Framing races as Jack Berry suggests is no different to restricting races to female jockeys in order to give them greater opportunities. Why amateurs are given a plethora of races on the flat but the journeyman jockey must sit and suffer is beyond any rational explanation?
 
My other major grouse concerning the flat is the weights two-year-olds are set to carry in nurseries and other races. If ‘Children Are Our Future’, then two-year-olds should be the future for flat racing, yet in many regards they are considered ‘throwaways’, easily replaced, especially at this time of year with all the yearling sales. For example: at Lingfield today in the 1.30, a 0-70 handicap, Capla Gilda is set to carry 9st 9lbs, 9lbs more than a four-year-old in a novice stakes at 3.00, and 3lb more than a three-year-old in the 3.30, a 71-85 banded handicap. In the 1.30 there are three other horses set to carry more than 9st 3lbs, none of which have won a race.
At Kempton in the 6.30, a 0-60 nursery, the top-weight, a maiden, is also set to carry 9st 9lbs, with the next in the weights 9st 8lbs, then three on 9st 7lbs, none of which has won a race. In what is in effect an all-age maiden at 7.30 a five-year-old is only expected to carry 9st 8lbs.
Classic colts in the Derby are only expected to carry 9st and against older horses are given a weight allowance.
There is no point countering with Capla Gilda carries 9st 9lbs because his form warrants such a weight as my argument is that he remains a two-year-old, the youngest age in which a thoroughbred can be raced anywhere in the world. He is a comparative baby; his future should be in front of him. He is still growing; his bones are still maturing. I would argue the sport is not taking appropriate care of him, that the sport cares not a fig for his well-being or his future. 9st should be the absolute limit for any two-year-old to carry. There may be implications connected to the weight of jockeys if this principle was adhered to but it is my opinion that the horse should have first consideration.