burns, has gordon conceded? & major study.

​Remember the name, Burns, claims seven, Nicola Burns. Whether she goes on to become the Holly Doyle of Irish racing we will have to wait and see. Talent can sometimes be negated by bad luck or, when it comes to females, sexism. From 57 career rides she has already achieved 9 winners, which is pretty good statistics for a young lass not long from gaining her leaving certs.
I write, as normal, in ignorance of the girl. I have never seen her ride and do not know which stable she is attached to. Her father trains, indeed her first winner was for him, but that may be too quick an assumption. I know from a quick bit of research that she has ridden for 29 different trainers already, winning for 7 of them, so my instinct for spotting rising stars can be backed up by evidence that professionals are also seeing something in her.
I mention Nicola Burns as I believe Ireland needs a stronger female perspective in the riding ranks. Rachael Blackmore is 35; she will not be adorning the weigh room for many more years and in National Hunt there is literally no other female professional within a leap year of her. In fact, you have to look to female-only races to find a female who rides winners over jumps in Ireland. Through no fault of her own, Rachael’s magnificent career will leave no legacy of female participation when it comes to jockeys. Which is mad when you consider that before her both Katy Walsh and Nina Carberry were revered as two of the best amateur riders of modern times.

Gordon Elliott has not exactly turned his back on the Dublin Racing Festival but in keeping Brighterdaysahead, Gerri Colombe and a few of his other top horses for the Cheltenham Festival, is he gifting so many Grade 1’s to his arch-rival, Willie Mullin, or should it be the other way around? Perhaps Elliott is the arch-rival of Mullins. But is he a rival at all? Anyway, to get back on point. Is he conceding the trainers’ championship. Unlikely as it seems given the history of the Irish trainers’ championship for the past fifteen-years, Elliott is still top of the table, which must be quite original for Mullins not be leading the way as we close in on February.
Gordon greatest ambition, I should imagine, is to be champion trainer in Ireland. He has won 3-Nationals, with one of them being a proper Grand National with Silver Birch, and he has a Cheltenham Gold Cup in the bag. But he has never finished in front of Mullins in the trainers’ table. He has been mugged at the finishing line, when Mullins had to win practically every race at the Punchestown Festival to beat him and achieved the fete.
So why has he keeping his big guns at home and leaving Mullins to go 3, 4, 5 or 6-handed on Saturday and Sunday to mop-up all the money on offer? By Sunday night, Mullins will undoubtedly leap-frog Elliott and go on to win his zillionth trainers’ title.

A study carried out on behalf of British dressage, the other equestrian sports, the Pony Club, the B.H.A. and Horse Welfare, has thrown-up some predictable results. But that does not mean professional horse racing folk should sneer at the results or take the attitude of ‘what do they know’? Those who took part in the survey expressed concerns about injuries and fatalities in horse-related sports, which everyone who cares for horses would agree with, and the after-care of horses when they are retired. A subject, at long last, British racing is addressing and which can only be improved upon year-by-year now that the auction houses, along with buyers and sellers, are contributing £12 per horse sold at auction to R.o.R. This was my idea and I will keep saying it as it is singularly my proudest achievement. If I wanted the expense of a gravestone, I would have it engraved in gold along with my name.
49% of respondents were either ‘not at all accepting’ of the whip in racing or only ‘slightly accepted’ its use. As I have said many times, and in many ways, as someone who does not live amongst racing folk, the whip, along with fatalities, something we could only abolish if we stopped breeding thoroughbreds and closed every racecourse, putting thousands of people out of work, was of greatest concern. We can do something about the whip, though, and perhaps edge that 49% into acceptance of our sport. For the sake of all those people who earn a wage from horse racing, and for the sake of the horses we very nearly worship, why are we not urging from within to have the B.H.A. trial no-whip races or ‘one-hit and that’s it’, my preferred option, so we can at least have data to argue the case one way or the other.
Oh, in case Matt Chapman either reads this or is told about my views – shut-up, this is not about who can shout the loudest, this is about the survival of the sport. No hit racing would be a small sacrifice if it allowed the 49% to become 1%.