fear for the future.

​The news that horse racing in Ireland will be restricted to a maximum of 500 spectators until the spring at the earliest is cause for concern for everyone in Ireland and in Great Britain. What is especially concerning, at least to me, is that Ireland is famous the world over for its production of thoroughbreds, being home to studs of world renown. The thoroughbred industry in Ireland must be a source of great revenue for the Irish exchequer yet there seems no will amongst its politicians to protect either the sport of horse racing or those employed in the breeding industry. It is also a clear indication that ‘they’ intend to keep the scam going until they have found their golden vaccine, the next stage in the agenda that ultimately will lead to top-down governance and population control.
As with our own government, within the ‘clarity’ there is a fog of hope in that certain sporting events, given the size of the sporting arena, that on occasion numbers may be extended beyond 500, though as the Irish government has thus far in the Plandemic not given racecourses so much as an inch of charity, I suspect that as we go through winter all Irish racing fans can look forward to is disappointment followed by false hope.
While I understand how unfair it is on owners that they are yet to be allowed to watch their horses run in person in Ireland and how frustrating it must be for them, I believe it is more important in the first instance that Irish racecourses survive the tyranny of Covid and suggest that 500 paying spectators offers better hope of keeping racecourses afloat than owners being apart of that 500. Racing fans should also be prepared to pay a little extra on the price of admission, after all, we are all in this together.
The racing authorities in both Britain and Ireland are not fighting hard enough to protect our sport. Back in August 2,400 people attended the World Snooker final at what is quite a small venue in Sheffield. Although there was anti-social distancing, no one seemed to be wearing a mask, yet there was no ‘spike’ in infection rates attributed to the snooker. People ascending en-masse to the beaches of this country, mass rallies against the lockdown restrictions and Black Lives Matters marches also did not cause any spikes. All evidence that thousands of people in close proximity to one another does not automatically spread infection. Oh, and here is an opportune moment to recommend anyone reading this blog click on the following link for up-to-date information on where we are in Europe and the U.S. with the coronavirus. Hint, hint, it is already too late to pay our goodbyes, it is almost out-of-sight. https://youtu.be/8UvFhIFzaac

To follow-up on a previous blog. I have joined the David Pipe Racing Club and proudly display my badge of allegiance on my favourite body-warmer. For my £250, yes I went for the Gold Standard membership, I have thus far received several videos uploaded by David’s mum of To Fly Free and Airton breezing up the Pond House gallops and invitations to a stable visit that in short order were rescinded due to Boris the Bastard restricting social gatherings to six. When you have visited the video, I recommended you will be asking why, bloody hell why? Night curfews might yet be an additional option in the ceaseless pursuit of a shadowy enemy that like Monty Python’s dead parrot is gone to ply its horrors in the vestibules. It is a deceased virus!
I digress. I do not regret my gift to myself. Indeed, further down the line I might join another trainer’s racing club. (Any invitations?) I only wish I could contribute financially to a greater extent to help the sport survive. If I won many millions on the Lotto, I can assure everyone I would either donate money to prize money or buy several horses. It will depend on how much I win and how helpful the B.H.A. are when I stipulate how and where I want my donation to go.
More so than ever, the sport needs the little man to man the barricades. I ask every reader of this blog with a few hundred quid to spare to join a racing club, to do your bit to ensure the sport survives this crushing blow to its finances. In fact, racing’s stakeholders should be actively promoting the concept of micro ownership, syndicates comprising thousands of members owning a few hairs of a horse’s tail. It might be going too far to suggest the concept is the saviour of racing in Australia but it certainly has had a major effect on racecourse attendance and the interest of the general public. In the U.S., this year’s Kentucky Derby winner is similarly owned. It is a concept that over here and in Ireland, I imagine, is not being fully exploited. The £250 I paid for my racing club membership could easily in the future allow me a few hairs in a horse running in the Derby or Cheltenham Gold Cup.