horse that ran but was deemed a non-runner, paradox & what katy did next or something much the same.

​The first race at Chepstow last night may well have elicited a future question at pub Quiz Nights. Which horse ran, finished the race, yet was officially deemed a non-runner. The answer is Outer Edge. Remember the name. Put it in your tracker or note-book or cork board. What is more, the official explanation for being Outer Edge being officially made a non-runner, despite running, was ‘unruly at start’. This might seem a case of making up the rules as the Chepstow stewards went along as the horse could not have been that unruly given he started the race, though due to having a back leg caught in the running board as the gates opened, it was considered he was denied from starting on equal terms as the other runners.
The matter, doubtless, will be referred to the B.H.A. and in due course the views of the jockey, trainer and owner will be heard. I suspect they will put blame for the incident on the starter and the starter will apportion blame to the jockey, and the owner will want compensation for his or her horse having run 5-furlongs in hot pursuit, with special attention drawn to the possibility the horse may have run injured due to trapping its hind leg in the running board (how does the design of the stalls allow that to happen) and that protocol suggests a vet would have had to inspect the horse if the horse had needed to be removed from the stalls.
I await the B.H.A.’s report on the incident, if only to see how they cover-up what must be a cock-up by the starter. Having not witnessed the incident I may, of course, be wholly wrong and my apology is being drafted as a write this.

On the one-hand the sport is in dire straits, with more hurt to come if our questionable (and that is putting my views mildly) government hikes betting tax on horse racing to the same level as the tax on games of chance, yet on the other hand Wathnam, Amo and others are prepared to spend millions if not billions on equine talent to be trained in this country, and now Yulong Investments are to construct a purpose-built thoroughbred stud at Newmarket, a project that will cost millions and provide job opportunities for the local population. A paradox, is it not?
Personally, given the road of travel with our present government, I see little hope of them backpedalling from their taxation policy and have little faith in the Treasury ‘talking’ with officials from all sectors of our sport. The country, if truth be told, is bankrupt and if the World Bank decided to ask for all the money it has leant the British government, mainly to house, feed and generally pamper the millions of illegal migrants presently residing in four and five-star hotels, we, the population, would be up shit creek in a boat made of paper-thin promissory demands.

In today’s Racing Post Jonathan Harding begins a two-part series on how to make British horse racing better again with a look at how other sports have gone down the path of fundamentally changing the shape of its sport to entice younger people to engage with it. As someone who has a limited engagement with most sports – I used to follow Formula 1 but went clean off it when it began to resemble hooligan drivers on a single track road – I can only take at face-value Harding’s perception on what has worked for other sports. Cricket has migrated from a game lasting 5-days to one that is over in 3-hours. It has retreated from being a game requiring the tactical skill of an Admiral of the Fleet to that of a game of Snap or Snakes and Ladders. That is surely posted under the term ‘dumbing down’ to suit the lowest of denominations. Jonathan Harding did not mention rock climbing, a sport – I always thought of it as a pastime, rather like hiking but instead of progressing horizontally, the climber progresses vertically – is now an indoor sport. We have one in our High Street, which is pretty mad when you think of it. 
Tomorrow young Harding will be availing us of all the ways horse racing can tread a similar avenue of discovery. If he proposes City Street Racing I shall be, let me say, disappointed in him, though 4-furlongs races will be proposed and no doubt a rock concert in the ‘dead-time’ between races will be aired. I look forward to being appalled.