horse welfare, leap of faith, derby days & LAMBOURN.

​As I have said many times, the sport cannot do enough to support equine welfare, to raise money for equine charities or even market the sport as a sport that cares deeply for the horses involved.
In the ‘Another View’ column of the Racing Post today, the retiring chairman of the Horse Welfare Board, Barry Johnson, gives an account of all that has been achieved since the founding of the H.W.B. And great progress has been made.
Personally, and again I continue to make this point, there needs to be a R.o.R. day in the calendar with a meeting that is the equivalent of York’s cancer day, to raise funds for the charity and to help persuade the public and media that the horse is not forgotten once its racing career is over. On this day, and every other day, a concerted effort should be made to get good news stories on the subject in local newspapers and t.v. Indeed, no effort should be spared in raising funds for R.o.R. and those equine charities that do not come under the R.o.R. umbrella of protection. Fancy words butter no parsnips, if you get my drift.
The Horse Welfare Board is an independent body and seeks to bring all stakeholders around the table to help improve the lot of the thoroughbred. It has analysed 400,000 data points in its Jump Racing Risk Model to help reduce risk and the ‘Life Well Lived’ programme has a register of retired racehorses and where they are living out their lives. The in-coming chairwoman is Minette Batters, former point-to-point rider, former president of the N.F.U. and, I believe, a director of Salisbury racecourse.

The other day I walked past a charity shop and noticed in the window, it was Royal Ascot week, ‘Leap of Faith’, Frankie Dettori’s ghost-written autobiography. I apologised to Frankie as I did not have room for another racing book. I had to pass the shop on my way back through town and Frankie seduced me into buying the book. ‘House me next to Lester’, I heard him whisper, which is easier to say than do. I will have to spill a lot of dust into the air to get him housed next to Sean Pryor’s biography of the great man.
I had no expectation of the book and have been pleasantly surprised how easy it was to read. Although ghost-written, Frankie’s voice is clear to hear and in places it is quite an intimate and honest book and it reads like a well-edited YouTube video. What I really liked about the book is that each topic is self-contained, with two double spaces before the next topic is tackled. If only all books were written to this template as it makes it much easier to stop and start reading. Of all the biographies and autobiographies I have on champion flat jockeys, this is, surprisingly, in my opinion, the best.

A lot of moaning persists on the support races to the Irish Derby, even though the racecourse had its largest attendance for quite a few years. They went for the half-million they would get from the World Pool and I do not blame them. Unless they channelled all the group races of the three-days of the meeting as support for the Irish Derby, and perhaps brought forward the Irish Oaks to Derby Day, except for reducing the meeting to 2 or even 1-day, I cannot see what can be done. You cannot just invent Group races, especially on a day when there is a Group 1 staged in France and when the Irish Derby is run the week after Royal Ascot. And looking at the results, it seems all the handicaps brought about some exciting finishes and the prize-money was shared by a large number of different trainers and owners, which would not be the case if Irish Derby Day was a replica of one of the days of the Royal meeting..

Lambourn looks a hard horse to pass and those experts who are already knocking him as just a slugger might have to eat their words if and when he wins the King George & Queen Elisabeth (time this race had its name reduced do the latter, with perhaps Memorial added to it) and the Arc. That said, he also has Ascot Gold Cup written all over him, though that would make him as unpopular as a three-legged gelding with breeders, with a drop back to 10-furlongs a more likely option.