hot air, bumpers & the oldest thoroughbred in the world, perhaps.

​Yesterday, 30-minutes before the scheduled start of the meeting, Ludlow held yet another inspection and on the advice of jockeys abandoned the meeting due to parts of the course still being frozen. Clerks of the Course are damned if they do and damned if they do not and no one should be under any illusions as to the intricacies and difficulties that come with the job. This meeting was called-off, no so much for the patches of frost, but due to health and safety concerns for man and beast. And that was, for all I can know, a fair judgement call.
Although the temperature had risen to only 3-degrees above freezing, while the forecast suggested it would be 6-degrees, the majority of the racecourse must have been fit to race given the stewards were giving racing every chance of taking place. What might be done in these circumstances, other than abandon, you might ask? Well, it might be a large financial investment, even if such a tool or machine exists, and if not, it is in need of invention, but in non-freezing conditions would not some form of hot-air blower be the answer?
Most diesel-powered machines create at least a limited amount of heat, so an engineer with knowledge of the problem should be able to design a tool for the job. After all, if you pour warm water on frozen ground, it soon becomes thawed and as long as the temperature remains above zero the ground will not return to its frozen state.  
Given the limited necessity for such a machine, perhaps racecourses, or racecourse owners, could band together, if such machines already exist, and purchase three or four to be dispensed around the country, with clerks able to hire one for the day a day in advance if it looks even-money their fixture falling foul to frost.
Other than that, perhaps, as would have been tried back in the day – Catterick succeeded using this method a long time ago – herding sheep around the racecourse might prove beneficial, their tiny hoofs taking the frost from the ground.

I am an advocate of ‘copying the Irish’ and following Ollie Murphy’s complaint that there are not enough Bumpers confined to conditional jockeys, I again think we should, in amended form, ‘copy the Irish.’
In Ireland, as we all know, Bumpers are confined to amateur jockeys and in modern times are organised as a benefit to Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott who between them gobble-up most of these races much like locusts denying poor African farmers healthy living. The system as it is works nicely in Ireland and they would not appreciate anyone, especially a Brit, challenging the quid pro quo. 
Yet Ollie Murphy provides a cogent argument. Bumpers would provide excellent schooling grounds for young conditional jockeys and perhaps all Bumpers, outside of Graded Bumpers, and should be off-limits to professional jockeys. Young riders are in many ways the back-bone of most stables, even if their employers might find it difficult to get them rides on the racecourse. It seems a bit mad that a teenage conditional can have his or her first experience of a horse race over hurdles or even fences but has limited opportunity in National Hunt flat races.

The more I get to know about Godolphin, the more I am impressed by their sincerity. In the U.S., Godolphin have not one but two retirement studs for their broodmares, and I assume their former stallions. In today’s breeding column in the Racing Post, we are informed that Hatoof, winner of the Newmarket 1,000-Guineas 33-years ago, is alive and well at Gainsbrough Stud, Kentucky. At 36-years of age, she might well be the oldest thoroughbred in the world. It is reported that she has wonderful feet, even though she has not had shoes on since she retired, as 5-year-old, from racing. She prefers to live outside, even in bad weather, though ice-storms forced her to sleep in a barn for two-nights recently.
Three cheers for Godolphin and their commitment to caring for their elderly bloodstock. Perhaps our government should take a leaf from their book when it comes to caring for its elderly human bloodstock?