just another thursday musings.

​Given that we are 4-years into the health & safety sensible rule that only allows jockeys to ride at the one-meeting per day, which gives jockeys more spare time, the sport as a whole has been slow to initiate plans to use jockeys to help promote the sport. At the upcoming Ebor meeting at York a day is being set aside to help the public get to know jockeys a little better than is presently the case. Jockeys’ surnames, for example, will be displayed on their backsides, an initiative that, perhaps, female jockeys might not be so keen on supporting as in general it is not seen as gentlemanly for the male sex to give the female backside more than a passing glance. You never know, in time this initiate might lead to racing’s ‘rear of the year award.’
I dislike horse racing being thought about as in some way similar to Formula 1, where the driver of the cars are the star attractions, with headlines that will put the driver’s name before the make of vehicle as the winner, whereas in racing it is the name of the horse that comes first, followed by the jockey. I would hate to get to the point when, as with Frankie Dettori, the name of the jockey is given prominence over the name of the horse. The horse in horse racing is not the vehicle – it is a sentient being and that should never be lost in the promotional narrative.
The problem, as I see it, in promoting the jockey to star attraction is that the members of the public with little or no interest in the sport, tend to view horse racing as an elite sport, whereas the vast majority of its participants work working-class hours, even when they are wealthy, as it is with the leading jockeys. And that, for me, is the rub of the situation. For all that he is a really good bloke, Tom Marquand is extremely rich, as is William Buick, Oisin Murphy, James Doyle etc, and if too much light is shone upon their lives people will gain the wrong impression of the sport.
The sport must be careful when stepping out of the shadows. The sport must be promoted in all its shades. Formula 1 is not representative of the sport of motor racing. There are many grades of motor sport that are far removed from Formula 1 as a point-to-point is removed from Royal Ascot. Hamilton, Russell and Norris will not be seen in a race-car at Snetterton or Oulton Park, whereas Marquand, Buick, Murphy and co will regularly be seen riding at Brighton or Ffos Lass.

We are in for a wet Autumn according to Richard Hannon. It is the reason we will not be seeing Rosallion again this season. If trainers’ do not have enough on their plates, it seems they are weather forecasters, too.

As someone who has championed the inclusion of female jockeys in our sport for nearly 30-years, I should applaud the 50/50 split between the two genders at this weekend’s Shergar Cup. I do applaud, though one-handedly, if that is at all possible. On reflection, I would have preferred a female in each of the teams, though with three, obviously in the female team. The great selling-point of the Shergar Cup is cheering on the underdog, which has always been Hayley Turner’s team. Now there are two female teams which gives me the dilemma of which team do I support. Well, Hayley’s team, obviously. 

When I.T.V. began its ‘Home Schooling’ thread, I saw it as a peep-hole into an unrecognised side of the sport. Catching up with ex-racehorses in their new surroundings always warmed the heart. Latterly it has become a promotional opportunity for trainers to show videos of their horses on the gallops or sometimes an employee sending in footage of their favourite horse eating a carrot. All acceptable but not what ‘Home Schooling’ was about at its outset.
The sort of video I enjoy seeing, to give a recent example, was Frodon’s last day at Ditcheat and his arrival at his retirement quarters with Jimmy Frost. Racehorses at rest in their summer paddocks. Young kids on their ponies cantering on the gallops of a trainer. ‘Home Schooling’, as I know as fact, allows the racing fan in a household to say to his or her spouse or one of the kids, ‘quick, come see this’, a small window to engage someone with little interest in the sport to see something of interest they might not otherwise be acquainted with.

I realise I am an outlier, but as someone who does not drink alcohol, the price of drinks on a racecourse does not impact on me. Given that a day at the races is a day lived out-of-doors, racecourses should promote their venues as somewhere for families to come to enjoy a picnic. With perhaps a creche and a supervised play area for children, especially as children go free at all British racecourses. It should be family fun day at every race-meeting, if parents chose to attend along with their offspring. If we want to encourage younger people to go racing, start them young, make them welcome from any age, make the racecourse a fun and interesting environment for the