latest B.H.A. Blunder, mullins the wordsmith, mangled & the mighty bradstock.

​No terrestrial racing on a Saturday was always more than a possibility in the months between December and March and yet the B.H.A. could not make a provision for such an outcome in their premiership racing concept. People who believe in the warm weather crisis, of course, also believe in fairies and gold at the end of every rainbow and I suspect everyone who works for the B.H.A. also believes in the power of crossing ones fingers and hoping for the best.
All-weather racing was initiated on the pretence of providing racing with a safety-net for when turf racing is postponed due to waterlogging, frost and natural disaster. To my mind, a large slice of racing’s problems can be placed at the foot of the decision to allow all-weather tracks to multiply and yet with hardly a day without an all-weather meeting, on a day when they would have saved the day, they were out-of-reach due to mishandling of the situation by the B.H.A. Bloody Hopeless Administration.
The concept of ‘premier racing’ is deeply flawed. There is a grain of both good intentions and good ideas within it but as it stands it must be abandoned with immediate effect. Richard Hoiles has it right, as I did once I realised how premier racing would best work. It is individual premier races that need to be ring-fenced, not whole meetings. Premier Racing is about creating have and have-nots, with the likes of Chester marginalised while the likes of Ascot are placed on a pedestal. 
If Sandown had gone ahead, the Veterans’ Chase, as the main race of the day, should have been given a half-hour window, fifteen-minutes before the race and fifteen after, when no other race in the country could be run and, as Richard Hoiles suggested, the race included in racecards at every other meeting racing on the same day, with big screens showing the races for racegoers in all parts of the country to enjoy. Come Cheltenham in March and Aintree in April, two races could be given ring-fence protection, thus bringing the Cheltenham Festival and the National meeting to other racecourses in operation on the same day. In this way ‘premier racing’ would require virtually no budget, which is what it has at the moment.

As a rider, he is the most successful amateur for many a long year. As a writer, he is par excellence, if you pardon my French. He may have suffered a ‘par’ day at Leopardstown on successive days but as readers we never suffer a par round when reading his account of any racing topic. Two talents, while I have none. Life is not fair. But then I should have read the small print on my birth certificate.

Look, it was my fault. I take partial responsibility for the Racing Post mangling my latest letter to appear in the letters’ column. I attempted to make a point about two different topics and though my ire about Gordon Elliott and the O’Leary brothers disrespecting the Champion Hurdle by continuing with talk about the Mares Hurdle for Brighterdaysahead, they sliced and diced my point of view on the confusing and ever-changing titles of races. Where I wrote – why not The Grand National presented to you by Randox Health – purveyors of (whatever strap line they wanted), they went with why not the registered title the Grand National.
Lesson learnt.

Today’s feature in the Racing Post is Sara Bradstock and a good piece it was. Lewis Porteous would have phrased that so more adroitly but then he is a professional and I am tired and old and on this particular morning – it is presently 7.04 am (I sat behind my laptop at 5.15 am) and keep losing my train of thought.
Sara Bradstock is everything that is good about this sport. Only three wheels on her wagon yet she keeps moving along regardless of all the vicissitudes life puts in front of her. To be factual, she has six horses in training including Mr. Vango who I hope will win her the Warwick Classic on Saturday if the weather allows her the opportunity.
You would have thought that as the daughter of the The Noble Lord and having trained, alongside her late husband Mark, the winners of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the Hennessey and the Whitbread, there would be owners lining-up to have horses with her. If I got lucky, I know she would be high on my list of possible trainers.