MY PERSONAL VIEW OF FLAT RACING.

​I follow flat racing though, if I am to be truthful, I am not a true fan. My heart lies 100% with National Hunt. Yet I appreciate that the sport of horse racing originated not so much in the hunting field but on the widespread heathlands, with gentleman of the aristocracy wagering large amounts of money with one another as to who owned the fastest horses. In those days there were no rules and argy-bargy and gamesmanship were not necessarily frowned upon and fortunes were lost on these up-to 4-mile match races. I find the history of flat racing a stimulating study, especially during the years when the Epsom Derby held such national importance that Parliament adjourned for the afternoon. For instance, I have a love and respect for Brown Jack that no flat horse of my lifetime has yet to equal.
Historically flat racing has been given advantages not really available to National Hunt, though this argument does not necessarily apply to Ireland, a country where the dividing line between the two codes is not so apparent and though it must contend with the variable weather of early spring and late autumn flat racing enjoys the privilege of staging all its major events throughout the summer and consequently it has the capacity to attract a much larger attendance than National Hunt, with far less chance of having abandonments through rain, frost or snow. Yet even with the advantage of better weather and greater prize money it remains in the eyes of many, I suspect, the second-most captivating division of our sport.
What flat racing rarely delivers is equine heroes and when it does they are whisked off to stud before they set on the mind’s eye to quickly become a memory of what might-have-been. When anyone lists the names of great flat horses what is conjured are names that lit up the sport for a very short period of time, their careers orchestrated with the precision of the latest boy band, their limitations rarely discovered. We will never know the true abilities of horses such as Sea The Stars and Dancing Brave as they were not given the opportunity to race through to maturity, which by the way, in the thoroughbred, is five-years-of-age. They were financial assets in need of exploitation.
This aspect of the sport is where flat racing fails: at the top end it is a business, a shop window for the breeding industry. At the top end flat racing is not truly pure sport.
In the archive of this website there is a piece where I champion the radical idea that in order to give the flat a flagship boost to the season and to provide the sport with a flat race ‘that is a bit like the Grand National’ the Lincoln should be a forty-runner race started from a barrier as in days of yore. A madcap idea, I grant you, yet you must agree it would capture the attention of the media and the public to greater effect than the present-day humdrum Lincoln.
I have also advocated a ‘Melbourne Cup’ type race for this country and with the £1.million Ebor and Cesarewitch we are going in that direction. I have also proposed ditching the St.Leger as the fifth classic and giving the honour over to the Eclipse, making a Triple Crown of the 2,000 Guineas, Derby and Eclipse, a more appetising proposition for the ‘industry’, you must agree, than having a final leg run four months after the Derby and over a distance not given any real credence by breeders world-wide. I have also suggested that the St.Leger should become the richest race in this country as compensation.
The concept of Triple Crowns is not as exploited as it could be. I would instigate Triple Crowns for all divisions of the sport – sprinter, stayer, middle distance, two-year-old colt and filly and so on. The same with handicaps, with the top three heritage races over all the usual distances combined to provide further Triple Crown winners.
I would certainly scrap the Qipco Championship series as it makes sense to no one but those at the top end of the sport and is illogical to anyone outside of the sport. To begin the season at Doncaster in March but for the jockeys’ championship to start in May is simply stupid, especially as it ends weeks before the final day of the season. It is the sort of concept that could only have been dreamed-up after a long day emptying champagne bottles in the company of ‘marketing airheads’ flush with the success of their posters promoting the hairdresser of the year competition. ‘Champions Day’ should be the full-stop to the season, as Punchestown has become for National Hunt in Ireland and Sandown has become over here. ‘That’s the way to do it’, if you want to do the job right.
There are also too many meaningless Group and listed races staged for no other reason than to provide ‘easy black type’ for breeders. Indeed, I would strongly argue that the balance of power should be altered so that the sport is administered more for the benefit of the sport itself rather than for what is beneficial to the breeding industry.
Recently I have detected a swing in policy from the powers-that-be toward doing all they can to protect the large urban racecourses whilst allowing the smaller ‘country’ courses to live or die by their own efforts. I may be wrong in this assessment and hope I am as the foundations of this sport lie not with the glory of Cheltenham, Newmarket, Ascot or Aintree but in the workaday everyday of Fakenham, Ripon, Salisbury and Cartmel. To help sustain such courses I have advocated we follow the path of Ireland where throughout the summer there are many festival meetings linked to local tradition and events.
Flat racing, I contend, requires a root and branch kick-up-the-pants. It has become samey, predictable and in part a free-for-all of race-planning that has consequently caused fixture congestion, with a jockeys’ championship that is so stupid that the jockey who rides the most winners during the turf season is not necessarily the champion. In fact, the jockeys’ championship reflects the grey-mud thinking of the powers-that-be, with ridiculous ideas such as championship team racing and street racing given credibility, yet any idea that might put extra earnings the way, for example, of the journeyman jockey is frowned upon as ‘entertaining mediocrity’ or such pap.
Having said all that; I much prefer flat racing in Britain and Ireland to that provided by other countries such as America, France or Australia.