odds, salvator mundi & killing-off important races.

​I admit that I would fail a test involving calculating odds along the lines of the cumulative odds of a 9/1 winner, 5/4 winner and a 1/2 winner. In sixty-years of following racing the maths of racing can still bamboozle me. So, the thought of changing from fractional odds to decimal odds ‘worries’ me. And all to appease the once-in-a-while racegoer who struggle to understand bookmakers’ odds. What would follow the introduction of the decimalisation of odds? Furlongs replaced by metres or whatever the foreign currency used abroad might be? Whips replaced by feather-dusters to appease – oh, actually, yes, I am one of those objectors who would like to see whips carried but not used in earnest more than once.
Fractional odds are not exactly rocket-science. 9/1, £1 to win 9 plus the return of stake-money. 5/4, £4 to win 5. 1/2, £2 to win £1 plus return of stakes money. £5 at 9/1 = 9x5= £45 plus stake-money. Simples. Instead of throwing the baby out with the bath water, why not in the middle of racecards publish the return of a winning bet at all the odds bookmakers’ currently use. Educate from the top down, not dumb-down by educating from the bottom up.
If we are sincere in wanting to engage more with the public, to put more feet on more racecourses, start by ridding the sport of out-of-date traditions. Dress-codes are so last year, though more last century. Allow people to attend a race-meeting dressed how they see fit, within reason, of course. The same with Royal Ascot and Derby Day, morning suits are completely unsuitable attire for an outdoor sport. If people want to wear clothes more fitting a cathedral wedding, then sobeit. But it should not be regulated. It is so unfair that women can wear loose-fitting clothing, while the menfolk must wear a tie, top-hat and long-tailed coat. 
And racegoers should be allowed to go where they please, except where the horses go, obviously, and not kept in enclosures as if Queen Victoria might be attending. And employ people to answer any queries newcomers might have. Ensure good facilities for kids and do what is humanly possible to keep food prices as low as possible. Make money on alcohol, as the more expensive it is, the less people will drink and the happier and more relaxed the atmosphere will be for those who attend a race-meeting for the sport. And mix-it up a little between the white lines. Pony races to start a meeting, for example, a display of retired horses, occasionally. 
And to begin with, more free-entry meetings or free coach services from the local cities and towns. Concessions for the elderly, raffles, all of what they do at the Shergar Cup meeting. Etc. Etc.

Salvator Mundi looked a bag of tricks at Punchestown yesterday. Paul Townend quite often earns his money by false pretences, riding odds-on favourites that only require pointing in a forwardly direction. Yesterday he should have earned a bonus. He said afterwards that he knows the horse can jump but he did not jump with good intent at any hurdle as Townend could not afford to allow him to jump with precision for fear he might take-off with him. My fear is that the atmosphere at Cheltenham might fry his brain and Townend will be unable to restrain him. But then at Tipperary back in May he made all the running and won by the length of the straight. You would not want to back him for the Supreme until you see him cantering (hopefully) to the start. Remember the atmosphere at the Festival is at its most frenzied in the build-up to the first race.

People, and journalists, continue to advocate the scrapping of races that currently form part of the Cheltenham Festival. Already trainers and owners have lost the intermediate novice chase, some want the Mares Hurdle scrapped (I merely want the conditions changed to prevent mares of Champion Hurdle class from running in it) while now there is a call for the Ryanair to be binned in order to improve the standard and number of horses running in the Gold Cup.
Why lose these races when they might be run either earlier in the season at, for instance, what is now referred to as ‘Trials Day’ even though it has practically no relevance to what might happen at the Festival, or later in the season at Aintree?
What is required, to my mind, of course, is a Mares Champion Hurdle and perhaps the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown might be the most appropriate home for such a race. If Cheltenham were to ditch its ineffectual ‘Trials Day’ and replace it with a Gloucestershire Racing Festival or a ‘Festival Part One’ meeting, both the Ryanair and the intermediate novice chase could be transferred to headline the meeting.
There is a need for these races. By abandoning them, while it improves the competitiveness of the Cheltenham Festival, it takes away opportunities for the owners of horses who are neither 2-mile Champion Chase candidates or Gold Cup horses.