praise for harry, field of gold, start-time for aintree national, another view & french good idea.

​In his column today in the Racing Post, Richard Forristal heaps praise on Harry Cobden, declaring him a maverick and a throw-back to the days of John Francome and flat exile Jamie Osborne. And who could disagree with him. I believe in Cobden, Sean Bowen and Paul Townend we have three jockeys who can be mentioned alongside any of brilliant jockeys of the past. I was described the difference between Ruby Walsh and A.P. McCoy was that the former never sat on a bad horse and the latter rarely sat on a good one. This was before A.P. became the retained jockey for J.P. McManus. If you set aside Cobden for the moment, my quote about Walsh and McCoy could also apply to Townend and Bowen, with one only riding good horses and Bowen rarely riding a good one.
Forristal also quoted himself in his column today, which is frowned upon, apparently, at least that is what Forristal suggested. He was right to do so, as what he said about last year’s Aintree National was prescient given the fatality and near-fatality this year and the domination of Willie Mullins. Forristal had said after last year’s race that in reducing the maximum number of runners and making the fences too easily negotiated, it was only going to make the race a race for the elite stables. In fact, tongue-in-cheek, I suspect, he predicted that Mullins might have the first five home this year.

Field of Gold was impressive yesterday in the Craven. But what do I know? Good to see Kieran Shoemark silencing his critics, though.

A letter from Simon Burgess of Bewdley in Worcestershire in today’s Racing Post condemns the start-time for the Aintree National brought forward to 4 pm. As a football fan he was forced to tape the race and watch it after the afternoon football matches had finished. And he calls himself a racing fan, preferring football to the biggest horse race in Britain, if not the world. The man needs to get his priorities in order.
He is wrong, by the way. There is no point the racecourse chucking a million gallons of water on the track during the night if it is allowed to dry out to the point of fast ground by the time the race is run. Given I am a supporter of Dan Skelton’s proposal to have the Aintree Meeting as the last meeting of the season, which would have the race run in May, I would suggest a 3 pm start for the race, for the reasons I have stated above. Horses come before faux racing fans who put football before the Aintree National.

Scott Burton, in ‘Another View’ in today’s Racing Post, wrote about the fine margins between a jockeys’ responsibility toward the welfare of the horse he or she is riding and the rule that states ‘all jockeys must take all reasonable measures to obtain the best possible placing’. He cites the cases of Adam Farragher who was given a 10-day when falling foul of the above rule at Kempton on a horse that based on Farragher’s evidence was nearly unrideable during the race, and Michael Nolan for failing to pull-up a ‘horse with nothing left to give’ in the Aintree National. Nolan did pull-up of his own volition and did all he could to prevent his mount when it was obvious it was in distress. At first, I only disagreed with the stewards for their leniency. Now, having heard Nolan’s testimony, I believe him hard done by. There are times when the jockey should be given the benefit of the doubt, as in Farragher’s case, and in Nolan’s case, judgement should be deferred until all the evidence is at hand.

At Longchamp today, controversially, a French 1,000 Guineas Trial and a 2,000 equivalent, have been merged into one race due to neither race filling to an acceptable number of runners. Two five-runner races are now one 10-runner race. French rules allow this to happen in races where France Galop, provide all the prize-money. This seems such a sensible idea that the B.H.A. should introduce a similar rule in this country. Of course, British trainers would create a fuss the same as their French colleagues, with self-interest taking precedence over the benefit such a move would bring to the financial and competitiveness side of the sport.