race deletion, r.p. analysis, the kieran affair & underwhelmed.

​Whether the B.H.A.’s ‘Race Deletion Policy’ is good, bad or indifferent, to me, is not the point. I understand the frustration of trainers when a race is abandoned due to only 3-horses being declared as it must be maddening for owners to have good prize-money dangled before their eyes, especially if the horse has failed to earn prize-money all season, only to have the race scuppered by the B.H.A. due to the uncompetitive make-up of the race. Yet in the case of Stratford, the feature of the story in the Racing Post today, to ensure a six-race card a competitive 12-runner handicap hurdle has been divided into two-divisions, neither of which are particularly competitive.
I do not believe the ‘Race Deletion Policy’ is the problem. The problem in need of a solution is too much racing in a month of the year when good-to-firm ground can be expected across the whole of the country. Today there is racing at Huntingdon and Stratford, both of which could be described as Midland racecourses. Yesterday they raced at Newton Abbot, Kelso and Fontwell. Friday there is racing at Hereford and Market Rasen and on Saturday racing is scheduled for Hexham, Warwick and partially at Haydock. Stratford, Warwick and Hereford are within walking distance of a fit and healthy man and their proximity to one another must allow local trainers to pick and choose where to run their horses, whereas if only one of those courses raced this week field sizes would be substantially larger.
At this time of year, jumps meetings need to be scarcer. It is the only method at our disposal to ensure competitive racing. The B.H.A., instead of a ‘Race Deletion Policy’, should have a ‘race planning policy’ to ensure the races scheduled fit the type of horse in training during the next few months of the year. The ‘Race Deletion Policy’ is an acceptance of defeat in many ways and is certainly not pro-active but reactive, a knee-jerk approach to a problem easily solved if racecourses did not have the persuasive power over all other stakeholders that form the governance of our sport.

I believe, and I stand corrected if I am wrong, but I do not believe Racing Post journalists who write-up the in-running reports and analysis of the day’s racing attend racecourses but watch from their London offices on t.v. screens. I often wonder how accurate their summaries are. For instance, the Cheshire Oaks yesterday – Kate O’Riley, ridden by Saffie Osborne, was said to have ‘weakened final furlong’. Yet she was headed by the first three to finish between the 3-furlong and 2-furlong pole and then stayed on like a horse in need of 2-miles. She did not weaken, not to my eyes and I would imagine her connections were far from disappointed by her run.
I often read highly negative comments when in fact a horse has run well for a long way into a race, only to be beaten by superior horses. These reports should not involve flattery, of course, but the words written by journalists enter the form-book and remain racing gospel for ever more. I am quite sure some owners are quite pained by what is written about their horses and at a time when everyone within the sport should be encouraging owners to stick with the sport.

Kieran Shoemark being demoted by the Gosdens’ is not a good look for the sport. From ‘having Shoemark’s back’ only a few weeks ago, John Gosden has humiliated a good young man and hung him out for further ridicule by the losers who frequent social media solely to stick knives into the reputations of people who do the best they can every day of every week at the coalface of life.
Will Mikhail Barzelona get the heave-ho by Godolphin, too. He admitted he should have waited longer on Shadow of Light and might have won if he had done so. Shoemark was defeated in the 2,000 Guineas by circumstance. If Buick had to alter course from the dip, if a horse came across him, if Shadow of Light had been asked to quicken closer to the winning post, Field of Gold might have won the way he was ridden. Beaten jockeys are always wrong, so it is said. But that does not imply they should be persecuted for it. I am quite sure Ryan Moore and Frankie Dettori also make similar decisions in races such as Shoemark made last Saturday. I am sure every beaten jockey comes in after a race wishing they had made different decisions during the race. Shoemark has been hard done by. I hope he has the last laugh at some point this season.

So far underwhelmed by the classic trials. It is a no from me about either Minnie Hauk and Lambourn and will be following the careers of Lazy Grift and Caspi Star with interest. But not in the classics.