review racing post tuesday may 17.

​As my car yesterday suffered what might yet to prove a catastrophic (to my bank balance) mechanical failure, I had to inform my employer (I am old and only work to supplement my meagre pension) that I will not be reporting for duty today (May 18th) and perhaps for the rest of the week. Due to the horrendous possibility that I may have to plunder my savings to buy a new car to enable me to continue to work, I forgot to ask my employer to have a Racing Post delivered to my door. Yes, I have to work into old age to be able to afford this one luxury of my life. Without a daily dose of Racing Post, my life is greatly lessened. 
This review of yesterday’s paper is a sort of top-up to the hour of warmth and certainty that the Racing Post provides me with each day.
The top news of the day, apparently, is the decision Buckaroo’s connections have to come to as to whether to run in the Irish 2,000 Guineas or the Epsom Derby. It is not stated what the differing factors might be between running in one or the other and so we cannot know the extent of their dilemma. I just know it is the interests of everyone not that they make the right decision, because they will never be certain if they chose correctly, but a speedy decision, to allow the betting market and journalists in good time the likely composition of the Derby field. Not that Joseph O’Brien needs my input, but I would go to Epsom. There is no stand-out horse travelling to Epsom, though the Godolphin’s 2,000 Guineas runner-up, Native Trail, looks rather mighty. Or is it Coroebus who is heading to the Curragh? Though he too looks mighty mighty.
Since Frankie’s first ride in the Epsom Derby in 1992, jocking off a lesser jockey in favour of the Italian maestro has never borne fruit. This year, Frankie is to be parachuted onto Donnachie O’Brien’s Piz Badile at the expense of young Gavin Ryan. I understand the owner’s reasoning, even if there is no historical fact to back-up the decision.
We are continually informed that in the spring Inspiral had a small set-back; the reason she missed the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket and why she will miss the Irish version at the Curragh and head to Royal Ascot and the Coronation Stakes. ‘Missed some days of training at a critical stage of her preparation’ does not suggest a small, inconsequential injury if it has prevented her from seeing a racecourse for 2-months.
I didn’t see the point of Julian Muscat’s Tuesday’s Column feature on the successes of Desert Crown and Baaeed, highlighting how greatly missed both of their breeders, Hamdan Al Maktoum and Prince Khalid Abdullah, are to the sport. That said, it was, as one has come to expect from Muscat, a very professional written article.
I wish journalists would take a breath before honouring flat horses, indeed horses from either code, with the mantle of ‘greatness’. Baaeed is a very good horse, of that there is no basis for debate, but as yet he has achieved little to warrant elevation to the top strata of the racehorse pantheon. And no comparison with Frankel or Brigadier Gerard is yet deserved. Not by a long chalk.
Though I agree with Peter Scargill that I.T.V. should dedicate more time to horses in the parade ring and less time to informing us of what we already know, I am not totally enamoured with the quality of those chosen to furnish us with their expertise on how a horse looks, walks and behaves. Adele Mulrennan, though, is showing great promise.
Here's a thing: if 10 or 20% of racegoers object to cashless payment at racecourses, potentially that could become a similar number of people choosing to spend their cash elsewhere. At a time of declining racecourse attendance, this is a worrying direction to be taking. Just give racegoers the choice between card and cash. It is a no-brainer. Oh, don’t be fooled by statements from racecourse executives claiming cashless is customer-driven. It is government-driven; cashless societies being a major part of the World Economic Forum’s ‘Great Reset’, something our government signed-up to in 2019.
Lydia Hislop is the latest racing celebrity to throw her toys at the suggestion of a 5-day Cheltenham Festival. No, ‘this is a way it might work’ or ‘let’s give it a go for a few years and judge where we are when we have facts and figures at hand’. Or even ‘that ejit Keith Knight idea of ‘Cheltenham Week, incorporating the National Hunt Festival could be interesting’. No, just ‘I don’t like it, it won’t work and sod the commercial rewards if its does work’. Though she is right in her opinion that racing has gone wrong.
Lee Mottershead, who after the singular Patrick Mullins, is fast becoming my second favourite racing writer. His ‘Seven ideas to tackle British racing’s big problem (see, Lydia Hislop was right) deserves a piece of its own and will get it. Lee will be thrilled.
Page 9 was dedicated to sprinters. Winter Power to return at Haydock this Saturday. Suesa to go for the King’s Stand, the race that used to be the main sprint at Royal Ascot but is now second-best to the Diamond, or is now, the Platinum Jubilee Stakes. And Roger Teal has reported Oxted to be out of action this season due to a tendon injury. See, trainers can be open about the extent of injuries to their horses. A big blow to one of the smaller trainers.
And to finish, two minor niggles of my racing life. When a racecourse uses the word ‘National’ in a race title, as with the Killarney National, shouldn’t the actual race resemble, if only in distance, proper staying chases and not be run over a distance less than, say, 3-miles 5-furlongs. A ‘National’ run over 3-miles 2-furlongs or less, should be defined as a ‘short national’, surely.
The ’Birthday Column’ is always filled by names of people unfamiliar to me, usually very old people, with rarely anyone young, like the sons and daughters of jockeys and trainers or first-year owners or anyone who might inspire anyone youthful to take an interest in the sport. And anyway, birthdays are for children, not wizened old men and women. I would prefer the sport remembered and celebrated the lives of the dead. ‘Dead but not Forgotten’ as grave inscriptions usually read.