sir gino, punctuality, l'homme presse & THE SPA HURDLE.

​You might laugh if it were not so potentially tragic. Sir Gino out for the season with an injury that has travelled from a knock with no concern attached to it, to an infection that has found its way into the ligaments of a hind leg. This is an injury that can go one of two ways and his connections can only hope or pray for a happy outcome. The Donneleys lost Shishkin to a freak stable accident last season, and now something similar, though with a 50-50 chance of the horse racing again, is more than unlucky. And for Nicky Henderson to lose another of his stars for Cheltenham after the gods dealt him a kick to the nether regions last year, is close to being a curse upon him.
While not intending to use this untimely incident to make a point Nicky Henderson laboured upon at the start of the season, if there had been races before Christmas in which Sir Gino had been able to run in, fully realizing that his connections diverted from their planned course to take in the Fighting Fifth, perhaps the stars would have been aligned differently and Sir Gino would not have been doing whatever he was doing to whack his leg and bring about a premature end to his season, if not his career?
Of course, Nicky cannot next season complain that he has a novice who must instantly go into open company due to believing the horse was ready to take on open company in the Game Spirit after one novice chase. I do think Nicky sometimes lays himself hostage to being forced to run inexperienced against in open company in their second season with his policy of one or two runs before Cheltenham with his better horses. It is the modern way, of course, and Willie Mullins, who trains specifically with the Spring Festivals in mind, also campaigns his young horses similarly. I do not like it but then I lack the expertise to judge one way of the other.

Punctuality is next godliness, is that not what our grandparents used to preach? I work on the principle that if I am early for an appointment, I cannot be late. But that is an example of my insecurity, I suspect. 
Figures in the Racing Post have Taunton as winners of the most punctual at getting races off on time, with Hamilton second, Hereford third and Fakenham fourth. I am a jumping man through and through but as proved by the table for the least punctual having the Rowley Mile, Newbury, Epsom and Salisbury in the bottom four, flat racecourses are at a disadvantage due to using starting stalls which will always bring about delay due to recalcitrant horses and starters being overly patient. Nine out of the bottom ten were flat racecourses, while the worst of the National Hunt courses were those that stage major races, where starters seem to want jockeys to line-up so far from the starting tape that he or she requires 20/20 vision just to see what is going on.
Starts in National Hunt, especially at the major fixtures, need to be given some more thought, and on the flat, there should be a limit to how many times stalls handlers can attempt to load any one horse.

Pundits, so-called betting and racing experts, or the one I read in the Racing Post today, anyway, seem to dismiss as ‘crazy’ – not ‘crazy’, though he was dismissive, as if he is an expert on training horses and Venetia Williams is a mere gal new to the game – that L’Homme Presse is to be asked to run 3-times in 7-weeks, first in the Ascot Chase this Saturday, followed by the Gold Cup and then, to my surprise, the Aintree National. This boldness should be encouraged, not criticised. I doubt if L’Homme Presse can beat Pic d’Orhy at Ascot and the best we can hope for at Cheltenham is for L’Homme Presse to chase Galopin Des Champs up the hill for second-place. The Aintree National, though, is the great unknown. He has the form to win it and he should receive a weight (weights announced today) that would give him a fighting chance if he takes to the fences and stays the distance. Due to injury, L’Homme Presse has had fewer races than horses of his age (10) might be expected to achieve and time is running out for him. To boldly go where angels fear to tread. Good on you, Venetia. May the racing gods be kind to you.

The Spa Hurdle – I intend to write down the registered names of the Cheltenham races and in the future only use the registered name as protest at the confusion caused by races of importance at our most prestigious race-meeting having different names year on year on. God damn it! ‘The Turners’ last season was a novice chase, now it is a novice hurdle. Grow a pair, Cheltenham, and sort this out. ‘The Spa Hurdle’ presented to you by ‘Albert Bartlett, growers of the best potatoes you can ever wish to eat.’ You know it makes sense.
Anyway, before I diverted my thoughts to one of my major gripes, I think the Spa Hurdle is the most interesting, competitive and informative of any of the hurdles run at the Festival. It is poo-pooed by many for being a race for slow horses, whereas I think of the race as a throwback to yesteryear when stamina was considered of greater importance in the make-up of a horse than mere speed.