THE BARON ALLEN SAGA CONTINUES, BRAVEMANSGAME & NOTICE THE CONNECT.

​The B.H.A. board will meet on July 28th to decide what to do about Baron Allen. It might prove to be a heated gathering, given that the Racehorse Owners Group and the Racecourse Association oppose Baron Allen becoming the new chairman (I so hate the use of the term ‘chair’, the chair sitting on a chair etc) of the B.H.A., while the National Trainers Federation, the Jockeys Association and the National Association of Stable Staff, are aligned in their support of Baron Allen. Without agreement by all the stakeholders, it is highly likely that the Baron will walk away, leaving the B.H.A. and the sport in limbo. It has to be asked, if Baron Allen believes the sport is impossible to lead with the present system of governance, who else would want the job?
All of this could be avoided if my suggestion of a democratic approach to the appointment was given a fair crack of the whip. If the B.H.A. were to select the three best qualified for the position of chairman/chairwoman, hopefully with at least one of the nominees having a coal-face association with the sport, and then in good old democratic fashion, after hearing the manifestoes of the electees, elect the new leader by a ballot of everyone with a vested interest in the sport. And that would include you and me. No ballot papers, but a vote on-line, using the B.H.B. website, with everyone eligible to vote given a registration number prior to D.Day or should that be V. Day.

Rather saddened that Bravemansgame has been removed from Paul Nicholl’s stable to that of Marine Pineda in Lamorlaye near Chantilly. The idea is that the change of scenery will ‘boost the morale’ of the horse and was recommended by James Reveley who rode the horse in the Aintree National last season. The move, I am sure, is with the best of intentions but as Bravemansgame is eleven rising twelve, he is as, Marine Pineda described him, an ‘old gentleman’ and as such retirement might have been the kindest option for the horse. The application of blinkers is a clear indication that the horse has tired of racing and his career wins should qualify him for an easier life than continuing to race against younger, more enthusiastic, horses.

When will people, and by people I hint at Racing Post employees, notice the connect between the policy of the Irish government to make horse racing in its country a harder steer than it is already, and the British Government’s seemingly support for the Gambling Commission’s determination to make betting as socially undesirable as smoking cigarettes in public places. The two governments are going about the destruction of the racing, breeding and gambling industries from differing positions. Yet it is as clear as a heatwave that their aims are the same.
When taken in the same light as the slow but methodical destruction of ordinary life, the establishment of a fourth industrial revolution, based around technology, not industry, as proposed by the World Economic Forum and the subverting of what might be termed the ‘established religious orthodoxy of the Catholic and Protestant Church’ by an influx of illegal immigrants of a different faith, and fifteen-minute cities and the rewilding of the countryside, and my belief that the ultimate goal, far down the road of the present strategies of the Irish and British governments, the natural extinction of our sport. To fight a rearguard action is to continually lose ground to our opposition/enemy. We need our pride in our sport to come to the fore and we need to step forward and use everything that can be found in the W.E.F.’s ‘Great Reset’ as our arsenal of attack.