the newbury boycott and the 300-races.

​This morning I e-mailed President Beckett of the Trainers’ Federation to suggest to him that owners and trainers are in the best position to facilitate change to the race calendar. The boycott of the Newbury race on Saturday was necessary if only to spark the debate that has followed. If the sport had decisive leadership, of course – on this issue the B.H.A. fiddles around with the authority of a learner driver waiting for his mother to summon the courage to give him his first lesson – Group 1 racecourses would not be allowed to stage any race below a value of £10,000, say. It is a damning indictment of prize-money levels at our major racecourses that Chester, Chelmsford and Cartmel can often stage races of greater value than a meeting with Group races on the card. 
I have proposed to Ralph Beckett, who perhaps might not take kindly to me e-mailling my two-pennies worth to him, that the Trainers’ Federation should go further, should take the fight to both the R.C.A (Racecourse Association) and the B.H.A. by sitting down and drawing up a list of 300-races, one race per day over a period of 300-days, to boycott, thus reducing the race-calendar by the number the B.H.A. first proposed. I wouldn’t though make the protest a mirror-image of the Newbury boycott as I would suggest one horse being declared per race, with trainers taking it in turn, so that the prize-money goes to where it is most needed, owners and trainers and does not remain in the coffers of the racecourse.
I doubt very much if Mr.Beckett will put my proposal to his members, especially at this very busy part of the season but, as I asked him, how much is enough? Someone or one of racing stakeholders has to grasp the mettle and put their heads above the parapet or the precipice from which there is no way back will reach us at a point when it will be too late to prevent calamity. 
In today’s Racing Post Caroline Bailey announced she is to retire from training and at the other end of the age spectrum Amy Murphy in an interview has said she is seriously considering transferring to France in order to gobble-up the enhanced prize-money over there. And just not at Longchamp or Chantilly but in the provinces as well.
I have not bought a copy of ‘Horses in Training’ since 2018. A quick browse of the first pages is a clear indication that in the garden of horse racing is far from rosy. David Arbuthnot, Alan Bailey, John Balding, Jack Barber, James Bethell, all have retired in the interim, in the latter case to hand over to his son. To be fair, I am sure many more have taken the plunge and taken out trainers’ licences since 2018 yet my point remains valid. People of long experience are quitting because they cannot make the job pay. Perhaps it has always been so, the cream rising to the top and the less successful, less resourceful, falling by the wayside.
I do not believe the sport is at a crossroads. Sadly, worryingly, I believe the sport has left the crossroads behind and directed by the B.H.A. and a misfunctioning Sat-Nav voiced by the Racecourse Association, we are now speeding towards either a dead-end or a cliff-top. A leader needs to emerge to lead the resistance, to demonstrate a better way. President Beckett might be that leader, the Trainers’ Federation an army of direct action, removing by subtle force 300-races and then moving the debate on to the more difficult and more vital issue of prize-money.
One final thought: did anyone miss that boycotted race on Saturday? You wouldn’t, would you? It was yet another Saturation Saturday and on Sunday two National Hunt meetings when one would have been plenty. And do you know what? Stratford and Newton Abbot are so close together on a map they would attract exactly the same trainers. If two National Hunt meetings were necessary, why not Stratford and Cartmel, after all Cartmel has a meeting on the Monday, or Newton Abbot and Hexham? The worst decision ever, well, it probably isn’t but its exasperating anyway, was giving the racecourses the licence to race whenever they wanted. Another example of the executive tail wagging the sporting dog.