the race programme.

​I would imagine those responsible for drawing up the racing programme at the B.H.A. have prepared Plans A, B and C and maybe are working on Plan D, just in case ‘normality’ has not returned to the planet by August Bank Holiday. Call me cynical, if you like, but if social distancing is still ‘the law’ come autumn, and if you believe what you read (and who doesn’t?) that just might be the situation, but I predict there will be rioting on the streets, domestic abuse will have reached unthinkable heights and both a general malaise and outright madness will be seen in all walks of life.
Incidentally, pertaining not to this article but to life as we now know it, isn’t startling to discover that mortality rates in Italy are almost identical to this time last year?
Yes, I am a critic of the B.H.A.. For a governing body they are too reactive, and many times inactive, to events instead of leading the way with either practical or innovative ideas. At times, too many times, they have proved to be an embarrassment to the sport. But I do not envy them at this moment. We should be a month into the flat season, with Guineas trials to the fore and Derby hopefuls nearing levels of fitness that have their connections plotting a path through the season and yet we remain under lock and key. The Guineas are postponed, as are the Derby and Oaks. If Royal Ascot takes place it will be behind closed doors. Why they have made this decision so early – perhaps to prevent women ordering new outfits and hats – is beyond me as mid-to-late June is still eight to nine weeks away. The virus will have withered and died by then, if not the scam that is driving it.
So, the B.H.A. must squeeze the 2,000 and 1,000 Guineas, the Derby and Oaks into a season shortened by at least three-months and which from June onward has a big festival meeting virtually every two-weeks. And, of course, Ireland and France have exactly the same dilemma to overcome. There is no solution that will suit everyone, that is for sure.
I dare say the flat season will be extended into December, with eight or more races at most meetings. I.T.V. will have tricky decisions to make as to which meetings to cover, especially on Saturdays, as many big races will have to clash just to get them staged this season.
I would hope someone at the B.H.A. will look at the flat programme and realise what a hodgepodge it is. Not only the sheer amount of racing, and the ridiculous amount of all-weather racing at a time of year when it is not required to ‘save the day’, as is the case during the winter months. I am a traditionalist at heart, with nostalgia for the long-established races, many of which are lost to the mists of time or are pale shadows of their former self – the Queen’s Prize, the Roseberry, Great Metropolitan, to name but three. But as I have argued many times, it is absurd to have four classic run by the first week in June, while the fifth, the oldest, languishes at the tale end of the season. To my mind it is time the St.Leger was removed from its traditional classic status (I will return to it), with the Eclipse restricted to three-year-olds and elevated to the final leg of the Triple Crown.
The St.Leger I would elevate to the richest race in the country, the third leg of a middle-distance Triple Crown, along with the Hardwick and King George and Queen Elizabeth, keeping the distance at 1-3/4-miles and opening it up to older horses.
Although I understand, though do not approve of, the concept of Champions Day and why it is run at Ascot and that it is highly unlikely that it will be jettisoned, the actual racing hangs like a flag at half-mast, coming no way close to its grandiose description. There is a rhythm to the National Hunt season. It begins quietly, ramps up through the gears from November, to climax at Cheltenham and Aintree in the spring. The flat, on the other hand, is a helter-skelter from beginning to end, rather like Benny Hill forever chasing after, but never catching, a scantily-clad blonde. It’s just a bit of relief when it is all over. Not that it is ever over, not exactly, not with the ever-present all-weather. I would re-route Champions Day to Doncaster, with the St.Leger the centre-piece of the final day of the season. Drawing a clear line under the season, with the Champion jockey the one who has won the most races in a complete season and who has bothered to stick around from start to finish.
As with what is proposed for this season, I would have the Derby after Royal Ascot. This makes sense as the three-year-old races at the Royal Meeting will become the final, and perhaps most important trials for the Epsom classics. It would allow the Dante to become a race in its own right and not simply a Derby trial and also allow a longer period for development for the horses who have run in the 2,000 and 1,000 Guineas, and if the Eclipse were to become a classic, the time-span between each leg would be approximately the same.
I hope during this Covid-19 interlude the powers-that-be have used their spare time wisely and effectively, taking stock of the current flat programme, with the amount of pruning they must be forced to carry out an eye-opener to the mess that the flat season has become.