whip, yet again, the baron allen saga, emily wilding davison & jack kennedy rides again.

​In the Tuesday column of the Racing Post today, Lewis Porteous makes a salient point around the issue of whip offences. Whereas running and riding offences are judged on the day, after the race, whip offences are deferred to the following Tuesday to be decided upon by the Whip Review Committee. Porteous was referring in his piece to the Queens Cup at York won, on the day, by Megan Jordan, the race that is, in effect, the female amateur riders Derby. It was as clear as day that the result would be altered come the following Tuesday, yet the procedure of weighing the winning rider with boxes of champagne was carried out nonetheless. Everyone must have known it was a charade, yet no one thought that in the interests of common-sense it should be held over until the next York meeting.
Porteous is right in his opinion. One of the stewards must have counted the number of times Jordan had used her whip in order to refer the matter and all of the footage that was available to the Whip Review Committee was also available to the York stewards. I cannot think what there is to prevent stewards on the day imposing a disqualification, even if the W.R.C. then review the stewards decision or arbitrate on an appeal from the connections of the disqualified horse.
As Porteous reminded his readers, Betty Smith, now the winning rider of the Queens Cup, is 38 and her ambition was to win the race, and the laurels were taken from her on the day by a procedure that is in place to ensure the right result is succeeded upon, yet in reality is not fit for purpose. I believe, demonstrating that some people know what the right thing to do is, Smith has split the champagne with Megan Jordan, and she will postpone her retirement to try once again next year to finish first past the post in the Queens Cup.

When the dictatorial rule of British horse racing was removed from the Jockey Club everything in the future was supposed to be glorious and democratic. At least that is how I remember the hand-over of power. Yet it has all become a mess, with the sport stuck at base camp, while so many other jurisdictions are either at the summit or comfortably insight of the sunny uplands. Baron Allen has recognised, perhaps finally, the hodge-podge of governance that is the B.H.A. is fundamentally a war of attrition and will only take his seat of office if those who have created the mess are prepared to act for the greater good and not dig in their heels for want of mercenary objectives. And as a sport that is acting without a permanent C.E.O., why has Brant Dunshea not been offered the job on a full-time basis, if only to bring the impasse to an end? No one else, it seems, wants the job, so why not give it to the man keeping the seat warm.
Also, and there is no hope of this, of course, why can’t the B.H.A. be on a lookout for a candidate to take up its chairmanship if Baron Allen walks away, perhaps some one with hands-on experience of the sport? Now that would be a novelty.

There is a lovely piece in the Racing Post today by Chris Cook in the series on the ‘Story of British Horse Racing.’ It focuses on Emily Wilding Davison and why she did what she did. From our perspective in the dystopian years of the 21st Century, her cause was more than worthy, it ultimately could only result in a suffragette victory. But the past is a different country, as someone once said. What I had not realised was that something similar occurred a few weeks later at Royal Ascot when a man, Harold Hewitt, stepped in front of a horse in the Ascot Gold Cup. Unlike Miss Davison, Hewitt survived his injuries as did both horses and jockeys involved in the two incidents. The horse brought down in the Ascot Gold Cup, Tracery, went on to win the Eclipse a few weeks later, proving once again that the past is indeed a different country. When was the last time a horse went from the Ascot Gold Cup to the Eclipse? I cannot get away from the idea that the  trainers’ of today are a bit weak-kneed when compared to those of the past.

Gallant Jack Kennedy rides again, starting-off on the next chapter of his storied career at Tipperary with three rides, two in beginners chases and the other a novice chase. No easy way back for Jack on a reliable old chaser. I do not know if it is a long way to Tipperary for Jack to travel today, I just hope the return journey sees him with a smile on his face and a few winners closer to catching up with Darragh O’Keeffe and Paul Townend, the main opposition to him reclaiming his champion jockey trophy. Kennedy is old-style, a man both of this age and the age of sacrificial and arsonist suffragettes.