When David Jennings announced he was leaving The Racing Post, I was gutted as he was one of my favourite contributors to the paper. One week on and I sort of feel 'who was David Jennings?' The Racing Post has announced that from tomorrow the legend that is Ruby Walsh will be penning a Saturday article. Unlike with Mr. Jennings, we cannot expect much humour from Ruby Walsh, what we will get though is forthright opinions, scathing opinions and a good dose of common-sense. What the fabled analyst doesn't know about the sport is not worth knowing. One thing is for sure, I will be too scared of catching alight Ruby's choler to be sending in my thoughts on his thoughts to the letters column. I know my place, and it is a long way in arrears of Ruby.
People generally love autumn because of the reds and oranges of the leaves as trees prepare for the winter. I enjoy the autumn because a) we are forever moving towards the heart of the National Hunt season and b) no matter the falling foal crop, the ending of the flat season ensures far more competitive racing than during the summer months. Ground conditions mean less to flat trainers desperate either to give racecourse experience to late maturing two-year-olds or just desperate to get a win out of a horse that has either been unlucky or disappointing prior to the coming of autumn. There are 29 at present due to line-up for the Cesarewitch, which perhaps makes up for the disappointing field of five for the Dewhurst, 2 form Ballydoyle, two from Godolphin and one from Kingsclere. Really! Only three trainers in the whole of the kingdom that has a two-year-old worthy of contesting the premier two-year-old race in Europe. But everywhere else punters will find it damned hard to find a winner!
Chris Cook, a diehard jumping fan, is of the opinion that the jumps calendar is in need of an overhaul. He might be right, though I believe too many people are having knee-jerk reactions to one very hot summer. He is right when he writes that it is wrong that the fixture that should have taken place at Wincanton has been transferred to Market Rasen rather than close by Newton Abbot due to Wincanton and Market Rasen being in the same ownership. Personally, I believe at this time of year, and this harks back to competitiveness, that only occasionally, and not as a default position, should meetings unable to take place be transferred to another racecourse. When the pool of horses available to race is shrinking, why transfer an uncompetitive racecard? A backlog, as with a traffic jam, will ensure that trainers will become desperate for movement and when meetings come along on acceptable ground field-sizes will swell into double-digits. What is required, I believe, is that racecourses scheduled to race in autumn, and that includes the likes of Ascot and Newbury, should be mandated to irrigate throughout the summer to ensure the grass does not turn brown and that when the autumn rain falls short, it only takes minimal effort to provide ground described as good.
I quote a short sentence from George Lambton's superb book 'Men and Horses I Have Known'. The 'him' in question is Fred Rickaby, of the family lineage of no less than a personage as Lester Piggott.
One morning, on the Heath, Mr. Coventry was talking to him when a batch of horses came thundering along. 'I suppose that's what they call a half-speed,' said Mr. Coventry. 'Yes,' said Rick, 'but it would take them a long time to find the other half.'
As Lambton said. Fred Rickaby had a quaint way of saying clever things.