HOME BY THE LEE, DID HE OR DID HE NOT & CRITICISM OF COBDEN, SURELY NOT.

Today, at 2.15 British time, Home By The Lee will attempt to add the Grande Course de Haires d'Auteuil, or the French Champion Hurdle to you or someone not French, to his Cheltenham and Aintree victories, neither of which hade the title of champion in their name. At the age of eleven, Home By The Lee has risen to the status of a champion, even if the folk of Cheltenham racecourse refuse to confer on the Stayers Hurdle the title of staying hurdle champion. Home By The Lee is every bit a champion as Lossiemouth, yet the former will be referred to next season as 'the Champion Hurdler', whilst Home By The Lee will not, though he might be referred to as the French Champion Hurdler if he should win at Auteuil.

Will he win? I am far from being an expert on French racing, or anything else, for that matter, though the betting forecast suggests that Theleme, Losange Bleu and Illusion Machine are his main dangers, with Apple Away and Henri the Second are also representing Britain. I hope he wins as for me he was the horse of the season in Britain and Ireland for winning the races he won at the age he is. Joseph O'Brien must be the only trainer, perhaps around the world, let alone Europe, who is presently preparing a horse for a blue riband flat classic while also training an eleven-year-old to compete in a French jumps championship race. Will Home By The Lee win? I don't know but I hope so.

On Thursday - I believe it was Thursday, though it might have been Wednesday - I, putting my own bias and prejudice before the rights of the owner, complained bitterly about the naming of Leave The Bag In, a name that is high on my list of most hated names for a racehorse. Yet, some would say, something far more controversial occurred in the race than that of  disrespectful name. Diego Lima, a Brazilian jockey riding for Irish-based yet Brazilian-born trainer Diego Dias, was hauled over the coals by the stewards for using his whip eleven-times, which come Tuesday will almost certainly result in the disqualification from second place of the horse, Ranting Duke.  Lima's discretions, though, did not end with the whip offenc during the race. He also stands accused of hitting his mount over the head with his whip while in the starting stalls. I did not see the race and those at The Racing Post who have seen footage of the start cannot determine one way or another whether the incident played out as the stewards determined. 

What appalled me was that the sentence for the offence in the starting stalls is only a two-day ban. Now I have no evidence to suggest Lima was guilty of the offence but I can comment on the leniency of the punishment imposed. Lima will receive a far longer suspension for breaking the whip rules during the race, when mitigating factors like being new to British racing and just being caught up in the excitement of trying to win his first race on British soil at one of the most prestgious racecourses in the world, could be used in his defence. Hitting a horse over the head, though, is an act of a different feather, it is an offence committed in anger, and should be punished far more severely. 10-days would be, to my mind, a more suitable punishment for the crime committed, which if committed outside of the rules of racing, on the street or in a private stable yard, would be subject to police procedure, a court appearance and possible custodial sentence..

There are people in Ireland who are critical of Harry Cobden's riding, apparently. Harry Cobden, perhaps the best National Jockey in Britain, a rider who if justice played fair would have won as many Grade 1's by now as Paul Townend, is a disappointment to the Irish few. It is to be expected that some Irish people would think the unfairness in replacing native Mark Walsh with English interloper Harry Cobden is justification for criticism. I should imagine Cobden was expecting to have to win over the natives during the early days of his tenure as J.P.'s main man. I also imagine that any criticism will rebound off Cobden with the softeness of a summer breeze. He will worry more about how his herd of cattle ia getting on while he is away from Somerset plying his trade in foreign fields. Next season will be soon enough to judge how well Cobden is coping with the pressure of being the new retained rider for J.P. McManus, though by then his brilliance in the saddle and his natural cham will have won over his critics, of that I am quite reasonably certain.