PACEMAKERS, AGAIN, NO TWO-YEAR-OLD GROUP RACES & EARLY TRANSFERS.

I have already expressed my opinion on pacemakers, plus the useless use of pacemakers on occasions, but now my ire has been piqued by Aidan O'Brien using a 2-year-old as a pacemaker. This, to me, is an abomination. Yes, Carry The Flag held on to finish second, with his stable favoured Man's Best Friend out with the washing. But why subject a young horse to such a hard race? I dislike myself for being critical towards the Coolmore/Ballydoyle axis as they are overwhelmingly a force for good within the sport, and the only breeding operation dedicated to breeding 12-furlong+ stock, yet over the past few years, and perhaps guided this season by Aidan's attempt to break his own Group 1 winning record, a win at all costs attitude seems to be creeping into their racing policy. Two-year-olds are still babies in some respects; the breed does not fully mature until five-years of age. As children are the future for humans, yearlings and two-year-olds are the future of flat racing.

To stay on the topic of two-year-olds. I admit to being no fan of two-year-old races, especially early in the season. If I had my way, I would have no two-year-old races until June, perhaps not until the end of June. I would also like there to be no two-year-old group races throughout Europe. Yes, I know, anyone reading this will immediately throw-up their hands in horror and accuse me of wanting to destroy a breeding industry built solidly around the sale of yearlings, with many vendors targeting bidders wanting early two-year-olds. But stay with me a while and consider my thinking on this.

The prize-money saved from not having group races for two-year-olds could be forwarded into general prize-money, thus easing the major problem, though not solving, the problem of poor reward for owners and trainers. Also, with the removal of high-value two-year-old races, prices paid for yearlings would reduce, allowing for greater competition for the best pedigrees on the market. Two-year-olds would be given more time to mature if the two-year-old season did not begin until late June. Yes, I am aware that such a change would scupper all the two-year-old races at Royal Ascot but this, I claim, to be evolution not revolution.

I would replace the Group 1 races with super maidens and winners of one condition races and revise the conditions of two-year-old races in the autumn so that a two-year-old could run-up a sequence of wins, as was the day when horses like Timeless Times won 10 or more races. If you take, you must give back in some way. If my proposal was to come to pass, which is as likely as Coolmore changing policy and targeting selling races, there would need to be more three-year-old races early in the season, with more maidens and handicaps to furnish the larger than in the past number of three-year-olds in training, with many more classic trails required. These races, and throughout the season, I would suggest, will be more competitive, thus easing that particular blight on our sport. Of course, the classic races will need to be shuffled back a month, with some of the mid-season Group races brought forward. Once this 'new norm' has settled down, I believe there would be far more gains than losses, though the breeding industry, breeze-up specialists and pin-hookers looking for a quick profit, might not agree. Debate!

Though the flat season has got through the summer drought without any damage to the race schedule, the jump season may be seriously impacted by firm ground unless the weather plays ball and provides long periods of steady rain between now and early October. In 1976, if I remember correctly, fields for the early fixtures at Ascot and Cheltenham were small, with many two-horse races. It is hard to believe, given how brown it presently looks, that Ascot's National Hunt course will be fit for their first fixture at the end of October. I imagine Chepstow, which holds the first jumps meeting of any significance in early October, will struggle to achieve good-to-firm, let alone the prized by top trainers good-to-soft.

I hope the B.H.A. has plans in place to transfer meetings, even Cheltenham's October meeting, to racecourses that have been able to irrigate throughout the summer if they can provide genuine good ground. It is better these meetings go ahead than be staged on firm ground; better to race at Worcester, say, on good ground, where trainers will not be afraid to run their better horses, than on good-to-firm at Ascot, Newbury or even Cheltenham. The jumps season is comparatively short and if trainers cannot get their 'Cheltenham' horses out until December, which is possible if we do not have rain, rain and more rain in the interim, it impacts on the whole season. If, say, Kelso, Perth and Ayr are the only racecourses in Britain that can provide good-to-soft ground,  let's be radical and transfer the important opening meetings there, even if they are not part of the same ownership group. If all parts of the racing family cannot work together on this issue, what chance is there they can work together to help solve the much bigger issues facing our sport. One sport: one Family. At least I would hope that is the prevailing sentiment amongst us all.