PONY RACING, NINA, HOODS & ESTRANGE.

Pony racing used to be thought of as 'flapping' and was frowned upon by racing's rulers. Unscrupulous people would take a horse under 15-hands from the flat and run it under a different name at a local 'flapping meeting' and back it like there was no tomorrow. If the Jockey Club discovered a licenced individual was involved with unlicenced racing his career under rules would be over as he would be warned off. A 'flapping meeting' was not run under the rules of racing, whereas bone fide pony racing was. In fact, the Pony Derby at Northolt, governed by Pony Turf Rules was Britain's equivalent to Ireland's Dingle Derby.

Northolt, opened in 1929, is not to be dismissed lightly. It soon became the Newmarket of pony racing. Its stands were considered by many as the best in Britain and Northolt was the first racecourse in the country to have an automated timing system. The Jockey Club did not mandate such devises until 1948. Northolt was also the first racecourse in Britain to have race commentaries. In 1938, after Epsom refused permission for the B.B.C. to televise its Derby, Northolt cheekily stepped in and suggested they might like to televise the Northolt Derby with its £1,000 first prize. And when Epsom backed down, the B.B.C. televised both Derbys. 10,000 people would attend the big days at Northolt, with an average seasonal crowd of 3,000. It was, though, difficult to make a profit from organising pony racing.

During the war Northolt was requisitioned by the War Office and for a time it was a prisoner of war camp. When war had started Northolt was already in the possession of the Official Receiver and that remained the situation after the war and the government allowed Ealing Council to compulsory purchase the site. With Northolt gone, pony racing was revived at the ex National Hunt courses at Hawthorn Hill and Shirley Park but by the mid-fifties pony racing was extinct in this country.

Which is why the increasing popularity of pony racing should be applauded and encouraged, with, as happened at Newbury this week, pony racing occassionally being added to a professional card, especially at weekends. In the past, any lightweight jockey could ride in pony races but now it is restricted to children, with more often than not the fields comprising a large number of the offspring of jockeys and trainers. I doubt if there is not a better training ground for jockeys-to-be than pony races, along with riding across country. No stone should be unturned in order for pony racing to thrive.

I suspect Nina Carberry began her racing career in pony racing, not that I know for sure, and today she returns to the racecourse to ride in the Pat Smullen charity race at The Curragh. Since retiring from race-riding, she has trained for a short while, bought and sold horses, wrote a series of childrens books, won the Irish version of Strictly and presently sits in the European Parliament, a career change she, sadly for our sport, enjoys. If she were nineteen now and not the age she is, and just starting out as an amateur, I am quite certain she would follow Rachel Blackmore into the sort of places her career took her, she was that good. She did not turn professional because at the time she did not think she would get enough rides to make a living as a jockey. She was, undoubtedly one of the best, if not the best, amateur of her time and would easily have had the talent to make it as a professional. But her role, as it turned out, along with her now sister-in-law Katy Walsh, was to pave the way for Rachel Blackmore and every other female National Hunt jockey to ride as a professional and to be taken seriously. She rides the Galway Hurdle winner Ndawi this afternoon and will doubtless be succussful and then quietly she will return to being a politician. What odds would you give me Nina Carberry becoming Taoiseach or president of Ireland long before she becomes a grandmother?

For some reason, while out walking the other day, the race at York where Callum Shepherd made a bollocks of removing the hood from his mount and he lost all chance at the start, this question popped into my head. Why is a race started before all the hoods are removed? Could the starting procedure not begin with the order from the starter to 'remove hoods', with the gates not opened until all horses are hoodless. How long would it take between the order being given and the hoods removed? 5-seconds, perhaps.

It seems at the moment that hardly a day passes and yet another top-class is retired. Estrange is the latest retirement. Given adverse comments from (me, to start with) and then an eminent Racing Post writer (cannot remember who) that when horses are retired to stud it should be made public what the exact nature of the injury is. Bow Echo retired sound, yet the injury was severe enough for his immediate retirement. As I said at the time, with rest over the winter months any other horse would have returned to the racecourse the following season. With Estrange it is a different scenario; she suffered bone bruising after her Group 1 win in Ireland and I dare say at 5 this was always going to be her last season.