SAD DAY, WINNING A MAIDEN WITH A 9-YEAR-OLD & WHAT IS THE POINT?

I had to close my eyes and reflect, to steady my heartbeat, to take it in. The savage constitution of fate surrounds us all, especially those of us who either live at close quarters with the equine thoroughbred or who worship its presence amongst us. Tomorrow the cruelty of fate might assualt you or I. Today the assualt was on all of us. After only 5-days of retirement Galopin Des Champs has suffered a catastrophic leg injury and after x-rays and the best veterninary treatment was put to sleep. Ruby, his usual calm and efficient self, relayed the news to what I can only assume to be a stunned public, the greatest honour anyone could have bestow on her ripped away from his daughter Isabelle without her, perhaps, ever having the chance to sit on him, to take him on the journey through his retirement.

A dead horse is a terrible sight. For that carcass to belong to one of the great horses of the century must double or treble the pain, Ruby and his family knowing everything that could be done to prolong his life was done, knowing they had no guilt for what had occured, yet beset by a haunting guilt that rubbed the heart raw. The Turleys, Willie Mullins and his team, acted in good faith in deciding to retire Galopin, not wanting him to race unnecessarily against younger legs, retiring him early so that he learn a new discipline and live an active life in his retirement from racing. It does make you wonder, though, if it is always the right decision to retire a racehorse when he remains fit and well, if running in lesser races than Gold Cups and Grade 1's might be as safe an option as complete withdrawal from the sport. Alan King said recently that the decision to retire Edwardstown was not because the horse had lost his zest for the sport but because along with the owners he would be too frightened to watch him race in case he suffered the sort of injury that has taken Galopin's life. Sometimes there is just no winning in life.

I hope the keyboard warriors with pretense to knowing everything do not blame Ruby Walsh and his family for what has happened. Ruby may be calm and collected in front of the t.v. cameras but there will be a large hole in his heart today and for weeks to come. His famous phrase 'it's not so bad when its outside the back door' will be tested for a few days to come, that's for sure.

The above news that came my way at quarter-to-five this morning removed the joy from me for the victory yesterday of Banbridge in a mile-six maiden on the flat at Gowran Park at the age of nine, his debut on the level. Is there nothing that Joseph O'Brien can't do? Banbridge last ran when unseating in the Aintree National and was at Gowran to put him cherry ripe, I suggest, for an unnamed steeplechase in America. Anyone who witnessed the Cheltenham Festival type surprise and happiness on the faces of the groom and travelling head lad (I guess) would have no doubt of the esteem in which the horse is held at Owning.

Yes, I am both serial moaner and an occasional hypocrite. But what is the point of the hands and heels apprentice races? Whips are carried but cannot be used. Again, why? Apprentices who ride in these races cannot use their whip in earnest. In the very next race, they can, and perhaps for weeks afterwards, until the next hands and heels race. You may say it teaches them to keep a horse straight, to use their heels and not their whip; it is to make them more horseman than jockey. I really do not know. It is not as if they will resort to hands and heels in a finish when up against Oisin, Billy or Tom, is it? I should be pleased with these races, you say, given how long I have chortled on about 'One Strike and That's It'. But I am not. It is the professionals who should be taking part in hands and heels races, who, for a trial period, should be restricted to one strike of the whip. If we do not look to the future on this matter, there will be no future, believe me.

There would be no point sending me to university to learn 'how to write proper' if when I come home I continue to write as if English is not my native tongue. Well, would there?