STARTING

April 8^th. Grand National.  The Start. Total Cock-up. Who was to blame?

The BHA. Has the BHA been charged?

Good heavens no! 31 jockeys are “on report.” Then silence. The phoney war. When hostilities resume, 31 jockeys and their leader, Paul Struthers, should make mincemeat of  a hotch-potch of cringing BHA executives who would not know a start from a wind-break.  Remember it was Struthers who nailed the amazing Stier (the man who can be knocked sideways but will not lie down) in the Case of the Bent Panels.

IN MY HUMBLE OPINION, 95% OF THE BHA IS MADE UP OF DELIGHTFUL, HONEST, HONOURABLE, DEDICATED, INTELLIGENT PEOPLE WHO WORK IN RACING BECAUSE THEY LOVE THE SPORT AND ITS COMMUNITY. However the other five percent do the sport enormous harm.

Which brings us back to the 2017 Grand National start. For six years Donec and others have explained to the BHA that its starting procedure for big-field NH races is seriously flawed, providing chapter and verse of what is wrong and what should be done about it. Let’s hear it one more time: the Rolling Maul is a seriously destructive Incendiary Device deployed and detonated by BHA dictat every time a big-field NH race faces the starter. For six years that truth has been in the public domain, and for six years nothing has changed. That’s five years too long.

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The Scottish Grand National

Donec issued a Snap Questionnaire  re. the 40-runner Start. Unanimously all respondents declared that the start was a good one. Donec agrees.

All respondents left it at that.

Donec, on the other hand, feels that there is more to be said.

As follows: After the rotations of the Maul, when the 40 runners straightened up to head for the starting gate, every one of them was trotting. The Maul is supposed to circulate at the walk (or jig-jog, in BHA-speak).Apparently on this occasion that requirement was considered unnecessary. Why were they trotting? Because horses and jockeys had become “lit up.”  What had caused this increase in temperature, this heightened tension, this extras speed? The  Incendiary Device, the Rolling Maul.

What happened next? As soon as the trotting runners came round the final bend with the start sixty or seventy yards ahead, the starter let them go. Why? Dare one suggest that he was under orders to avoid a Falsie at all costs?

Getting the over-excited runners the rest of the way to the tapes after the Maul has done its worst will always be a matter of trying to keep the lid on a bubbling saucepan. Would it not be more sensible to eliminate the Incendiary Device?  It would be more sensible, certainly, but, alas, impossible as long as common sense and the BHA remain quite a long way apart.

Trust me: this is a problem that could have been solved in five minutes years ago.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT.

Recent developments in the levy-replacement story reveal the good work that Mr Rust has put in, with his eyes fixed on the one important target which could help to produce a more prosperous future for the whole racing industry.

I think this is the first time that a British Government has committed itself to the principle that all who bet on British racing must contribute to the financing of the racing industry. There is more work to be done, more bridges to be crossed, but the progress achieved is historic. Well done and fingers crossed.

Having said which, let Donec add a sour note to this report. Negotiating great developments at the highest level calls for leadership, genius, planning, teamwork and patience.

However one would have thought that it would be a healthy practice for those involved in the greatest game of all to recharge their batteries by devoting some of their time to more mundane matters which cannot be ignored, if an industry is to survive. Like starting practices for big-field races under National Hunt Rules. Hear! Hear!

ENTERTAINMENT

I suggest that anyone who has a heart should google  “The Turnip Hoer’s Song and The Fly” and be reminded of life before the EU.

Then scroll down the right-hand side of the page until you see “Lions v All Blacks 1971, 3rd Test.”  The All Blacks won every line-out by cheating, but that is neither here nor there. The Lions won the match.

I suspect the All Blacks’ charging-passing-running-at-great-speed pack, which would suddenly release the backs as a follow-up, could have been the basis for developments in the game which would have been much superior to the “Breakdown” and the “Rolling Maul” of modern Rugby Union.

The real interest in the video is in the speed of quick ball across a line of backs. Both sides. Worth a look.

Best wishes,

Donec