ITV

ITV Racing has much to be proud of, (Ed, Oli, Rishi, Hayley, Luke, Jason…. that’s enough pride) but in the entertainment business (especially the sporting entertainment business) you cannot afford to offend too many people too often.

The other day Ed Chamberlin (head of the team) was putting the program to bed when a sympathetic director allowed a picture of two bonnie little children to linger on our screens. “The younger generation!” sighed Ed. “The future of racing!”

I don’t know if Ed is bringing up a young family just now. If he is, let him contemplate for a moment the impression that might be made on his branch of “racing’s future” by that fine upstanding feature of  ITV Racing, Mr Matt Chapman, who seems convinced that rudeness  is the key to success, and that only an overdose of Yob Culture can save British Racing from extinction.

However, civilisation as we know it need not despair just yet. I suspect that beneath Matt’s warrior exterior there lies a marshmallow. I glimpsed the whites of his eyes when the Epsom authorities told him to get lost, and then there was the problem of the ice…. I would go so far as to suggest that the survival instinct (AKA fear) will transform him into something comparatively cuddly. Quite soon. And if it doesn’t, the high jump will do the trick.

ITV (Next case)

“Ed” might turn to Luke (him of the flat cap) and say, “What does ‘keeping the lid on it’ mean?”

“It means taking steps to ensure that a horse doesn’t waste energy by getting hot and bothered during the preliminaries.”

“Down at the start?”

“From the moment it comes on to the racecourse from its box in the racecourse stables,” says Luke, who actually knows about these things.

“Including during the saddling?”

“Certainly during the saddling. And of course that’s when trainers must concentrate.  Putting the saddle on a racehorse is serious business and trainers cannot afford to make mistakes.”

“Good heavens! Does that mean our girls shouldn’t be engaging trainers in jolly chit-chat while they are doing whatever it is that they do in the saddling boxes?”

“Just think about it, Ed,” says Luke, soothingly. “Just think about it.”

So far this month the Donec approach has been one of sweetness and light. Aren’t you sick of it? Now for something just a little bit less light-hearted.

STARTING

Cheltenham is now about six weeks in the future and October 2014 is some considerable time in the past. It was then that the Great Starting Conference was held at which the PJA representative explained to the BHA representative that the Rolling Maul stirred horses up in an undesirable fashion and that sending a large field across the start line in a Processional Formation made a mockery of the principle of a “Level Break,” and could be dangerous (inadequate view of first obstacle). In response the BHA rep made noises suggesting that he would return to base and make changes. Well, he returned to base all right, but he made no changes whatsoever.

As a result, in six weeks time big-field starts will be as inappropriate, unfair and dangerous as a discredited formula has been making them for far too long  – unless there is a five-minute conversation between the BHA top brass and the top starters, who, I imagine, dislike the present arrangements as much as I do. If that conversation happens between now and Cheltenham 2018, common sense and best practice can return to big-field starting, just like that.

Just like that? Certainly! Turn the Maul into a sedate circular walk, and ensure that the “Make-a-Line,  Jockeys” phase is restored to the final advance, and we can go back to the Golden Age when jockeys loved starters and vice versa, and both sides  were trying to do a proper job. Will it happen? I doubt it.

“Oh, but starts have been so much better recently. Do stop complaining!” They have certainly improved, but the explosive devices are still in place and doing their utmost to create problems. As long as the Procession is in operation big-field starts will be unacceptably unfair (unequal), and as long as the Rolling Maul is in operation a vast amount of unnecessary stress will continue to be imposed on horses and riders.

Besides, Procession and Rolling Maul are creations of a mental workshop which has no standing in the horse world. In some mysterious fashion both these “novelties” just crept out of the woodwork at BHA headquarters with very little, if any, introduction or explanation. Since that ill-fated day they have been responsible for false start after false start – and a lot of disgusting jockey-bashing by the BHA whenever these false starts occur. Why on earth would anyone want to prolong the agony which these two aberrations inflict?

RACING POST

The Racing Post has been doing its readership an enormous favour recently by reprinting superb columns from the past.

I first went into raptures over the one from September 23^rd 2013 in which Rodney Masters described his visit to the open day at Uplands, the Lambourn yard into which Warren Greatrex had recently moved. There the late Fred Winter trained a succession of the very best steeplechasers that ever ran (Crisp, for example). It was also the yard to which John Francome belonged throughout his riding career; the base from which, with Winter’s help, he set about becoming almost certainly the greatest jump jockey of all time (so far).

Who does Masters meet as he steps on to the hallowed ground? Francome himself. Masters begs a conducted tour, and there followed the most wonderful conducted tour in the history of racing. Anyone who hasn’t read it should hunt it down, copy it, learn it by heart, treasure it.

Just last week there came a Stella Hemingway column first published on the 17^th October 2013, in which  John Francome (him again)  answered readers’ questions – the theme being the most satisfying aspects of being President of the Injured Jockeys’ Fund. Another absolute masterpiece and masterclass.

I suppose work of this quality does not grow on trees. But if the Racing Post have an archivist with supernatural powers of recall who could put together a collection of the best that ever was, generations to come would look no further for their bedtime reading.

Best wishes,

DONEC