Coronation Day

I thought I would make a list of all the things that worry me about racing’s health. We have a new king, let’s have a new look at everything. The first cause for concern may be a complete mistake on my part. Not long ago there was a meeting at the very top level to decide who runs what in Racing’s future. I think that one decision was to the effect that the BHA would speak for the sport.

Why? Forty years of paying attention tells me that whenever the BHA comments on, or makes decisions about, aspects of the racing side of the racing game it often gets it wrong.  Does the Board now suddenly have sufficient internal security to keep the BHA on message? Did you know that the BHA Board only meets eight times a year?

That allows the Chief Executive quite a lot of scope. Perhaps too much. You will remember that Mrs Harrington couldn’t bring herself to defend the Jim Mahon whip when animal rights activists began their spring campaign this year. Is it not possible that she encouraged them by sounding (and perhaps being) unconvinced by racing’s firm belief in a whip that has everything? My first suggestion: invite the leaders of the pink brigade to inspect “beaten” horses immediately after hard races. Let them find evidence of  cruelty if they can.

Before that she had found herself unable to discipline a regulator whose management of starting practices under National Hunt rules has been a disgrace (and starting practices under NH rules are vitally important, are they not?) As a result that shambles has come of age: 22 years ago a previous incumbent destroyed proper NH starting, and his successor has given the lunatic platform he left behind a further decade in which to drag British Racing even deeper into the sewage.

So I suggest a one-sentence word of gentle warning: close to the top of the BHA let there be strong men and women who know the sport inside out and upside down, and who will not suffer fools or cowards to get anywhere near the machinery of power.

Want some more? Let’s not forget that racing is dangerous for horses and riders, and when critics are shouting blue murder it ill behoves the management to take chances and to skimp on essentials. Point two: the Interference Rules are a mess – worse than a mess. They encourage dangerous riding and the stewards conceal it. That’s bad enough.

Did I say the stewards conceal it?  “It” being dangerous riding. Yes, I did.  Add that to the extraordinary behaviour of the Racecourse Stewards in other areas and you have the smelliest can of worms ever concocted.

Twenty years ago it was decided to reduce the influence of the amateur stewards, by reducing their numbers. This was the aim of the regulator of the day. The object of the exercise was to put more power into the hands of the employed stewards, who would obey orders, and less into the hands of amateurs who might well disagree with Big Brother. My third suggestion – or is it my fourth? Bring back the amateurs.

Months ago, when the future of racing was under a particularly black cloud, Sir Anthony McCoy suggested that racing needed “a Barry Hearn” to save it. It turned out that the saviour of snooker and darts has a racing connection: his wife has been breeding thoroughbreds for thirty-plus years. So he lent an ear to the sport’s woes, and he said “It takes a lot of bravery”. I think he meant “it takes a lot of bravery to dismantle a rotten building and then rebuild it.” I am sure he was right. It takes bravery, it takes guts, it takes stamina. I hope the new Chairman of the BHA is brave and has people around him that are strong.  .

Looking at my computer screen I see that the new king is one hour and forty minutes into his new role. I am not watching. This letter is unfolding before my eyes, and my clock is in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.  (12.53). I wish him well and I hope he will listen to his wife quite a lot. I suspect she is the best Christmas present any king has ever had, or could ever have. Reminds me of the late Queen Mother, who was top of my list from WW2 days, when she defied the Hun and went with her husband to Beckhampton to see Sun Chariot behave really, really badly.

Best wishes,

Donec