SPORT 28: STARTING! AGAIN? I’m afraid so!
Jan 17th, 2013 by admin
“Look at them now. They’re all bunched up and getting competitive.”
A description, not of galloping horses reaching the top of the hill at Cheltenham, but of the “holding area” down at the start of the 2.25 at Warwick on 12th January, 2013, where 18 runners were in the first stages of the starting process.
Why, you may well ask, are the runners getting competitive so early, before they have even got on to the racecourse? Is it not a principle of sport that all competitors are given an equal chance by those in charge, up to the moment when the gun fires, the klaxon sounds, or (in steeplechasing) the tapes go up; after which, may the best man win, within the rules. Well, the principle is correct, and its acceptance is universal – with the glaring exception of British steeplechasing when increasing numbers regularly confound the system.
The words quoted above were spoken by Mick Fitzgerald on C4 Racing. They told me that my vision of improvements in the starting process had been a mirage.
Hardly had the words left Fitzgerald’s lips when the bunched-up runners (18 of them) were rotating in small anticlockwise circles, in response to orders from “the management.” If you have three lines of six, bunched up in a confined area, and you ask them to rotate in small anticlockwise circles, you have designed the perfect way of creating confusion.
This is an interesting phenomenon. It is widely believed that trainers and jockeys spend months teaching horses to jump properly, and it is rumoured that relaxation and good communication between horse and rider are highly desirable. Yet here we have evidence to suggest that racing’s managers do not subscribe to that philosophy.
If 10 runners need a process which is relaxed and calm, it is arguable that 20 runners would need those conditions even more – because the larger the field, the greater the chance that some disruption will affect the atmosphere.
It is also a fact that large fields present a significantly greater problem for the starter, and his job is made much easier if the runners and riders are relaxed and unstressed. Yet under the present system it is the large fields that are being subjected to this traumatic process. And let us not forget that the end-product of the process is a formation in which those in front benefit and those behind are penalised.
The jockeys have not complained, as far as I know. May I suggest a reason for this? It is possible that the leading jockeys (the likely spokesmen) can live with the chaos before the start. They can handle the difficulties better than the rest, so why complain? They are not responsible for the problem. I don’t blame them, but this is a matter of some importance. All the jockeys are put in a position where they have to compete before they step on to the track, which is the direct opposite of how a “fair start” should be conducted.
Owners and trainers have not (as far as I know) complained either. It is not surprising. Most races start beautifully: horses relaxed, jockeys happy, starters pleased as punch. But most races only have single figure fields. They present no difficulty, and none of this “bunch up and whizz round” rigmarole is employed. The flaw in the system affects big fields, and the need to do something about it is based on the fact that many of our most prestigious jump races attract big fields. They are expected to “showcase” racing’s virtues, not its incompetence.
I know that at “start time” owners and trainers are often far away from the scene of the crime…(I mean of the action), biting their nails in anticipation, and longing for the tapes to go up. May I suggest something? When next you have a runner in a big field (17 upwards, perhaps), go down to the start and check out what goes on. And take note of the quality of the start which is achieved by the procedure to which I take such exception. If I am wrong, at least the walk will have done you good. If I am right, however, a few indignant owners will achieve more in ten minutes than I would if I carried on bleating for ten years.
Talking of the passage of time, not many weeks remain before the Imperial Cup, the Cheltenham Festival, and Aintree. We will see what we will see, he concluded ominously.
Best wishes.