Happy New Year! 

First the very best news

CALIFORNIA CHROME

In Sport 38 we praised him for finishing third (beaten a head and a neck) in the Breeders Cup Classic, and rejoiced to hear that he stays in training in 2015. We also wondered if he might be seen in Europe. We then forgot him for a month. When next we checked up he had run again and won at somewhere called Del Mar. A few clicks on the mouse and all was revealed. He had won the Hollywood Derby, worth considerable bucks, over 9 furlongs, and on – guess what – turf! His trainer (Art Sherman) was happy to reveal that he might go to Dubai, and added that he had also received an invitation to Ascot. “They say that if we come we will be treated royally!”

Ladies and gentlemen, in case you don’t know, this horse is very pretty, he walks into an aeroplane as happily as into a horsebox, he has run wonderfully well as a three-year-old, under conditions that were not for the fainthearted (See SPORT 38), and his connections have been superb in the way they have campaigned him. If CC comes to Ascot, Donec will go to Ascot.

Second best news

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

Fitness is the only area in which Donec can help you on the road to happiness, but it’s extremely important. Mens sana in corpore sano.

Here’s a reminder: Sport 33 introduced you to anti-obesity practices, and we kept on nudging you in the right direction in 34, 35, 36 and 37. Exercise must not stand still. Little joke there somewhere.

London Marathon

Sport 38 and 39 was designed to point aspirants in the right direction.

Memoranda: comfortable shoes, nipple cream (?), set off at a pace that you feel you can maintain for ever (9-minute miles get you home in under 4 hours). Have some favourite music in mind – a favourite tune can block out pain. Do as much of your training as possible uphill. A mile up a steep hill is worth 3 on the flat. Familiarity with “uphill” will make the London course feel like a trampoline. If you get injured in training – stop. There’s always next year.

Training Schedule

Here’s a 3-month extract from a schedule that took our in-house expert to a 3.57.38 triumph over constitutional feebleness way back in the old days.

Weeks 1-4: a) Tues 2 miles, Fri 3 miles. b) Tues 2 m, Fri 5 m. c) Tues 2, Fri 7 .  d) Tues 2, Fri 10.

Weeks 5-8: a) Tues 2 miles, Fri 12 m. b) Tues 2, Fri 14. c) Tues 2, Fri 16.  d) Tue 2, Fri 4, (EASY WEEK AFTER THE 16-MILER)

Weeks 9-12: a) Tues 2, Fri 8.  b) Tues 2, Fri 14.  c) Tues 2, Fri 18.   d) Tues 2, Fri 4, (EASY WEEK AFTER THE 18-MILER) 

Pick an arrangement that suits your circumstances, and do lots of little bits in between, but two proper bits of work a week is about right. The London Marathon is on 26^th April 2015. See how you feel before deciding on another really long run. Don’t do it if there isn’t plenty of recovery time. Give yourself a very easy time during the last week. 

Third Best news

BOOKS

I think we mentioned that our literary editor was reading “Speaking for Themselves (The Personal Letters of Winston and Clementine Churchill)” and would then go on to Boris Johnson’s “The Churchill Factor.” Here is his report:  “The letters are fascinating. No biographer’s slant, no expert’s prejudice, no accepted wisdom. Simply the words exchanged in private (practically every day) by two brilliant people at the very heart of everything that happened during eighty of the most tumultuous years in world history. I was amazed to learn how important Clemmie was to Winston and how much she contributed to his career. When I finished the chunky paperback (650 pages), I found that my basic attitude to the history and the people involved required considerable re-appraisal. In what respect? I won’t tell you. See if perhaps you have the same experience.

“Boris’s book is wonderful. Each chapter describes a different aspect of the great man’s extraordinary strengths, virtues and weaknesses. This is no ordinary investigator. His speed of thought, his use of language, his wit and humour, and his ability to go straight to the heart of whatever topic he is dealing with, make for exciting reading. I must add that I felt the same surprising reaction to Boris’ book as I had experienced with the other. I also found myself thinking that when Mr Johnson finished writing his book, he too might have been surprised at his own reaction, his own conclusions.”

We’ve kept the worst for last

STARTING

Starting has improved quite a lot since the procedure began to be conducted at walking pace. However one must remember that these days the vast majority of NH races have very small fields. Starting small fields has never been a problem.

There is still no indication that we now have a system which could adequately handle very big fields. Quite the opposite. Note that the only 25-runner field in recent weeks (the Becher Chase at Aintree) produced a false start, and on Boxing Day a 20-runner Welsh Grand National produced another. Two prestige races, two big fields, two problems. 

One question needs to be asked and answered: At the start of a race with many runners, do the participants require ROOM to manoeuvre, a CALM atmosphere, and a modicum of FAIRNESS?

Yes, they do.

So why is it that the BHA clings limpet-like to a starting system that denies horses all three of these basic essentials?

Apply yourself to the BHA website, track down FAQs, focus on Raceday Operations, choose Starting under NH rules, and what do you discover? The requirement that fields should form “a tight bunch” aka “the optimum tight bunch” in preparation for starts.

It is this precept which, when the field is a large one, has produced the Rolling Maul (horses jammed up together, rotating, and in several ranks). It is the Rolling Maul that provides the runners with minimal room, ever-increasing stress, and gross unfairness for all but the lucky few in the front two ranks, some of whom might well be exactly where they want to be. “Some of whom” – mark those words. A fair start should be fair for all.

The BHA FAQs website goes on to assure the visitor not once but three times that the arrangement is one which makes the jockeys “happy.” One also finds several references to the suggestion that the jockeys choose their position in the Rolling MauI.  I have seldom seen so much “creative fiction.”

Am I the only person who watches the preliminaries of large-field jump races? The runners are formed up in close-packed ranks. This crowded mass is then asked to rotate, to go round in circles.

Those nearest the middle of the circle have a very short distance to move to complete each circuit, those furthest from the middle have perhaps three times as much ground to cover. So it is a constant stop-go-stop-jog process in close order that cannot help but upset, and get on the nerves of, runners and jockeys alike,  just when they need to be cool, calm and collected before heading into a sporting arena that is quite dangerous enough already.

At some courses the run-up to the first obstacle is very short indeed. In those circumstances, it is very unlikely that runners will approach the first fence or hurdle with their wits about them, after being subjected to the Rolling Maul. Is this acceptable?

I know that only a tiny minority of owners and trainers have horses that are likely to run in the mega-races that attract huge fields, but they all aspire to bigger and better things. Could they not look at what goes on and then make their feelings known?

Can the situation be improved? Certainly. First, don’t jam the beasts up together. Let them walk round quietly in single file behind the start. They will have room to manoeuvre, they will be unstressed and they will not be restricted to a processional formation which favours a few and penalises the majority.

When the start is imminent, the starter will order the runners to approach the tape. As they leave their big nose-to-tail circle and WALK forward, they will have the opportunity, the room and the time to take up a position in relation to each other that is fair.  Is that asking too much? No, it it not. Why doesn’t it happen? Who knows? Apparently current regulations do not sanction a change in the processional formation. Madness? Certainly.

For two hundred years it was done the proper way, because it so obviously made sense – and it worked. The current process is the outcome of an attempt (about fifteen years ago) to get the horses off the track at the start. It was ill-conceived and inadequately thought-through. More recent adjustments have simply made the situation worse.

Let us be clear about one point: I don’t think that the starters are in any way to blame. They are simply obeying orders. Considering the prominent position he takes up in all matters to do with starting, i imagine that these orders come from Jamie Stier, a man whose CV contains a wealth of qualifications, but nothing that would suggest a sound grasp of starting practices. I would imagine that the creative writing referred to above is also his work.

I wish the newly-strengthened BHA Board would intervene, and seek guidance from real horsemen. There are many top NH trainers, and top jockeys, and a rich crop of retired NH champion jockeys, as well as starters (current and in retirement). In fact there are plenty of people qualified to advise, if for no other reason than the fact that the matter under the microscope is so simple. If it’s so simple, why hasn’t the existing management done better? It could be a simple matter of overload.  Mr Stier seems to have responsibilities in so many departments of the BHA. A proud man, loath to cry for help, it might be in his best interests, as well as that of the sport, for the starting brief to be entrusted to someone not so heavily burdened. 

Enough doom and gloom. This Greek Tragedy will unfold in its own way and in its own good time. Meanwhile let’s KEEP FIT, and read our books and run our Marathons, and play our golf, and live in hope that the most charming team in American racing comes visiting in the middle of June. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 

DONEC