Posted in Sport on Jan 31st, 2020 No Comments »
CEO, CIAO Nick Rust has announced that he will step down from his position as CEO of the BHA at the end of 2020. He got good reviews from all the pundits, and he gets a good review from Donec, even though we have disagreed on several occasions, and are still at loggerheads in some […]
Posted in Sport on Jan 1st, 2020 No Comments »
BORIS I am delighted with Boris’s performance. At last a Prime Minister with brain and guts, and someone who isn’t in politics for the money. Such a pleasant change from the appalling Mrs May, the disgraceful Cameron, the unspeakable Blair. The suggestion that Boris tells lies is interesting. Take the matter of the nurses. He […]
Posted in Sport on Dec 22nd, 2019 1 Comment »
APPRENTICES Andrew Balding’s Kingsclere yard is a highly successful racing stable, and also an educational establishment for apprentice jockeys which has spent 60 years getting better and better (first under Ian Balding and now under his son.) A crisis has arisen recently because a number of trainers who employ apprentices have been unwilling to pay […]
Posted in Sport on Dec 1st, 2019 1 Comment »
XMAS LITERATURE There are certain books that transport the reader into a different world, but they are few and far between. Very few and far between, hence rare and precious. I can only think of three. As Xmas is just round the corner I take this opportunity to share a bit of happiness with my […]
Posted in Sport on Nov 4th, 2019 No Comments »
No horse that does what Diego du Charmil did to Capeland can keep the race involved. Never. The fact that steward Simon Cowley takes a different view is irrelevant (except as an indication of the standard of stewarding available on our racecourses) . Similarly no horse that suffers what Capeland did can be blamed or […]
Posted in Sport on Oct 30th, 2019 No Comments »
L’Arc de Triomphe The three horses who led into the final straight all fell away as the lactic acid paralysed their straining muscles. This left Enable in front and she put clear water between herself and the rest, only to “hit the wall” about fifty yards from the post, where she was mugged by the […]
Posted in Sport on Oct 2nd, 2019 2 Comments »
RULES OF RACING: Procedures and Penalties. 4. THE WHIP. Notes on Penalties; Rule (F) 45 (I have done my best to make what follows interesting…even exciting… and hopefully correct. A.S.) When deciding whether or not to hold an enquiry re. the whip, Stewards should consider how the rider has used the whip during the course […]
Posted in Sport on Sep 1st, 2019 No Comments »
CATCH-UP TIME You will doubtless remember the angry letter to the Racing Post, signed by ex-trainer Knight (Best Mate), ex-trainer Egerton & current trainer Channon. It castigated the BHA in general terms and shredded CEO Nick Rust in particular. The authors are not known firebrands – so what had upset them? A TV interview between […]
Posted in Sport on Aug 1st, 2019 No Comments »
WHIP The brothers Jim and Frank Mahon, the Stewards of the Jockey Club, Lord Oaksey, John Hislop, Nick Skelton, Wally Swinburn, Sir Peter O’Sullevan – all good people – combined to design and promote the most animal-friendly pain-free whip ever developed. It took twenty years, and it worked –it still works. This has been, I […]
Posted in Sport on Jun 30th, 2019 No Comments »
Thought Number 1: If the Ascot Authority could be persuaded to take over from the BHA, British racing’s problems would be solved – just like that. Wishful thinking? Certainly. As things stand (Thought Number 2), apart from the BHA the Horsemen’s Group (HG) is the only unit which bears the responsibility for ensuring that the […]
Posted in Sport on Jun 1st, 2019 No Comments »
Ruby Walsh I was reprimanded for not saying nice things about Ruby Walsh’s retirement in the May issue. Let me fill that gaping and possibly disgraceful vacuum twice over. 1. In the RP’s excellent “Tribute to Ruby”, his father Ted refers to Ruby’s habit of blaming himself when beaten in a close finish. “You […]
Posted in Sport on May 2nd, 2019 2 Comments »
If I were to write a letter to Mrs Phelps, who becomes Chairperson of the BHA on June 1st, it would go something like this: Dear Mrs Phelps, Prepare for war. War about Animal Welfare, war about Whip and Interference rules, war about Stewarding. Also prepare to be brave; I suspect that any realistic report […]
Posted in Sport on Apr 5th, 2019 No Comments »
Here’s something even more irritating than Theresa May. You point out to the BHA that big-field jump races (approx. 15 runners or more) are started in a most peculiar manner (quite different to the methods used for most British jump races), and it causes False Starts, Unfair starts, Dangerous starts. Eliminate the most peculiar manner, […]
Posted in General, Sport on Mar 1st, 2019 No Comments »
More horsemen on the BHA Board? Interesting, but fraught with a considerable difficulty. Something to do with consensual decision-making. It means that if a board member does not agree with the majority, he or she has to accept defeat without complaining. I believe that is the way the BHA runs itself. I have a feeling […]
Posted in General, Sport on Jan 31st, 2019 No Comments »
More Whip Furore? I hope not. The padded whip is the finest contribution to Animal Welfare ever created, and was produced by British Racing. It is now a worldwide winner. With that superb achievement in the bag, all that is required is for the BHA to roll up its sleeves and celebrate this monumental triumph […]
Posted in Sport on Jan 3rd, 2019 No Comments »
I am looking at a BHA publication entitled “2017-19 Business Plan (Update for 2019)”. Pages 1 and 2 tell me that Racing is under threat and in peril and can only be saved if the industry stumps up vast sums of money for the BHA to spend on the fight for survival, which will involve […]
Posted in Sport on Dec 4th, 2018 No Comments »
Reading a Bill Barber article in the Racing Post (6 September 2018) I came across the following: “Concerns over the Harman issue have led some of the BHA’s shareholders to question the remit of the BHA itself.” “Remit?” I consulted Google. “Remit. The task or area of activity officially assigned to an individual or organisation.” […]
Posted in Sport on Oct 3rd, 2018 No Comments »
BREXIT When the referendum happened, sane people had every reason to think that life as we knew it was a thing of the past, but few would have imagined that the new model would be the handiwork of the treacherous Michael Gove and the beneficiary-in-chief the devious and politically worthless Mrs May. Gove is like […]
Posted in Sport on Aug 31st, 2018 No Comments »
SPORT 84 STEWARDING Recently the BHA unveiled its new stewarding model (due to be introduced later this year). It is based on what is described as a “one team” philosophy. In practical terms the present arrangement for racecourse stewarding involves five people – three BHA employees and two Amateur stewards. The new model will also […]
Posted in Sport on Aug 1st, 2018 No Comments »
March 10, 2018, Sandown Park: the Imperial Cup Handicap Hurdle Race. An extreme example of dangerous riding. The aggressor horse, on its way to winning the race by a neck, bumped the victim horse three times as it shepherded it towards the rails. The Interference Rules state that any interference that involves one rider pressuring […]
Posted in Sport on Jul 2nd, 2018 No Comments »
MORNING GLORY Several weeks ago there was a reference in the excellent RP to “morning glories”, a term which describes horses that eat up the ground at an amazing pace on the gallops – breathtaking in more senses than one. However when the beasts arrive at the races and the money is down, they […]
Posted in Sport on Jun 1st, 2018 No Comments »
GIRL POWER Hayley Moore arrested the galloping “Give Em a Clump” at Chepstow in a manner that reminds one how very “equal” racing’s females really are. I cannot remember seeing a man doing anything half as brave, and I personally would have wandered slowly in the opposite direction, with a preoccupied look on my face […]
Posted in Sport on May 1st, 2018 No Comments »
How well I remember…. Last Saturday at Sandown…. the 3.35, the Bet365 Gold Cup (3miles, five furlongs, over many fences so cunningly positioned that untalented jumpers would be well advised to follow their profession elsewhere; the race with which Colonel Whitbread’s brewery gave birth to the practice of race sponsorship by vast businesses with a […]
Posted in Sport on Apr 2nd, 2018 No Comments »
THE IMPERIAL CUP March 10th, Sandown Park, the Imperial Cup Handicap Hurdle Race was the most extreme example of dangerous riding I have seen for some time, and the Stewards declined to punish the culprit (Mr Antolini, ridden by J. Bargary) or to compensate the victim (Call Me Lord, ridden by D. Jacob). Later that […]
Posted in Sport on Mar 3rd, 2018 2 Comments »
RACING POST, 17th December 2017 Andrew Simpson, a regular contributor to the Racing Post’s letters page, who worked for Jeremy Tree and Toby Balding in days of yore, is no stranger to the world of racing-based novels. “Between the Stirrup and the Ground” is his third such offering – albeit the first for more than […]
Posted in Sport on Mar 1st, 2018 No Comments »
FEMALE JOCKEYS Much talk in recent months about the ladies: lack of opportunities…. should be encouraged…. should be given weight allowances….. men are so unkind, etc. I claim a miniscule right to hold and express an opinion, on the grounds that, as far back as 1995/6, I wrote an article on this very subject in […]
Posted in Sport on Feb 1st, 2018 No Comments »
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 […]
Posted in Sport on Dec 27th, 2017 6 Comments »
PROHIBITED SUBSTANCES “The rules are clear that it’s the trainer’s responsibility to prevent horses taking part in our sport with prohibited substances in their system.” That used to be the principle before the Quinlan Reforms were implemented. It meant that, if no other culprit was available, the system would automatically blame and penalise the trainer. The […]
Posted in Sport on Dec 4th, 2017 No Comments »
GRUMBLES Raul da Silva helps a problem horse enter the stalls peacefully and gets penalised. That’s what happens when the people calling the shots know nothing about horse management and very little about racing. That is also the reason why inexperienced jockeys are punished for “not trying” when in fact they have simply mistimed their […]
Posted in Sport on Oct 31st, 2017 No Comments »
Self-certification. Might it not be a good idea to run the BHA computer across the figures already collected, in a scan that will pinpoint the instances when a withdrawal (or several) will affect the betting market in favour of the layer and against the interests of the punter? Shrinking the each-way terms, for example. In […]