MUSHROOMS

Once upon a time, one of the ultimate pleasures was watching horses work up on the gallops and returning to breakfast with a hatful of large flat mushrooms which added something so, so, so special to the fried breakfast.

Have I mentioned that nowadays large flat mushrooms are available at Tesco’s? No kidding, they are superb…. Grown indoors, in England, Ireland and Poland, in an ambience that recreates a mild autumn  morning  high above Lambourn, or Manton, or the two  Letcombes, where Major Dennistoun and Captain Forster once eyed each other with haughty indifference  beside  the watercress beds, Mr Tesco’s mushrooms have no slugs to contend with. They are perfect and unblemished and they taste better than ever.

SHEIKH  HAMDAN

I  am shocked to hear of Sheikh Hamdan’s passing. Why shocked? Well, for a number of years I have admired from a distance  his choice of racing friends and employees and his loyalty to them, and I formed the impression that he was everything that a very rich sportsman should be.  My only worry was the fact that he looked so ill….  About a couple of years ago (or was it more recently?) he suddenly seemed to look much more comfortable, and I was delighted. I assumed that “the medics” had solved his problem, but I clearly jumped to the wrong conclusion:  happy-ever-after didn’t last long enough – very sad for his family, his friends and the racing community.

BIG-FIELD-STARTING

We have now had Cheltenham, and False Starts have been as prolific as recent rainfall. My notepad for Thursday 18^th March reads:

I.55        24 runners        False Start

2.30       12  runners        False Start

3.40       23 runners         False Start

4.50       23 runners         “Strung Out!”

This last is the cry from the racecourse commentator. It means that he is amazed that there are 25 lengths between first and last by the time the field reaches the first obstacle, which means that the race will not provide any information regarding the merits of the horses involved. It is a sign that the starter has let the field go rather early, when the field is about 100 yards from the tapes and not properly “lined up” in any sense – but in a state of comparative calm which isn’t going to last….It is what happens when incompetent regulators insist on impossible preliminaries which drive horses mad, and starters take emergency measures to ensure that they don’t get blamed for “one more False Start!”

Perhaps  the Board thinks that False Starts add “character” to British Racing. They don’t, and the fact that in 17 years nothing has been done to sort out the problem is simply an indication of the kind of management which the BHA provides.

COVID 19

The virus chunders on, and there is nothing to suggest that the British Moron has enough common sense to play by the rules, which bodes ill for the future.  Across the water Europe throbs with resurgent pandemic and anti-British resentment.

I cannot stress too strongly the advantage which accrues to even the weakest of cardiovascular systems if its proprietor peppers a brisk two mile walk with several gentle 25, 50 or even 100-pace “runs upon the spot.” Each time the heel strikes a spark  the enemy at the gates of the lungs grinds to a halt and  backs off.

Best wishes, fingers crossed.

Donec.