Lingfield, UB40 Concert after racing, a fight.

There is a view that if the racecourses will make themselves more interesting they will attract bigger crowds and allow the management to make more money. Time and again, however, we have seen that more people does not mean more racing fans. It means the same number of racing fans, plus a number of non-racing fans, which will include (on a Saturday evening) a hard core who believe that a Saturday night without a fight is a waste of time.

The fact is that Britain does not have enough racegoers to fill the coffers of all the racecourses all the time. Why is this? Because Racing is like Stamp Collecting: fascinating for a number of aficionados, eternally confusing for the great majority of the human race, who turn out in numbers only for the Derby and the Grand National.

What’s to be done? Britain is supposed to be following France, Germany, Hong Kong, Australia and America, to name but five racing nations, by persuading our government to give our racing the same opportunity to trade profitably as is enjoyed by the racing industries of the countries I have named, all else being equal. If that aspiration were achieved, our racing community (flourishing, not struggling) would make a huge contribution to the national purse and the racecourses would not have to attempt the impossible as regards Saturday Night Fever.

Why is British racing lagging so far behind the rest of the developed world? The heart of the problem is an engine room (the BHA) which has been consistently under-performing since its creation in 2006.

I hazard a guess that at this moment the BHA is not in dialogue with the government about its financial situation. I hazard a guess that the BHA has no dedicated group of top financial brains constantly at work using facts and figures to make sense of the sport’s financial future, on a basis which, as I have already suggested, will pour millions of pounds each year into the national piggybank. Instead I imagine that the majority of the sport’s leaders are quietly content to jog along at the established rate which doesn’t allow for too much action. One can get attached to one’s begging bowl.

Any hope on the horizon? My special subjects are Big Field Starting under National Hunt rules, the Interference Rules and the Whip, but I can’t help noticing the way the times they are a-changing. The House of Commons for example used to treat the difficult relationship between Racing and Betting as a rather charming facet of the British Character. Recently it has changed its tune: it seems to have noticed that gambling as a national pastime is a positive threat to the health and happiness of the man in the street, about which something must be done. More MPs, some of them influential MPs, are voicing concerns.

Perhaps they have noticed how the bookmakers keep preaching “controlled” gambling, while at the same time promoting all the fun that is to be found on the road to perdition and the poorhouse. Perhaps Parliament has also noticed the clean air circling above the major conurbations since Covid turned betting shops into no-go areas.

This is opportunity time for British Racing, and the BHA should be leading the charge. Recently we had a difference of opinion, the BHA and I. The corporate rage was intense and immediate, and I was threatened with every form of retribution, including a knock on the door from the local constabulary. If that sort of energy could be channelled into solving racing’s financial problems, there is no limit to what might be achieved.

Apart from the BHA, my hopes rest upon the broad shoulders of Mr Alex Frost, who may turn global pool betting into a serious new source of income for British racing. If that happened, I would like to see Mr Frost becoming increasingly involved in the general financial management of the sport.

In which connection, may I draw attention to a recent Lydia Hislop article in which she warns that if British racing wishes to associate with the giants of global racing and to profit therefrom, our interference rules must harmonise with theirs. At present Britain’s Interference Rules are a mess created I suspect by a mental defective. However they don’t cover many pages in the book of words and an expert (Mr Christopher Quinlan ideally) could knock some sense into them in no time – if the BHA can be bothered to look into the matter.

IN RETROSPECT

Perhaps my triumph at Hackwood Park (3^rd in an Open PTP) was not as triumphant as I suggested in my previous reminiscence (See SPORT 119). In fact, from the moment the horsebox  left Mr  GB Balding’s yard that morning I was in a muck sweat and during the race itself the only reason for continuing adhesion between me and the gallant Brookling  (my conveyance) was his determination to be in a receptive position on the landing side of all 18 fences.

A fortnight later Mr  Balding sent me to Lockinge for a similar event. This time, amazingly enough, nerves didn’t feature. I sat very prettily, and Brookling ran straight as a die.  Six furlongs and five fences from the finish a bellow from behind me suggested that I should “Kick him in the belly!” It was fellow-rider I.A. Balding, an all-round sportsman of the highest class, who had noticed that I was dossing, and he was right. I kicked; Brookling sprang; he was foot perfect in matters of levitation. We rushed through the field like an arrow from a bow and flew up the steep Lockinge run-run – 3rd again, and another 18 fences in the bag.

Question: was I in fact the best novice rider in England at that precise moment? It was another several years before that possibility occurred to me. At about that time an apprentice at Frenchy Nicholson’s famous jockeys’ academy was trying very hard to ride his first winner on the flat. It took him 80 rides to break his duck, and he didn’t have to jump a single fence. His name was Pat Eddery. He went on to win the Derby three times, and was Champion Jockey of Britain eleven times, whereas I went on to devise more and more unlikely excuses for pulling up when my mount and I began to wilt under pressure, but right at the beginning, before my courage became depleted, was I not a real contender?

Possibly this is a question which will never be answered, but 36 fences, without even one schooling session (GB Balding was no mean psychologist), is a pretty good score…..

PICTURES

Do they not say that a picture is worth a thousand words? In the space above the word PICTURES there should be a photograph of the start of the 2013 Grand National, in technicolour. Good Heavens! There it is! Anyone who is interested in the importance of the 2013 race should dial up Wikipedia (a great fan of British Racing) and see what they have to say about that race and particularly about the start of that race. Everything about that race was special and Wiki has done it justice. Dial up Wikipedia Grand National 2013 and you will find yourself one click away from your target.

Yesterday I failed to transfer THE PICTURE from My Pictures to My Blog. Today the Gods have been kinder.

Aintree requires special arrangements, because the preliminaries happen close beneath the packed and noisy stands. The starting team dealt with that superbly by sending the field (40 runners) away from the start and into an area of peace and quiet before turning them round and walking them gently back towards the starting area. During that walk they formed a line, making it perhaps the fairest start to a Grand National in the history of the race. The result of perfect harmony between starters and jockeys. It should always be like that.

Proper starting arrangements for all Big Field jump races simply means providing horses and riders with the same consideration as is enjoyed by all involved in every other sort of race under NH and Flat rules in Britain. The big field difference is the result of an innovation imposed by a man of great obstinacy and even greater stupidity. Leave things as they are and dangerous, unfair and more or less cruel False Starts are here to stay.

The sickening thing is that, if the BHA dossers would simply agree (occasionally) to do a day’s work for a day’s pay (which is how the rest of the Racing industry behaves),  the False Start problem would have been solved 18 years ago, when I first brought the matter to the attention of the authorities.

I would very much like to know who were responsible for the fundamental changes at Aintree that were shown to be absolutely superb by the running of the 2013 National (and all subsequent runnings of the great race).  All concerned deserve medals. Their achievement gives today’s racing authorities a level of performance to be aimed at.  Best wishes, DONEC.