STARTING UPDATE (12^th October 2014, 12.43 p.m.)

The two-week bedding-in period for the amendments to the starting process under NH rules (with particular reference to large fields) begins tomorrow at Sedgefield. The BHA announced this  in a press release issued on Thursday 9^th October. It’s on the BHA website under Press Releases. It is interesting, but mildly suspect in three areas.

First, let us remember that  the main obstacle to good starting is the process of forming large fields into close-packed rolling mauls consisting of several rows of horses one behind the other.

This formation removes any possibility of a fair start, and the concentration of animals in inadequate space guarantees maximum tension. To compound the error, the rolling maul is often required to proceed in a sequence of small circles while waiting for the official start time. A worse way to start a horse race is hard to imagine.

The BHA press release includes Professional Jockeys’Association  chief executive Paul Struthers’ statement that agreement was reached at the recent negotiations for this procedure to be discontinued, but there is no mention of this in the main statement issued by the BHA’s Director of Raceday Operations.

It is as though the Ramblers’ Association were to advise members that a certain right of way is no longer the habitat of a mad bull, whereas the proprietor of the land and of the bull declines to confirm that this is the case. Should one be worried?

Second criticism. In recent years it has become normal down at the start for big fields of horses to wander in all directions while waiting for the rolling maul to be formed.

That way madness lies. If there is a real desire to improve the situation, all pre-start movement of large numbers of horses should  be at the walk, in single file and nose to tail. In that formation horses are at their most biddable, most manoeuvrable, and most relaxed. In the years (approximately 200 of them) before large-field-starting became the headache it is today, that simple formula was normal, and it worked. However the BHA press release contains no suggestion that this vital area will be reviewed.

My third worry concerns the proposed procedure in the case of false or aborted starts,  but  that can wait. Check it out for yourself and tell me what you think.

Best wishes to all concerned.

donec

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