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 and humming a tune, as soon as I saw the beast heading in my direction.

Meanwhile the retirement from race-riding of Katie Walsh and Nina Carberry in their early thirties confirms the principle that women have priorities in life which do not apply to their male colleagues. They don’t need favours during the years they devote to riding, but when the time comes to move on, they move on. Simple as that. Many a male ex-jockey must regret the fact that his life-cycle did not provide the same sort of signals suggesting that a change of direction could be the way forward.

FAREWELL TO ALL THAT

The old order changeth. After several years of doom and gloom and an atmosphere that was anything but fragrant the doctors now predict a speedy recovery for the patient (the BHA). But it was a close run thing.  Sane people (Donec among them) insisted that British racing had no future when the Sandown stewards decreed that the first past the post in the 2018 Imperial Cup should keep the race in spite of blatant and grievous bodily-harm inflicted on the blameless runner-up.  Close on the heels of one nail in the coffin came another: the banning and fining of Richard Johnson for no good reason after the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Surely racing’s Top Brass was rushing headlong towards a hole in the ground….

We shouldn’t have worried. The seeds of recovery had been sown two years previously when CEO Nick Rust discovered the source of the fatal malaise. He had identified the can of worms into which the sport’s disciplinary system had deteriorated. Knowing that no industry can survive if the difference between right and wrong has become blurred, he took action. He asked Christopher Quinlan QC (a sporting legislator of high repute) to work the oracle. Racing now has a judiciary system to be proud of. It is a well known fact that a judiciary system to be proud of cures all known ills. What a relief!

HOWEVER THE SURGERY necessary to eradicate the residue of the contamination remains to be completed.

THE INTERFERENCE RULES, for example, will continue to cause trouble if they are not given a thorough make-over. At present, among the principles which they advocate is the following: 

(After interference) the benefit of the doubt should go to the horse that finished in front.

We suspect that, in 99 cases out of a hundred, that recommends favouring the bruiser rather than the unfortunate victim.  Have we gone mad?

Another “principle” runs as follows: 

The (Stewards’) Panel should have in mind that interference is likely to have impeded the sufferer to some degree and therefore a reversal of placings is more likely to follow where there is only a nose between the horses.

Is that English? Does it mean anything? Who wrote it? From which asylum had he escaped?

 THE WHIP RULES.  The padded whip which does not hurt, invented by the late Jim Mahon, and developed by the Jockey Club between 1980 and 2000 is now a worldwide success and has done more to improve the conditions under which racehorses go about their business than any other improvement, past, present or future.

All would be well if today’s BHA would only treat the padded whip as something to be proud of rather than as a source of embarrassment. Mr Rust has given the whip his blessing and it would help if owners, trainers and jockeys would do what they can to spread the word. Donec paraded at a saddler’s shop in 2010 (or was it 2011?) and was soundly thrashed. No pain, no weals (red marks), no bruising. I came out of there neighing happily.

STARTING BIG-FIELD JUMP RACES…. The BHA no longer thinks that jockeys are always responsible for every false start that ever occurs. That’s a step in the right direction. However the Rolling Maul, the cause of all the trouble, is still being used, and is still causing stress, distraction, unfairness, danger…. and False Starts!

At the 2014 conference of the powers, Paul Struthers (representing the jockeys) suggested that horses going round and round in tight-packed circles was a no-no, and Mr Stier (representing the BHA) made agreeable noises which encouraged Struthers to report to his members that the Rolling Maul was about to become history.  Agreeable noises from Mr Stier, but nothing changed. Perhaps the CEO and Mr Struthers (and the starters) should have a chat. That’s all it will take.

It is ironic that the BHA is intending to teach trainers how much rest a horse needs after a fall, while at the same time retaining a starting arrangement that cannot help but make falls more likely.

ANYTHING ELSE? YES – STEWARDING – which has been a subject for debate in recent times. The idea that British racing has a stewarding crisis is questionable, as is the notion that the amateur stewards, who play a significant part in the process, are the villains of the piece. Once again, it has been the result of a philosophy which emerged in recent years high up in the chain of command, based on the proposition that unpaid stewards are somehow unreliable. They are not unreliable, but they are independent, and that is of immense benefit to the sport. They provide the checks and balances that keep the professionals honest.

DID I SEE A LINE…

Did I see a line in the Racing Post recently asking this question: why do less successful jockeys often make first-rate trainers?  Here’s my guess: between the ages of 16 and 35 the top jockeys spend most of their time driving up and down the country from racecourse to racecourse, and a few minutes each day actually race-riding.

During those 19 years, a lesser jockey spends days on end at home, in the racing yard where he works. First thing in the morning he inspects the mangers of “his” horses (have they eaten up?) and the droppings (are they digesting their food like they should?)  How about those legs? Any tenderness? Any heat? Any filling? And so on…

Riding out two or three lots per morning, questions keep popping up, answers need to be found.  Is this horse sound? Is he well in himself? Is he too keen? Why won’t he relax? Why is he trying to deposit me on the ground? It’s endless….

Evening stables? Same routine, same necessity to monitor the state of the horses he looks after. “Looks after” means “is responsible for.” It encourages an attitude of eternal vigilance.

Quite regularly the lesser jockey will take one or other of “his” horses racing – and there may well be occasions when he is the only representative of the stable and will have to do everything – which ticks a lot of boxes in another important area of the game.

Then of course there are the results achieved by the yard’s runners – that information can be added to the mix. Such and such a process produced such and such a result. Could there be a cause and effect element? Yes there could. Sometimes, but not always… think it over…..

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the lesser jockey’s career is the fact that he is likely to move from yard to yard in pursuit of “rides” (race-riding opportunities). Hence the comment, often heard, “From the good trainers you learn what works, and from the bad trainers you learn what doesn’t work.”

At the age of 35, the very good jockey probably knows nothing about training, the less good jockey almost certainly knows a great deal – and both have 35 years to push! 

Fascinating subject. Comments from people who know more about it than I do will be most welcome, and will get an airing on these pages. 

FINALLY

They say that the golden age of Rugby Union was in the early nineteen-seventies, when coach and magician Carwyn James conjured up unbelievable performances from the only British and Irish Lions team to win a series in New Zealand. Without a doubt the rugby played at that time was supernatural, and since then it has been dreary beyond belief – by comparison.

Believe it or not, something very similar to Lions 71 rugby is available on BBC Iplayer for the next 25 days. It is a recent game between England and a Barbarians side consisting of a wonderful mixture of players from both hemispheres, coached for just five preparatory days by a Samoan called Pat Lam who looks like an Old Testament prophet and clearly has more than normal powers of persuasion.

Sit back and enjoy, and you will not be disappointed.

Caveat: be quick to switch off when you see a rather unattractive woman beginning to interview the England coach Eddie Jones.  I have been enduring her for a year or two and I kid you not – she is very tiresome. She might well provoke more  sensitive souls to hurl a boot at the screen. That would never do.

 

Best wishes,

 

DONEC.