SPORT 93 (JULY 1 2019)
Jun 30th, 2019 by admin
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 nuts and bolts of racing’s senior management are fundamentally restructured so that it (the senior management) is fit for purpose. Time is running out. Is there not a sound principle which declares that if you do not oppose evil you encourage it?
Once again I can assure you that putting the HG on a more belligerent footing will not over-tax anybody, if the load is shared. Let’s look at the latest example of BHA-itis.
POWER CRAZY
On Friday 21st June Alan King criticised the Royal Ascot stewards, saying they had been too hasty when withdrawing Aweedram from Thursday’s Britannia Stakes. Aweedram parted company with jockey Andrea Atzeni on the way to the start. He was not assessed by vets before his withdrawal.
“I’m annoyed,” said the trainer. “If the horse is distressed at the start, having overdone himself, take him out – no issues, but this horse lobbed down and the vet didn’t even get the chance to see him.”
“The stewards have the power to withdraw any horse which takes charge of or dislodges its rider on the way to the start,” an anonymous BHA spokesperson declared.
Watching on TV, it was clear to me that the horse was doing itself no harm while loose, and no sensible spokesperson would claim that stewards are entitled to make a snap decision without following the normal procedures that apply in the relevant circumstances. Why are the stewards entitled to do this, one might ask? Because “they have the power” apparently. Not good enough.
The BHA is currently proposing to phase out the Amateur Stewards who provide the only “check and balance” which puts some sort of limit on the excesses to which the professional stewards will no doubt continue to resort in the exercise of their “power,” if this case is anything to go by.
In recent years stewarding has featured constant abuse of the whip rules (which is a pity) and constant misapplication of the interference rules (which increases the dangers to life and limb to which horses and riders are exposed), and no one has suggested that the Amateur stewards are to blame for these aberrations. There is a decadence about BHA stewarding which damages British racing and brings it into disrepute.
KNOWLEDGE
There has been talk of stronger representation at boardroom level for those with racing expertise and experience. Good, provided that such representation is given the power to make a difference. I want to see a BHA board that includes people of the quality of Henrietta Knight, Jenny Pitman (already involved in the BHA’s Independent Judiciary) and Nick Skelton (who was involved in the early development of the padded whip.) And I want to see the usual suspects (lawyers, accountants and visitors from the betting industry) paying attention and showing respect. No gagging orders, no majority rule, thank you very much.
HORSEMANSHIP 1
Look no further than last autumn. Cracksman starts showing signs of non-cooperation. His future as a multimillionaire stallion is being questioned – what does trainer Gosden do? He slaps a pair of blinkers on the horse’s wilful little head, as he would with a selling plater that was taking liberties. Problem solved, horse resumes normal position at the top of the heap.
What of Circus Maximus? After running a creditable 6th in the Derby (12 furlongs) he reappears 17 days later (much too soon!) at Ascot (8 furlongs, not far enough!), at a cost of a £40,000-plus supplementary fee (what a waste of money!) Anything else? Oh yes – a pair of blinkers. He wins £305,505. Trainer Aidan O’Brien, take a bow, not for the first time.
Let us not forget Advertise. Last in the 2000 Guineas, some might have questioned (and did) his right to take part in the Commonwealth Cup at Ascot on June 21st, where, game as a pebble, he wins like a champion. His trainer Martyn Meade recently stepped in and bought the Manton estate, the greatest racing facility (and the most beautiful) in the world, thus saving it from the clutches of the property market. His contributions to Advertise? Faith, Frankie Dettori, and a pair of blinkers.
HORSEMANSHIP 2
Sir Michael Stoute knows that if you resist the urge to retire successful horses at the end of their 3-y-o career, for the sake of the money they can earn at stud, you have animals that will go on improving as older horses, and I am guessing that their trainer finds them easier to train as he gets to know them better, and as maturity makes them more amenable, more responsive, less excitable, stronger and faster.
Whatever the secret, and there are exceptions to every rule, Sir Michael’s older horses keep winning, year after year, at the highest level all over the world. They also remain longer in the public eye, and the public gets more pleasure out of them for that reason.
£17 MILLION BLACK HOLE? OR IS IT £60 MILLION?
Racing’s financial problem featured recently in the Racing Post, and readers were invited to solve it. A few days later 10 recipes for prosperity were published. One of them was submitted by Paul Bittar, who did two years as CEO of the BHA between 2012 and 2014. Going into details which I did not begin to understand, he recommended a sequence of actions which would turn abject poverty into quite enough money to keep British racing’s nose above water.
I waited for the reaction. Who was going to suggest that the Bittar formula was flawed? Nobody, apparently. In which case, why has the BHA shown no interest?
I ask because Bittar is highly thought of in the international world of horseracing. He did his two years at the BHA and then politely declined to extend his tenure of office. Maybe he saw something really horrid in the BHA with which he didn’t fancy grappling any longer. What a coincidence – I feel much the same.
I hope Mrs Phelps (the BHA’s new chairman) makes a great success of reversing the decline which is the BHA’s state at present. As a result the main body of the industry is constantly being shafted by its own management department (the BHA). If Mrs Phelps does the business, it will be the greatest rescue since Dunkirk.
RUBY WALSH
In my recent tribute to the great jockey on his retirement, I mentioned his tendency to blame himself if he was beaten in a close finish. He would suggest that he might have won if he had done something different, or had not done something that he did do…. you get the picture? I offered 105 pence to the first of my readers who told me which other jockey in history had the same attitude. I got hundreds of replies – all of them wrong.
The answer is to be found on page 42 of the best racing book ever written (paperback edition). The author was a very good jockey himself, also a very good trainer, and a wonderful writer.
The passage goes: “When he was beaten by a neck he generally thought that if he had just done this or not done that he would have won, and that is how a good jockey can make himself into a great one.”
The author? George Lambton. The book? “Men and Horses I have known”. The jockey? Fred Archer. Ruby Walsh, I salute you!
CONSERVATIVE PARTY
I am a Boris supporter. He has talent and a huge brain, and he is a free spirit, which hasn’t detracted from the quality of the work he has done for the good of the nation in every position he has held. Also a great sense of humour.
As for Jeremy Hunt, eight or nine years ago, as Minister for Culture and Sport he signed the Tote’s death warrant, by selling it to Betfred. If he had taken the Tote off the market and restored it to a safe haven under the wing of government, it could have continued doing what it was created for, providing a vital source of income for racing.
Since then most of his time has been taken up with the affairs of the NHS: he keeps on telling the world about the record amounts of money the government is pumping into the system, but he looks strangely disinterested in the fate of the patients in his hospitals. Like all previous Conservative Health Secretaries since Cameron came to power, he hasn’t lifted a finger to seek out and approach the talent which is needed, and which is out there somewhere and which would relish the challenge.
Jeremy Hunt is long in the neck, which gives him a serpentine look. Anyone invited to meet him would be well advised to carry one of those sticks with an arrangement at the far end allowing the hunter-gatherer to pin a serpent to the ground at the first sign of a forked tongue. Just in case. Politics is a jungle.
Talking of the Tote: the public is due to be enlightened as to its immediate future before the end of July. Very interesting.
Best wishes,
DONEC