Horseracing needs to get its act together

The 365th edition of the Wayward Lad blog.

What a mess horseracing is in!
On Saturday morning, for the 1st time in ages, I watched the whole of Morning Line as the latest review by the BHA of the regulations regarding “whip” use were discussed. From that discussion and a “demonstration” of the use of the whip on a member of the public (if a whip is going to be demonstrated on tv, do it properly), it seemed to me that there are huge holes in the position from which the jockeys are taking.

Firstly, this is not solely a jockey problem – it is British Horseracing’s problem and involves ALL who take part or have an interest: owners, trainers, breeders, bookmakers, racecourse operators, valets, tack suppliers, and (of course) the racing public. And it is that racing public that (in my opinion) are the most important as if horseracing loses the confidence of that racing public in the sport, then horseracing in Britain will collapse like a pack of cards. Other countries, especially France and Ireland, will be happy to fill the gap left, and modern technology means that racing abroad can be watched and wagered on without much difficulty.

Horseracing as a whole needs to get it’s act together and the factions involved need to stop taking pot-shots at each other. Horseracing also needs to link-up with other sports and recreations that employ the use of animals. Animal lovers need to understand that groups like Animal Aid that hold extreme views will not be satisfied until every human in Britain is a vegan and no animals interact with humans in any way, be it horses for riding or a pet goldfish in a tank or bacon in a sandwich. There has to be a concerted effort to involve all animal lovers into acting together. There is no point in loving animals if (in the long run) humans have no interaction with them, and the general public need to understand that.

Onto horseracing, and I had a selection yesterday in GULLIBLE GORDON who ran well enough, but wasn’t good enough. It was almost certainly due to not having had a previous run as he was looking tired and his jumping was skewed from about 6 or 7 fences out. He is a gutsy performer tho’ and stayed-on, but had nothing more to give from the 2nd-last fence. The winner was GONE TO LUNCH who was able to recapture some of the level of form from his past (was 2nd in the Scottish National in April 2010 off OR140 - raced yesterday off OR122). If he can hold his form he should win again when reassessed, but that’s a big “if”. In 2nd was INTAC who ran a cracker of a race considering it was the furthest he’d ever run in public and had not shown any form in 4 previous attempts at trips beyond 2m5f, and had only won once from 6 attempts at 2m5f. What this race showed was that in races beyond 2m6f, horses which bowl-along in front galloping at their own pace without need of cajoling are still involved when the racing gets serious in the final half-mile. Other horses, such as Frosted Grape and Drybrook Bedouin were never able to get into the race and never would. Why? As they need constant cajoling to keep-up and, with only 8 uses of a “corrector” allowed, horses like these are destined for an early retirement.

No selections for the blog today as only flat racing available.

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