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jennywales · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:47 pm Post subject: Through the Bins: A Fine Mess....

THROUGH THE BINS

A FINE MESS…….

I think that anyone from Wales would probably object pretty violently to Alistair Down’s description of them as “primitive people with one eye in the middle of their foreheads from the wilder Welsh marches….” OK, he was attempting to be amusing, but still….

In fact, his article in Friday’s Racing Post about the Paddy Power meeting was, apart from the gratuitous insult flung at the inhabitants of that ancient principality, extremely eloquent, dealing as it did with the passion and enthusiasm with which people greet the first of the “big” Cheltenham meetings.

As usual. however, I took in (because you have to support the grass roots, and by God they can be pretty grassy and rooty – in fact Down may actually have it right about the Marchers…..) Ludlow on the way to the far less primitive Cheltenham. At Ludlow it rained. And rained. And rained. It was pouring when I left home at 6.30am, it was pouring at 12 when I arrived and it was still raining (though not so hard) when I left for beyond Hereford (and therefore the more comfortable environs of “proper” England, as opposed to the dubious border country, where anything can happen and probably will. Don’t get me wrong, I like borders, and their inhabitants, because they quite literally have an “edgy” quality – you know that battles have been fought, and raids have been mounted, and there are usually old houses with very long histories, and much the same can be said about the people…..)

Which is one, but only one, of the reasons I like Ludlow.

It was quite a jolly day, actually, because my neighbours at home were running their young and inexperienced hurdler in a novices’ event – so I had a bit of insight which persuaded me that today was not the day. However, I suspect that Mac Halen will do OK in a novices’ handicap some day soon, and indeed this is Evan Williams’s thinking. Mac Halen, bless him, looked super in the paddock, ran like a drain, kept out of trouble and finished second from last……maybe, maybe…..or maybe he simply cannot run fast enough to keep himself warm, which would be a pity.

I had quite a good day in the matter of relieving bookies of their cash – Sunsetten, with Ollie Greenall on board and claiming a useful 7lbs put the rest of the field to the sword, Novarra looked great in the paddock and duly obliged, and if Ring Bo Ree had not slipped up on the flat after the last would have had the race at his mercy and will win one with better luck in the not too distant future. Rustler rustled me up a place.

And off I hopped to the Paddy Power meeting – some 50 miles and a world away from Ludlow on a wet Thursday in November.

Now I always like to have a bit of a moan about “arrangements”; and the parking problem in October was compounded on the Friday because the park and ride facility had not been suspended but moved to the public car park by the stables – with the result that when I arrived at the decent time of 1130 it was already full. So back I went to one of the car parks normally used only at the Festival. This took time I would rather have spent wandering around the stalls, having a bite to eat and deciding on what I would put in the placepot. On the Saturday, the queue of traffic coming in from Staunton was huge. Somewhere, somehow, traffic management has become a problem (it never was before). But somehow, someone needs to sit down, diagnose what is going wrong and put it right – otherwise, the Festival will be badly affected, and Cheltenham cannot afford that.

Friday was what I would have called “Steward’s Day” – not Steward’s Cup day, of course, but they were certainly earning their corn (or oats, or hay, or whatever). In the first, Mr McKeown on Hoopy borrowed Mr Devereaux’s whip. It was thought that Mr Devereaux had voluntarily surrendered that item of equipment to Mr McKeown after the latter had dropped his own because of a blunder at a fence down the back. Others allege that Mr McKeown forcibly deprived Mr Devereaux of his whip when he saw that Mr Devereaux’s mount was about to be pulled up. Whatever the rights and wrongs of that particular situation, the fact remains that Mr McKeown was careless enough to drop his whip, only to replace it at the expense of another jockey (who admittedly wasn’t going to win) and went on to win the race with the aid of said instrument.

No doubt no questions would have been asked, except for the fact that the owner of the second horse, Alexanderthegreat, chose to object to the winner on the grounds that he had exercised an unfair advantage (i.e. lost his whip fair and square and then taken steps to acquire another one, thereby being enabled to win a race he would otherwise have lost). Mr John “jockeys can do no wrong” Francome, on the Morning Line, praised Mr McKeown for his initiative. The stewards, however, let the horse keep the race but stood the jockey down for two days for “improper riding”. And all this in an amateur rider’s handicap chase!

Now the situation was so unusual that I don’t suppose that any polemic about fairness would be either useful or appropriate. However, it does seem to me that if you are careless enough to lose a riding aid and replace it with one belonging to another jockey, then you are at the very least refusing to accept the legitimate penalty imposed by your initial carelessness or bad luck. And although bad luck it probably was, luck plays a part in racing as it does in every sport - because if it didn't how boring would sport, and indeed life, be!

The second instalment of stewards came in the Cross Country. Davy Russell, bless him, thought he had twigged a corner that could be cut (it’s a long race, and a few hundred yards don’t come amiss). He duly cut it – in full view of everyone, including me, who was watching through the bins and saw a distinct “take your own line” movement. At the time I thought that the horse had simply carted Russell outside the bushes – it later transpired that he had done the corner-cutting deliberately, and that it was, moreover, legitimate – the rules of the race say you have to keep the C markers on your inside, but as long as you do that, you can (in theory) take any line you like. Which Russell duly did, and won. Now fair play to Russell, he studied the rules and took advantage of them. But the course will now clear up the rules (including defining whether or not the bushes are markers) thus eliminating yet another possible piece of clever private enterprise. I can imagine the stewards getting out their bifocals and peering over the small print of the race conditions, rather than their driving specs and peering at a film of the race. In the end Russell was not punished, and again, the horse kept the race – a decision which at least one element of the crowd thought dubious.

The last humiliation was visited on none other than Ruby Walsh, who having got a third (American Trilogy) and a first in a four horse race (Ornais, who beat Battlecry on jumping), was riding Herecomesthetruth of Harry Findlay’s (or at least, of Harry Findlay’s missus) and which was a very short price indeed to win the last. Well, Herecomesthetruth had every reason to live up to his name until the last fence, when he dived out with a suddenness that would have had any rider other than Ruby on the floor. My personal view is that the horse was tired (you could see it – he emptied very suddenly between the third and second last) and just decided to turn it in – and who could blame him.

I am sorry that Ruby, having suffered humiliation in this way, was again in the wars, but much more seriously, on Saturday. I wish him a speedy recovery, but advise a certain discretion about how soon he returns to the saddle, however great his motivation. Losing a spleen is no laughing matter....

I will draw a discreet veil over my betting performance – in a word, horrendous, but after the success of Ludlow not such a pocket-hurter as it could have been. Another day, another fiver, as they say. And don’t back any of Nicholls’s at the moment – his runners are underpriced and performing relatively poorly. Or at least poorer than general expectations now are.

In the midst of all this came news of the BBC cutting their racing coverage next year, and the bookmakers pouring molten scorn on the notion that FOBT income should also contribute to the Levy – but more of that later and further.

© Jennywales 2008