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From the excellent photo posted by Mr Struthers – there is a natural inclination to lean towards the inside, especially if you have been racing against that rail for the last 5f or so.
I will leave it to the experts but in my view if Wetherby and the BHA do nothing(and from the tone of responses – this is the most likely course of action)
this will happen again – perhaps next time it won’t be on terrestrial television and we can all breathe a huge sigh of relief!For someone who wants to let it lie, you keep banging the drum in defence of Barry Geraghty in the face of all contrary evidence.
4 – Cones are a nightmare – potential danger of being kicked up, horses stepping slightly inside them and therefore taking the wrong course etc.
You forgot cheap labour forgetting to move them. Leading to sprinters having to hurdle them.
Those claiming that Wetherby are at fault would be a deal more convincing if they had posted their concerns on Saturday morning.
AP
Come on Alan, if you’d read Robin Gibson’s piece in the Post, you’d know that we are all far to busy to post here on a Saturday morning!
Anyone know why Goodwood have cones along the entrance to one of the bends coming into straight during races?
Putting tape up isn’t foolproof, as was proved at Cheltenham last month. Tape put in place wasn’t taken down prior to a subsequent race, and all the runners in the novice chase had to take the wrong course to avoid the tape.
The issue of tape was raised on TRF in light of Oumeyade and Gallik Dawn’s little accidents at Fakenham and Stratford respectively in quick succession about 18 months ago.
I think one poster suggested tape is not a foolproof solution, as the height at which it would be strung across an entrance would make it hard to discern from a set of railing at high speed. Cones on a floor never look like anything other than cones on a floor, and a C or H sign at the top of a high post is pretty hard to mistake for anything else as well.
To that, maybe it’s also worth raising an issue of welfare. A horse taking the wrong course and not encountering any impediments is safer than it getting itself tangled in a piece of tape. In so far as My Petra would have been travelling at a greater speed turning for home on Saturday than she would have if, for example, charging the knicker elastic at the start of a race, the risk of damage to herself in tripping over a piece of tape would arguably have been greater.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Anyone know why Goodwood have cones along the entrance to one of the bends coming into straight during races?
I think races up to about 1m1f at certain meetings take all of the bottom bend before using the lower of the two entrances into the straight. The cones are therefore there to prevent the field straying onto the top bend.
More frequent visitors will be able to confirm whether the intersection is ever crossed, free of cones, but the above is certainly how they were taking it when I attended the last meeting of the season there.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Btw, the layout at Exeter today is identical to Wetherby, except it’s in the chases that jockeys have to leave the rail on the home turn and go wide round a rail with ‘C’ on the market. And I’ve never seen any jockey go up the hurdle course in error.
So it is. And that’s actually a far better example than the one of Catterick that I posted the other day, in so far as Ruby Walsh is a far more frequent visitor to Exeter than the North Yorkshire venue. The mitigating circumstances are thinning somewhat, no?
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Anyone know why Goodwood have cones along the entrance to one of the bends coming into straight during races?
Presumably because sticking up a big ‘H’ or ‘C’ doesn’t mean much at a flat track. I suppose they could use a temporary ‘F’ sign, if you get my drift.
Rob
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Just playing devil’s advocate, but I wonder how many times out of 10 the jockey on Treaty Flyer would have been suspended for dangerous manoeuvring – had it not been for the fact they were going the wrong way?
Please find attached a picture of the bend in question with the rather large H which denotes the hurdle course.
Where is the big C that denotes the chase course?
He was on a tea break
I think the ban is too long for what was clearly a mistake, and one that he readily admitted to and apologised for. Compare with the length of ban 5-7 days given to jockeys who consciously cheat – for example break the whip rules or pull up before the line – and who offer no admission of guilt.
I think the ban is too long for what was clearly a mistake, and one that he readily admitted to and apologised for. Compare with the length of ban 5-7 days given to jockeys who consciously cheat – for example break the whip rules or pull up before the line – and who offer no admission of guilt.
Care to give some examples of 5-7 day bans for jockeys who have "consciously cheated"?
It looks like the BHA’s attitude is just blame it on the jockeys and accept it will happen occasionally throughout the year on various tracks, a bit like jockeys weighing in light.
Paul puts forward a bogus figure of 821 who have successfully gone the right way but it’s only the leading horses this is relevant to, even Geraghty would have gone the right way if he’d been in behind.
If a jockey of Geraghty’s experience can do this, much less experienced jockeys must be susceptible to doing this some time in the future if leading the race and the sun shining, fences get dolled off if the sun shines but jockeys are expected to see bits and pieces of rail all over tracks.
Why could there not be a temporary running rail that takes them straight onto the hurdles track from the bend?
What is that bit of rail for that Geraghty went on the inside of?Have to agree with Yeats here.
Chepstow’s layout in December would be similar to Wetherby last week – rounding the long turn for home – the hurdle course switches from the inside to the outside.
The runners do not have to run round a few rails in the middle of nowhere – they just make their way over to the next flight.
Is that a possibility for Wetherby?
I think the ban is too long for what was clearly a mistake, and one that he readily admitted to and apologised for. Compare with the length of ban 5-7 days given to jockeys who consciously cheat – for example break the whip rules or pull up before the line – and who offer no admission of guilt.
Care to give some examples of 5-7 day bans for jockeys who have "consciously cheated"?
Off the top of my head Frankie on Ramonti a couple of years ago, won at ascot, breached the whip rules, 5 day ban. Andrew Thornton in teh welsh national a couple of years ago.
Most penalties for misuse of the whip are of the ordre of 3-7 days.
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They’ve taken their time about it, but it seems that the definition between chase and hurdle course entering the straight at Wetherby is now much clearer. The inside rail has been moved further out to give a better sight and they’ve dispensed with the ridiculous ‘bollard’ that caused the birth of this thread.
Pity it didn’t occur to them before the fiasco that cost us one of the better jockeys for a period.
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