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…by that logic, the sport would never require any professional or intelligent marketing.
This is exactly the sort of complacency that sees racing lose market share every year to other sports which are sold far more effectively to the public…
I apologise unreservedly. I had no idea that Mr Clare’s sole concern was the state of the sport. Having read your posts again, I realise now that he was merely pant-wettingly desperate to ensure that a really super racing event received its due attention in the media, thus helping to rocket the sport into national consciousness overnight.
Sadly, his altruistic impulse was thwarted by the emergence of another racing story on the very same day. With the front and back pages of every tabloid in the land full of Henderson talk, what chance had the plucky PR man of furthering the good of racing. He is, after all, just one chap, battling bravely against the tide. Racked with emotion, he lapsed temporarily and forgivably into imbecilic English.
Under the circumstances, to draw attention to the coincidence between the name of the race’s sponsor and the name of his employer would be vulgar and unbecoming and so I will refrain.
Still, I can’t help thinking that Mr Clare has quite a task on his hands. A quick survey of non-racing folk (Mrs Hughes) this evening produced the following responses:
Q. What did you think of the Eclipse?
A. The what?
Q. The Eclipse
A. Has there been an eclipse?
Q. No, not an eclipse, the Eclipse. It’s a horse race.
A. Oh. Never heard of it.Round one to Mr Clare, I think. However, Paxman-like, I pressed her further:
Q. Well wasn’t that terrible about Nicky Henderson?
A. Who?
Q. Nicky. Henderson.
A. Is he that hairdresser?
Q. No.
A. Who is he then?
Q. A racehorse trainer.
A. (uninterested) Oh.Some way to go yet, methinks in the publicity stakes. Still, as long as we’ve got Mr Clare and cohorts looking out for us, I’m sure we’ll get there in the end.
A final thought. If ‘professional and intelligent’ is what he was going for, perhaps he might consider expanding his vocabulary. ‘Gutting’ and ‘galling’ are bad enough but I fear we were only a second or two away from a ‘gobsmacked’ and then I really would have had to call the police.
I’m no fan of the bookmakers but I can sympathise with Simon Clare on this one. He’s doing the job he’s paid to do by the company that employs him. What a pity more in horesracing don’t take PR as seriously and professionally as the bookmakers do.
Gutting’ and ‘galling’ are bad enough but I fear we were only a second or two away from a ‘gobsmacked’ and then I really would have had to call the polic
e.
The police are busy Mr Hughes – they have just been alerted to a criminally smug post on TRF…
I shall plead diminished responsibility. I’ve been reading the Racing Post a lot lately and it has had a negative influence on my character.
For the pedants, and for those wishing to "expand their vocabulary", disinterested and uninterested are not one and the same (a mistake I must have made many times myself).
If you are disinterested in something you are impartial and do not take sides: A disinterested observer of the scene would have wondered what all the fuss was about. If you are uninterested you have no interest at all: The player was uninterested in the public reaction to his remark. Disinterested is often used instead of uninterested to mean lacking interest. This use is widely regarded as incorrect and should be avoided, especially in formal writing.
Hope this helps.
There is never a good time to announce the findings of such enquiries it is always going to be bad news for the sport.
However integrity must be the paramount concern of everyone involved in the sport.
If there was any suggestion that integrity disciplinary hearings were being deliberately delayed so as not to coincide with big meetings then the BHA would quite rightly be dragged through the mud and the credibility of the sport would be in absolute tatters.
Indeed an argument could be made the timing of the release of the Nicholson hearing was good coming before the Eclipse. OK a sponsor loses out on some publicity in Saturday’s press but the victory of Sea The Stars has relegated coverage of the Nicholson affair since.
Also with the news clashing with Owen’s move to Man Utd and it being Wimbledon finals weekend there was probably less coverage in the non-racing press than there would have been – and it is the non-racing press coverage which does more damage in teh public eye than anything in the RP which, by comparison, has a limited circulation.
Anyway apart from lost free publicity for Corals I don’t see what harm has been done due to the timing.
Those who would have watched the race anyway still watched it.
Sandown was, by all accounts, packed?
Was betting turnover down – I don’t know but if it was then it was just as likely to be the result of the favourite going off a skinny price rather than anything else.
Apart from a disgruntled sponsor who has been adversely impaced by the timing?
Racing would have received bad publicity whenever the story was released.
Absolutely right Paul. In any case, the Eclipse is a big race in racing’s small world, but frankly most non-racing people will not only not have heard of it, but not care either given other attractions, like Wimbledon and Henly. It was that important to me that I attend a function at the Headquarters of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds that same day, and I will admit to going away on holiday on Friday and thus missing the July Cup. Before you ask I would not countenance going away on Gold Cup (Cheltenham not Ascot) or Grand National, though a trip abroad in November means I will miss the Hennessey for the first time in a long time
I apologise unreservedly. I had no idea that Mr Clare’s sole concern was the state of the sport. Having read your posts again, I realise now that he was merely pant-wettingly desperate to ensure that a really super racing event received its due attention in the media, thus helping to rocket the sport into national consciousness overnight.
Sadly, his altruistic impulse was thwarted by the emergence of another racing story on the very same day. With the front and back pages of every tabloid in the land full of Henderson talk, what chance had the plucky PR man of furthering the good of racing. He is, after all, just one chap, battling bravely against the tide. Racked with emotion, he lapsed temporarily and forgivably into imbecilic English.
Under the circumstances, to draw attention to the coincidence between the name of the race’s sponsor and the name of his employer would be vulgar and unbecoming and so I will refrain.
Still, I can’t help thinking that Mr Clare has quite a task on his hands. A quick survey of non-racing folk (Mrs Hughes) this evening produced the following responses:
Q. What did you think of the Eclipse?
A. The what?
Q. The Eclipse
A. Has there been an eclipse?
Q. No, not an eclipse, the Eclipse. It’s a horse race.
A. Oh. Never heard of it.Round one to Mr Clare, I think. However, Paxman-like, I pressed her further:
Q. Well wasn’t that terrible about Nicky Henderson?
A. Who?
Q. Nicky. Henderson.
A. Is he that hairdresser?
Q. No.
A. Who is he then?
Q. A racehorse trainer.
A. (uninterested) Oh.Some way to go yet, methinks in the publicity stakes. Still, as long as we’ve got Mr Clare and cohorts looking out for us, I’m sure we’ll get there in the end.
A final thought. If ‘professional and intelligent’ is what he was going for, perhaps he might consider expanding his vocabulary. ‘Gutting’ and ‘galling’ are bad enough but I fear we were only a second or two away from a ‘gobsmacked’ and then I really would have had to call the police.
My missus reaction exactly, she does not do racing and the only horse events she has ever attended are Langholm Common Riding – once and never again and her annual trip to Burghley Horse Trials mainly for the shopping, though she does know the name William Fox Pitt, but not AP McCoy. I don’t mind as long she lets me off the lead which she does frequently, bless her.
There’s been another positive for tranexamic acid, this time it’s Strategic Plan, surprise (25/1) winner of a selling handicap hurdle at Plumpton in March.
Trainer Laura Young and her vet deny all knowledge of any wrongdoing.
Many posts in this thread at the time raised the question of action against the vet involved – well it seems the Royal College moves even slower than the BHA in disciplinary matters, but they have finally decided to hold an enquiry – this taken from today’s Guardian:
James Main, the vet at the centre of the doping inquiry which saw Nicky Henderson banned from making entries for three months last summer, will face a full disciplinary hearing into his role in the case early in the new year.
Main refused to attend the British Horseracing Authority’s hearing into the case of Moonlit Path, who was injected with tranexamic acid, a banned blood-clotting agent, a few hours before she was due to make her racecourse debut. Henderson, her trainer, was also fined £40,000 but, since the BHA does not regulate vets, it could not compel Main to attend the hearing. The panel’s written findings registered its frustration at his absence.
Main resigned from two BHA committees – the veterinary committee and the counter-analysis committee – following the hearing, while the BHA passed the detailed findings from its inquiry to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the profession’s regulator, in July 2009.
While Main has offered no public comment on the case, the news that the RCVS has finally decided that he has a serious charge to answer means that his long silence will finally be broken. The hearing, likely to take place at the RCVS’s headquarters in London, is scheduled to start on 14 February.
AP
Tying up the loose ends only, surely? Much too late for any real impact.
Backwards they march, with their heads in the sand!I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highwaysDoes anyone else find Nicky Henderson’s evidence today (given at Main’s disciplinary hearing) utterly implausible?
Mr Henderson says he was unaware the drug was banned.
He says he thought other trainers had been using it judging from comments made to him afterwards.
He says someone in the yard knew because the injection was not listed in the yard’s record.
He says this might have been Tom Simmonds, his assistant trainer.
He then says he didn’t think that "we" had administered anything terribly illegal, the horse was not doped, she was given a drug for her own benefit, he was not aware it was detectable, and he wanted her to have a nice time.
I’m confused.NH cheated, in a rather serious way, and goes down even further in my estimation because of the way he is now passing on the blame to others, including loyal employees.
I wonder if this panel of vets is going to ask any useful questions, like for example – how many doses of tranexamic acid did the manufacturer of the drug supply to the Lambourn practice involved on an annual basis?
Or are we supposed to believe that this was the only such injection ever made in the Lambourn valley?
AP
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