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The ground at Ascot yesterday was officially “Good.”
Fastest times were 5.36 seconds slower than standard and 6.38 seconds slower than standard by Boothill and Goshen.
And yet the going was apparently too fast, there were a spate of withdrawals and a walkover.
I remember a time when ground might be described as “Firm” or even “Hard,” there were substantially more runners than at Ascot yesterday, and standard times (and even occasionally course records) were routinely broken.
What has happened to UK horse racing?
40 years ago, no CoC was scared of admitting to the ground being quick, no trainer was scared of racing on it and the race times reflected the nature of the surface.
Now it is true that standard times have changed – they are the average of the ten fastest times the last ten years and they are dynamic and reduce when new data is gathered – but instances of horses breaking standard have become almost as rare as admissions of the word “Firm” in going descriptions.
And when it does happen it’s increasing it in circumstances which don’t correlate with the ground description.
Constitution Hill 4.65 seconds faster than standard in the Supreme on allegedly Good to Soft ground yet withdrawn yesterday from an Ascot card on which no horse got within five seconds of standard.
Does anyone else see the incongruity here?
The racing media seem collectively too dim-witted and deferential to be asking the big question: what on Earth is going on?
I would suggest it’s the net result of increasingly inbreeding to as close as the third remove for speed and precocity at the expense of good bone and durable conformation generally, horses with poor conformation winning Group 1s on artificially-watered ground and going to stud to reproduce yet more cripples, resulting in yet more ongoing pressure to water any resilience out of a turf racing surface. “Soft” is slowly becoming the new “Good” and no one running the sport has the wit to recognise it still less the will to change it.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"“What has happened to UK horse racing?”
A 4 day Cheltenham festival. And owners and trainers who believe it is The Only Meeting That Matters and arrogantly believe the sport only exists for their benefit.
This was the attitude of racing towards anyone who paid to go to Ascot yesterday:
There is a bigger picture here in that National Hunt racing can ill afford what seems now like every weekend being blighted by rows of obstacles being cordoned off or/and spates of withdrawals.
I think COC’s have a duty to use some foresight, pick up the vibes of how the trainers of those who intend fielding star performers, and act accordingly irrespective if it results in treating the needs of the more powerful yards above those of the rest- put it this way,I doubt any genuine racing fans who attended Ascot yesterday would come away thinking that is was for the good of the game that Stickels was seen to play fair to all.
Reg the durability and conformation of modern NH animals – I seem to recall that when it was made compulsory for wind ops to be declared, a certain stud who housed numerous jump stallion sons of Sadler’s Wells were reportedly against the move as it would expose what could be viewed as a weakness in this line of the breed.
However, on conformation only, as far back as forty plus years ago you had some big name trainers with a mish mash of lookers. Not just Martin Pipe either, some so called traditional jump trainers too – the Dickinsons for example, there was nothing of Silver Buck, Bregawn was very plain on the eye, and Political Pop was as narrow as sliced supermarket ham.
“National Hunt racing can ill afford what seems now like every weekend being blighted by rows of obstacles being cordoned off.”
Kevin Blake on the Low Sun issue:
https://www.attheraces.com/blogs/kevin-blake/14-november-2022/low-sun-shadowing-jump-racing
That’s an excellent piece with the correct, basic solution too. As Philip Hobbs said the other week, ” this was never a issue as recently as 20 years ago”, or similar words.
It is a strange one as the jumping game is yet to produce a top class stallion, so you’d think more horses would be running in more races.
Barring dead heats there is only one winner of each race at Cheltenham, plenty of disappointments so you’d think they would be keen to mop up prize money available when possibleGood opening post Ian.
Blackbeard to conquer the World
The warning signs are there, but racing is too slow to notice, until it’s too late.
I do think breeding has a lot to do with it; and NH breeding is my biggest bugbear. All these top NH stallions, and 99% never jumped a twig. It’s completely nuts…..
The French are a bit more enlightened, and some of their NH stallions have proven themselves over jumps.I also think it’s time there was an independent body who report on the ground conditions; leaving it to the CoC, risks them not being totally honest, and trying to attract as many horses as possible.
“I wouldn’t run anything on it to be honest with you. I’ve also had to take out our bumper horse, who is very very nice and I’m not risking him either.”
That is what Henderson said yesterday. He is in effect saying the ground at Ascot yesterday was unsafe and a welfare issue. He is also implying that any trainer who ran their horses yesterday was putting them at risk.
Perhaps it is a symptom of the increasingly risk averse country we are becoming where any risk is seen as A Very Bad Thing. But the fact is we take risks every day. And horses are at a degree of risk every time they set foot on the gallops or on the racecourse.
A question to ask Henderson is: if the ground is like that on the first day of Cheltenham, will he withdraw all his horses then because it is too risky? If not, why not? By his own logic, is it not OK to risk a horse’s tendons in November but it is OK in March when the prize money and prestige is greater?
I am sure the anti-racing brigade will love what he said yesterday.
“The French are a bit more enlightened, and some of their NH stallions have proven themselves over jumps.”
“I also think it’s time there was an independent body who report on the ground conditions; leaving it to the CoC, risks them not being totally honest, and trying to attract as many horses as possible.”
100% agree with Andy on this.
Back in the 18th/19th century when Flat racing was about breeding a Gold Cup winner at 2m4f aged four plus the Flat and NH were breeding for similar attributes.
But we’re in the 21st century No Nay Never>Black Beard>Goodness Knows What Next era now and Jump racing breeding is left to pick up increasingly unsuitable scraps.
Breaking: 2yo Persian Force just retired to stud – this is the DIREction the game is heading in.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"“I would suggest it’s the net result of increasingly inbreeding to as close as the third remove for speed and precocity at the expense of good bone and durable conformation generally, horses with poor conformation winning Group 1s on artificially-watered ground and going to stud to reproduce yet more cripples”
Spot on – and now we have Persian Force retired as as a 2yo, just like his sire. His pedigree suggests that many of his progeny will be jumping in due course.
As Andy says, the failure to breed genuine NH stallions in this country (and Ireland) is also disappointing and short-sighted. Nicolls had a golden opportunity with Solo. Excellent French jumping pedigree, good start on his UK debut with a Grade 2 win over hurdles. One poor run in the Triumph Hurdle and immediately gelded. Didn’t seem to improve him either, just made him easier to train I suppose.
I suppose one option is to do what the French do at Auteuil and water constantly to provide soft or heavy ground.
Lingfield don’t need to do that – I was there on Tuesday and it was basically waterlogged by the last.
Summer jumping is predicated on watering to provide ground which is “safe” for jump racing so why not do the same for winter jumping and if a course wants to artificially water to produce soft/heavy ground, as long as it’s well advertised in advance, why not?
There is (or should be) the environmental impact (and cost) of artificial watering to consider.
Here’s a novel idea: why not just let nature take its course? 🤔
“Here’s a novel idea: why not just let nature take its course?”
That will never catch on, Glad.
Interesting that arguably the greatest hurdler of them all, Night Nurse, won his first Champion Hurdle on officially good to firm ground, and followed up the next year on heavy.
That’s why Night Nurse is one of the CH legends , back when they seemed to run every week
Imagine Nicky the football manager
Interviewer ” Why.s Messi not playing ”
Nicky ” He,s got a paper cut ”
The TV media tap dance around this issue simply because they don’t want to upset the major players from refusing access/interviews with them in the future – in the same way they will be overly effusive with a good ride by a top jockey and then find a million and one ways to deflect making any criticism on them when they ride a bad race.
Personally, Hendo and even more so King’s comments on the state of Ascot’s ground was tantamount to blaaming the cotc for producing unsafe ground, which quite clearly is the opposite to what it actually was.
Officially the ground was good (good to soft in places) and that is a perfectly acceptable state for courses to be hosting NH meetings on, personally the times would suggest the other way round in good to soft (good in places) – if you think that is too quick for your horse, fine don’t run them which is well within your rights to do so but don’t bitch and moan and intimate it is unsafe and a horse welfare issue because you know damn well if that was the ground come Cheltenham time you would be running.
If you have a horse that can’t handle good racing ground then either it shouldn’t be in training or you should campaign it in Ireland or France where you generally get softer condition and better prize money……but you can be damn sure that a lot of those exact same trainers that bitch and moan about good ground are the same exact ones that when running on deep winter ground will bitch and moan about their horse wanting/needing better ground and the lack of opportunities under those conditions.
A lot of the top horse these days are wrapped up in so much cotton wool that they end up being inadvertantly more fragile and less capable of running more than 3 or 4 times a season at most. Part of that I believe also is the fact that they are much better catered for with graded level weight races whereas back in the day those were few and far between and you often saw champions running in handicaps.
Night Nurse was already mentioned but Sea Pigeon in particular regularly lumped monster weights in winning handicaps and he also then went straight from hurdling and switched to running in the upcoming flat season and that was all after having a classic campaign where he was 7th in the Derby and he did all that running on pretty much every type of ground there was and he kept coming back for more right up until his retirement at the age of 12.
He won 21 of his 40 races over jumps and 17 of his 45 races on the flat – you would be fortunate these days if the top jumps horse(s) manage 21 runs in an entire career…..they were truly a battle hardened generation through regular competition and they rarely ever dodged each other through the season either.
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