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Since hilariously winning a maiden on the flat in April and following up with a 2nd in the Ormonde at Chester, Mad Moose has reverted to type by refusing to race in his three subsequent jumps races, making it five straight ‘refuseds’ over the sticks since finishing 2nd to Sprinter Sacre earlier this year.
In the Warwick bumper on Wednesday, unconsidered 33-1 poke Instagramher was caught on the hop by an overenthusiastic starter, began racing briefly, then was suddenly pulled up by Sam Twiston-Davies much to the bemusement of racegoers.
The subsequent enquiry at Warwick absolved the starter of all blame (natch..!) but made no mention of why Twiston-Davies started to race then suddenly pulled his horse up (albeit a long way behind). This all looked very weird. Clearly his trainer Charlie Brooks has considerable powers of explanation in front of his peers (a talent that he may well need in the weeks to come).
My thoughts are:
1. Mad Moose should be barred from jumps racing. He may have a brief future as a Cup horse on the Flat as he appears to come out of stalls fine.
2. The Warwick starter should be disciplined. It is his job to jump the horses off with an equal chance. Twiston-Davies was clearly indicating he wasn’t ready and was lowering his goggles some 20l behind the rest when the tapes went up.
3. Despite the above, Twiston-Davies should be asked for an explanation as to why he almost immediately pulled Instagramher up. The horse was well behind but I don’t see that as a reason unless he had run his race.
On RUK, Lydia Hislop was keen to point out that the Warwick case was all caveat emptor and she likened betting on racing to investing on the stock market, i.e. you shouldn’t do either without some knowledge (not that that would have helped in this situation). However, a day out at the stock market is not a leisure activity for the public like it is for racing!
Mad Moose in particular has a great ‘housewives’ name for the uninitiated (actually ‘Instagramher’ isn’t a bad one either for the younger generation!) and as he has raced at no end of high-quality, televised meetings, I should imagine that he has hoovered up a large amount of daytrippers money.
It would be helpful for racing if stewards were a bit more attuned to their public and understand how such incidents look to all punters, but particularly to the casual/occasional racegoer whom we are told racing is trying to attract.
Mike
Good post Betlarge, spot on.
I sometimes think that the National Hunt brigade are even more snobbish that the Flat. It’s all a jolly good day out "doncha know?", sod the paying public, the whole businesss of non starters has been a problem for years.
Incidentally I more or less gave up betting on them years back, much more profitable to follow All Weather racing.I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highwaysIn Germany, and probably some other countries, you can run horses like this in races but with them excluded for betting purposes. This means the owner/trainer/jockey can still race for the prize money & kudos but they don’t affect the punters.
I’d imagine this would work well because I think nothing annoys novice punters more than not getting some sort of run for their money.
I’m a follower of Moosie on twitter, and I’ve had half a bottle of wine, so forgive me for whatever follows. Moosie is wonderful fun to follow. His owner adores hkm, and that’s what matters. As long as he’s prepared to put him into races, more power to his elbow. Don’t bet on him!
He doesn’t come out of stalls either, fyi. He missed his last two flat starts. But the one before that, he won.
Don’t know about instagramer, didn’t see it, but Sam must have had his reasons. He didn’t pull Moosie up.
Racing needs its character horses. We don’t all follow the sport just to make a few bob. We watch it for the entertainment.The Moose certainly is a character, in truth though, he should be barred from racing and for his own good.
He clearly has no interest in racing, when he won on the flat I said to a friend once he figures out he can come out the gates and stand still and no harm will come to him, he will do exactly that, and he did.
He needs to find a new vocation, be retired or whatever will make the horse happy, being chased around frantically at the start by a crazed trainer, funny as it might be is not exactly a great image.
Spanish Moon was penalised far heavier for not wanting to go in the stalls, 6 month ban I believe. Though, he had no problem coming out of them. He went on to win the Grand Prix de Saint Cloud and the Prix Foy, finish 2nd in a Hong Kong Vase and 3rd in a Sheema Classic.
Where is the consistency to non starters? It can be an absolute mess over the jumps and needs sorting. One thing is for sure, Mad Moose should be barred currently, he has refused 4 times and barely consented to race 2 or 3 times more. Romance a side, it is not acceptable.
Every month a race should be staged for horses like MM – refusing to start at least 3 times should be the qualification (old Vodkatini comes to mind).
Sectional times would be very interesting!
A scan of the
Stewards Enquiries
search facility on the BHA site confirms that connections of Mad Moose were warned as to his future behaviour after he refused to race at both Aintree on April 5th and York on May 25th. Note that:
1) These were the two most recent occasions on which he has refused to race.
2) No further action was taken after York on account of the good behaviour (relatively speaking) he’d shown in the two Flat races Mike mentioned in his initial post, which took place in between Aintree and York.
3) Reluctance, followed by eventual actual consent to race, seemed to have been enough to prevent further action from the stewards after the Shloer Chase – that, plus the fact he didn’t actually run much below his mark in the final analysis (to an RPR of 133, compared to his Official Rating of 143).
It does seem to me that it requires an absolutely clear-cut, indisputable (by whose standards, though?) forfeiture of the ability to run close to form on the part of the reluctant horse before the stewards flex their muscles. See also that other mardy git of recent vintage, Chaninbar, who ran to even closer to his then-current mark after pigging the start in the 2011 Swinton Hurdle than Mad Moose did the other day. That performance, and proximity to the eventual winner, looks at this remove to have spared Chaninbar any censure on the day at Haydock; though further, increasingly unpleasant antics over the course of six subsequent runs were of course harder to excuse. I’m not sure he’s allowed out anywhere now.
I’ve also just checked Toughness Danon’s history of warnings. He did receive one over his refusal to start at Cheltenham last weekend, the second warning of his career but the first since running out at Hereford in June 2012 – a fourth consecutive wayward outing over timber.
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.
Every month a race should be staged for horses like MM – refusing to start at least 3 times should be the qualification (old Vodkatini comes to mind).
Sectional times would be very interesting!
Chaninbar v Mad Moose – winner never has to see Sam Twiston-Davies again!
Fun though it is to follow a horse like Moosie, you have to wonder why he digs his hooves in every time, and assume he hates racing. Therefore, it’s probably sensible to call it a day with him.
Don’t get the banning of horses that refuse to race ,if owners are prepared to pay the enry fees then whose business is it ?
If you don’t want to back them then don’t ,i think it’s more down to the form experts that fear that one day they will jump off and upset their calculations .
fwiw some of my faves over the years have been dear old Amrullah,Friendly Henry,Pukka Major and Chaninbar so i supposed i’m biased.
My favourite horse growing up was Past Master who hardly ever started a race, but when he did, was very good, coming fourth to Sea Pigeon once. It must be so frustrating to own a horse like that.
Don’t get the banning of horses that refuse to race ,if owners are prepared to pay the enry fees then whose business is it ?
If you don’t want to back them then don’t
My original point was about novice/less knowledgable racegoers & punters who have their money on him then palpably don’t get any sort of run. It’s hard to shout
caveat emptor
when the emptor doesn’t know he
should
be caveat-ing.
Explaining to such losing punters that it’s alright because MM is a ‘character’ who you can follow on Twitter is likely to be a hard sell.
Mike
Fun though it is to follow a horse like Moosie, you have to wonder why he digs his hooves in every time, and assume he hates racing. Therefore, it’s probably sensible to call it a day with him.
AP mentions one in his autobiog – a good horse, can’t recall its name offhand, – at home it would plant itself and wouldn’t budge till the rider pulled its ears.
When I was a kid and used to go helping out at my local yard, there was the most beautiful chestnut you’d ever see (useless on the track) with 4 socks white as aspirin. He would not step in a puddle. If the puddle was too big, you simply had to turn him round. No way was he getting his lovely socks dirty.
When Canford Cliffs started hanging on track, he also began working much more poorly at home. R Hughes worked out that the horse was shirking the hard work by going sideways. He took him to a quiet part of the gallops and ‘taught him a lesson’ with his stick and the horse came back up the gallop like a superstar. (He hung in the Sussex due to an injury, according to the yard).
It takes all kinds and there are all kinds out there!
Be wary of anyone trying to protect novice or first time racegoers or punters, it’s a red herring and usually a poor attempt at trying to disguise and give more credence to ones own preferences or views.
McCririck used to regularly do it with horses slowly away or left in the stalls.
There are rules and regulations for non starting horses and they will be banned eventually if they overstep the mark too many times.
However it costs a lot of money to buy horses and keep them in training and banning horses from racing is not something that should be rushed into.
Be wary of anyone trying to protect novice or first time racegoers or punters, it’s a red herring and usually a poor attempt at trying to disguise and give more credence to ones own preferences or views.
I make no attempt to disguise my preferences or views, on the contrary, here they are on this matter; I believe that:
– Horses who repeatedly fail to race should be banned.
– Starters who fail to do their job properly should be disciplined.
– Jockeys who pull horses up after a furlong owe people an explanation at least.
– New or inexperienced punters would be bemused/annoyed had they backed Mad Moose or InstagramherThis is not some sneaky opinion masquerading as something else! There is no ‘red herring’. These are my views.
Mike
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