- This topic has 45 replies, 21 voices, and was last updated 16 years, 6 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
…. a runner "finishes" a circuit early at Fakenham.
This time Sam Thomas (who should know better) on the odds-on favourite Oumeyade.
Methinks Mr Thomas will soon be starting a long summer holiday – assuming he is not lynched on the way back to the weighing room.
OK the onus is on the jockey to count the number of circuits. However it is not rocket science to have a tape across the course, a la Cheltenham to steer the runners in the right direction.
The advantage of tape over dolls is if there is a loose horse they could still run the tape without coming to too much harm.
It beggars belief that such basic errors can happen in the 21st century.
You spend 2 hours going through form etc etc for my placepot and this happens!!!!
No excuse for it,should hit him with a lengthy ban,but they wont and all the ”tree huggers”defending it!!!!
How the hell could he miss the flight its straight in front of him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Listen hes a great jockey and no malice in it but thats just plain laziness not to know the circuit he is racing in.
Firstly it was a mistake and you only had to look at Sam Thomas’ face to see that he realized that he dropped a real clanger.
At the time though all the horses bar his where off the bridle and he looked as if he thought he had the race won and had plenty of horse under him.
Secondly tracks like Fakenham,Cartmel,Fontwell are very small and it could be simple human error which can happen to anyone, after all if anyone who made an error at work got lynched then the population would be virtually non exsistant.
Thirdly when you look at the dying and starvation in China and Burma affecting thousands of adults and children with corrupt goverments doing prescious little to help then a jockey making a mistake at Fakenham is not the end of the world is it.
The end of the day it is a mistake, nothing more nothing else, i suffered the same sort of thing at Leicester one day but i did not bay for blood from Henry Oliver, sure i was annoyed but i took it on the chin and carried on.
i like the idea of tape but how visible would it be really, if you’re wearing glasses/eye protectors and are riding a horse at speeed having to keep an eye on more than one thing ?
that was a bad-looking ride-out though, it’s not like he was miles on his own and could have bored himself into an error, he did have to cut the pack up to get out
the only consolation placepot-wise is for those that didn’t pick the jolly in that one, the dividend might be nice now
imagine if kf had just done that
Neil,
I can only assume it did not cost you much money at Leicester
He as just cost punters a packet and should receive a lenghy ban, end of story.
Thirdly when you look at the dying and starvation in China and Burma affecting thousands of adults and children with corrupt goverments doing prescious little to help then a jockey making a mistake at Fakenham is not the end of the world is it.
blooming heck neil, as tragic as all that is it has nothing to do with racing and i can imagine what boss might say at work if next time i cock-up some project badly and am being castigated, i try and bury my error under the tragi-empathy of the latest world-disaster
cock-up he made and only he knows why and if he isn’t given a holiday i think racing will be sending a poor message out, not that i had any interest in that race anyway
I’m not sure what tree huggers have to do with anything here, per GOTF’s post, but the basic points made so far re: dolling / taping off seem fair enough.
For all that Fakenham is a tight track, and horses come whistling up the straight with greater frequency that any other NH jumps track, the expedient of placing something across the half of the track the runners should avoid, and then switching it across to the other half as they go out in the country the final time, doesn’t seem especially complicated to me.
Mention has been made at the North Norfolk venue before that incidents on one circuit can’t always be adequately accounted for the next, which is why if the hurdle in the straight – not far after the final bend, remember – is damaged first time around, it is often missed out rather than rebuilt the second. However, this fence is another furlong or so further up the course, so there wouldn’t be the same risk of injury to course workers in performing the switch.
Such a mechanism has been in place at all three point-to-point meetings I’ve worked at Hackwood Park this season, in order to make sure nothing rides around the open ditch in front of the "stands" for the first two circuits, or over it last time around.
A couple of lightweight barriers are utilised at Hackwood rather than a tape, and in contrast to Paul I think I prefer these – a thin tape could be harder to pick out than something mounted on the ground, especially if it is anywhere near the same height as the running rails and could get lost in vision accordingly.
None of which should detract from the fact, of course, that the task of counting to three ultimately shouldn’t proved insuperable for any jockey.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
So because there are some truly horrific things happening in the world, anything that doesn’t contribute to terrorism, military rule or political scandal should just be forgotten about?
Give me strength, Neil.
A broken leg isn’t serious when compared to the Burmese government’s handling of a natural disaster, or the dismal failings of our own wholly inept cabinet, but I’d still want the bloody thing treating.
There can be no excuse for failing to count to three, no matter how well your horse is going, how poorly your opponents are going or indeed what track you’re riding at, and as such Sam Thomas’s ‘crime’ is significant relative to his profession.
But I suppose we can let him off as, if memory serves, rule of racing 24, sub-paragraph 3, item 7 clearly states ‘should a jockey take the wrong course and/or finish a race before the prescribed distance has been run, punishment can be withheld if they a) cry, b) have a tantrum, or c) look suitably (as decided by on course stewards) annoyed or upset’.
Thirdly when you look at the dying and starvation in China and Burma affecting thousands of adults and children with corrupt goverments doing prescious little to help then a jockey making a mistake at Fakenham is not the end of the world is it.
What ridiculous words. There’s very little that ‘matters’ compared to untold numbers of humans suffering, but the use of such an analogy in this context is both daft and sick.
Back to the race: yes the ride was unexcusable and nigh-on unbelievable, and I hope Thomas as a supposed ‘professional’ is suitibly punished; a lot of money would have been punted on this horse. Just hope he doesn’t trot out the ‘unfamiliar with the course’ line. Nicholls may raid rarely but Miss Williams is/was a regular visitor.
I was a fortunate beneficiary, having opposed Oumeyade with both Secret Glen and Tipp Topp: dirty money indeed
A horrible incident which there is no excuse for. As has been mentioned, Sam Thomas will be no stranger to Fakenham. However, the amount of incidents like this occuring at the track are surely starting to look too much of a coincedence for course officials? Unless there is a terrible affliction exclusive to jockeys by which they lose the power to count upon entering Norfolk, there should be steps taken to ensure this doesn’t happen again (as there probably should have been long before now). There are major eyebrows raised with each of these cock-ups, and it doesn’t do the reputation of the sport, the jockeys or indeed Fakenham racecourse any good.
Why compare natural disasters etc etc ofcourse its not in the same league but this is a racing forum where we discuss horse racing matters
Yes ive lost a few quid and im pissed off but Sam Thomas is a great jock but what an error to make the guy is distraught about it ive watched the race again and again.
Yes no one had died but alot of punters have lost money and will be pissed off about it!
He has picked up a total of 17 days.
14 for taking the wrong course and an extra 3 for careless riding.
i can hear kieren explaining it. sir it was just a mistake. pure and simple .just a mistake.
I do apologise using the China and Burma incidents into this but i only did it with the vain hope of hoping that an over the top reaction to what Sam Thomas did at Fakenham would not occur.
Regarding the infamous Praire Minstral race at Leicester, Yes i did have a few bob on that day and i was annoyed when he eased up and gifted the race to the eventual winner and yes i did go round to the winners enclosure but i certainly did not do what a lot of people would have done and try to berate the jockey and try to grab hold of him like some people would have done.
Back to today i did not bet in the race and was amazed when i saw it happen but as i pointed out all the other horses where being hard ridden as Oumiyead did have much more class than the rest of the field and Sam no doubt thought that he had lot of horse under him and the race was won.
It was a simple mistake in the same way that a footballer does when missign an open goal or an athlete finishing a race one lap too soon, Yes it is annoying when it happens but as is life mistakes do happen and after all i would not expect Sam to come to my place of work and berate me if i made a clanger.
So i am sorry if people though i was being stupid putting in the China and Burma incidents in the original posting, but i still stand by what i said to begin with and if you dont agree then at least respect my view and opinions in the same way that i respect others even though i may disagree with them myself.
A baffling thread, imo.
Are some people suggesting it was anything more than a mistake?
If so, why has Kieren’s name been dragged into it?I’d say that Paul’s idea of using the lightweight panels to fence off " no-go" areas is sensible.
Also, if jockeys cannot keep count of laps, perhaps a bell should be rung on the start of the final lap?
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.