- This topic has 12 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 9 months ago by
.
- Posts
Another day; more incidents of horses breaking out of stalls or getting upset and having to be removed. Also getting loose before the start. There were certainly instances of horses refusing to enter stalls back in the day and occasionally dumping the jockey and running off but I don’t recall much else, certainly not on a regular basis. I do remember McCririck complaining that it was always the same trainers’ horses having to be withdrawn but, as it isn’t recorded in the horse or trainer records, it’s hard to identify a pattern, either then or now. My perception is that it is very unusual (for example) for a Gosden or AOB trained horse not to start a race though.
Views?
I have no statistical data whatsoever to back this up but, for some years now, it’s been my impression more horses give trouble at the start in the UK than in other jurisdictions, notably USA and France.
Whether it’s better stalls testing at their yards, better stalls handlers at tracks or a combination of both, I don’t know.
But if, like me, you have the attention span of a special needs gerbil, tend to prefer Flat racing because races are shorter and it’s over quicker, adding another five minutes onto watching a 6f contest because half the field look like they’ve never seen a starting gate before isn’t the best!
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"I can empathise with those horses, as I’ve never seen a starting gate, either.
I was watching that Newbury race today and couldn’t believe that the horse was withdrawn. Punters getting no run for their money; winners hit by a R4 deduction- a farce.
In HK they just go in seemlessly , no messing about . The regimented system helps and they dont have large fields of inexperienced runners but clearly they are well drilled .
I think Japan set the golden standard. A field of 18 is always loaded within a minute.
Japanese horses are always well-behaved as they always get a stall test. For Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand, barrier trials are very common and they can be treated as a stall test.
In Hong Kong, a field of 14 is usually loaded within 2 minutes but punters always feel too much and they can easily use Japan as better example.
The stalls used in Britain have to be transported around the country, which I assume means they are smaller and more potentially more claustrophobic than those used abroad.
Having allowed for that, I do believe British racing could do a much better job getting horses used to the stalls. It takes far too long sometimes and some horses are given far too many chances. It is not fair on horses that have gone into the stalls and then have to wait for something like five minutes.
I believe if a horse refuses to enter the stalls twice, it should be withdrawn on the order of the starter. If this system was in place, I have a feeling that trainers would make a bit more effort to ensure their horse was prepared.
Horses running loose with blindfolds still on, as happened again yesterday should be unacceptable.
For a racing jurisdiction so dependent on off-course Levy betting revenue, the inability of British racing to run to schedule most afternoons and evenings, especially busy ones, is alarming.
Horses who haven’t been properly acclimatised to going in stalls, handlers who can’t overcome this, lack of barriers around stalls to stop horses getting loose if they play up and unship the rider, no outriders….so, here in 2023, those who can be bothered to stay tuned in see yet another loose horse taking a circuit of some racecourse.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Loading into stalls is a process where out-riders/track ponies can help a good deal. Horses are much more amenable to being led up to the gate by another horse than by a hapless human on the ground.
Not all tracks use stalls that are moved around the country. Most of our bigger courses have 14 stall units (e.g replay any race from Newmarket yesterday) that are stored at the track. It’s only the 10 stall units that get driven between courses – I followed one of those on the road towards Marlborough after having a runner in the last at Salisbury a week ago.
As to why things work better elsewhere – well in Hong Kong, Japan and the US, training is done at the track and the horses can be put through the stalls every day, the same stalls then used in their races. And I was once told by somebody that had been an assistant trainer in France, that there were sets of racecourse stalls available at large training centres like Chantilly and Maisons Lafitte.
Here, most trainers have a mini set of stalls with two or three berths and a different construction to the Steriline stalls used on the racecourse. So it’s a bit like passing a driving test on familiar local roads and then going onto the M25 – going into the stalls before a race is nothing like the practice you did at home.
As for not giving a horse more than two chances, that’s exactly what it says in the rules of racing. But the rules are hardly ever applied and every day you can watch favourites and senior jockeys given favoured treatment, while others loiter as far from the stalls as possible and turn away as a stalls handler approaches them. Nothing will change until there are penalties for delaying the start and the starters and stewards take the problem seriously.
Horses need a lot of work going in and out of stalls, to get used to them.
The optics of seeing horses shoved into stalls isn’t ideal when we’re trying to convince people the horses are doing a job they love.
Barrier trials would be a great thing.
“As for not giving a horse more than two chances, that’s exactly what it says in the rules of racing.”
Thanks AP – I did not know it was in the rules because (as you say) plenty of horses are given far more than two chances. Why can’t starters apply the rule?
“For a racing jurisdiction so dependent on off-course Levy betting revenue, the inability of British racing to run to schedule most afternoons and evenings…is alarming.”
As I posted here last week, this reached an absurd level when a jockey tried to lead a recalcitrant horse down to the 1m 4f start at Epsom. A project that was doomed to failure from the start. The race ended up being 9 minutes late off.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.