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Why do trainers send horses on huge journeys when they (apparently) have no chance in the company in which they are racing?
My friends say it’s plain incompetence, but I don’t think so. Take the case of Tony Newcombe, who trains at Barnstaple in Devon, and has survived quite nicely for many years. He is a trainer who sends his horses to far-flung tracks like Yarmouth and Catterick, and the horse makes little or no show.
Another example: Two Mondays ago Andrew Balding (again, no mug) sent one to Ayr, which drifted in the market and was always behind, never threatened. That’s an 800-mile round trip for nothing, with fuel and men to pay.
In the old days you could reply on trainers who went North (e.g. Les Hall) but these days the distance is no guide.
Is there a mileage allowance or something that makes these journeys less expensive than they appear to be?
Some trainers prefer their horses to run on a certain course, certain going etc. The horse may have had all of it’s wins at a certain track, so the trainer will most likely race him/her there again. Higher class races like the Derby at Epsom are only at one course, so the horse may have qualified to run that race.
It’s very rare that a trainer will take their horse a long distance to race for no reason, unless they are taking a truck load; there’s usually a reason to running at a specific course.
Some trainers also make money on travelling expenses, particularly if they have more than one horse going but charge both the owners as if only one was travelling.
Some trainers prefer their horses to run on a certain course, certain going etc. The horse may have had all of it’s wins at a certain track, so the trainer will most likely race him/her there again.
That was the case with the likes of Dai Burchell, Aytach “Jeff” Sadik and Michael Chapman bringing lorryloads of animals up to Cartmel for many years, though in the case of the first two named the effect has been rather less potent in the last couple of seasons.
Cartmel highlights another potential reason for long-distance travel, and that is that many connections are desperate to have runners just so they can enjoy the unique atmopshere of the place. At least, I can’t think why else Linda Jewell, by way of an example, brought just about the worse horse in her yard all the way up there to contest a hurdle race this last Whitsun.
Other tracks may have same sort of pull, but for the greater part to far lesser extents. Would somewhere like Nottingham strike you as a place which Scotland or Wales-based owners or trainers target for its unsurpassed sense of joie de vivre? Probably not.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)No. of gratuitous Cartmel references: 380
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.
That’s a fair enough point, Jeremy, and Dai Burchell also used to bring many runners up to Perth (with little success I might add) so there probably was a social element to it.
However, what of the trainers who send no-hopers on 500-mile round trips every day of the week?
If I was training, I’d run my unfit/outclassed runners at my local track, wouldn’t you?
I’m sure you would, and if you are Donal Nolan in disguise you already are!
It’s an inexact science, ultimately. I guess some of the more preposterous round-trips you are referring to might further be explained away by either appearance money / covering of expenses that we don’t know about, or else have had to be resorted to as the horses in question are regularly being balloted out of similar contests closer to home. Even then, though, some assignments will still defy rational explanation utterly.
Having had RUK on this evening, I suppose we can add the jaunts to L’Ancresse and Les Landes of mainland trainers as just that – jaunts, beanos, jollies. It sounded as if Marcus Tregonning might join the likes of Tony Carroll, Paul Blockley, Brendan Powell, etc. in bringing something to the Channel Islands next year, though given the fiddly (and in the case of L’Ancresse downright weird) configuration of the two courses in question I can’t imagine him risking anything better than the stable yak at either.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)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.
Good to see normal service resumed Jeremy.
I trust you’ll be hoping the two day bank holiday meet isn’t a washout.
I will be indulging in the sticky chocolate pudding bought at the last meet some time this week,will my wait be worthwhile??
Good God yes, man. The sticky chocolate pudding is so good it should be banned.
The ginger one isn’t half bad either, though I can’t comment on the banoffee one as I’m allergic to bananas.
As regards God’s own Cartmel, the forecast for today, Thursday and Saturday is for heavy rain, but for unremitting dry and sunny weather on Wednesday and Friday.
It’s currently no worse than good to soft there (with a few soft bits under the trees on the chase course), so it should be able to withstand those forecast conditions easily enough.
(In answer to your question: I will probably be there on the Monday afternoon if it goes ahead, as mine and Mrs Column’s original plans to go Zorbing that day have been put on hold owing to some Iaido-related training she’s got to do now. If I’m not there, I’ll be picnicking at Scarborough Cricket Festival with some former work colleagues. I absolutely bloody love life, me.
)I may stand corrected on this, but I’m about 99% sure that Cartmel hasn’t lost a single day’s racing either this decade or last, and possibly none at all since I first became aware of its existence in the mid-80s. That would be one hack of a record if true. Does anyone know different?
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)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.
Ah, you got me, y’bugger – I meant to say days lost to waterlogging, etc., and excluding foot-and-mouth restrictions, but I didn’t make that clear.
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.
Ann Duffield and David Nichols at south coast tracks, its along way from North Yorkshire…
Now just a cotton-pickin’ moment, Mr Grayson – I well remember three or four years ago that Donal Nolan took one down to Sandown and won.
Mornin Reserves if I’m not mistaken.
Which just goes to prove that Donal can train a winner if the horse is good enough. He has gone 350 runs without a winner now, and I saw a recent interview in which he said his present string need lower-grade races.
He knows they have little or no chance, so it makes sense to run them at his local tracks (although he did take one to Catterick a few weeks ago – highly unusual)
Sorry, Yorkshire Pud, I meant to say that re your comment, at least Mrs Duffield has a good return from her trips to Brighton – a pretty good average in fact.
Dave Nicholls is a bit more scattergun in his approach, but at least his runners have a go when they run at Brighton.
What beats me is the 400-mile round-trip travellers that never get into the argument.
David Chapman used to have a few runners at Brighton, too, with a poor success rate.
I always have a good laugh at this ‘more than capable given the right ammunititon’ argument. In the case of Mornin Reserves, didn’t that horse prove a much superior animal for Ian Semple during his 4-y-o career, the highlight for Nolan a win off 74 and the highlights for Semple a win off 95 and a second in Group 3 company. I know some people like the ‘change of scenery’ or ‘just came to himself’ angle. But I know what theory I prefer. Contrast Grey Abbey from his Finbar Murtagh days to his JH Johnson ones as another good example.
I’d agree, David. With so many soft races around, there has to come a point at which the argument of “wrong ammunition” comes a poor second to the subject’s shortcomings as a trainer of horses (or at the very least, as a shrewd placer of horses).
I remember David Bridgwater trying to pursue the same line of argument when Country Affair got him his first winner in 512 days (and another triple-figure number of tries) at Newton Abbot around this time last year. “You can get horses fit but you cannot put ability into them, and this is the first horse I’ve had for a few years with that”, he told the Post. Hmm.
Bluebird – Mornin Reserves’ win at Sandown was recorded in August 2003, and under the trainership of Ian Semple rather than Nolan, owner Garry Harrison having moved him away from yer man at the end of the previous season.
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.
My apologies, Mr Grayson, I was certain it was Donal who took Mornin Reserves to Sandown, and I thought that was well before Ian Semple took him over.
Mr Johnson: I respect your point of view. However, neither you nor I can surmise what improvement a horse will make between three and four years of age, so your remark about Donal might be less than accurate.
Mornin Reserves was progressive at three under Donal, and equally progressive at four under Ian. We can only guess at what heights he might have achieved if Donal had kept him.
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