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Have to wonder what the qualifications are for being a ‘pundit’ these days. Just read this in the Post:
“Jane Mangan, ITV Racing pundit
I see the Coronation as a match between the queen of France, Zarigana, and the potential queen of Europe, Falakeyah. I was bowled away by Owen Burrows’ filly on her seasonal debut at Newmarket. Dropping back to a mile on a flat track looks right up her street given her stride and running style.”Being kind, presumably she thinks this race is run on the straight mile, not the uphill climb from Swinley Bottom.
Disqualification now confirmed.
The owners get the real punishment, total loss of prize money and a 5lb rise in the handicap mark. By contrast, the 14 day ban for an amateur rider is no more than a slap on the wrist with a Pro-Cush!
Paul Cole was very much a pioneer of sending horses overseas, not just once or twice, but running for good money abroad on a regular basis.
The horse that epitomised this approach was Ibn Bey, who won top class races in Ireland (Irish St Leger), France, Germany and Italy, before his crowning glory, a second in the Breeders Cup Classic, just a length behind the great Unbridled.
To get a proven stayer, who won the Irish Leger on his previous start, to achieve that over 10F on dirt against the best of the locals – that was some feat of training.
Later Group1 horses include Culture Vulture, Snurge and Zoman – the latter pair won Grade 1 races in the US and Canada on the same weekend. Then his Ascot Gold Cup winner, Mr Dinos.
But the biggest prize he won was with a 2yo called Luck Money, who picked up £675k by winning the Goffs Million and was subsequently sold for big money to the States.
Interesting to consider the trainers angle on this and it seems likely he’d be extremely keen to keep the horse. Because apart from her, his stable is in the midst of an almighty slump.
His figures for year are 3/71 and those three winners were all on the AW. His last turf winner in the UK was back in September. And you can’t sustain a large stable (120 boxes) in the middle of Newmarket on those sort of results.
No way to know what’s gone/going wrong, as he’s done OK up to last year, with a reasonable strike rate and a fair amount of prize money. As well as plenty of success with horses running overseas, including in Australia.
The mystery is why Chester insist on running so many 5F races, when everybody knows that a wide draw from that start is an almost impossible task. They have perfectly good starts at 5.5F and 6F which do provide slightly fairer racing.
The 6F race today still has 13 runners after the one drawn 14 was taken out.
Then I had a look at the Racing Calendar, the official record of race names and conditions, published about four to six weeks before the meeting. Each edition covers two weeks of meetings in detail.
And that tells me that the Edinburgh Gin company were down as sponsors of four races on this card, as they were last year. But there’s no sign of their presence on the card today. So it looks as if Chester have had to deal with a late withdrawal by their main sponsor and have had to find new names for the races at short notice.
Which probably explains the use of ‘Going Is Good’ – see also the last race which is just a plug for a subsequent meeting at Chester.
Checking out the cards today (35 flat races, of which 27 are handicaps), I noticed a race at Chester apparently sponsored by this campaign:
“The Going Is Good Handicap Stakes (Class 4) (GBBPLUS Race)”
So I pulled up the race card online to see what this was doing for the PR men. You can see it here:
On page 41 there is a silly advert, on pages 42-43, the race details.
Nothing to actually explain the significance of the race title. Nor indeed anything to tell the racegoer what a GBBPLUS race might be.
Now it maybe that Chester are happy to run this race with no financial input from the ‘sponsor’, but if part of the campaign money is being used this way, how exactly would that match their objectives.
Just been looking at his entry in the trainers section of a book from my library – Directory of the Turf 1988.
Which tells me he started training in 1950!
It also lists his owners in 1988 and that reads like a copy of the guest list for any North Yorkshire Hunt Ball.
Great man – and some great horses.
Even the music events don’t seem to have the same impact as they do at other tracks. Take out the Derby/Oaks days and the biggest crowd last year was just 5,500 on the August BH Monday.
The average for the 9 meetings other than Derby/Oaks, was 3,130. Which is not a lot when you consider that number includes annual members (not all, just those that turn up), owners, trainers, sponsors and any coming on reciprocal days as members at other JCR tracks.
The long gaps between races after the Derby were requested by the Tote World Pool, who were also covering races in South Africa that fitted into those gaps. At least that’s what I read somewhere, but such is my short term memory, I can’t tell you where!
That picture highlights what I was saying earlier about the lack of space at Epsom. Compare the distance between the bottom of the terrace and the course with the likes of Ascot, Newbury, Goodwood, York, Newmarket etc. There’s just more room to move around at those tracks.
Two things that I’d say matter in this debate, things which won’t change by moving the race to Wednesday.
The first is name appeal, which in the first half of my racing life, meant Lester. What was he going to ride, who might he upset in the process etc. It filled the racing pages for weeks in advance of the race. To a lesser but still significant degree, he was replaced by Frankie, the only name connected with racing that anybody in my extended family would be able to come up with if asked (other than me that is!).
There’s no such appeal now – Ryan means nothing to 99% of the population and he does nothing to alter that situation, which is his right I suppose. As for the Coolmore owners, they’re a classic PR mans nightmare. Most of the time they look about as excited as guests forced to attend the funeral of a man that none of them ever really liked. I’m pretty sure the compulsory morning suits (stupid in 2025) don’t help with this.
The second thing is that the facilities at Epsom are rubbish. My last visit was for the April meeting a few years ago and I found it crowded even then with just 6,000 in attendance. The layout of the ground floor in Members produces constant issues of people moving in opposite directions through the same narrow space. The ground floor space in the Grandstand area is a large soulless concrete cavern. The decision to put the parade ring and saddling boxes behind the stand limits the space available for racegoers to relax between races.
Maybe it’s just me, but I vowed never to go there again and certainly not when there would be an even bigger crowd.
Jac,
I love your enthusiasm for Desert Flower and admire your optimism about her stamina. For me, the idea that a daughter of Night Of Thunder out an 8F/9F mare is going to stay well enough to win a Group 1 over 12F just doesn’t hold water.
But I do feel that the 1000 Guineas was the best trial, and by some margin over the races at Chester, Lingfield and York, all of which have holes in their form. The handicapper had to raise the beaten horses by ludicrous amounts to justify calling the Cheshire Oaks a Listed race and history tells me that’s a sure sign of a poor race. So I’m surprised Moore has chosen Minnie Hauk – but note that O’Brien has won six of the last ten Oaks and Moore has been on the wrong one in three of them.
My choice would be Elwateen, whose performance at Newmarket on just her second start over an inadequate trip, stood out for me. If the O’Brien horses are going to improve, well how much does that also apply to this filly. By Dubawi out a Group 1 10F mare, she has just about the perfect pedigree for this.
And if I’m wrong Jac, I hope you’re proved right! Maybe we’ll have the forecast …..
It was earlier two years ago.
In 2023 the first race was at 12:50, with the Derby at 1:30.
That was in order to accommodate ITV, who had an FA Cup Final to show at 3pm. A Cup Final much later in the year than usual because of the winter World Cup in Qatar that disrupted the domestic season.
Irish ratings were updated this morning, no change for Redwood Queen, she remains on 128.
CAS,
My revolution that had no chance of ever happening was Guineas moved to mid May, St James Palace and Coronation Stakes increased to run over 10F as the second leg of new Triple Crown.
Then the Derby and Oaks run at the end of July Ascot meeting, with the King George moved to late August, or first Saturday in September as the first leg of an international series that would include the Arc and the Breeders Cup.
In effect you have a pair of Group 1 for 10F 3-y-olds, something long overdue, and a Derby timed to accommodate late developers at the trip.
The existing program set in the 19th century was designed to get all of the important races completed before the end of June, because the courses were generally bone hard in July/August. No watering systems back then and no AW gallops at the training centres.
Hard to find one to beat Rapporteur, who won 19 races at Lingfield in 1990/94. Fourteen on the AW, five on turf.
He never won at any other track in an 84 race career.
Remarkably, despite his obvious love of the course, he only started favourite in three of those wins. Two of which were four runner races, the other, his last ever win, was at 1/4 in a three runner Lingfield claiming series final, sponsored by his owner!
