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Internationally
– Cork
– Pau
– Happy Valley
– KyotoHV / Kyoto were class.
I spent a LOT of money in the gift shop at Kyoto. It was a very smart / modern course. The architecture reminded me a bit of Ascot. Crowd were polite / engaged. Nobody that I could see staggering about drunk like you see in the UK.
The night I went to HV there seemed to be an Oktoberfest theme. Very cheap to get in. Large betting turnover on the night. Good atmosphere racing under lights. The winning horses would do a “lap of honour” past the stands. You were so close to the rail you could just about touch the jockey’s hand when they passed.
Hoping to go to Seoul next year.
Nice to see THE LION IN WINTER win on its seasonal debut. Didn’t do a lot in front, but the sire never won by far.
I am quietly hopeful this horse can mirror DUKE OF MARMALADE in peaking at age 4 🤞. It is entered for the Lockinge, which should be a competitive race.
THE LION IN WINTER
Considered a hotpot going into winter 2024/25. Didn’t win anything last season although it was placed in various Group 1s over a mile. Latest run a disappointing 12/14 in the HK Mile.
I see it’s entered in the Alleged Stakes and the Tattersalls Gold Cup over 10 furlongs.
Will THE LION IN WINTER win a race this season?
What is its optimum trip?How does Billy’s percentage of wins to races compare to other greats?
According to Racing Post it’s 15% for races in GB / IRE over the past five seasons.
A reflection on my experience of working in the racing industry. One yard in particular. Really nice yard except for one incredibly toxic / abusive individual. What surprised me is how reluctant colleagues were to challenge abusive / bullying behaviour.
During a career break, from a sector where women have parity with men in terms of numbers and respect/ treatment, I spent six months working full time on a racing yard. It was a male dominated environment. Although I appreciate that many yards are female dominated. In fact, I strongly believe that the backbone of the British horseracing industry is young women working on yards for minimum wage. Anyway, I digress from the main point.
After a few weeks/ months a middle aged ex jockey who was also working on the yard started screaming abuse at me every day. It was usually about something he perceived I was doing wrong. For example, I had to lunge three or four youngsters per day. As some were skittish and prone to running off, I lunged them in a bridle. This is something I had done many many times in my life as an equestrian. He took a strong aversion to me lungeing in a bridle and would shout at me that I was going to “f***ing ruin” these horses. I had a lot of experience working with horses and knew exactly what I was doing. There was no risk to these horses. And the trainer had no problem with my approach.
So far as I could tell, nobody on the yard challenged him on this behaviour. In fact they would say to me “[x] is just like that, you have to ignore him”. Ignoring the odd offhand remark is one thing. Ignoring someone who is bellowing in your face is quite another. I was initially conflict avoidant, and stopped interacting with him entirely. That made him even more angry. He would shout at me for not saying anything. After this went on for about a week I finally reached my limit. I told him in front of most of the lads on the yard that he couldn’t speak to people like that. In fact, I matched his energy and shouted this at him. He reacted by storming off and muttering under his breath “I’m [x], nobody is going to change me”.
A thoroughly obnoxious / unpleasant individual. Thankfully the bullying behaviour stopped after that. But, I couldn’t help thinking that if I had been a young person who (understandably) didn’t feel able to stand up for themselves, that the bullying would have continued / escalated.
He’s a lovely looking horse.
I imagine he would do well at ROR showing. He might also enjoy hunting / team chasing.
@Ghost of Rob V
“Ain’t quite sure about that. There was a point when you couldn’t open the racing pages of a newspaper without seeing her fizzog forced into our faces and hearing Ed Chamberlain on ITV Racing babbling on about how great was she.“
It’s not Rachel’s fault she was given so much attention for being one of a very small number of females in a male dominated profession.
If the industry weren’t so prejudiced to begin with she wouldn’t be such a novelty.
Here is a question.
In a period of drought, such as this, should racecourses be permitted to water more than a week in advance of a meeting?
I have my doubts about the utility of watering more than a week in advance. With the evaporation rate being so high, surely water isn’t remaining in the ground more than a few days?
If anything this demonstrates that the clerk of the course, a racecourse employee, is conflicted in their role of assessing the going / taking GoingStick readings. It needs to be done by someone independent of the racecourse.
It needs to be a condition of racecourse licenses. They’ve shown they won’t do it off their own volition even with a well publicised deadline.
Trainers are understandably reluctant to run jumpers on fast ground because the risk of a career ending soft tissue injury (straining a tendon) is much higher. Horses can come back from this injury but typically they would need a year off before being ridden again.
Hence the watering.
If I had a jumper I wouldn’t run it unless the ground was good to soft.
Thanks @patrickleung.
Fair point @apracing.
The “steeplechase phase” of eventing was removed twenty years ago, on the basis it was too gruelling.
It’s still a significant test though.
Whoever suggested water stations around the track to cool horses that don’t make it to the finish, that’s a great idea.
@greenasgrass you’re spot on.
Let’s celebrate Hayley’s achievements against gender stereotypes / prejudice. Without knocking another FEMALE jockey down.
They’re all jockeys. End of.
.