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If smaller fences encourage steeplechases to be run at higher speed and result in more fallers, how come there are usually more fallers in the Becher chase than in, say, the Hennessey, which is usually run faster and with a larger field size?
Hi Kifill:
And you raise a fair question…let me try to answer it from my position as an observer. Maybe someone with direct racing experience on the forum may be able to offer more insight.
I like your comparision with the Hennessey. Like Aintree, Newbury is a fairly galloping course with reasonably tight turns, well spread out fences and well built fences, come to that.
But it is there where the similarities end. I can’t remember a Hennessey where the course was not at least on the soft side of good. I think the quality of the turf (just from walking the course) is better than that of Aintree – the Hennessey compared to the Becher Chase is longer, has better quality horses and often has established pacemakers and horses who like to come off the pace. The way the Hennessey is often run allows for these different racing styles to compliment each other and makes for very exciting racing. One cannot say the same for the Becher Chase in its current incarnation.
Craig
Hi Crepello:
There is no doubt records were more loosely kept (not always through ineptness though) certainly in the era before television (1960 at Aintree) and ready access to playback facilities for the viewer and form expert (late 70’s to be nice, more likely early to mid 80’s.)
Clearly horses are on the whole less robust than even the mid 80’s. Increasingly bred for speed and the lack of horses it seems who were bred for jumping and or schooled in hunting and careful jumping from a young age seems to be a thing of the past.
But there is no getting around the fact in most cases if you take a yearling and train the animal to jump, develop stamina and build bulk by the time it is 6 or 7 it is going to be far better equipped for a National Hunt career than a horse who was bred for speed.
The problem the Grand National faces is currently it raises more questions than it supplies answers. The paradox is many of the questions it raises allows people to criticize the race when many of the issues (aside from the track related ones) need to be addressed by other sections of the racing industry who remainly firmly silent on the issues.
And if I were in charge of the Grand National, that is certainly something I would want public discourse on.
Craig
Joncol:
Reduce the size of the fences and you will have horses moving quicker and more likely to knuckle over and fall.
This is what I would like to see:
1. The course be watered so the going will be at least soft. In this day and age that can be engineered. This will encourage a more gentle pace.
2. Widen the course and the width of the fences, still allowing for run off areas. Maybe it is my memory but the course appears to become narrower every year.
3. I would actually like to see the length of the race extended slightly so they start near the Chair, let the horses get some air inside them and the pace established before tackling the first fence.
4. Simply put the Foxhunters and the Topham are unsafe. This course (imo) was not designed to be jumped by horses whose ideal trip may be 2 and a half miles. At least put the start of those races to in front of what is the 12th and 28th fence in the National.
Craig.
I always thought John Hanmer was an excellent commentator. Though Darren Owen did a top notch job on Bechers today.
Julian Wilson always stuck out like a sore thumb and frequently had to be audibly prompted regarding fallers.
Craig.
Just found out as I was going on air and we stopped to have a moment of silence before going on with the days business.
RIP.
Craig.
Oh they face the track just fine! But I have to remember to face the track when calling!!
Racecaller for Arapahoe Park in Denver and Louisiana Downs for their spring meet and fill-in at various other places across the USA.
May as well watch racing from the best seat in the house!
Craig
Five out and I thought he was going to trounce them. Seemed to not get in a stride four from home and was shaken. McCoy could not settle a nervous horse in time for the ditch three from home – almost inevitable he would have made another mistake.
Presuming he is ok, one has to ask if Denman will become more hesitant in the future.
Craig
Not really sure what to make of Mike’s comments… If it works for him, great, but I suspect many commentators do not memorize as well as they should. The fashion these days is to call more of the race off the monitor and that gives one time to look at the color chart repeatedly.
Speaking of which, very few commentators use a color chart these days and just rely on the charts available to print out online.
I obtain the Equibase charts the day before racing and draw out the silks next to each horse. then go over the names of the connections and the horses breeding to make sure I have the correct pronunciation (often tough with many Spanish names and horses with three letter prefixes as part of their names.)
I then write in a kind of short hand some of the stats for each horse and it may look like this: 3rd LTO @ EVD over 5f, btn. 2 1/2 by #7. Up in class today, tackles 5f 1st time. 2/10. 3? 48k +
Translation: 3rd last time out at Evangeline Downs, beaten 2 and a half lengths by the #7. Steps up in class today and races over 5 furlongs for the first time. Has won 2 of its ten races, going for a hat-trick and amassed $48000 in prize money. Plus sign denotes the horse is a front runner.
The next day I arrive at the track usually 3-4 hours before post time and go over the jockey and trainer stats and may add to my notes something like:T and J 38% 2yo at 2010 meet. Translation: trainer and Jockey have a 38% strike rate for racing two year olds at the 2010 meet.
About an hour before post time, I get the final changes and make my way to the commentary box. I do most of my color memorization between races. I like to just picture the silks on the jockey in my mind and it is almost a form of meditation.
Sadly, in the USA, they neglect to tel lyou color changes, so I usually try to see the jockeys in the paddock and make last minute adjustments to my color chart. It is common in a 12 horse race to have six or more color changes. By the time of the post parade, if I do not have them all memorized, I know I am in trouble.
Craig.
Pilgarlic:
I had the same thought re: Tony Hatch.
It was a brave effort I guess but cringe-making does not even come close to describing this little ditty.
Thommo was starting to wave his arms around in the air just to get attention it seemed. Surely this is a sign of the times…
Do you think there is any chance Thommo and McCririck may join the cast of Last of the Summer Wine?
Craig.
Cannot tell you who was second. primarily because I think I once may have seen the closing stages of the race and it was three years before I was born. However, I can tell you the winner was Inkslinger, trained by Dan Moore and ridden by Tommy Carberry. At 6, Inkslinger was the youngest horse to ever win the race.
The race became the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1980 to celebrate her 80th birthday.
Craig.
Barack Obama: I will try to make him see reason and if not resort to striking him over the head with a blunt instrument every time he starts a sentence with "I" or uses the phrase: "Let me say…"
Kim Jong-Il: The man who claims an impressive round of golf consisting of a total of eighteen strokes for eighteen holes. I would offer to play him. Should he win, he can torture me to his liking, should I win, I stuff a big bertha driver up his jacksie on international television.
Joseph Smith (founder of the Mormon Church): To discuss his golden plates.
Robert Mugabe: To see if pointing a gun to his head makes him agree with me…
If those four do not RSVP. I will invite the following:
Dick Cheney and Davros, creator of the Daleks. The one with more compassion will be saved from the poison sherry.
Barney Frank. He would eat all the food then tell me off for being a capitalist while leaving to his chauffeur driven limo.
One eyed, hook handed, Mad Muslim Cleric, Abu Hamza…Just to see him trying to remain diginified with no help with the dinner utensils.
Fred Phelps: With an inbred Church, he is one of the most odious little men in the USA and when one drives through Kansas his signs are every frigging where!
Craig.
Andy:
I am a racecaller from the UK, now based in the USA. Drop me an email at britishracecaller@gmail.com and I may be able to get you some broadcasting experience here this summer if it would be of interest.
Craig
I could not stop at four and would have different people at dinner parties for different aspects of my life. These are the people I would choose.
Hitler, Goering, Himmler and Hess one week after Krystalnacht. Although it would be alarming, I think it would also be fascinating.
Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino.
Peter O’Sullevan, Raleigh Gilbert, John Penney and Peter Bromley.
Barry Letts, Jon Pertwee, Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke.
My two Grandfathers, and two grandmothers.
Of the 20, I have spent various amounts of time with 10 of them, so there would be lots to learn and ask!
Craig
BBC should bring back "Face to Face" with Michael Portillo as host. He would be excellent in the role.
Craig
I truly think jokes about tragedies are just part of the human coping mechanism. I hope I will never be in a situation like so many Haitians are at the moment, but I also know at some of the very low points in my life, where, on a few occasions I have come close to ending it all, it is often looking at a situation through "a sick and twisted" perspective that raised the smile that spurred me to try and get on track again.
IMHO, the Haiti disaster is a disaster and not a tragedy per se. There are of course millions of tragedies in that disaster. But the earthquakes were disasters and the human stories are tragedies. One way homo sapiens seem to cope with disasters is to face the emotions of tragedy head-on. And of course that can run the full gamut of human emotions from sorrow and grief to humor that may be dark.
Dark humor tends to come from the way people perceive one another and not a reaction to a terrible event. The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and the tragic relationship between Albert and Harold Steptoe and punctuated by desperation and black humor as they try to go through their lives.
As for God, even he has to obey the rules of the universe and tectonic plate shift happens regardless of whether God, Allah, Wotan, Thor or the Flying Spaghetti Monster are real or not.
What I find far more unpalatable than a little black humor is firstly the way people like Pat Robertson respond, yet again, telling his followers this has something to do with not worshipping God the way he sees fit. But equally as odious are the (largely) secular people who think that any comment other than object horror (that is rightly deserved here) should be verboten.
Sadly, here in the USA, I know many people who are sympathetic and will help financially but do not want ANY of the islanders here at any cost. In fact, here in the south, I have heard it said, even today, If they do come here, they should be caged as they are little more than diseased wild animals anyway.
And it is not just crazy rednecks who are saying this, either. I do not agree with the above view point but US policy of immigration (something I have direct experience of) is a debate for another time.
Craig.
