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Obviously Weatherbys deal with the administrative side of day-to-day racing, but at what cost to the sport? Do they receive financial remuneration for their contributions, or do they simply profit from the ‘ownership’ of racecard and historical data? Are they even an independent body in the modern day?
Weatherbys administrate the necessary day-to-day operations required for racing to function under contract to the BHA. There is a financial remuneration involved, since Weatherbys is a company not a charity, and things such as staff salaries, computer development, overheads etc all cost money.
I find this part of the question slightly odd, to be honest, particularly the "at what cost" aspect. I know its fashionable to knock Weatherbys, but they deal with every stage of racing from registrations – breeding stock, foals, names, owners, colours (silks) – recording horses in training; taking & checking entries & decs, weight adding; recording race results; preparing & typesetting racecards for 58 race courses; pedigree research for sales catalogues; recording owners’, trainers’ and jockeys’ sponsorship agreements; advising owners on VAT claims; process the payment of prize money, riding fees, breeders’ prizes… I could go on.
I would argue that the Weatherbys staff’s "contributions"
far outweighs any "cost".There is domestic protection and international protection, so a horse registered in GB wouldn’t be allowed to have the same name as a GB classic/Grand National/Gold Cup/Champion Hurdle winner.
For non-protected names, there must be a minimum of ten years between foaling dates before a name can be repeated, to minimise the chances of two horses with the same name running in the same race.
Foreign-bred horses complicate matters which is why the country of foaling suffix now technically forms part of the horse’s official name (while not included within the 18-character rule, obviously).
I don’t have particularly strong views one way or t’other – wouldn’t bother me if whips were banned or not – but I will make a physiological point which has been overlooked.
Once again, I’d encourage you (well, I wouldn’t really but you get my meaning) to smack a horse that is stood still in a field, with a whip and see what happens. It won’t stand there and look at you in a puzzled fashion as if to say ‘did you just tap me with that cushioned object you little devil you’. No, it’ll take off full speed as far away as it can get because it’ll have a sore butt and it won’t want a repeat of the scenario.
The difference between the horse stood in the field and the horse running in the last stages of a race is that the latter will have massive amounts of adrenaline in its system, and science will tell you that adrenaline has a dampening effect on pain. The horse will still feel ‘something’ – let’s face it, they can feel a fly landing on their skin – but it would not equate to being smacked in a field in a cold blood, so Corm’s ‘control experiment’ can’t be taken as a direct equivalent of use of a whip in a race.
Derring Rose… I wonder what happened to him?
He stood at stud for years; didn’t sire any superstars though. Don’t Tell the Wife and Derring Bridge were two of his offspring.
Poequlin, although not so much today.
Anyone remember his win at Cheltenham last year when tailed off? Unbelievable ride from Ruby…
To be fair to Poquelin, he made an almighty mistake at the water in last year’s race which knocked the stuffing out of him, and Ruby nursed him over a couple of fences to give him time to recover before stoking him up again to win.
I remember a Chester Cup from the 80s which Steve Cauthen won on Mountain Kingdom and the Michael Stoute-trained runner-up (Lapaz?) spent more time and energy trying to bite Cauthen’s boot than it did mounting a challenge. I think it turned up in a net puzzle next time out.
Racing Demon used to run with his head between his knees.
ETA: I posted this
before
I read the Quirky Horses thread – great minds etc.
Sam Thomas received a two-day ban for failing to ride out What A Friend for fifth place in the RSA at Cheltenham, but presumably that was influenced by the fact that prize money went down to sixth place.
http://www.gg.com/media/silks/?id=131418-011313-071418&type=racecard&bg=%23FFFFFF
The ‘yellow’ would be gold on the real thing (delusions of grandeur, moi…?)
ETA: for some reason I can only post the link, not the actual image :numpty:
Cheers all, especially Jeremy as I know you are a Cartmel afficionado! Just about to set off now, and looking forward to a great evening out.
1. Resist the temptation to overthink every race in search of an edge. Sometimes the answer is the obvious.
2. If you change your selection at the last minute, your first choice will win (so back them both).
3. You can never wear too many layers at Hexham. Even in June.
I’m not saying that the jockey with the girls name is not a competent race rider or that he should not have ambition but only that the lesser lights in the yards should be given a fair crack of the whip
.
PFN, 12/3/09: "Right, about your horse American Trilogy in one of the most prestigious and competitive handicap hurdles of the season. I’m putting the blinkers on him again and we have to hope they don’t light him up as much as they did last time, so the jockey will have to try and get him settled. It will probably be a fast-run race so we need a good judge of pace on top. Obviously I thought about putting Ruby up but he’s been winning far too much lately so I thought I’d give Ian Popham the leg-up. He hasn’t got much experience but we played eeny-meeny-miney-mo in the yard last night and it’s his turn."
Can’t see it myself.
Greed is the excess or rapacious desire and pursuit of money ,wealth,power,food.It is generally considered a vice and is one of the seven deadly sins…….
Given that Ruby could fall tomorrow and never be able to ride again, and even barring career-ending injury probably has another ten years tops in the saddle, I don’t think there’s anything ‘sinful’ in him reaping the rewards of his indisputable efforts to provide financial security for himself, his wife, and any future family they may have. He’s hardly on Premiership footballer wages and he won’t be getting an index-linked final-salary pension either.
Biographies, jockeys tales and venerations of our equine heroes are not really for me, bar Simon Barnes’ excellent book exploring his year with John Dunlop (I forget the title)
Horsesweat and Tears. Fantastic book, and I’ve never begrudged John Dunlop a winner since reading it.
I started out loving the Flat, following the Henry Cecil/Steve Cauthen alliance and having little interest in jumps beyond the odd big race and stand-out character. Over the years the balance has shifted and NH is very definitely my favourite. Basically I enjoy watching top class horses and races under either code and will happily go to a Flat meeting for a pleasant summer evening out, although I prefer the winter Saturdays bundled up warm watching the steam rising off three-mile chasers.
Draw the line at banded camel races on the sand though.
A decent bloke and a true role model as well as one of the greatest jockeys of all time. Tremendous achievement.
After Saturday’s display and the training problems he’s had, I think if he were mine I’d call it a day for this season, let him down properly to give him a chance to get over last season’s GC mentally, and bring him back next year. He’d still only be a ten-year-old, which for a big Irish-bred like him is hardly OAP status.
As a massive Kauto fan I’d love to see him regain the GC, and given good ground I think he’s got a decent chance of doing so, but even if he does I fear he’ll be damned with faint praise and accused of being a ‘default’ winner by some.
far outweighs any "cost".