[Drone]

I totally agree it “diminishes the noble art of steeplechasing”… and “I don’t like seeing horses fall” either. Trouble is Drone, doesn’t it have to be one thing or the other?

Indeed, I’m quite aware that those are contradictory statements

NH Racing is a pact with the devil: love it/hate it/love it/hate it…with the love always triumphant

Hypocritical or what?

I’ve had a wee google and this article makes it clear that falls, fatalities and injuries have shown a steady decline over the last 20 years or so

The Jump Racing table doesn’t differentiate between hurdles and chases but as the former obstacles have remained – as far as I’m aware – much as they’ve always been, the decline must largely be due to the softening of fences. Improved veterinary care might play a part and possibly better schooling, though IMO the latter is dubious

Making horseracing safer

Guess I’ll have to get used to the sight of chasers with questionable jumping techniques crash, bang, walloping but emerging upright

As you say Ginger, it’s a small price to pay for my enjoyment

[Drone]

A horse may start out novice chasing at a lower level track(s) and end up learning bad habits because the fences are easier/more forgiving and then when they do end up at a bigger graded track where there is more stiffness in the fences they often get found out and hit the deck because they take the exact same liberty with the stiffer fences

Which is more or less what Gordon Richards said when explaining his liking for (old) Haydock as a venue for his novice chasers: teach them to jump over stiff fences and they’ll learn not to take liberties at any fence, soft or stiff

I don’t like seeing horses fall but nor do I enjoy seeing them getting away with poor jumps by ploughing through ‘dandy brushes’. It diminishes the noble art of steeplechasing

Are there any stats to confirm that the percentage of falls has decreased in tandem with the general softening of fences?

[Drone]

Storm Darragh rolling in overnight looks to be biggie, particularly in the west. Take care westerners

The increasing number and intensity of storms is just a consequence of climate change; a consequence that climate scientists have been warning us about for years until they’re blue in the face

Deny, ignore, or behave as an ostrich would: the understandable-enough rationalization the mind adopts when faced by an existential threat

Merry Christmas

Edit: You got there before me Richard. Indeed!

[Drone]

I’ve thnkfully had no exposure to Wallace other than as a most irritating presenter of ‘Inside the Factory’ which, despite him, was quite good as I find it interesting to learn how things are made, particularly mass production

Just another case of a legend in his own lunchtime with a large but fragile ego

Goodbye

[Drone]

I too found the high-fiving and hugs after the passing of the vote most unedifying

It should be remembered that doctors have long had the right – with, of course, the consent of relatives – to ‘assist dying’ in the form of removing life support from those who’ve suffered catastrophic brain injuries resulting in a permanent vegetative-state coma

Completely agree about the need to invest heavily in palliative care. The Hospice Movement receives around 30% of its funding from the NHS (government) and 70% from charitable donations: surely this should be at least the other way round. As we baby boomers slip into senility the need for palliative care can only increase

I’ve had three friends who’ve ended their days in a hospice and the care they received there could not be faulted: they slipped gently away in comfort, pain-free and – no exaggeration – with the contented if weakish smiles of lives well lived

This ‘comfortable end’ that hospices provide is why my support of this Bill is not unquestioning: there’s a large amount of crucial honing still to be done prior to it becoming (or not) an Act

[Drone]

Despite the divisive and emotive nature of the subject, the debate has generally been respectful and reasoned from what I’ve seen. What a shame that everything else can’t be debated in the same way

Agreed, I watched for a couple of hours or so and found the debate to be – as you observe – respectful and reasoned, with some of the speeches erudite and quite compelling, whether I agreed with them or not

I enjoy the occasional dip into BBC Parliament. Outwith the punch and judy show that is PMQs, MPs are at their best and most tolerable debating in the Commons: a pleasant change from the largely intolerable partisan sound-bites they utter when a microphone is thrust in their faces by a media hack.

As I understand it, today was only the Second-Reading of the Bill, with Committee, Third-Reading and Report stages still to come, along with perusal in the Lords at some interval; so despite headlines blaring that assisted dying has been legalised, that isn’t actually certain

I’m for it, though not wholeheartedly

[Drone]

It’s possible the original owner was having a bit of fun with the name – he was Ogden Phipps, wealthy owner/breeder in Kentucky and one time president of the US Jockey Club.

I recall Ogden Phipps, and your suggestion that he was having a bit of fun with the name Broadsword seems reasonable given he had other examples of cleverly named horses derived from their pedigree, as I’ve also found these:

Easy Goer – ex Relaxing
Rhythm – ex Dance Number
Orb – by Malibu Moon
Inside Information – by Private Account ex Pure Profit by Key To The Mint
Personal Ensign – by Private Account ex Grecian Banner by Hoist The Flag

The last two are particularly good

I recall Posse being the horse promoted to second in the Guineas after first past the post Nureyev was disqualified

[Drone]

In defence of The Voice, Drone, I’m pretty sure the stable used to call Broadsword “Broads Word”.

Ill-educated stable staff I reckon unless it was a clever piece of naming by the owner who was once on a promise from a lady of loose morals

[Drone]

A shame indeed, moreso because it appears a planned relocation to the Dagenham area has been dropped. At least Covent Garden Market is still going after its relocation in the ’70s to south of the river

[Drone]

Thanks for that ERL, great stuff

There was a fabulous supporting cast and it was great to see, and hear, some of the great names like Easby Abbey, Birds Next, Dramatist, Flying Diplomat, Western Rose, Kybo, Pollardstown, Heighlin and, yes, Broadsword.

It’s so nice to be reminded of these good ol’ names. If I recall correctly, Kybo was the word whispered to the owner by his mother on being packed off for a term at boarding school: ‘Keep your bowels open’

And I also recall Peter O’Sullevan (I think) pronouncing Broadsword as Broads Word

Memories are made of this

[Drone]

A Wartime Coalition is rather more likely than a General Election

[Drone]

My feeders are enclosed in a Heath Robinson chicken wire cage which allows entry for sweet lil’ songbirds but keeps out notorious large gobblers such as magpies, crows, jackdaws, wood pigeons and squirrels. They do alright though as there’s plenty of spill on the ground for them to hoover-up, providing they get there before the rats, of which there’s something of a plague this autumn

Live, and let live
Nature red in tooth and claw

Magpies do seem to have increased in numbers over recent years

[Drone]

I’m still bitter about Killeshin being brought down at the fourth last in the 1998 National! He was miles behind but staying on in his usual dour fashion

The phrase ” namby-pamby sprint” I used in my earlier post was actually stolen from the late Alastair Down who used it in his report after that heavy going slog to describe how Killeshin regarded the Grand National trip

The Earth Summit-Suny Bay ‘match’ remains vivid, mainly for the considerate way Llewellyn and Bradley rode them in desperate conditions

[Drone]

The OP mentioned the Somerset National at Wincanton run over 3m 2f, something of a namby-pamby sprint in ‘true’ National terms

Is the Cecil Hunt Memorial Trophy run over 4m 2f at Taunton – known as the Dick Reynolds And Stephen Little Bookmakers Handicap Chase for many years – still extant? If so, it would be a much more suitable candidate for renaming as Somerset National

Edit: After a bit of digging I see it became the Coral Chase Showcase Handicap (for the Cecil Hunt Memorial Trophy) in 1999 over a reduced 3m 3f and then the Tote Exacta Coming Soon Chase Showcase Handicap, without a mention of poor old Cecil

Oh well, never mind

[Drone]

Both the enclosures and track look to be in remarkably good condition. That NH Racing could resume there is probably wishful thinking but wouldn’t that be nice. Those concrete rails would have to go mind

Assuming there aren’t any easements and covenants preventing it, if the sale includes the infield I fear it could eventually end up as a housing estate, despite the ostensibly fine words of the vendor

[Drone]

Just noticed I made a gaffe there, should be gaff. Duly edited

-6C this morning, poor little tweeters. Better go and refill the feeders

[Drone]

I hadn’t seen a bullfinch for a long time either, which made today’s sight all the more pleasing. Plenty of chaffinches and goldfinches about, no greenfinches

Cold weather does seem to make birds less timid. A massing of hungry blue tits, great tits and dunnocks hogging refilled feeders with a robin bullying them gave me a fine show from my chair a mere 5 yards or so away

Simple pleasures

[Author]

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