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Why doesn’t the BHA abolish giving official "distances" in lengths and just give time differences instead?
Not a Newcastle fan but can’t afford a hat from my team of choice so wear the S.O.’s spare hat. What’s a bed, Drone? Me and the whippet curl up on the sofa under a duvet and watch BBC4 till it shuts down at 4am. Of course BBC4 is now under threat as well
BBC4? That’s far too erudite for you impoverished northerners.
…but his form on the track as a 3yo was disappointing.
I was only ten in 1982 but had already been following racing for two years and the two-year-olds of 1982 were some of the best I’ve seen, even to this day. Diesis, Gorytus, Danzatore, Dunbeath, Deep Roots… It’s a pity that none of them trained on.
It also had a great allure for me as a child. Seeing the dressed fences in colour for the first time in 1977 (we could only ford B&W prior to then!) firmly cemented my obsession. I think that was the same for most kids of my age who loved horse racing. And as I recall the November meeting was scrapped for quite a few years so you only got to see the big eye-catching obstacles once a year.
However as I have got older I am afraid the spectacle of exhausted horses struggling over the finish line has made it a difficult race for me to become enthused about.
I often compare the sight of Pitman and Fletcher nursing their horses over the line in 1973 with the brutal ride Jason Maguire gave Ballabriggs and find myself concluding the sport has changed for the worse and the Grand National no longer holds a special place in my heart.
It is fairly obvious that the subsequent poor win record of GN winners demonstrates that the race takes an enormous physical and mental toll on the horses who are asked by their jockeys to maintain maximum effort right to the finishing line. In the old days the horses were of sturdier build and better equipped to take everything the course could throw at them. The jockeys were less fit and therefore simply incapable of putting the horses through what their modern rider ask of them.
In conclusion I find no enjoyment from a race where the horses contesting the finish are run to the point of complete exhaustion.
That’s an excellent post. Bravo!
In particular, your point about how jockeys no longer nurse their mounts and are more "professional" is a brilliant one. Don’t you think this epitomises the "win at all costs" mentality which is now pervasive in modern culture in general?
Take CH4 Racing from me and I’ll sink into a geriatric depression
It can’t be as depressing as
watching
Channel 4 Racing.
Can we open a book?
Which O’Brien maiden winner will first be labelled "The best we’ve had" by AOB himself?
The point is to trial the system to give more credibility to all racing. In fact Leicester are doing a trial this season using, I understand, a different system to Lingfield. British racing is lagging well behind the rest of the world on this.
So the system will be trialled on low-grade AW racing (is there any other?), low-grade flat turf racing and then, no doubt, low-grade jumping (if Worcester ever dries out)? The results will be "inconclusive", the BHA will decide that it’s not worth pursuing and it’ll all come to nothing. Status quo preserved; everyone’s happy.
I’ve just watched the replay and that supersedes the disqualification of Royal Gait from the 1988 Ascot Gold Cup as the worst stewards’ decision I’ve seen.
I see that PP have gone for more cheap publicity today.
For those who don’t follow football, Manchester United supporters hired a plane to fly over their ground today, trailing a banner expressing the fans’ dissatisfaction with their current manager. PP, having no original ideas of their own, then hired another plane to fly over the ground advertising their latest odds.
Pathetic.
Nothing like alcohol to convince someone that they’re the world’s greatest gambler.
Try speed.
Are the profits shown by sectional timing on the AW greater than those produced by the same calculations on turf, Ken?
They also stay open after most shops have closed in the evening.
Indeed, Woolfie.
One of the three core Gambling Commission directives is:
"To protect children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling"
The term "other vulnerable persons" includes those under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. Who is going to be roaming the streets late at night
except
for those who’ve been to the pub/club and ingested lots of beer or worse? Surely local councils should be using this directive to limit the late-night opening of betting shops, instead of extending their licences?
That’s an excellent piece from Mr Steel, although he fails to mention the fact that many bookies are open earlier than any of the nearby shops. I could go to lose on roulette before the supermarket opens, leaving me no money to buy any food, if I were a FOBT junkie.
Never thought I’d see the day it happened but times have obviously changed
Why are you surprised? Money talks, and Coolmore have always been businessmen first and foremost.
I don’t see why they can’t just clone Lydia Hislop five or six times. The immediate duplicate cloning of course rather than that protracted test tube cloning…
You could have one Lydia Hislop presenting, another Lydia Hislop on analysis, a Lydia Hislop in the paddock and a couple of Lydia Hislops doing interviews. Maybe a Lydia Hislop doing the Thommo warming up the crowd thing at big meetings. Six Lydia Hislops at the same time. How amazing would that be? That would be totally amazing.
I mean one will have to forego the Tony McCoy interviews but he’s retiring pretty soon anyway. Plus, we need not worry about RUK obligations as you can just create another clone to step in if the original Lydia Hislop doesn’t fancy it. You could even keep a few spare Lydia Hislops as back up in case one of them is poorly, wants a holiday or falls pregnant.
If I knew there would be a flock of Lydia Hislops gambolling around a racecourse on Channel Four, I would tune in every Saturday.
Do you like Lydia Hislop, by any chance? I can’t tell from your post.
