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In a couple of weeks time, will there be letters to the IHRB/BHA, or even the beginning of a campaign, that says “sitting on a dead horse to make a phone call attracts X thousand Euros/Pounds fine and Y months suspension of a licence to work in the racing industry, while hitting a live tired horse with a whip to make it run faster attracts plaudits and congratulations for narrowly winning a race?” Hypocracy, a rock and a hard place, the nature of the sport? Insensitivity Type A trumps Insensitivity Type B? Some people will spot this as a big opportunity.
I too am disappointed that Frankel progeny have not won more Classic and other important races this year, and not having any spectacular exciting horses. But I do not think that people being disappointed equates to the stallion himself having a disappointing year.
I have written on this thread before about Bill Oppemheim’s APEX stallion ratings, and it is still my preferred measuring tool about stallion statistics. It measures achievement by how much money racehorses win, but evens it up by a simple formula, because prize money is at very different levels in each racing jurisdiction. An ‘A’ class horse is in the top 2% of earners, a ‘B’ class horse is in the next 2% of earners, and a ‘C’ class horse is in the next 4%. The ‘ABC’ group is therefore the top 8% of earners.
The full year data for Norhern Hemisphere stallions is not yet available for 2020, but the mid-year position was that for getting A class runners (top 2%)Frankel was second only to Galileo.
Galileo 6.16
Frankel 5.54
Dubawi 4.95
Deep Impact 4.77where the number indicates the average stallion gets a score of 1.00 , so Galileo is 6.16 times more successful than the average.
For ABC class runners (top 8%) Frankel was third to Deep Impact and Galileo.
Deep Impact 3.18
Galileo 2.83
Frankel 2.79
Dubawi 2.77In the Thoroughbred Daily News European stallion list by Earnings (in dollars) per Starter (2020 to date), Frankel is third behind Teofilo and Galileo.
Teofilo 60,165
Galileo 49,375
Frankel 40,337and a selection of other top sires:
Dubawi 33,766
Shamardal 33,061
Pivotal 31,888
Siyouni 27,289
Camelot 26,294
Kingman 22,318
Australia 21,353
Sea The Stars 20,824I suppose it is a case of would you swap a very high average in various measures of class, for a couple of really ace performers.
It is good to know that succesive generations of mostly Yorkshire folk have shown themselves to be smarter, more understanding of their customer base, more business-savvy, harder working, more knowledgeable about horse racing, and have better understanding of how individual flair and collective teamwork can profitably deliver a product that has been the best of its type for three-quarters of a century; while the world’s largest betting company by revenue, is too inept or frightened, or mis-understanding of the resources at its disposal, to even attempt to deliver the same product. With the lack of fortitude and insight shown by Flutter Entertainment, as well as their desire to be the least admired company in the business, how few years will it be before their share certificates will be fluttering up the racecourse like the losing betting tickets when Jeddah, Signorinetta or Aboyeur won the Derby?
This may be an apocryphal story, but it illustrates a good point. Back in the nineteen-fifties the famous marketing man David Ogilvy was asked by the Board of The Parker Pen Company to identify its biggest competitor. He came back a few days later and said “It’s Ronson”. The Board laughed and said that Ronson did not make pens, they made cigarette lighters. Ogilvy replied that the majority of fountain pens and cigarette lighters were bought as presents, hence the unacknowledged rivalry. In the old days that would be called a “category” error, nowadays it is called a “framing” error. You think you are looking at a bottle of 12-year-old single malt scotch; no, it’s a christmas present. A Nikon D7200 digital camera; no, it’s a doorstop. A highly-polished oak sideboard; no, it’s a repository for fishing tackle! I also have a good story about the value of farmers and priests in scientific research teams!
Timeform annuals are classy works of art and their main function is to be admired*. The fact that they are advertisements for the money-making arm of the business is great; a brilliant advert that makes money rather than costs it. The raw data of their contents is a by-product of Timeform’s other business, the collection and analysis of horse racing information. The information moves from the computer to the page through the brains and artistry of the horse afficianados in the Timeform organisation. Stop publishing the Annuals, and Timeform moves from a category of its own, to the category containing Racing Post Ratings, BHA Ratings, IFHA Ratings and a myriad of similar simple number-cruncher outfits. The difference between its old category and its new one is that the former is all about the horse, and the latter is all about the gambling. It is a loss of status in the horse racing world. It’s all downhill from here.
* (You can read about the value to the Peacock of its extravagent display of tail feathers in most good nature books, or try the internet).
Here you are Drone:
By Timeform — published 9th October 2020
The recently published “Chasers & Hurdlers 2019/20” will be the last in the series of Timeform annuals.
Timeform has announced that it will close the remaining elements of its mail order service from December. This means the “Racehorses” and “Chasers & Hurdlers” annual, and the weekly Timeform Black Book, will no longer be printed.
Director Nigel Townsend said, “The whole publishing industry has been transformed in recent years. Timeform has successfully refocused itself as a digital-first business and the past six months has seen a further significant shift in the behaviour of our customers towards our online services. Finally closing our mail order operation will allow us to allocate more resources to those.”
The Racehorses series dates back to the founding of the company by Phil Bull in 1948 and the seventy-three volumes combine to provide an encyclopaedic history of Flat racing in the modern era. It has also earned a reputation for forthright views on horse racing politics.
“Timeform annuals are the first place people turn to learn about both the greats and the lesser-known horses,” added Townsend. “We will find new ways to offer a definitive record of their achievements and to campaign for the things we believe will benefit the sport, particularly at this time when the whole industry is facing stark challenges. But it’s widely acknowledged that 1,000-page books have struggled to find their place in the modern publishing world.
“Working on the Timeform annuals has been the epitome of a labour of love for the team involved – writers, photographers and production. Geoff Greetham, who worked on ninety-seven annuals, ensured they maintained the highest standards throughout and his outstanding contribution was rightly recognized with the presentation of the George Ennor Trophy by the Horserace Writers & Photographers Association in 2016. Some of the finest writers on the sport honed their skills working alongside him.”
Publishing editor Geoff Greetham, who leaves Timeform after fifty-two years, said: “When the history of the pandemic comes to be written, the demise of the Timeform annuals will merit no more than a footnote, but to the band of loyal readers and to the generations of writers and photographers who have worked on ‘racing’s bible’ this will undoubtedly be a low point. Nothing lasts forever but the Timeform annuals have stood the test of time for longer than most and will still remain as a permanent written history of the sport. Innovation will find a way of continuing this Timeform tradition.”
Relating to flat racing only.
“however an ever increasing number of fixtures will have a detrimental effect on the overall structure and in my opinion,as I believe I’ve voiced previously,it’s just not possible to expect revenues to keep up with an expanding list of meetings.”
Horses in training in the UK and Ireland, 2020 racehorse population is 6.6% up on ten years ago, 17% up on twenty years ago, and 40% up on forty years ago.
Owners keep on spending more and more on buying horses and having them trained, so why is it not possible to expect revenues to keep up? Of the money put into racing, owners contribute about 75%; punters, spectators, sponsors, broadcasters and the like put in the rest. Many other categories of people involved in racing take money out: regulators, administrators, trainers, jockeys, vets, blacksmiths, shareholders of racecourses, stable staff, breeders, bookmakers, etc. It pays to be aware of where the source money comes from in any enterprise
“So, what’s the solution? Do we accept that the number of horses bred for racing is going to continue to grow and, therefore, increase the number of fixtures to give them all a chance? Forget affordable housing; let’s build an all-weather track on every undeveloped plot of land in the country.”
Over the last half-century should we not have built more roads because people bought more cars because they wanted to join in the freedom of, and the clamour for, independent transport? It is in human nature that if some people want to spend their money on a legitimate product, we should allow other people to seize the oppurtunity to supply it. I do not think Racing can go around to the racehorse owners and say, “Give us more of your money; we could use it to have enough racing to meet your needs, but we have decided we should give it to a consortium of Housing Associations instead.” I think that only Governments can get away with taking people’s money and letting them have no say in where it will be spent.
In theory , more handicaps should be a good thing. What could be neater than allotting weights to horses in relation to their ability, to give them all the same chance of winning. However, lots of theories that have humans involved do not work in practice. According to both punters and bookmakers handicapping does not work, else we would have eleven-runner handicaps with the SP of all horses clustered between 8-1 and 12-1, or 21-runner handicaps with an SP range between 18-1 and 22-1 and we all know that has never happened in racing history and never will. Handicaps depend only on which trainer has done the better job over the last twelve months with his/her runner today.
As for all weather racing, I think many more racecourses should go down the Newcastle route, to provide a full circuit and chute of a consistent, reliable and safe surface. All weather tracks probably probably provide more “fairness” in horse racing than do handicaps. With one eye on the future, we must still recognise what the past has gifted us, so we should keep the turf courses that provide unique features, such as gradients. The rest should be re-born with synthetic surfaces.
I would agree that The Juddmonte International at York should become the Juddmonte Frankel Stakes. I hope that all the official bodies who advise on, and regulate, these sort of decisions will see the sense in it.
Nathan, from the context of the original post and all the replies I think the thread title means: “20 best horses not to win the Epsom Derby – who actually ran in it”
There are horses in those lists that did indeed achieve a lot. But the ones who were “the best” are Dancing Brave and Dubai Millennium, closely followed by El Gran Senor.
From the Racing Post on 6th July 2020:
“Last year’s St Leger winner Logician has recently resumed cantering in Newmarket with an autumn campaign planned, trainer John Gosden has confirmed.
The unbeaten son of Frankel is returning from a lengthy spell on the sidelines having spent part of last winter at Newmarket Equine Hospital, where he was treated for the potentially life-threatening condition peritonitis.
The four-year-old is thought to have fully recovered from the condition, which affects the intestines, but has taken longer than anticipated to get back into full training.
Gosden said: “Logician is now back cantering on Warren Hill and hopefully he’ll be out in the autumn. He seems to be recovered from his peritonitis problem and hopefully he can make up for lost time later this year.”
The Racing Post still has Logician as an entrant in the Irish St Leger on Logician’s own page under the “Entries” tab, but if you click on the racename link to show the list of all entrants in the race, Logician is not there. It is a similar story at Timeform, who initially had Logician among the enties, but he is now missing from their list.
A very good jockey, a very versatile and successful trainer, and one of those rare successful people for whom the best thing about them was what they did for other people. In Stan’s case, especially for his fellow jockeys. It was not just that he was so light that he needed to have a smart brain to be successful; he just had a very smart brain full stop and the personality to use it well.
Two very good writers about racing, Brough Scott and John Oaksey, write about Stan Mellor at:
https://broughscott.com/stan-mellor-more-than-a-milestone-brough-scott/
Not exactly where we might be looking for Frankel winners this week, but a Class 4 handicap at Pontefract was a race that provided another notable Frankel winner today. Frankelio, a son Restiadargent who was third in Black Caviar’s Diamond Jubilee, benefitted from a year in Micky Hammond’s care, and a gradual drop in the weights. The Racing Post this morning did not think highly of his chances and had him last of eleven in the betting forecast at 33/1, so it might have surprised a few people to see him start at 4/1 second favourite and run a splendid race. Might this merit an accolade as big as would training a winner at Royal Ascot later this week?
Hi Joni, I hope you are fit and happy too. Here are a couple of bits of fluff for Frankel fans to mull over.
For those who would like to see Bonne Idee in complete control of her race throughout, there is a video at:
https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/race-replays/2/4274/
For those who would like to see a very unlucky Without Parole in the Group 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita. The quick thinking jockey took advantage of a horse drifting off the rail to make a smart move up the inner on a cantering Without Parole . But sometimes you make a good choice and it still does not work out OK. Without Parole got stuck behind the lead horse and could not barge to the outside and skittle two other horses so had to sit and suffer to finish only third.
https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/race/usa/sa/2020/5/25/9/shoemaker-mile-s-g1t
Thanks for the Thanks. I am really pleased that it worked out for you. About fifteen years ago when I first came across the ability to read The Times from days long gone, I spent a lot more time than I ought in reading hundreds of pages of racing news from the time when I was a kid and a teenager. I think they call it “Re-Living The Past”. I still go back and have a look through the Horses In Training annuals from around that time just for the nostalgia buzz. I notice that the annual for 1963 cost three shillings and sixpence brand new, seventeen and a half pence in today’s money! My early morning paper round gave me more than enough to cover that every year.
It was good to see some interesting European racing again yesterday. A fairly easy winner for Frankel at St Cloud in a mile contest for unraced three-year-olds. Hurricane Cloud looked comfortable right from the start and was going away from the field in the last 100 yards.
There is a video at: https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/race-replays/2/4211/
This might be a bit Empsonian (remember him?), but there are so many anomalies, errors of grammar and vocabulary, and then the whole of the paragraph “Don’t Be Exclusive” negating the whole of the paragraph “Do Your Research”, that it cannot be David Cormack in Normal Mode, but it is either a Spoof, a Hack, or a David Laugh. Since he forgot to change the date from 30 April to 1 April, it must be a David entertainment for for we poor souls locked away from the racing environment.
From worldometers.info
As of 15:15 GMT today:
COVID-19 confirmed cases per million population
UK 16.8
France 68.9
Germany 64.8
Spain 165.8
Italy 359.9
Netherlands 66.2
Sweden 101.4
Belgium 76.4
Denmark 149.2
Austria 95.5
Ireland 26.1There seems to be quite a clamour for the UK to follow the example of the major European countries in copying their tactics in trying to overcome COVID-19, for example shutting schools, theatres, cinemas, any large gathering of people. The data does not seem to support a change in tactics. Maybe a typical response in solving difficult problems is to do more, more, more, when thinking better, better, better, is a more appropriate response.
worldometers sources include: World Health Organisation & United Nations Statistics Division
