Forum Replies Created
- Posts
I like to see some positivity like this!
Personally it was the late journalist George Ennor who was by far the most helpful person I’ve met within racing.
Thanks for the info – really helpful. £5.99 isn’t bad at all. I paid that much for a coffee and cake today and good racing is worth more than that!
Will set it up tomorrow. My flatmates prefer to watch cr*p like the X-Factor and other mindnumbing trash
, but I’ll set this one to record on Saturday and will watch it when I get back from the fireworks party!Thanks Martin. I intend to now be around on a more regular basis!
On the other hand, I’m longing to see the return of an actual Conservative Party rather than the wishy washy lot we have at the moment. Now I’ll return to reading my copy of the Daily Mail
Nothing to fear from APPG meetings. I’ve attended a fair few of them. While they are held in the Commons, often in Committee rooms or Portcullis House, they are untelevised and often informal affairs and usually provide an outlet for debate and discussion, although it is likely animal rights lobby groups will get a whiff of this and try to cause some antagonism.
MPs in the group like Laurence Robertson, Matt Hancock, Mark Pritchard and Philip Davies will give racing a fair hearing. Full list of members here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/p … stries.htm
But it’s silly it’s come to this – as people say, the Levy issue is of more importance for racing as a whole.
Excellent cynical reading for a right-wing pessimist like me.
Would be a good laugh if parts of it weren’t so feasible, especially the line "the Lab-Lib Coalition of 2015 abolished the BHA and created RaceSafe". Wouldn’t expect any less from such a rabble.
The Devon and Cornwall bit was brilliant. I can see this – although Paul Nicholls would need to relocate from Somerset across the barbed wire!
Thanks TBB – will try this although it’s happened on three different computers now. That said I’m not very technical!
Yes and no really. I first got into racing in 1993/1994 when I was 8 – 9 years old. The past always looks better in hindsight (probably those rose tinted glasses) and I was more passionate about racing back in the late 90s/early 00s.
It kind of went on the wane at a time in my life where I entered adulthood and the word of work and responsibility, where I couldn’t indulge racing in the obsessive way I was used to. Added to that was the increase in dross racing and the recent meddling of the calendar as I’m a bit of a traditionalist.
Yet at a time in my life where everything else seems to be going down the pan (economic downturn, redundancy, family health problems etc), it is racing where I naturally come home to. Watching the sheer blistering speed of Frankel this year has literally blown other issues clean out of the water and has reminded me why I was so attracted to racing in the first place. And I do think I enjoy it as much as I used to, but in a different way. The only barrier to full enjoyment again is the lack of time to devour the form and watch racing on a daily basis which would ensure I’m up to speed on what’s going on.
I don’t post as much on this site any more for a number of reasons. However, any temptation to return to the fray is instantly worn off when I read threads such as this and comments such as ‘I hate xxx and I hate xxx’ and ‘you’re an idiot.’ How old are people on this forum?
There are many people and public figures I dislike. However, barring the worst of criminals and those who have severely personally slighted me, I can’t say I ‘hate’ anyone. Personally I’ve always been a Dettori fan, not just because of his riding talent but for what he has done for racing over the years.
I appreciate he’s not everyone’s cup of tea personality-wise but to suggest that someone you don’t know personally, who has chosen to spend their whole life around horses (and owns them) that they don’t care about them is churlish and ridiculous.
I’d rather they put the Juddmonte on the Saturday so I could watch a Group One, not a handicap (even if it is the Ebor).
Thankfully I now have Sky Plus so I can record racing midweek without too much trouble!
I’ve been out the loop for the last few years but why did they make the Ebor meeting 4 days? What happened to good old 3 day festivals when the quality wasn’t watered down?
Wow – that was breathtaking! Frankel treated the race like an exercise canter. He breaks more sweat before the race than during it. I expected him to win but not in that manner to be honest. Canford may have been below par, who knows, but the track can’t be a good enough excuse – he won the race last year!
I was lucky that today was the quietest day this year so far in my office…I snuck into the boardroom and watched Frankel in all his magnificence on the widescreen TV. I’ve been a fan of Frankel since his Royal Lodge win and his Guineas victory left me open-mouthed for the first time in years.
We can quibble about the form all we like on here, but for today, I’m just going to appreciate Frankel’s greatness. I received very bad news on a personal level yesterday, and Frankel has managed to put a smile back on my face – he’s just quite something.
Indeed, adrenaline is an effective form of brief pain relief – how else is ‘flight or fight’ supposed to work? The fact Rewilding was able to munch on grass suggests he was in little pain and mercifully, he was attended to before pain had time to kick in.
Similarly, a survivor of the Norway shootings said he got shot, but didn’t feel any pain when it happened and was therefore able to play dead and ultimately save his own life.
The title of this thread makes it seem like I’ve stumbled onto an Animal Aid forum. It’s emotive, sensationalist and unhelpful.
At the time of the Grand National I put in my two cents worth on this topic. Horses are the most magnificent creatures but thoroughbreds are bred to run and jump at speed and as others have pointed out in this thread, most of them relish it. Yes, a few horses ‘sour’ but then again, they make it known by refusing to race or jump or by running so poorly one has no option but to retire them.
Most of all, in a racing sense, Rewilding’s fate was entirely different to those fatalities in the Grand National. He was galloping on the flat and took a bad step. It can happen to horses running round a field (a horse I used to ride met her untimely end that way) or a horse running lose, or a horse not going very fast at all. It’s quite different to asking a horse, who isn’t the best jumper in the world, to jump Becher’s brook.
I agree, it looks bad to those who tune in to a big race on the off-chance, but more sensitive reporting by the BBC combined with informative interviews with knowledgeable trainers and jockeys can help add perspective. Rewilding’s death upset me greatly but I did not under any circumstance question the sport on Saturday in the way I perhaps did, very slightly, after the Grand National this year.
The tactics on Debussy were perplexing and I’d be interested if there is some kind of justification for them from the Godolphin team
I’ve just watched the race again. Debussy only wound up the pace from Swinley Bottom. There may have been some brief contact between Workforce and Rewilding but I could see nothing of major significance affecting Rewilding. Frankie was pushing and shoving on Rewilding a good half furlong or so before he broke down – thankfully the BBC’s replay has edited the fall out.
However I can’t see how it can be suggested that Godolphin’s tactics played any part whatsoever in the fate of Rewilding. He took a bad step and broke his leg – it can happen in any kind of race or breezy canter on the gallops.
Gosden’s post-race interview on the BBC was a credit to the sport.
I was watching the race with a friend who doesn’t know anything about racing. She was shocked when I said during the race it looked like Rewilding had broken a leg and would probably have to be put down. But Gosden put it in better words than I could in what it means when such a tragedy happens – and I’m glad this was aired to the public.
Many non-horsey people tuning in don’t generally understand why horses must be put down in such situations and Gosden provided more clarity than many of the BBC’s own commentators have done over the years when such accidents have happened.
Can’t WAIT for this. Only slight problem is I’m at work that day and will have to suffer with something like an online radio commentary which will not suffice for the visual feast this race promises to be.
In any case, I dreamt last night that Frankel won the Sussex Stakes, despite Tom Queally dropping his reins at the furlong marker as Canford drew alongside. Problem is, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility…
If Queally holds on to Frankel until 2 out, he’ll win. If he goes off like a startled hare, he’ll just hand it on a plate to Canford.
Good thread. After 13 years of following racing to the point of obsession, I have spent the last 5 years very much distant from the sport. I have ‘stepped back’ from it for various reasons, but as I keep an infrequent eye on what’s going on, I’ve been sucked back in by Frankel last season and this season – all credit to him for managing that!
One of the things that drove me insane about racing was it’s poor (and poor being an understatement) marketing strategy to the public. OK short term, there were initiatives that worked to pulling crowds onto the racecourse – after-racing music entertainment, fairgrounds for children, ladies’ days etc. All of which I hated, as a racing purist.
The problem is – and they still don’t seem to get it – is that what is the point of trying to market a sport if you don’t market the sport itself? Where’s the long term strategy?
This year I have seen adverts on the tube, billboards across London etc, advertising various big racing meetings – namely the Cheltenham Festival and the Derby. On one Derby meeting advertisement there was not ONE single photo of a racehorse. No, just the Investec zebra (I can appreciate, as the sponsors, they need their brand up there too) and a group of men and women holding champagne glasses. No one would have known who was running in the Derby. This has not changed in years and nothing seems like it will change.
I have only heard about RFC, the Quipco champions series (badly advertised and marketed, again) and the big horses of the moment by logging onto TRF and the RP website. There is NO information filtering through to the public, I can vouch for it. And I read and monitor a whole swathe of newspapers and websites as part of my job – which has a PR element to it in itself!
It’s just the one thing that always frustrates me about racing. The only actual sport publicity we have had this year is a) Grand National deaths b) the use of the whip. No problem them making it onto the news, into newspapers and into office discussions. I get fed up of trying to defend the sport sometimes.
It’s also telling that the only racing personality my non-racing friends, colleagues, acquaintances etc have heard of is Frankie Dettori. Love him or hate him, he still managed to transcend racing. Some horses manage it, like Red Rum, Shergar and Dessie. But they all came within a decade of each other. But unless we can market the horses – the actual sport – itself, then we’re just leaving it to fate and sadly, ill-fortune, to do the job for us.
Right up my street this thread.
All mine are from the early-mid 90s, when I was mostly between the ages of 8-11 and when a year felt like a lifetime. That’s probably why the memories are so sharp, but it’s also when I first got into racing. In no order:
Jumps
Captain Dibble
Moorcroft Boy
Silver Wedge
Morceli
Dublin Flyer
Relkeel
Mysilv
KadiFlat
Blue Duster
Brandon Prince
Alhaarth
Maylane (he was a nutcase!)
Ezzoud (also slightly mad)
Jayanpee
Selhurstpark Flyer
Perryston View
Tamure
Bishop of CashelCould go on all day really!
, but I’ll set this one to record on Saturday and will watch it when I get back from the fireworks party!
