Has the world gone mad?

Here's a line from The Dikler in today's Racing Post (and like so many of The Dikler's lines, it has the unmistakeable finger prints of Rodney Masters on it): "... has left the sport to work for a ship-repair marketing agency in Lechlade, Gloucestershire". Am I alone in finding this baffling? What on earth is a 'ship-repair marketing agency', if indeed such a thing exists? (And why, if indeed it exists, why isn't in on the coast?) Does this make any sense at all? As if this wasn't evidence enough that the world has gone mad, how about the existence, as we discovered at the National Horse Racing Museum quiz on Friday night, of a 'celebrity venture-capitalist'. At least we have to be pretty confident that such a person does exist, because we had a photograph of him, and Ollie knew who, and more pertinently what, he was straightaway. There are times when I get the impression that we are living in the 22nd century, and that when we left the 20th century at the end of 31st January 2000 (not 1999, as so many would have had us believe) we skipped the 21st century altogether - how else do you explain that pretty much every aspect of this century bears no relation at all to the century in which we grew up?

Here's another illustration of the world having gone mad, as pointed out to Emma and I by Hugh Collingridge (aka The Wizard Of Exning) at Yarmouth on October 23rd. There was a two-year-old maiden race that day, which was won by Miss Emma May, a daughter of Hawk Wing trained by David Elsworth. This was one of two divisions of the mile juvenile maiden, and each offered a prize to the winning owner of less than £2,000. And yet these are the prices that some of the horses therein had cost: 46,000 gns, 220,000 gns (for Miss Emma May), 40,000 gns, 80,000 gns, 40,000 gns, 200,000 gns, 82,000 euros, 65,000 gns. These, incidentally, were not the best-credentialled horses in the race, as the owner-bred horses were on paper the most valuable: a Red Ransom daughter of a dual-Classic winner in India, a Bahri half-sister to the 1,000 Guineas winner Lahan, a Peintre Celebre daughter of a Darshaan half-sister to Irish Oaks winner Winona, a Kingmambo filly from a winning Sadler's Wells mare, a Singspiel half-sister to Yorkshire Cup winner Franklins Gardens, a Sadlers Wells filly from the Mr Prospector mare Golden Digger (the dam of Naheef and Golden Sahara), a Dynaformer filly from the winning Storm Cat mare Thunder Mission, a Montjeu filly from a winning Caerleon half-sister to Tenby, a Red Ranson half-sister to Irish Oaks winner Vintage Tipple, a Machiavellian filly from the winning Darshaan mare Follow That Dream (who is a half-sister to Storming Home and who is a daughter of a half-sister to the dam of Poule d'Essai des Pouliches winner Musical Chimes). How much would the owners of that little lot have collected had they sold their horses as yearlings rather than deciding to race them themselves? Do you get my (ie Hugh's) drift? On a daily basis, the cream of the world's pedigrees are sent out on courses around Britain, at a cost of untold millions - and the incentive is that the owner of the winner picks up around £1,800. It is hard to enthuse about the long-term future of racing in this country while such a situation pertains.

But, fortunately for those who own or run racecourses, those who own chains of betting shops, those who collect salaries from the BHA or Weatherbys, the racing media and numerous others whose livelihood depends on the continued willingness of people to pay to race horses, we and countless other small or large investors keep going, feeling that the game is worth the candle, however expensive that candle is becoming. On this subject, that of continued optimism and love of the sport, I can report that the Key Of Luck filly was ridden by Martha for the first time today. All went smoothly and she behaved very well as David supervised the pair having a ride around the yard for quarter of an hour. That's our three young prospects from Fairyhouse all now ridden without incident, and we'll get the Halling filly too broken in the near future: she is standing in her stable wearing a saddle for the afternoon as I speak. We can continue to travel hopefully.

And we can travel hopefully too with Imperial Decree and Polychrome. The former runs on Friday at Wolverhampton, and I'd say that the latter looks like she'll be ready for a debut around the end of the month. Hugh and I (Hugh on Imperial Decree and I on Polly) gave them an easy gallop on the grass on Railway Land today and we were both very pleased with our mounts. The only other runner we are likely to have in the next month will be good old Lady Suffragette, who has been in work forever but who seems to be holding her condition extremely well. This afternoon I will enter her for a hurdle race at Bangor next Wednesday, which will be something to look forward to - not least because it could provide the catalyst for me to complete the full house of mainland Britain's racecourses, Bangor being the only one I've never visited. We don't expect to have many runners in the winter, and Imperial Decree is likely to be finished for this preparation after Friday, but we also have My Obsession, Belle Annie and Extreme Conviction all cantering along nicely just now, which is exciting. Take Me There has, as mentioned in Emma's blog, gone to Paul Nicholls' stable on a slightly unorthodox sale-or-return arrangement, but from the day he arrived here I understood that, were he to show good enough form to become valuable, he would be likely to be put on the market, so that's no problem at all; quite the reverse, in fact, because it was just nice to have him here while we did and to have him win a race for us, so his has been a very happy saga. His very nice and sporting owner Paul Devereaux is keen to retain an interest in him - he's owned enough non-performing horses in Ireland that he doesn't want to lose contact with the one he has had who has won a race for him - so the aim is that he can keep a share while a controlling interest is bought by one of the many big-spending patrons of Nicholls' stable. I hope that the horse can continue to provide Paul with thrilling days like the one we enjoyed at Fakenham.

I can't believe that I've written at such length when I'm still a bit jaded after my all-night stint on At The Races, which was really enjoyable. Dave Compton is great company and so easy to work with that it isn't work at all. The demise of Bay Story put a real dampener on the programme, but the rest of it was a pleasure to savour, with the slight exception of Christopher Cross miming to 'Fly Like The Wind' and the major exception of the indescribably awful acceptance speech of Graeme Rogerson, "trainer" of the winner. It would have been lovely to see Purple Moon hold on, but I don't begrudge lovely Efficient, whom we saw outsprint his vastly inferior rivals in the VRC Derby twelve months ago, his excellent success. I am just kicking myself that I, like so many, had jumped ship before his return to form. I was happy enough with my Cup suggestions: Zipping (4th), Master O'Reilly (8th), On A Jeune (6th), Purple Moon (2nd) and Gallic (scratched). I was even happier with my tipping for the rest of the programme, as virtually every winner was in my two or three against the field, and I even managed to give a trifecta in the correct order; but I can claim no credit for this at all, as I was working solely off the crib sheets given to me by Joff Dumas and Dan Happell. It's easy to pretend that you know what you are talking about if you know the right people.