The blog must go on

I'm still so ashamed of my poor blogging record this month that this morning I got fifteen miles up the road towards Beverley with Run From Nun before thinking, "Gosh, if I go all the way up there today to run this horse I won't have time to blog. Sod it, I'm going home!". So I turned round, came home and rang Weatherbys to say that I wasn't going to run the horse, inventing a pretext for her absence.

The first paragraph of this chapter is, of course, not totally true. But there is a reason why I've invented this story, to which I'll come shortly, once I've told you what actually did happen. I did set off for Beverley this morning, but unfortunately Run From Nun was from the outset very fractious. After about fifteen miles I pulled over and went back to have a look at her, finding that she was steaming with sweat and very agitated. I think if she'd been going to injure herself she'd have done so already, so it would probably have been fairly safe to have continued, but it would have been pointless: after sweating that profusely throughout a 3.5-hour journey, it was inconceivable that she could have run well, so neither connections nor punters would have got a run for their money. Turning for home was a 'no-brainer'. (I don't, incidentally, regard today's events as a worry for the future, because today the arrangements of the transport firm which we use had meant that she was travelling as the only horse in a backwards-facing truck to which we have found in the past that, while most horses are very happy on it, the occasional horse takes a violent dislike, so we shall just make sure that she doesn't go in it again, nor travel alone again). That was disappointing, especially as the filly is ready to run well and we had a top-class jockey (P.Hanagan) booked, but one just has to meet circumstances as they present themselves and react accordingly. I'm glad that I was on the box (as driver), because it would have been an awkward decision for someone else to have had to take.

Anyway, to return to paragraph one, even though we have scratched for completely genuine and good reasons, non-runners are such a hot potato currently that I'm sure we'll be included in some superfluous non-runner statistic that some trouble-maker wishes to dredge up - so that's why I thought I'd pretend that I'd taken the decision simply to allow me some more blogging time, just to keep the conspiracy theorists happy. This is the second non-runner which we've had this year. The first one was Polychrome at Great Leighs. That day we had declared two runners for Great Leighs; one was drawn fifteen of sixteen and the other sixteen of sixteen, which was remarkably unfortunate. Anyway, I took one of them out, Polychrome, because I had been unhappy with her after exercise on the day before the race, which had led me to have a blood test taken, which showed her to be unfit to run. I took the blood test result to the races with me to show the stewards to back up my 'self-certificate' but the evidence wasn't required - but even so the next time I turned on the television I heard John McCririck ranting about how disgraceful it was that trainers were allowed to scratch a badly-drawn horse from a 16-runner handicap, which pretty much described what I'd done to a tee. So again I'm sure that someone somewhere will regard Run From Nun's absence today as another small cog in a machine of conspiracy against the greater good. If McCririck were to spend just a fraction of the time which he devotes to telling the world about the supposedly machiavellian schemes of trainers instead waking up to the fact that there are some trainers out there who don't declare horses unless they want to run them, but who are also considerate enough of the animal's welfare that they don't want to run a horse who isn't in a fit state to run, then we might find a more balanced debate on the subject.

So, as we aren't running any horses, I'll just have to cogitate on other people's. Which will be a pleasure, especially as we Newmarketeers were treated to the sight of two of the world's best horses yesterday, Duke Of Marmalade and New Approach. I don't intend to be disrespectful towards Phoenix Tower or his connections in not including him in the preamble, despite the fact that he finished in front of New Approach, but I think it's fair to say that, very good and admirable a horse though he is, he does not yet carry the same star quality possessed by the two multiple Group One winners. That the Juddmonte was run here was great news for people who live here, myself included, and great news for racing in general, because if the York races hadn't been relocated they would have been lost, which would have been very sad. However, I'm not going to join in the mass applause which has been directed towards the BHA's race-planning department in the aftermath of the relocation: of course the BHA employees have done well to ensure that the races have taken place, but really they've only done their job - I think it's more of a case that they would have performed unacceptably poorly had they failed to see the races relocated, rather than that they've gone heroically beyond the call of duty in arranging for some of them to be transferred. They'd actually have done better had they not failed to get the Lonsdale Cup relocated, and had they managed to get the races relocated without the the colossal (more than 50% in some cases) reductions in the prize money which took place; I'd say that the one really clever thing which they've done is to have the changes made without anyone seeming to notice that the re-scheduled races were run for, relatively, astonishingly small prizes, especially considering the entry fees for the races concerned: the entry fees per horse for the Juddmonte International, whose value was reduced by 300,000 pounds, were over 2% of the race's total value, which I'm not even sure is legal. I am aware that the financial loss to the Levy Board caused by York's abandonment and the fact that the gate receipts at the tracks which did hold the races would be far lower than the takings would have been at York mean that it was almost inevitable that the races' values would be cut, but even so I think the BHA's masterstroke has been to ensure that such colossal reductions were made without anyone appearing to notice. So don't ever acccuse me of saying that BHA employees never do anything clever!

Apart from the Juddmonte International, the main attraction at Newmarket yesterday was, of course, the Town Plate. That's always an entertaining event, for the competitors (well, for the human competitors, if not the equine ones, for whom I always feel rather sorry) and for the spectators (if you can spectate something which mostly takes place out of sight). Our friend Gerry Chesneaux finished second in it again on Lysanders Quest, this combination repeating its feat of two years ago. The only difference was that two years ago he put up 5lb overweight, whereas I think this year it was 8lb - but that's still a good effort for a big strong man who would naturally be a lot heavier than that. The race was won in emphatic fashion by the Russell Price-trained Bulberry Hill, a multiple Southwell winner who was ridden by Craig Walker. I'm not quite sure what to make of this: I feel that I ought to be pleased for the connections, but I'm not sure that I am. I just feel that this victory rather goes against the spirit of the race. I know that there are some people who feel that amateur licenses should only be held by people who are true amateurs - ie people who do not derive their living from riding horses - but I'm not one of these: I'm very happy to see professional racing lads who aren't professional jockeys race-riding as amateurs. I was delighted to be able to give a classic example of this type of rider, former long-time Michael Stoute-employee Mark "Oily" Murphy, his first winner in an amateurs' race at Yarmouth on Monacle a few years ago, and am always pleased to see the likes of the excellent Scott Dobson salute the judge: for sure they are professional riders, but they aren't professional race-riders, and race-riding is their hobby. However, I do feel that the Town Plate is in a different category and that it really should be the one race of the year restricted to proper amateurs. The red tape of race-riding nowadays is so lengthy that one has to be taking a pretty serious view just to ride in a point-to-point, never mind a proper race, so it is rather nice that there is one contest a year - the Town Plate - set aside for casual competitors. I think that all the riders bar Craig yesterday fell into the correct category. While it was obviously nice for Craig - a former apprentice whose profession is riding out on a daily basis and working in stables, and who has been doing this for years having worked for most of the trainers in the town for periods of a few days, weeks or months - to be able to say that he has at last ridden a winner, someone like him has such a huge advantage over the casual riders that I really do think that for the connections of the horse to engage him is really flying completely in the face of the ethos of the race. If Craig is allowed to ride in the race, I don't think that we're too far away from letting professional jockeys ride in the race, and that really would be a shame. What also was rather sad, in retrospect, was discovering that Craig was to ride in the race, and then remembering that Neil King had wanted to give his very good and nice lad Billy (whose surname I don't know) a ride in the race, but had been dissuaded from doing so by his adherence to the 1665 conditions of the race ("no man is admitted to ride for this prize that is either a serving man or groom"). These conditions obviously also prohibit Craig's participation, so how he was allowed to ride is a mystery - but then again the conditions of the race state that the race should be run on the second or third (I can't remember which) Thursday of October forever, and nowadays the race isn't run on a Thursday and isn't run in October - so if we've abandoned that decree, I suppose the theory is that we might as well abandon the rest. Which is a pity. I know that we are in a world more professional than sporting, but I think that there is still room for the occasional adherence to tradition and for occasionally giving the true amateur a chance. And I think the fact that the Town Plate has this year taken a further step away from that ideal is rather sad.

Lest I end on my usual curmudgeonly note, I'll just close by pointing out that yesterday's card also contained the Jim Bamforth Memorial Handicap Stakes. Jim was a close friend of John and Terre McNamara, who came over for the race, and I gather was a lovely man. Yesterday's racecard contained a very nice tribute to Jim, who died early last year. As the owner of several nice honest horses such as the good sprinter Prince Aaron and as a proper sportsman, he would, I am sure, have been delighted that his race was won by a thoroughly admirable horse, the 9-year-old gelding Unshakable, trained and ridden by a thoroughly decent pair of battlers, Bob Jones and Paul Eddery. On what was inevitably an occasion of mixed emotions for Jim's family and friends, that was an extremely happy result.