The highest standards

Gee, life doesn't get any less busy.  It's always busy in the few weeks before Christmas, hence my more or less having weaned myself off the tyranny of the Christmas card routine, but I suspect that I'll be even busier this December than usual, not least because I seem to have mayoral commitments every second day for the next three weeks.  Aside from that, though, I'm terrible for putting things off until manana unless they absolutely have to be done today.  But the end of the year tends to focus the mind, so I'm trying to catch up on a few things previously left undone - while, of course, still trying to fit in the things which do absolutely have to be done today.  It's actually almost feasible as long as I do nothing else - so if you come across me and think that I'm being an unsociable t**t, that's why.

I actually got quite a lot of previously ignored administrative tasks done last week as we didn't have any runners, but this week we're busier (and there are still plenty left to do).  We should have runners on three consecutive days: Tuesday (ie tomorrow), Wednesday and Thursday.  Tuesday and Wednesday are both Lingfield (jumps the first day, AW the second) and then Thursday is Kempton (AW, needless to say).  Zarosa, Cottesloe, Indira.  The last-named will have to run in my absence because Thursday is prize-giving evening at Newmarket Academy (ie upper school) and I ought to be there, not least because one of the prizes is the Mayor's Award.  So Hannah will be heading down there on her own, which certainly won't decrease her chances of saluting the judge.

So we've got those runners to look forward to.  And we've still got Alfie Westwood to look back at.  I was pleased to read in the comments' section of the last chapter that David Winter had enjoyed his company, as so many people did.  Colin Williams rang me after the Racing Post had published its tribute to Alfie, suggesting that, while it did justice to what a special person he had been, it hadn't done justice to what a good rider he had been.  I enjoyed Colin's reminiscences of working with Alfie, who was a jockey with Harvey Leader when Colin was an apprentice there, and I hope that I'll put them down on paper in this blog sooner rather than later (but not tonight, as I'm busy) as these things need to be logged.  This is anecdotal racing history at its best, and the problem with anecdotal history is that, unless it is committed to paper, it only lives as long as the story-teller.  And none of us lives forever.

But what I will do here, because it won't take long, is to tell you another Alfie anecdote which has been shared with me in the past few days.  Alfie used to go to the swimming pool regularly, and about 10 years ago he had a funny turn while swimming.  The word was that he was about to die, but fortunately he pulled through.  Anyway, as Ian Watkinson related to me last week, when Ian next saw Alfie after this incident, he said to him, "We all thought you were a goner, Alfie.  I went out to buy a black tie to wear at your funeral - but I don't need it now, because I see you're still with us."  Alfie's response, completely unfazed, perfectly summed up this man of the highest standards: totally serious, he said in tones of potential admonishment, "I hope you bought it at Golding's!" (Which, as you probably know, is the gentleman's outfitter in Newmarket High Street).

In the first two paragraphs you can see Zarosa in a schooling session up at the Links last Friday with Jack Quinlan (when we saw a rare slither of blue sky, albeit briefly).  Her mate is Tommy (ie Platinum Proof), ridden by Jack's sister Jess.  You can then see her in the third and fourth paragraphs having a roll in her stable after work yesterday.  And then this photograph (of Tommy being washed down after exercise on Thursday) sums up what conditions have mostly been like recently: like the rest of Britain, we've been battered by the tail-ends of a succession of hurricanes, so it's been wet and windy, and generally dismal (albeit not cold during the storms).  We're on Hurricane Clodagh at present.  No doubt Desdemona is waiting in the wings.

Farewell to one of the very best

Winter's arrived.  The temperature still just about managed to stagger into double figures on Friday (20th November) and I still had my shorts on then.  However, that was it, and I jettisoned them on Saturday, which was a foul day.  For first lot it was cold and wet with poor visibility.  The visibility improved for second lot, but the rain got heavier and the wind picked up.  And that was Saturday, really - except that by evening the rain stopped, the wind dropped and it got even colder.  We had our first proper frost of the winter overnight into Sunday and, although the sun did come out on Sunday, it remained very cold all day before freezing again at night.  So we can say that autumn's gone.

That's a slightly depressing thought, but much worse news came today when we lost one of the very best, Alfie Westwood.  Alfie was known to many and liked by all during his long life working in racing, and then known to and liked by even more after he had eventually retired and joined an elite band of ex-trainers and ex-jockeys, also including John Powney and Eric Eldin, who give up their time to dispense knowledge, enthusiasm and kindness in equal measure to visitors, particularly children, to the National Horseracing Museum.  Alfie was wonderful with all people, but particularly wonderful with children, and there will be many thousands of children around the country (some of whom will presumably be on their way to being lifelong racing enthusiasts as a result of the inspiration which he gave them) who will have happy memories of a morning or an afternoon spent spellbound under his wing in the museum.

Alfie had aged a lot in recent months, but I don't think that he would have been any more than his early 80s.  I believe that he arrived in town in the late '40s, to be apprenticed (again, I believe) to Claude Halsey in one of the yards down the Fordham Road, possibly Lagrange.  He continued race-riding after his apprenticeship was over, and enjoyed a reasonable career as a lightweight jockey.  However, it was as a travelling head lad that he really came into his own.  He was Patrick Haslam's travelling head lad when Patrick was in Pegasus Stables in the Snailwell Road.  Patrick used to have a lot of runners in Scotland, and so much time did Alfie spend up there and so much liked was he there that for many years Hamilton ran an Alfie Westwood Stakes in his honour.

When Patrick moved up to Middleham, Alfie moved on to Willie Musson, where he did everything.  He carried on riding out well into his 60s long after his first hip replacement, and was still working there well into his 70s, latterly just part-time in tandem with spending much time enthusing and enthralling the children in the museum.  For a small stable, Willie's yard has produced a remarkable number of good apprentices.  Stevie Donohoe and Lisa Jones would probably be the most successful (the former was champion apprentice while there and the latter finished third in the apprentices' title).

David McCabe did very well before moving on to David Loder, and is still, I would guess now in his early 40s, picking up the odd race-ride for Aidan O'Brien.  Phil Shea was always going to get too big, but he still rode plenty of winners, while Stuart Lanigan, Debbie England and many others who have slipped my mind also did well.  And I would say that the one common denominator between them all - other than having been apprenticed to Willie, of course - would be that they would all say that having access to the constant kindness and common sense which flowed from the father-figure of Alfie, one of the nicest men anyone has ever known, was a major factor in helping to keep them pointing in the right direction.

We're told that the evil which men do lives after them, while the good is oft interred with their bones.  We'll never find out about how long the evil lives from Alfie because he never did any evil; but he did a hell of a lot of good, and that will all live after him, and for many decades still to come too, thanks to the inspiration and good example which he gave to the many thousands of people, and particularly young people, who had the good fortune to cross his path.  May he rest in peace, and may God comfort his brother John in his grief at the loss of a wonderfully kind and caring lifelong ally.

I don't feel guilty about moving straight on to our racing report, because Alfie was old-school, and it would go without saying with him that the show must go on.  I enjoyed our trip to Chelmsford on Thursday evening.  Koreen finished fourth which I think was promising enough.  The apprentice who was meant to ride him did not arrive in time, and if you're stuck for a jockey at an AW meeting in the winter and Adam Kirby is there and free for that race, and the horse has a weight he can do, then it's a no-brainer to call up the king of the winter circuit.

So Adam rode him and was happy enough.  The race was probably a bit far for him and in retrospect we probably should have ridden him a bit more quietly (as the race turned out be run at a fierce tempo) but it was his first run for five months and he ran OK, so we can continue with optimism.  And, again, we came home from Chelmsford respecting the racecourse for giving a free dinner to all stable staff.  All racecourses should do this but most don't, so it is right that we salute and highlight them for it.  The doyen of travelling head lads, Alfie Westwood, would be most approving.

The mystery of the non-existent female jumps jockeys

If you have a minute, you might like to go back to the previous chapter of this blog and read Neil Kearns' comments underneath it.  I'd say that Neil has hit a nail on the head: the modern vogue for everyone wanting to use the same five jockeys is not a good thing at all.  It's so tough for jumps jockeys nowadays because the era of each stable having its own jockey has gone: everyone wants to use one of the 'top jockeys', whatever that means, and the rest struggle.  Our jockey William Kennedy is a prime example.  He was still a conditional when he first rode for us eight and a half years ago (at Towcester on Lady Suffragette in May 2007) and he's been my first choice ever since then.

I've been banging on about how good William is ever since then, but it took him another eight years to break through to the level of getting enough patronage to make a decent living.  And that's not starting from scratch: he was already champion conditional when I first used him.  He's in his 30s now, but it has only been in 2015 that he has been getting any significant volume of rides.  He is in the top ten this current season (which started at the end of April) but it is only this season that he has been within sniffing distance of the leader-board.  I doubt that he's ever had more than a couple of rides at any one Cheltenham Festival - and yet, now that people have woken up to how good he is, he's now supposedly become a top-class jockey.  Which is silly because he's been a top-class jockey for nearly a decade, only without anyone other than us and a few other small trainers noticing.

This brings us nicely to the issue of female conditionals.  At any one time there are masses of conditionals, but it is noticeable that there aren't many female ones.  Lucinda McClure (pictured in the first couple of  paragraphs, with Indira) looked it up and there are, apparently, currently three female conditionals: Lizzie Kelly, Emma Sayer (also pictured with Indira, in this case alongside these words and at Ripon in the summer) and (I'm guessing - I think that she's now a conditional) Lucy Gardner. Why are there so few?  We'll come on to that shortly, but what I think that I am safe in saying is that giving female riders a 3lb allowance wouldn't make any significant difference.  And we're not going to have large numbers of successful female jumps jockeys if there aren't large numbers of female jumps jockeys.

I think that Lucinda hit the nail on the head. Her explanation was simple: there are so few female conditionals set against the number of male conditionals because girls have more common sense than boys.  Basically, over jumps a young rider is likely to pick up many more rides as an amateur than as a professional (and young riders can opt for whichever they chose, bearing in mind that nowadays one is allowed to earn one's living by working full-time in a stable but still ride in races as an amateur) largely because amateurs can ride in point-to-points.  One could sum it up by saying that boys come into it wanting to be a jockey, and they see that as being a conditional, having a 'J' badge in the windscreen of their car, being a member of the PJA, going to the Lesters and telling their fans that they are a jockey; while girls come into it wanting to ride in races, so they retain their amateur status.

Lucinda's theory, which makes perfect sense to me, is that the girls have enough common sense to realise that they'll be eligible for far more jumps races as amateurs, and that making it as a professional is so bloody hard (see the William Kennedy example above) that just settling for riding in races is as good a target as any; and, anyway, there's always the option of turning professional subsequently if they choose.  On the Flat it's different because amateurs can't ride on the Flat (other than in amateurs' races, obviously) so they have to become apprentices if they wish to get rides.  (Hence Emma Sayer, who was formerly champion amateur over jumps, becoming a conditional when she decided that she would ride on the Flat as well).  But over jumps - well, you can get another illustration of what the ones who want to race-ride do by reflecting that Katie Walsh and Nina Carberry, each of whom is good enough to be a leading professional, have both retained their amateur status, which enables them to ride in every bumper in Ireland (where, of course, professionals are not eligible for such races).

Anyway, I think that that sums it up well.  We'd already covered the Flat angle; and the answer to the jumps angle is that, as Neil has pointed out, modern fashions dictate that there is scope for only a handful of professional jockeys to make a living.  The only way to alter this would be to implement Neil's suggestion of capping the number of rides a jockey may take in a year or season, which would be likely to see the number of jockeys, both male and female, rise.  But the two certainties are that (a) this will never happen, and (b) very few of the people who claim to want to address the supposed problem would push for the implementation of this measure anyway.

Now to look inwards rather than outwards, we can spend a few sentences savouring the view from this neck of the woods.  The weather is deteriorating, but we have reached double-figure temperatures today (probably for the last time for quite a while - and I'd imagine that today will prove to have been the last day of 2015 on which I rode out in shorts) and today's rain did not arrive until after morning stables.  The highlight of the morning came when one of the several top-class jumps jockeys who can barely make a living (Jack Quinlan) schooled Zarosa over hurdles.  She hadn't jumped for nearly a year, but she picked up exactly where she left off, which was a joy to behold.  I hope that she will run in a novices' hurdle either at Lingfield on 1st December or at Leicester on 3rd December.

Before then we shall have Koreen running at Chelmsford this evening.  He's been there previously (as you can see in this paragraph) but the weather was nicer then.  (It was the Wednesday of Royal Ascot week).  He's been back to Italy since then. He came over from Italy in the summer but didn't cut much ice so went home again, but I hope that he's in better form now.  He took the journey very badly the first time and arrived very light, and still hadn't really fully picked up by the time that he went home again.  Anyway, the upshot was that, with Italian racing in a major decline, his connections decided to draw stumps with him, so he's back here for good now.  Let's hope that that really is for good in every sense, rather than just for good in the sense of time; if it is, you'd hope that he would be very competitive tonight, because it's not a very strong race.

Completion at last - and thoughts on a bad idea

Great excitement.  We had a jumps runner get round yesterday.  Not much of a hill of beans in the great scheme of things, granted; but good for us, going on our jumping results over the past year.  We had four jumps runners last autumn: Russian Link ran three times and ran well and bravely each time, being placed at Fontwell, Bangor and Fontwell again.  Wasabi did less well.  She did get round at Fakenham, but was a distant last, and the reason for this very poor run became clear when she finally crossed the line, because she had bled.  Anyway, once winter arrived last year we had to get used to non-completion.

Russian Link pulled herself up at Fakenham on the Sunday before Christmas. And then we had to wait nine months until our next jumps runner (we did have one National Hunt, but not jumps, runner in the interim, Near Wild Heaven being unplaced in a bumper at Bangor in March) and this autumn, when we finally did have another couple of runners, we continued the run of non-completion: Tommy bled and was pulled up at Fakenham, and Russian Link pulled herself up at Stratford.  So that was three jumps runners in 12 months, and they all pulled up.  So yesterday - well, Russian Link downed tools again (at Leicester) but fortunately she only did so in the home straight, so she did actually reach the finishing line before she finally ground completely to a halt.

It's very frustrating.  She has a history of downing tools, which is why she went over hurdles in the first place.  Martin Lane summed it up well on her final Flat run: he pushed her for a mile and a half in a two-mile race and she just got farther and farther behind, and then he said that when he finally gave up pushing and sat up on her, she ran on again and passed a couple.  So she went over jumps and ran her heart out on her first three runs.  On her third run I felt really sorry for her as she had put her heart and soul into it, and walked back in as whacked as if she'd just run in the Grand National.  I think that she went home, thought about it, and worked out that, as on the Flat, trying is optional rather than compulsory.  And that's it really.

She does jump very well, and on her resumption at Stratford she had travelled and jumped very nicely until the field headed away from the enclosures midrace, at which point she stopped.  I reckoned that we might have had half a chance over a shorter distance at Leicester because it's a bigger circuit: they only pass the enclosures once, early in the race, so if we could get that out of the way we might be OK.  Daryl Jacob gave her a genuinely lovely ride, doing exactly as asked, and she was travelling really kindly for him. She turned into the straight travelling along very nicely looking a very feasible winner, jumped the third last hurdle - and then downed tools as soon as she had to start working a little bit harder.

Daryl gave the opinion that she would only win a race if she could win it on the bridle, that she went really nicely while it was easy for her, but just put her head up and shortened stride as soon as she had to be asked for a bit extra; and that the more he asked her, the less she did.  Ah well, she's not good enough to be winning with her head in her chest, so I guess that we probably ought to call it a day, and to stop trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole. She's a lovely horse who jumps really well and will easily find a good role in life.  I might give her a final try in blinkers, but that would be clutching at straws, so I might just draw stumps straight away.  And I wouldn't knock her for working out that it's easier not to try: it's a sensible conclusion from a horse's point of view, and the only wonder is that more of them don't reach that conclusion more swiftly.  You can see in the first three paragraphs two pictures of her before and one after the race, and I think that you can tell how stress-free and pleasant she finds a day at the races now that she has worked out that it's really just a walk in the park.

So that was that.  But, as I've been very lax in my blogging, I might just touch on another subject before I sign off.  The plight of female jockeys seems to be in the news at present, consequent to Michelle Payne having highlighted the glass ceiling in her speeches and interviews after the Melbourne Cup.  Anyway, the way to break this ceiling is not to give female jockeys an allowance - that would only solidify and strengthen the ceiling.  Female riders already get a 7lb allowance until they have ridden 20 winners; a 5lb allowance thereafter until they have ridden 50 winners; and a 3lb allowance thereafter until they have ridden 95 winners.  (Under National Hunt rules the stages are probably different, but the principle is the same).  Would the female riders' allowance come on top of this?

But that's not really when the female riders struggle.  As regards claimers, it's a total meritocracy.  On the Flat, the female apprentices and the male apprentices both get a go, and the good ones (and, of course, being good at jockeying involves much, much more than merely being a good rider) of each sex progress.  Under National Hunt rules honours are distributed less evenly, but that's simply because there are very, very few female conditionals - but that's a separate issue and I don't know why it is, but I'd be certain that the reason for their scarcity isn't because they don't get an extra allowance.  It's when they become senior jockeys that the problem exists.

It is, of course, hard for all good apprentices to continue to compete when they lose their claim, male or female.  For every female rider who finds it tough at that stage, there are plenty of Saleem Golams, Stevie Donohoes, Danny Tudhopes (don't forget how long he spent in the wilderness before being rediscovered), Adam Beschizzas, Jason Harts, Robert Tarts, John Fahys, Nicky Mackays, Kieran O'Neills, or Cam Hardies.  All excellent riders, all thoroughly diligent professionals.  Itr's tough, but there's always a living to be made at the lower levels for good jockeys of both sexes.  But breaking into the top levels is hard.  It's hard for anyone, but I think that it probably is harder for female riders.  You could go on all night trying to work out why, but it's probably a factor on the Flat the fact that nearly all the good horses are owned by people in whose cultures it is not the norm to give important roles to women.

Anyway, if we are trying to help female riders to break into the higher levels, the one thing we must not do is to give them an allowance for being female.  In vague terms that would only be seen as giving official endorsement to some idea that they aren't as good; and in particular terms it would ensure that they more or less never rode in big races.  It is a given in racing that allowances can't be claimed in the biggest races.  It would make a nonsense of the Derby and other championship races if the horses carried different weights depending on who rode them - that just isn't going to happen.  And that's why apprentices only very rarely ride in Group races: we become accustomed to the fact that so-and-so apprentice claims a however-many-pounds allowance, so if he can't claim it, our horse is carrying overweight.

If we have a 3lb claimer on a horse with 8:08 in a race in which he is allowed to claim and the lightest he can do is 8:08 (ie what the horse ought to be carrying) then officially that horse carries 3lb overweight.  If we have a 5lb claimer on our horse weighted on 8:08 and he can only do 8:07, ie one pound less than the horse has been allocated, then the horse isn't allowed to run because he would be carrying so much overweight, despite the fact that he would actually be carrying less weight than the handicapper has given him.

So if we give female riders an allowance, every time they rode in a race in which allowances can't be claimed (ie in exactly the type of races in which we are most concerned about helping them) their mounts would be seen as carrying overweight.  If they struggle to get rides in big races as things are, does anyone really believe that it would be easier for them to get rides in such races if in the eyes of the world they would automatically be putting up overweight in them?  And to think that this idea is even being taken seriously enough to be discussed!  (And I don't just mean by me: I'm criticising it, but others seem to take it seriously).

I hope that you like these final four photographs, by the way.  I had to dig into the archives to find some pictures of Michelle, which seemed to be a suitable way of illustrating the article, and I duly found one of her on one of Colin Little's horses at Caulfield early in 2009 and then three on Newmarket Heath later that year - and in the couple taken in Luca's string the stable was clearly acting as the Australian embassy that day, because you'll see her alongside Kathy O'Hara and Brad Rawiller.  But in doing my digging I came up with a lovely sequence of four shots of a sunrise in the Victorian High Country and then one of a sunset in the same part of the world. and these are better being up on the blog than languishing out of sight in the archives.

Where HK leads ...?

Nine days since I last posted, which isn't good.  We've had one runner since then because nine days ago Zarosa (seen here coming in after the race, and then in the stable yard afterwards) ran at Redcar later that day.  Her run was OK but no better than that, and she's now ready to go over hurdles.  I hope that she'll make her hurdles' debut in a couple of weeks' time.  I hadn't been to Redcar for about six years, and one keeps reading that the course is struggling on account of being in one of the poorest areas of Britain.  So it was good to go there and see that the management and staff are still keeping it as one of the best-maintained racecourses in the country.  It is in great shape, and a credit to all involved.

I've just been flat out really, but not too busy to appear on the past two Sunday Forum programmes on ATR.  They have been enjoyable.  The last one was post-Melbourne Cup, and the previous one was post-Breeders' Cup.  There was plenty to talk about on both topics, with the Michelle Payne / Stevie Payne aspect of the Melbourne Cup being terrific.  Maybe the main BC talking point was my suggestion that the BHA ought not to give British trainers the option of running on Lasix or Bute in the USA, that it ought to be a condition of holding a British license that you do not run a horse anywhere in the world on drugs which are not permitted on raceday in the UK.

That would be very good for trainers as it would remove the moral dilemma, which must be an awkward one, about whether or not to take the 'When in Rome ...' approach to racing in the States.  And it would be very good for British racing, because currently the fact that some British trainers race horses on Lasix when running in the States rather undermines British racing's supposed position on the high moral ground on this one, a position which the BHA seem rather keen that we occcupy.  Anyway, what was rather nice was that I was subsequently contacted by James Burn of the Racing Post who reminded me of a precedent, and that HK trainers have to abide by the HK medication rules wherever they race.

When Rich Tapestry ran in California in October 2014, his trainer Michael Chang was told by the HKJC that using Lasix was not an option.  HKJC Head of Racing Bill Nader explained: "The Club's position - that Hong Kong's horses race free of medication - is not not negotiable so Michael Chang and Rich Tapestry's owner have agreed that he will not have Lasix for either of his races at Santa Anita.  It is unfortunate the European-based horses go year after year to the US, and especially the Breeders' Cup, and the majority of them use Lasix on the basis that they will be under a disadvantage if they don't.  It would certainly be better for the sport as a while if those who don't allow Lasix in their home countries took a position, wherever they raced, and refused to use it.  Unfortunately they don't, but in Hong Kong's case, there is no room for compromise."

The happy post-script, of course, is that Rich Tapestry won in California.  Food for thought.

Cup Day

Well, I've had a different Melbourne Cup this year.  Since the Makybe Diva days I've enjoyed it each year in the ATR studio, firstly in London and then in Milton Keynes, firstly with the still-missing Dave Compton and then with Matt Chapman; apart, that is, from the year that the Japanese horses filled the quinella, when I was there.  This year, though, was different as ATR had lost the contract, so the race was instead shown on Eurosport, a channel I don't think that I'd ever watched previously and which I think I'm unlikely to watch again, for 52 weeks anyway.  So I've watched the race at home, and watching it was a thrilling and very happy way to start the first Tuesday in November.

Every cloud has a silver lining, and the silver lining of not taking part in our usual show (which I always used really to enjoy) was that I won't be heading off to Redcar daunted by the prospect of eight hours of driving after having had no sleep whatsoever the previous night.  That's probably not a bad thing.  Let's hope that we can have a good run up there and back, and also a good run there with Zarosa.  There's been quite a lot of fog about (you can see some mist in these photos, which I took on Sunday morning before heading off to the ATR studios for the Sunday Forum) and I think that yesterday some roads were badly affected by fog-related accidents.  Today, in Newmarket anyway, it doesn't seem so bad, so let's hope that that doesn't present any problems.