Monday, August 26, 2019

Forcing the pace

Going to Goodwood is usually a pleasure and yesterday's trip was indeed a pleasure, bar the half-hour so immediately after The Simple Truth's race.  He was very well behaved throughout and ran a nice race, travelling easily enough for three quarters of a mile before getting tired and dropping out.  That was predictable but I hadn't expected him to drop out as quickly or as much as he did - but the reason for the fatigue became clear when he came off the track.  Megan Nicholls had very alertly already dismounted, the horse having over-heated and suffering from heat stress, which made it very easy to excuse his sluggishness in the final two furlongs.

We've all seen and heard of horses suffering from heat stress after races but this was the first time it has happened to one whom I have trained; and, as I found out yesterday, one suddenly becomes a lot less detached about it when it's one's own horse.  It was alarming, but happily short-lived.  Megan was brilliant in grasping the nettle so immediately and the racecourse and BHA veterinary personnel were brilliant too.  We had water, water everywhere over him, and within 15 minutes he was starting to return to his usual perky, unflustered self.  His pulse-rate had come down close to normal within an hour of the race, at which point the vet gave us the thumbs-up to head for home.  And thereafter you would never have known that there had been a problem.  Quite a first day at school, though!

That aside, it was a true pleasure to be at a lovely racecourse in a lovely part of the country on a lovely day.  In south-east England it was apparently the hottest day ever recorded during an August Bank Holiday weekend, 33.6 degrees at Heathrow I think (although only in the higher 20s at Goodwood).  I suspect that today will have been hotter still somewhere; and it can't have been far off yesterday's Heathrow figure here in Newmarket.  I wouldn't mind it being less hot tomorrow as we're heading off on a long trip to Bath with Sacred Sprite (seen in the final photograph, having a gentle exercise this morning) and Parek (Sussex Girl).  After that we won't have any runners until next week, which is no bad thing as it has been a testing schedule and I'm struggling a bit.

I ought just to touch on the BHA Bloodstock Review and the Racing Post's coverage of it.  One might say that the BHA has more than enough to do without getting involved in something which arguably is outside its remit.  However, I salute it for grasping the nettle.  Malpractice and/or perceived malpractice in the bloodstock world is not good for the health of the racing game and its participants - and the health of the sport and its participants is definitely the BHA's responsibility.  And I think that it's a good thing that the Racing Post has shone the spotlight.  If I were in the BHA I might be tempted to shuffle this difficult issue into the 'too hard' basket as soon as I could do so discreetly, so it's good that the Racing Post is keeping the subject in focus.

Some of the quotes in the paper have been disappointing.  We should all be behind the BHA on this.  All owners and all trainers.  I know that I am.  If anyone has been using the sales to rip off any owners, then that is bad news for us all.  We want our sport to be clean and to be seen to be clean, and we want potential investors to feel that they can become involved without being denied a fair deal.  This review can only increase the chances of such people feeling that they can invest safely, and might well also increase the chances of them doing so.  So what on earth is the ROA up to?

Philip Freedman was quoted in Peter Scargill's article in his role as Chairman of the Horsemen's Group.  I presume that he is the Chairman in an ROA role.  He should be backing this project from an ROA perspective; and from a Horsemen's Group perspective he should be backing it too.  The Horsemen's Group represents National Trainers' Federation members (and others).  I am a member of the NTF and I wouldn't want my representative to be critical of the initiative, which is what has happened.  Disappointing.  What is also disappointing is his reported view that the BHA is 'poking its nose in' 'while not handling  matters under its direct jurisdiction adequately enough'.  Such an unnecessary cheap shot is disappointing and should have been beneath Mr Freedman.  He should be better than that - particularly when he has the honour of representing me!

Even weirder was what appeared in Lee Mottershead's article.  Lee quoted Tom Goff, who I think of as a bloodstock agent but who bizarrely was involved as a representative of the ROA.  What on earth was the ROA thinking of?  The review is trying to establish whether any bloodstock agents have been ripping off any owners.  Under the circumstances, having a bloodstock agent, even one with a very good reputation like Tom, as its representative is just plain nuts.  His quoted comments about "the potential to blow what is an embryonic and delicate process off course" do nothing to assuage the obvious misgivings.  It would be like if there was a review to find out whether any trainers had been ripping off any owners, and if the ROA had appointed me (or any other trainer) to speak on its behalf.  You'd be sceptical if under those circumstances I started trotting out a 'we don't want to be forcing the pace on this one' line, wouldn't you?

1 comment:

neil kearns said...

Wonder if anyone at the BOA has been doing the same beach reading as me and going at the Dick Francis series of thrillers several of which involve dubious bloodstock agents !!

On a more serious note there is zero point in allowing self policing by the bloodstock industry -anyone forgotten the words banks , self regulation and financial crisis ?

If you think practices are dodgy then they have to be investigated I must say having attended a fair few sales auctions , sometimes the bidding action is beyond my eyes and one wonders if all bids are "real" .

The other practice which troubles me is horses being bought in by breeders after visiting the sales ring purely as a means to qualify for various races that at best is against the spirit of those races and at worse fraudulent as the horses were never intended for sale