Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Changes

A much quieter start to this week.  No runners until Friday, when The Rocket Park (Flat debut, having previously run, and won, under National Hunt rules) and Dereham (debut) run in the same novices' race at Salisbury.  Last race at an evening meeting, but one slight consolation of the generally depressing fact of summer drawing to a close is that the last race at an evening meeting is at a very acceptable time, in this case 7.10.  (That is until one races under the floodlights at an AW fixture in winter, which is great if you're nocturnal and cold-blooded but far from ideal otherwise).

These two horses are shown together in the first photograph, taken around 8.30 in the morning.  At that stage I would have said that the two riders on them here would be the two riders on them in the race, but it's turned out that I would have been wrong on both counts.  You'll see Josephine Gordon on Dereham, and it turns out that she won't be at Salisbury; and you'll see former HK jockey Howard Cheng (who works for William Haggas) on The Rocket Park, but he won't be riding either.  That's disappointing, but it turns out that his GB licence application had not been processed fully in time.  I can't help feeling that it should have been, but c'est la vie.  Hopefully he will be able to ride the horse on his next run instead.

After Friday, I hope that we shall have Hope Is High at Bath on Sunday and either one or two runners in the same race at Yarmouth on Tuesday.  Konigin and Das Kapital are both entered in a 12-furlong 0-60 handicap.  She'll definitely get in but we'll need to wait until tomorrow when the elimination order is published to know if he has any chance of getting in.  It should be a suitable race for each horse but we'll start worrying about that in a few days' time.  First we'll get Friday out of the way, and then we'll start worrying about Sunday.  And we can start worrying about Tuesday after that.

Predictably, having a few days without going racing has not been a recipe for taking things easy.  Far from it, but at least I have caught up with my sleep as at least I can get to bed around my preferred time of 9.00.  There are always more things to do and in this case that has largely meant my 'making tax digital'.  You'll have seen the Quickbooks ads on the TV and I have signed up to them (because it has now become compulsory to use a computer programme to compile one's accounts and submit the VAT return) but it certainly hasn't made life any easier.  Very much the reverse, in fact.  I've been using paper for my VAT records for 24 years, and change definitely isn't a rest in this case.  And the change increases costs too; and the crazy thing from the government's point of view is that this stealth tax doesn't equate to extra money in the pocket of the Chancellor, but of Quickbooks.

I'll get used to it in time, I imagine.  I was dead against having to keep and submit one's PAYE records on-line (although at least in this instance the government provides the software rather than requiring you to buy it) but I've got used to that.  But this latest one really does seem to be a case of change for change's sake.  Do you see where I'm going with this?  No?  Well, I wouldn't either, except for that I read Lee Mottershead's column on Monday.  Lee was sticking to his guns about the BHA's examination of sales' practice, and it's good that he is.  I'm very much behind him on this, but I was rather surprised to read that I was one of those calling for change.

I can't remember exactly what I wrote when we touched this topic a week or two, but I think that the gist was that we should all be squarely behind the BHA in its investigation, including supporting it as it follows through by acting to correct any misdemeanours which are uncovered; and that we should be a bit sceptical of anyone who isn't.  And so we should be, because it's in all our interests that potential investors in the sport can become involved without fearing that they might be taken for a ride.  Is that calling for change?  I suppose that it is, depending on what the report's findings are.  I haven't read the report, so don't know how many areas have been identified as requiring change.

I suppose I would have been less surprised to read that I had been calling for people to behave honestly and for people to support the BHA's attempts to make sure that people are behaving honestly.  And supporting the Racing Post's coverage of the topic.  I suppose that that probably does equate to calling for change, if the report is as damning as it might well turn out to be.  It's just that I'm a conservative (which is why I'm no longer a member of the now-inaccurately-named Conservative Party) and in general I don't think of myself as someone who calls for change.  Ever.  I think I'll just leave it as once again endorsing Lee in particular, the Racing Post in general and the BHA overall on this one.  And I'll repeat my initial observation: we should all be 100% behind the BHA on this one, as firmly behind the BHA as the Racing Post is.

2 comments:

glenn.pennington said...

John, it's noticeable that you do use a wide range of different jockeys. Raul Da Silver and Hector Crouch taking the rides at Salisbury tonight (you've explained that the planned riders aren't available).

How do you go about choosing jockeys under normal circumstances?

John Berry said...

No particular rhyme or reason, Glenn. If a horse has done well, or been particularly well ridden, by a particular jockey in the past, he/she will likely be the first point of call for that horse. Otherwise, it's just a case of using whomever looks most appropriate at the time from the ones who are going to be at the meeting. I'd try to pick one who I think might suit the particular horse (factors might include not putting a big jockey on a tiny horse, using a 'busy' jockey on a lazy horse or a jockey who excels at getting them to relax on a hyperactive one) and, all things being equal, tend to favour jockeys with whom I have been particularly satisfied in the past. But in general it's never a big issue: at times I reflect that I'd be happy to throw the colours into the jockeys' room and not be too worried about whoever happened to pick them up. In general, they're all very good riders. Mark Johnston once made a very sensible observation along the lines of the selection of rider being the most minor piece of the jigsaw in getting a horse ready for a race, but the one which provokes the most debate!