Twiddling thumbs

We seem to be on tenterhooks about whether racing will indeed resume at Newcastle on Monday, June 1st.  (I'm writing this on Saturday afternoon, 30th May).  Oliver Dowden, the government minister responsible for sport, seems keen to give us the go-ahead, but presumably he cannot do so until he has had the nod from a higher authority (ie Johnson and/or Cummings).  And higher authority seems to be preoccupied with saving its own skin at present and unable to devote much attention to lesser details such as running the country, so we'll have to continue to twiddle our thumbs.

But that's fine.  We (ie the sport collectively) is ready to resume, so if we are indeed given the go-ahead, we shall resume.  And if we aren't, then we won't.  That'll be annoying, but it won't be any worse than that.  It'll just mean that we have to wait a few more days, or maybe a further week or two.  No lives will be lost.  In fact, plenty of those ready to go might have to wait a further week or two anyway, and we (ie we here in Beverley House Stables, rather than we the sport in general) might be one of them.  We have one horse already declared (Hope Is High for Yarmouth on Wednesday) but she might not get a run.  If not, then she'll have to wait a while.  That's the thing: if racing does resume on Monday, it'll only be resuming for a very small proportion of the horses in training who are looking to run.

Our next possible runner after Hope (pictured here on her way to the Al Bahathri on Thursday) would be Kryptos at Newmarket a week tomorrow, ie Sunday 7th June, but I doubt we'll even get as far as entering him.  He has shown decent form on fast ground, but his best form is on a soft surface.  And he's had tendon trouble since then.  As he'll be resuming after an injury-enforced absence of not much short of three years, under the circumstances it would be rash to run him on ground firmer than good.  We're just ending the driest May ever recorded in England, the tracks will be very quick until the weather changes, and there's currently no sign of possible rain in the forecast before Saturday 6th June.  We'll see.

As for the others getting ready to run, I don't know when and where there will be a suitable race for any of them to be entered in.  And being entered, as Hope is reminding us, is only the first step.  It's going to be touch and go whether she gets in.  She's rated 70 and she's entered in a 0-75 race; and it's a mile-and-six race (on what will be very quick ground) so there is a much smaller pool of horses looking to run in it than if it were shorter (or on good ground).  I was thinking when the entries were published on Thursday afternoon that she was almost certain to get in, but when the weights came out yesterday there were two horses without ratings and they have been put on the ratings' list above her (on 72 and 71).  So that's pushed her down the order a couple of places, and I'm far from confident that we'll get a run.  At least there are 72-hour declarations, so we'll find out and be able to make plans (if required) well in advance of the race (ie tomorrow morning).

So we'll wait and see.  And, by the way, while I can understand that people might be struggling to cope with the uncertainty in which the government is currently leaving us to stew, it certainly isn't the fault of the BHA.  They've done all they can.  They've planned for resumption on the first day on which they were indicated a resumption might be permitted.  If they have to pull the plug at the eleventh hour, that will be frustrating but even then it would be a lot better than the alternative, ie not to name a date until we are given the go-ahead (which of course we have still to receive).  Had that option been chosen, that would have guaranteed that we wouldn't be racing for another week or two at the earliest.  At present, that is the worst-case scenario; had the BHA not planned for a resumption on Monday, it would have been the best-case option.