Galling madness

It's the last day of June and we're ending the month having had a total of four runners, ie four horses having run once each.  That's OK for the first month back. The first three (Hope Is High, Kryptos and Hidden Pearl) were all competitive but Roy - the fourth, at Doncaster on Friday - wasn't.  But that's OK.  He was resuming after a fairly long break and the run was acceptable.  I'd hope that he'll be more involved next time, which will be over farther.  If you had watched the race on TV, you'd have thought that it was the worst afternoon possible there because you'd have just seen torrential rain, but funnily enough it was a largely very warm and sunny afternoon which contained about five minutes of torrential rain (with 10 minutes of light rain either side).  It just happened that those five minutes basically started as the horses were cantering to post and ended as they were pulling up.

I hope that we'll get July off to a smart start by running Hidden Pearl at Catterick on Thursday (2nd July) and Kryptos at Haydock on Saturday (4th July).  This year's fourth of July will be notable for England as it sees the pubs re-open (under restrictions) and in this land of bread and circuses that makes it one of the days of the year for many.  Owners (two per runner) will be allowed to start attending race-meetings at which their horses are running from that day onwards, but sadly this won't be the great leap forward for which one might have hoped.  They'll be allowed onto the racecourse 45 minutes before their race and have to be away 45 minutes after it, and during their hour and a half there they will be restricted to a zone away from the participants, human and equine.

I suppose that this is an advance on being told that one isn't allowed to attend, but it's only a very small one.  And it's an opportunity which you'd probably only take up if you lived within walking distance from the racecourse.  And your TV was broken.  Hopefully we shall be able to take a more meaningful step foward before too long.  If we don't, it certainly won't be for the want of trying by the National Trainers' Federation, which is going in to bat on behalf of our patrons.  I was impressed by this paragraph in yesterday's NTF news-letter:-

'The NTF Council is disappointed that with lockdown being eased in other areas of society, the protocols look outdated and will be questioned by owners who will soon be free to meet in non-sporting venues with much more freedom than is proposed on the racecourse.  We have made the BHA and ROA aware of our view that owners should be able to participate fully in the racecourse experience as soon as possible so appreciation is shown for their patience and support over the last three months.'

To highlight the absurdity of the situation, on Saturday and Sunday the very restricted ownership experience on offer at Epsom, Haydock and other courses will seem very poor by comparison with what will be on offer at Newbury, which isn't racing on either day but which is turning itself into a pub for the weekend.  There will be about the same amount of people there (300 drinkers plus waiters and overseers) as I would imagine there were at, say, Yarmouth or Windsor yesterday (well, probably more at Newbury because there were some small fields at those courses) but they will be penned into a smaller area and, presumably, won't have been the subject of any health checks and won't have completed the on-line health-awareness course.  Galling madness, isn't it?

Mind you, it's no good living in Britain if you can't cope with oddities like that.  I heard a feature on Radio Four this morning which contained an illogicality to eclipse all others.  Apparently weddings are soon to be permitted once more, but under restrictive conditions.  One of these conditions is that the bride and groom must wash their hands immediately before and immediately after the exchange of rings.  What the hell?  Utterly pointless, bearing in mind that they'll be consummating the marriage later that evening, and living together thereafter.  You see what we're up against?  (And I'm saying that as someone who takes this pandemic very seriously).