We've had plenty of weather the past couple of days! We had about an inch of rain yesterday in this part of the world, which included Chelmsford, so we had our latest rainy night there. That was the lesser of the two downsides, though: The Simple Truth was disappointing. He'd taken a step forward at Wolverhampton the previous time, but he took a step backwards yesterday evening. Gee, he's frustrating. We'll get there in the end, but I just hope that we don't have to wait as long as we did with big brother Roy, who didn't get his act together until he was a spring five-year-old.
It had stopped raining by the time that we got back to Newmarket around 7.00, which was nice. But that was only the calm before the storm. The rain started again in the early hours and then turned to snow around 6.00. Snow had been forecast but I'd expected that it would be snow in the air which turned to water on reaching the saturated ground. Not so. By the time that it stopped snowing around 10.00, we had a proper covering of snow, maybe an inch and a half, and, even though it has continued to rain through the day, there's still some snow lying around now. It's supposed to get down close to zero, so I just hope that there won't be too much of a frost as underfoot conditions could be lethal in the morning.
I'll just be riding out one lot before Abbie and I head up the A1 with Surooj (the back of whose ears illustrate this chapter in a photograph taken around 7.00 this morning). That'll be exciting. She arrived here at the end of January (from what this year was the inaccurately named February Sale) so I've been looking forward to her debut for a while. If tomorrow's race were a run-of-the-mill bumper, I'd be very hopeful, but that is not what it is. Or, rather, it would be a run-of-the-mill bumper if Pam Sly was not running Eileendover, who ranks as just about the most impressive winner I've seen this year. But, unfortunately, Eileendover does run (which, looking on the bright side, does at least mean that I won't be going there with exalted expectations, which is usually a way of setting oneself up for disappointment).
Just before I sign off, I'll just go off on one of my tangents. This has rather, thank God, become yesterday's news by now, but you'll recall two or three weeks ago that Rishi Persad seemed to have stirred up a small hornets' nest with something which he had said about diversity. Diversity has become a major talking point since then, which is a good thing, particularly from the point of view of the members of the Diversity in Racing Steering Group. Rishi is a member of that and so am I. And I'd have to say that the reactions which I have always had whenever I have discussed the group have been very different to what Rishi encountered.
I'm very proud of being a member as I think that the DiRSG is a very good thing. Its (our) aim is to do what we can to try to ensure that racing is a sport which is, and is recognised as being, open and welcoming to all, whether they want to become involved professionally or recreationally, irrespective of their nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender and sexuality. Seemingly Rishi has encountered 'pushback' when stating this aspiration, but I'm baffled where he managed to find these people. Anyone with whom I have ever discussed this has agreed that this is a laudable and worthwhile aim - and I'd hope that anyone reading this will also agree with that.
By the way, just to pre-empt the obvious question (ie what on earth am I doing on the DiRSG) I'll explain. I won't give you the reason which I sometimes (tongue in cheek) offer, that they were short of middle-aged, middle-class, heterosexual, white, male British Protestants. In fact, what happened was that last year the members of the Group decided that they wanted to get involvement from a wider cross-section of the game, which included having a trainer or two involved. The NTF newsletter passed on the message that anyone prepared to be involved might like to volunteer. I don't know how many volunteers there were (they may only have been two) but the upshot was that Suzy Smith and I were invited to enlist.
6 comments:
Hi, I thought the Simple Truth ran to about her mark (35’ish) even tho’ she was handicapped now at 45....big jump really??
As for diversity, it scares the be-Jesus out of me. Having reached an open minded 7th decade and certainly not prejudiced in any shape or form, the standards and beliefs impressed on me seem to change daily. Maybe I am not “woke”. This seems to be self defeating in its intent as people we know in our hearts not to be affected by anything other than a persons talents and good hearted- ness are becoming nervous and unsettled in case they inadvertently say or do something that is inappropriate . Funny old life.
Glass ceilings have been created on so many levels of society particularly with the UK's still existing class structure that need breaking down but one that should forever be banished that a person is limited by the colour of their skin and it is up to all of us to make sure that it happens .
If i make a small suggestion to the diversity panel make every racegoer an equal destroy the aged splitting into members, tatts , silver ring or whatever terms are used nowadays and have one admission price one type of attendee a racegoer who could go anywhere on the track . The only people who should have a separate enclosure or stand are the owners trainers and connections
Thought Surooj made a very promising debut take out the winner and he was very competitive great effort congrats to all
I think Neils idea has a lot of merit in principle...but very difficult to enable ( no pun intended). Even ? In football grounds there is a “class” system which is based on the ability to pay..admission to different restaurants and seating positions, same as flying or seats at the theatre etc...that is always going to exist ....even in Russia there are roads for the hoi pollloi and others for the cognoscenti . Maybe just time and the new generations will smooth the way to an accepting society.
Fair point David but one always has to set out an ideal scenario and see how close you can get
Don't worry too much, David. If everyone was like you, there wouldn't be a problem. As you say, you judge others on their talents and on the goodness of their hearts. You have correctly identified that those two qualities are all that matter. The problem is that there have been too many instances of the ease or otherwise of people's paths through life being dictated by very different factors, by people judging them on, say, the colour of their skin, their religion or their sexuality, rather than by their human qualities. If we all do what you do, ie treat your fellows equally and fairly, then all's good.
One is, though, as Neil observes, always going to find economic differences, but that's a very different matter. Whether one is buying houses, motor cars, seats on an aeroplane or in a theatre, or admission to a sporting event, there is always going to be the chance to pay more to get something better than the ordinary. That's not a matter of discrimination on the basis of class or colour, but on free-market economics.
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