Crunchy Granola Suite

No runners (we didn't even have an entry) this week, but I still don't know where the time went.  Hence this being the blog's first chapter of the week.  I ended up having one outing, to the ATR studio on Thursday to join Robert Cooper in covering what turned out to be a storm-lashed meeting at Yarmouth.  That was extremely enjoyable, which might not have been what I would have been saying had I been there, dodging the lightning in the torrential rain.  And I actually had two other outings: to Thetford on Monday afternoon and to Cambridge on Wednesday afternoon, running errands for Newmarket's Legends of the Turf project, on the committee of which I am both the Chairman and the Town Council's representative.

The first week of the month, of course, is always a busy one with accounts to be done, and I'm pleased to say that I've used some of the time well and am a lot less behind with my paperwork than usual.  But, of course, my main occupation has been the work outside, riding and otherwise, of which there is always plenty.  And the great thing has been that the weather has been idyllic, which is great.  We have all too many weeks when the weather is a massive drawback to any outdoor job, so weeks such as this one when the weather is a colossal boon really are to be savoured.

More of this lovely weather, then, please (although it would be nice if a bit of rain can fall on Bath in the next few days.  Hope Is High - pictured in the penultimate photograph, going round Bury Hill yesterday with Jana - is entered there on Wednesday and, while she likes fast ground, it is debatable whether any horse likes rock-hard ground, which is what it will be currently and will still be on Wednesday if it remains dry in the interim.  I hope that we'll have two runners next week, ie Hope Is High on Wednesday and Kryptos at Chester three days later, and it'll just make it easier to confirm our running plans for Bath, which of course is the only racecourse in Great Britain which is never watered, if the ground there eases to the good side of hard).

Otherwise, what's been happening?  Well, the front page of yesterday's Racing Post has been the talk of the racing world.  Bearing that in mind, there probably isn't a great deal that needs to be said on the subject, with everything that needs to be said (plus a lot more) having already been said.  However, I can rarely resist the opportunity to chime in with the chorus.  On that basis, I might just venture the opinion that I would urge anyone who has seen the paper's front page (on which the headline is 'WHY RACING MUST BAN THE WHIP') to make sure to read the article, written by Tom Kerr and appearing on page 6, which ostensibly prompted this exclamation.

If and when you do read Tom's piece, you will find what you generally find when you read one of his articles: a sensible, considered piece by an intelligent man and very good journalist who cares deeply about the sport.  What you won't find is the type of sensationalism which the front page might have led you to expect.  One can forget that not everyone is aware that it is usual journalistic practice for the journalist merely to write the article, and for a sub-editor to re-arrange it and supply the headline.  The re-arrangements can include inserting a few spelling mistakes and/or grammatical errors, chucking in the odd rogue apostrophe, or changing a few quotations after the writer has been punctilious in ensuring that he or she has quoted the interviewee verbatim.

I would imagine that Tom will have been fairly non-plussed about the front-page headline which the article has spawned, by the sensationalisation of his rationality, by the turning of his attempt to disarm racing's critics into, arguably, fuel for their fire.  But he won't be the first (nor the last) journalist to suspect that the headline may have been written by someone who hasn't actually read the article, so he should be able to be fairly philosophical about it.  It happens to us all - as this chapter of the blog demonstrates.  And in this case the headline and the text were both written by the same person!