This, That....And The Grand National

A look back at the issues vexing our little world over the past couple of weeks and a quick take down of The Grand National

Twitter @RacingWhat

Transcript

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Hello everybody, and thanks as always for showing up for this. The I can't remember what it is, the latest episode of the Rap Podcast. What's Racing About podcast? Thanks for showing up. It's a bit of a potpourri, poturi today, a mix and match, uh, a smorgasbord, if you will, of just stuff that's happened since my my last podcast a couple of weeks back. So let's get into it. Not been a stellar fortnight for a couple of our courses. Cheltenham. They have what they laughingly described as they have decided to upgrade, upgrade doing a lot of heavy lifting here, upgrade the of their drainage systems in the home straight. Now, this is in light of trials there, if you remember, back in January, where the last race was postponed for about half an hour because a hole suddenly appeared in the home straight at Cheltenham race course, and obviously that compromises horses' safety. You know, you're galloping along and you put a horse puts its foot down a hole in the race course and carnage ensues. So off the back of that, the race course executive at Cheltenham decided that it was perfectly acceptable for the festival in March to go ahead. Since the decision to go ahead with the festival was taken, they have now, as of last week, decided that the last three days' worth of fixtures at the course, the two-day April meeting and the one-night hunter-chase meeting in early May, has been cancelled, and that is due to uh safety reasons and this upgrade of the drainage systems that is going to take place in the home strait. That sort of begs the question: was the festival held on a wing and a prayer and did the uh did the Cheltenham exec just get away with it? You see stuff like them cancelling the April fixtures, and then you think back to the Trials Day Fiasco, and then wonder why the festival was allowed to go ahead. It then dawns on you that the commercial imperative will always win out over hollow words about horses' safety. It's very difficult, particularly at this time with the Grand National coming up, more of which shortly, to deal with those who are anti-racing and who say that we are all about murdering horses and horses' safety is not at the forefront of good intentions. You bet they die. And I've got a load of well-rehearsed answers to that, except when we get a scenario like this which help them, and you get the impression that the commercial, as I say, the commercial imperative won out over horses' safety. The festival's allowed to go ahead, they got away with it, and now this upgrade to facilities is now being taken place when arguably it should have been taking place the day after the f uh trials day in January. The festival should have been cancelled or postponed or moved. It wasn't, and Machiavellian thoughts, it all's well that ends well, doesn't sit well with me. That's my thoughts on it. What do you think? Moving on to the other Chelmsford. They have lost their licence. The Good Friday card there was cancelled, and there is no new licence that had been granted to the new company that runs, going to be running Chelmsford Golden Mile Racing after Great Lees Estate went into administration. That left the bad taste in the mouth again because that decision was taken a couple of days before, after sorry, the Good Friday declarations at the course came out. Good Friday meeting was cancelled, and the connections of those horses that were declared for Good Friday lost out, lost out on the ability to reroute them to or whether Finals Day at Newcastle or the Lingfield card which took place on Good Friday. So connections there lost out, and there was very sort of vociferous opposition to that decision from the likes of Johnson Horton et al. against the decision to the the late decision to stop racing at Chelmsford. The timing of the closure after declaration made was was shit house. I mean what a what a ridiculous scenario to get into. On a wider level though, is there appetite for racing at Chelmsford? It opened as Great Lees in 2008, closed down a year later in 2009, reopened in 2015, and reading the story in greater depth has been fraught with financial difficulties ever since. And it makes you think, is there is there an appetite for racing at Great Lees or has it just been run badly? You know, you'd thought that the basic nutrient agar was there, it's close to Newmarket, where obviously, you know, there's a big groundswell of horses in training, it's close to London, so you know you've got a potential groundswell of race goers in London that will go out there and watch racing there. You know, the the the basics are there, one would have thought, for success. But they can't make a go of it as Great Leagues, they can't make a go of it as Chelmsford. Hmm. Is there an appetite for racing at Chelmsford? Is the race course there fundamentally badly run? I don't know. What do you think? It's not a good time though for for Chelmsford race course. Just going down a little rabbit hole, I am thoroughly impressed, and it could just be a short-term thing, it could be due to the weather, it could be due to the Easter holidays. Racing seems to be in something of a purple patch at the moment. This is going out the night before the Aintree Festival. But Good Friday at Lamborn, huge turnout for the Lamborn Open Day. Newton Aberts, 8,000 people through the gates there on Saturday. Yes, it was a lovely hot sunny day. But 8,000 people at Newton Aberts, never been heard of before. I think they topped out at 6,000 in the past, but 8,000 they got through the gates there on Saturday. I think it's fair to say the overwhelmingly positive review of the Cheltenham Festival three or four weeks ago. We seem to be living through a little bit of a purple patch in our funny little world of horse racing, and long may continue. Handbrake turned into Callum Pritchard. You'd have seen the lad. He rode a circuit early on his horse Sweet Nightingale at Plumpton on uh last uh Sunday, I think it was. The horse eventually finished third or four in a novice chase, and it was a pretty public fuck up by Callum Pritchard, for which he was uh got 12 days on the sidelines, and all the uh dog's abuse in the world which came down on him on social media. Kind of understandably, you wish that wasn't the case, you wish that punters took a little bit more water with it and sort of realize look, these cock-ups happen. They happen, and the jockey doesn't want it, the trainer certainly doesn't want it, the sweet nightingale partnership who owns the horse don't want it. It happens, you know. People ride a circuit too early, they mistake finishing lines, they mistake how much horse they've got under them, they ease down too early. Not a great look for racing, certainly not a great look for the jockey, and 12 days is a fair punishment for the lad. Please, you know, let's just take a bit more water with it and let Pritchard suck it up, take his 12 days on the sideline, it probably means he's not going to win the conditional jockeys championship this year. Tristan Dole's probably gonna ace him to that, and that's what you get if you fuck up and you get 12 days in the chokey. Tough, it's a tough world, but he'll come back a better jockey, probably won't ever do it again, and you know, we move on, and please let that be the end of it. Let's not give him any more dogs abuse on social media. You can't end this cast without looking at the Grand National. I I get a little sort of preview of my thoughts on that three or four or five podcasts ago. Go back and have a look at what I said back there about the Grand National. I stand by what I said. I think it would be best all round if the race was just quietly done away with. It doesn't appeal to the purist, and by that I mean again, look to social media, look at the pictures that have been put up of the likes of Crisp, certainly Red Rum, Les Cargo, West Tip, all the great old names from the 60s, 70s, 80s that won the race. Look at the picture of them jumping Beeches Brook, and then compare it with pictures of the course now. I'm pleased that Tiger Roll won it a few years back because he was a bloody good horse, uh, and it also helped to shove a bug up the arse of folks when you ask them if he's a better horse than Arkel. And if you want someone in some uh money on Tiger Roll, then good for you. But you know, let's face it, the fences, if they've been anything like they were when Red Ron was doing his stuff, Tiger Roll would have been on the deck before Beecher's first circuit. The fences are made out of marshmallow now, as well as the race being you know two furlong shorter, in order to you know appease the unappeasable, the anties, the people that will come out and make a big old noise in the next few days about how dreadful horse racing is, the you bet they die brigade that don't know the arse end of a horse from the snout and will not remember the names of horses that will die. More of that in a second. But that's just sort of fodder for their great crusade against not even against the Grand National, against racing as a sport. So it doesn't appeal to the Antes, and it never will, they are unappeasable, it doesn't appeal to the purist. I genuinely think it should you know just be quietly done away with. Many people don't agree, and and there is an argument that says, look, it's it's just a very good, very high quality now, longest distance chase uh in the race in Canada, and to a certain extent that is a valid view. You know, there are Gold Cup class horses that are taking part in the race, there are is a winner of the Sun Alliance chase taking part in the race, there are winners of the last two Grand Nationals taking place. You know, there are horses rated in the 160s, 170s, good class horses that are taking taking part in the race on Saturday. Nonetheless, I would suggest that it is not the spectacle of old, it is not the test of old, and for me, it can just be quietly done away with and the prize money better spent elsewhere. But as I always say in these podcasts, what do you think? You get back to me uh after this cast on whatever platform you're listening to it on, or get back to me on X. Uh, my handle is RacingWhat. That's at racingwatt on X. Leave me a message, let me know your thoughts. For the record, I will be watching the race. I haven't really studied it. I yeah, it can come or it can go. Yeah, we'll see what we'll see what will be will be. I'll be momentarily interested in it on Saturday, I'll not deny that. I think Nick Rocket looks particularly good. I think it had a nice little float round in its last race about a month or so ago. Nice little prep for the national. And at bigger odds, if Leckie Watson comes back to form, he's got the back class to make a dent on Saturday afternoon. So those are the two horses that I fancy, but without having done any real studying of it, why? Because I'm not that arsed about the Grand National anymore. I don't sort of hum and whir to the thought of the Grand National taking place. You know, there's no sweepstakes that I've involved in, there's no sweepstakes that I know that are taking place. You know, that shows how how interested the world is in the Grand National, I think. But anyway, it'll be run, it'll be won by uh a good top quality Irish horse, probably. Why? Because it always is these days, and then we move on to the Craven meeting next week and we can also wind down on the jump season this year. Wishing my life away. That's it for today. That's me opening the mic, venting spleen, and then closing the mic, seeing what comes out, hoping somebody turns up for it, if you're here still, and if you have listened to all of this, great, thanks a lot. Yeah, I say it every time, thanks from the bottom of my heart for showing up. It does mean a lot, and to see those metric sort of click up from the platforms, you know, they email me once or twice a week to let me know how many listeners I've got, how many downloads a pen. It's great. It's uh it's not in the millions, um, it's not even in the thousands, but it's it's tolerably acceptable, and uh it makes me realise that there is an audience out there for these ramblings of a madman. So thanks for that. Means a lot to me. But that's it. Podcast Pete. Over and out for this cast. Be lucky.