16th November 2020

Johnbb is in good shape after his win at Wetherby on Saturday, typical Monday morning canters again. Ant regular readers will know we have backed off some of the horses and it seems to have done them all the power of good, seeing and hearing fresh horses on a Monday is something I always enjoy witnessing.

Well, it was weekend and a half for racing, the quality of racing was top class. Sadly, we are all reading about incidences that should not occur. The quality of the photo finishes is a joke, after Sandown last year one of thought that better equipment may have been install at the premier tracks, if not every track in the country. The police are dealing with such imagines of poor quality on a daily basis, surely there is some basic software that sorts out the grey scale. Owners are paying a fortune to have their horses trained and race, they deserve better when they arrive at the race tracks. Things much change and they must change very soon if not sooner. It simply isn’t good enough. 

As for Fontwell, I blame the jockeys, the commentator knew they has to jump the hurdle and he was some way further away from it than they were. Jack Tudor knew it was to be jumped and good on him. However, it is blatantly obvious that racecourses are using untrained staff to marshal the fences. I walk many courses and have seen the guys who marshal the fences, many of them don’t speak much English and have not the first clue about horseracing. When we were chatting about it this morning, one of the lads told me when a horse went wrong that he was riding he pulled it up and dismounted 50 yards for the landing side of the fence. He was asked by the marshal what they should they do! This simply isn’t good enough and I’m afraid that until there is change we will see more of it. I’m not going to excuse the jockeys as even I could see there was no flag man in front of the hurdle. If they, some of which I think are super jockeys can’t work out what they should and shouldn’t be doing in such a situation they should read up on the safety procedures. It is not rocket science. We all make mistakes and jockeys are no different but I’m afraid I think this one was a monumental balls up on their behalf.  If they haven’t already, excluding Jack Tudor, should forfeit their riding fees and send it to the owners BHA accounts.