Mike Cattermole on the Sandown void race drama and apprentice row
Our columnist reflects on a far from vintage year at one of his favourite tracks and the row erupting over the new apprentice rules.
NOT A GOOD YEAR FOR SANDOWN
I am often asked what my favourite racecourse is and that is not an easy one as some courses are simply better on certain days. The weather can have a say, too.
However, on most days Sandown is definitely one of my favourites. I love the view and the uphill finish all year round and the jumping test it offers during the winter. The paddock is easily accessed and is everything is compact and convenient.
However, the void race fiasco on Saturday capped a most unfortunate year for the course.
The famous, or infamous, two finishing posts at the Esher track caused havoc back in March, which led to the judge calling the wrong winner of the EBF Hurdle Final when it was obvious that Third Wind had got up. If you’d forgotten, the judge had incorrectly been given the photo finish from the first winning line on the chase course.
Saturday’s events turned into a shambles but highlighted the need for change - and plenty of it.
First, why did the stewards take so long to call the race “void”?
Next, quite clearly a static yellow flag, which looked to be held there directing the horses around an obstacle rather than anything else, is clearly not fit for purpose for halting a race.
Why wasn’t the flag even waved about? The actions of the man holding it were definitely not fitting of one trying to stop the race. Anyway, red flags are now a must, surely.
Yes, I know the jockeys should have known the rules and pulled up but, in fairness, they had been riding for nearly a circuit since poor Houblon Des Obeaux had collapsed and would have had no idea that anything was amiss because there is no system in place to warn them or stop the race any earlier.
That’s another huge issue and aside from a loud horn or claxon, how can a race be stopped when it is already well under way, like this one with 12 fences jumped and 10 still to go? Would the sound even be heard? Not an easy problem to solve, is it?
As things turned out- and isn’t hindsight wonderful? - this race didn’t need to be stopped as all the horses were directed around the obstacle where Houblon was lying.
Once again, though, the seven jockeys who completed the race carried the can for the unfortunate mess. To throw the book at them and ban them for 10 days during one of the most lucrative periods in the jumping calendar is unfair and out of order. It could cost them thousands of pounds.
In this instance, maybe a two-day holiday would suffice for not pulling up. It was a very confusing and unusual set of circumstances and their punishment at the moment is way, way over the top.
I hope that common sense prevails at the appeal.
FLAT TRAINERS DIGGING IN THEIR HEELS
The response from the likes of Andrew Balding and Richard Fahey to the BHA’s new arrangements regarding apprentices keeping a larger percentage of their fees and prize money from March of next year, has been interesting to say the least.
Some are accusing them of throwing their toys out of the pram because it will remove an avenue of income from their already financially successful stables.
However, I suspect that both men, and other colleagues of theirs, are not used to being ordered around by the BHA and feel a certain lack of respect has been shown to them by the governing body who have ploughed on ahead with the plans, even though they were not approved by the National Trainers Federation.
The BHA knew that many apprentices, who were meant to be getting help from trainers for their expenses, weren’t receiving anything. Rightly, the BHA wanted to do something about it and they have been consulting the PJA and NTF I believe for the past five years in trying to find a solution. Five years!
The PJA were to keen to bring apprentices into line with conditional jockeys over jumps who already receive a larger slice of their winning cake.
Nobody objects to that but it is a fact that conditionals don’t get the number of rides a Flat apprentice gets and therefore probably need more financial assistance.
Seemingly, the NTF disagreed but I wonder how far apart the two sides were?
Balding and Fahey’s threats to pull out of employing any new apprentices are not helpful and, on the face of it, disappointing. Surely there must be some way to take this new format forward and seeing whether it stands up in the real world.
Maybe give it a season and then have a review?
GIMCRACK DINNER MOVING WITH THE TIMES
The one invitation that I get which causes most amusement to my American wife is the one, on very thick card, to the Gimcrack Annual Dinner in December.
It is an invitation in a class of its own, a one-off, for sure, as you are invited to join the “Anciente Fraternite of York Gimcracks” to appreciate the most recent winner of the Gimcrack Stakes in August (the Richard Hannon-trained Threat) and hear speeches on issues affecting British racing.
The accompanying card also asks if your chauffeur would like a meal so it is all rather quaint and certainly adds to the special aura and lustre of the occasion. The guests are also asked to dress in dinner suits, hunting jackets or morning suits. Very smart!
I hope I blended in but I wonder how many others retired to the Premier Inn for the night?
When I first attended the dinner many years ago, women were conspicuous by their absence but that has begun to change and at Tuesday’s gathering of around 180 guests, 35 of them were women. That’s about 20%, so definitely a move in the right direction in what is admittedly a male-oriented sport.
One of the ladies was Annamarie Phelps, the first female chair of the British Horseracing Authority, who I am guessing wouldn’t have come across anything quite like this before.
The Gimcrack Dinner is a very proud tradition and unique to York. Indeed, no other course, including Ascot, can boast anything similar.
BACK AT HEXHAM
I commentated at Hexham on Wednesday for the first time in years. In fact, I can’t recall the last time I was there.
However, I do recall the view, which is spectacular indeed as it looks out onto the North Pennines. There really is no other vista like it. Goodwood is special of course but this is vast and a little more rugged.
Hexham is an extraordinary course in many ways. It is left-handed and has a short run-in but it seems to me that it would work better if things were shifted the other way round. It would make for a longer run-in with space for two or three obstacles in the home straight as opposed to just the one.
There must be a reason why this hasn’t happened. Does anybody know?
Anyway, I was pleased to call home Pads, trained by Darragh Bourke and ridden by Ross Chapman who was an easy winner of the Tant Pis Handicap Chase, run in memory of the popular flying grey chaser of the 1960s.
Pads lined up as a maiden after 34 starts under Rules, 29 of them over hurdles. He broke his duck - at last! - in style.
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