Blog Sixteen - Monday 20/06/2022
Good Monday Morning
As we go into another week, remember; There’s no success without failure, and no winning without losing!
Our week starts excitingly with our soldier Mr Fayez going to Brighton again on Tuesday. Josephine Gordon, who has done such a good job with him rides again. He just keeps improving and thriving the more we race him, but I really hope he wins so that we can give him a summer break and bring him back for the autumn/winter as he will be a really fun horse for later in the year. He has done us so proud and really wears his heart on his sleeve and tries his heart out every time. Go on the Flyingez!
I get extremely nervous when I see the support for the reduction of 300 races. Whilst I think there is a little too much racing, it’s scary to lose races as that’s where owners earn money and racing generates money. The funding model and programming are two of the biggest factors I personally think that contribute to smaller fields and poor prize money but read on…
Part of the problem is programming. A place like Newmarket for example will have 6 races in a evening with a lot of the time 5-6 runner fields, because they program for mainly 80+ rated horses. Yes people want to see decent horses but people also want to see big fields and competitive racing. So why not program for example a Novice 2 year old race, followed by 3 races rated 45-65 over 6F 8F and 10F followed by 2 of their normal highly rated races. This would give you at least 3 races on the night with decent horses and 3 races with big fields. I went to Doncaster on Derby day for example, and the 45-65 6F had 21 runners carded while the rest of the races hardly had a runner. There are many programming issues I’ve picked up in my short time here in the UK. A balanced program will help fill fields. It’s not rocket science. Program correctly! I noticed a race meeting not long ago with 2 races, of horses from the same rating band on the same night over 11F and 13F? That is generally the same horses, and that is why you aren’t getting bigger fields. These type of things need addressing. My method above in the Newmarket example worked in SA until the “bigger boys” took over and catered for their horses only, and it’s all out there for everyone to see.. racing is currently in business rescue!
This brings me to “the bigger boys”.. It’s vitally important for the game that horses are spread around and not concentrated among a handful of trainers. These trainers for example have too many horses and don’t run enough against each other, also not helping field sizes. Should the horses be spread around, this wound also boost field sizes. Hong Kong, Japan etc where it works, cap trainer numbers and have full fields every single week. Yes they only race twice a week but yes they only have a handful of trainers. If horses were spread out here, the UK would have the same result. Again, I speak from experience, I have seen SA racing fall apart and into business rescue as the big got too big, the smaller and medium size owners and trainers fell apart and field sizes shrunk and as I’ve said, the end result, racing is in administration or business rescue, whatever term you prefer.
I’ll leave some funding thoughts for next weeks blog.
Royal Ascot time…wow! What a marvellous week and it was magnificent and great for racing to see the winners so spread around. It’s important as I’ve said above. The Champions like Baeed, Inspiral and Nature Strip won and the rest of the races were spread out among many different owners, trainers and jockeys and from the comments on social media and the press, especially ITV viewing figures, this was the most successful and enjoyable Royal Ascot in years. This endorses everything I’ve said above and it was great to watch. I’ve been prompted to do a short personal awards ceremony from my opinion on the week, so here goes:
Performance Of The Week: Baeed.
Trainer Performance Of The Week: Inspiral and team Gosden.
Shout Of The Week: Chubby, Protected Guest for Team Margeson, I had a little each way at 40/1 and shouted this home to only be beaten into 2nd but a great run from a small yard.
Unluckiest Of The Week: Not Frankie but AMO Racing, they had a great week and were so unlucky a few times.
Most Enjoyable Race To Watch: Broome, a front running hammering!
Bet Of The Week: Claymore, The Craven form is turning out really strong and this one paid the bills for the week.
Wally Of The Week And Champion Jockey Of The Week Combined: Well, Ryan Moore was of course rider of the week but I share this prize with him, the Wally part, after questioning his sharpness earlier on in the week. Encyclopaedia Bob quickly sent me black and white stats since 2015 showing me I’m wrong and then Ryan Moore jumped on that same horse and rode my theory into the ground. What a champion, I humbly eat my words and Ryan Moore showed how classy and sharp he is.
On a side note, Ryan Moore did ride our horse Strategic News in Dubai in 2009 and duly won on him. Pure class. He was great then and still great now.
Talking about greatness, wow, Hollie Doyle, what a champion. She is a world class jockey and won her first classic winner yesterday and what a great ride it was. I don’t think there are many jockeys in the world that can ride like Hollie and I don’t think there are many jockeys as dedicated and sharp as Hollie. Well done. It was so classy to see the legend Gerard Mosse shake her hand right after the line and then her husband Tom Marquand pulled up and went straight to celebrate with her while trotting back. The French crowd were also brilliant and I just can’t think of two better people for racing than Hollie and Tom.
It’s the Tattersalls July Sale from 6-8 July and we really need support and to buy a few horses and stock up. We are here in a new country trying to get going. We’ve backed ourselves but now need some local support. Please get in contact and let’s find a solution for the July Sale. We are buying to syndicate/racing club, as well as sole ownership. Our yard has started off so well and we are really enjoying racing in the UK and have big plans for the future so please join us.
To end this weeks blog but while I’m on the subject of supporting us, Del Boy would say… “you know it makes sense.”
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