Friday 6th Sept

STILL STANDING…

I have been ruminating this week. I doubt this will send me blind. The things is, having strayed from home for a few days, I developed a  nasty cold and have been lurching round the house with a ringing head, feeling as if I were in a giant hollow hall.

Comments rattle around in your empty skull like ball bearings in a tunnel. No doubt you will be familiar with the sensation – if not, with the onset of winter, you soon will be. Having a cold is hardly akin to contracting black water fever, but it does turn you into a zombie for a while and make you so awfully irritable. When you are ill, normally tolerated minor annoyances become major issues.

The drone of RUK in the background has presented a challenge. There really is too much racing. When firing on all cylinders you notice this with a resigned acceptance. When under the weather you capitulate under a deluge of superlative.

On busy days, RUK have the habit of informing you (in the style of the Two Ronnies) they and you face a packed program. Racing will come up thick and fast – mostly thick, but certainly fast -so fast you barely have a chance to check where it is coming from.

Occasionally, with a suitably sombre expression, the presenter will announce the cancellation of a meeting. Again, this is something we will have to become accustomed to in the coming months – the recent ‘sad’ cancellation of Redcar’s program being a dress rehearsal. The news Redcar is abandoned is many things – as a racing fan, I would not claim ‘sad’ to be one of them.

This week has not been especially ‘packed’ – perhaps it just felt like it. I noticed Broxbourne got beat and saw a few maidens that looked impressive; but, to be honest, it all eventually became a background wash on a painter’s canvas.

Poor old James Willoughby continues to re-invent the jet engine. He will come in handy if the Russians decide to invade. He is too clever for comfort and should be on Mastermind.

With the sort of bosom that sculptors used to carve on the prow of ships, Lydia Hislop is beautifully distracting in a matronly sort of way. Crackly sharp and intelligent with an infectious enthusiasm for racing, she is a serious all-rounder.

On Thursday, she and Steve Mellish tackled two current issues.

First up was the decision by Prince Khalid Abdullah to employ James Doyle as his contracted jockey.

I know James Doyle sounds less like a jockey and more like a character out of Brighton Rock – or more recently, I suppose Eastenders – but he is in fact quite a good rider. Scaling the ranks, he is not far behind the likes of much-improved Tom Queally, the stylish William Buick and the immovable object that is Ryan Moore. Err … now – hang on a minute … Conversation shifted to news that in 2014, racing will take place on Good Friday. So 362 days of racing becomes 363, leaving Christmas Eve and Christmas Day currently blank – for how long one wonders. To quote First World War terminology: it becomes less a situation of Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition – more Praise the Lord and pass the betting slip.

As Steve Mellish warned, cards on Good Friday ought not to be littered with sellers and claimers, but you can bet mediocrity will creep in.

If you grant Hamilton, Musselburgh, Catterick or Sedgefield the rights to race then what else would you expect – a Derby trial?

Right now, we are between York and the St Leger Doncaster meeting – often an uninteresting little period for all except the accountants of the big betting firms.

Rather like well fed eagles observing their kingdoms for the sanctuary of distant eyries, most punters are only opening one wary eye – more to check on results than to actually bet.

No one in their right mind is going to be tempted by the vagaries of the ante post market at present – though talking of such, and the reference to eagles – it does seem that is a name worth bearing in mind.

Great White Eagle and Free Eagle (both trained in Ireland) have so far impressed in their respective juvenile events, outshining anything seen on this side of the water.

Tomorrow we have Ascot and Kempton, and at Haydock, the Betfred Sprint – thank Fred – although the line-up for that looks tired. To be fair the cards should be interesting. Who knows, we might even find a winner…[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]