The Folly Of Youth

“Life is timeless, days are long when your’e young. You used to fall in love with everyone.” Poignant words from Paul Weller back in the days of my youth. National Hunt Racing was my first love in racing. The 1993 Cheltenham Festival was a few hours away when I first walked into a Ladbrokes shop in Dublin. The atmosphere was electric. The names of the horses emblazoned on the newspapers on the walls were mesmerising: Lord Relic, Young Hustler, Katabatic. The characters inside the shop seemed wild and carefree. The voice of Sir Peter O’Sullevan was booming out of the television. Pens and half-written betting slips everywhere. Magical. Simply magical…

Older And Wiser

Fast forward thirty-two years, and the words we would like to use for some of us are, older and wiser. I find myself less enamoured with National Hunt Racing. From the beginning of my introduction to this sport I was always questioning everything. I wanted to know how the sport worked? How do we know how soft the ground is? What time did the winner clock? Where can we watch the race replay? All part of becoming a better punter.

Michael O’Sullivan

This year’s Cheltenham Festival took place under a dark cloud following the tragic death of jockey Michael O’Sullivan. Michael had a bad fall at Thurles on the 6th February, and passed away from his injuries in hospital ten days later, An unfathomable loss that had most National Hunt fans questioning the existence of the sport. How can a young sportsman lose his life in today’s health and safety conscious world? More needs to be done to ensure the safety of our brave athletes out in the field. Horse racing is a dangerous sport, with some of the horses weighing over a thousand pounds and reaching speeds in excess of fourty miles per hour. I know Horse Racing Ireland, and all the regulatory bodies will be doing everything in their power to make all racing as safe as possible going forward. Rest In Peace Michael. Thank you for making all our lives so much more enriching.

Cheltenham Festival Thoughts

I hadn’t been following the National Hunt scene as closely in recent years, as I had done in the past. As a punter over the years I have found the occurrence of a disappointing performance happening more regularly over the Jumps than on the Flat. This is understandable as the injuries are worst in National Hunt, and the ground is usually much softer than on the Flat. Thankfully, I did manage a small profit over the four days having landed on a couple of winners posted on this website. The deeper I went into the results of the past, when preparing for this year’s Festival, the less reliable I found the whole procedure. As a follower of winning times and creating speed figures I have found that the BHA struggle to record accurate race winning times. An obvious occurrence considering the races are timed using a tape stretched across the track. Too often I have seen the race winning time listed as Official Hand Start Time, and regularly without that official stamp, when it has looked far from accurate when checked using video replay technology. But don’t take my word for it. Consider this fact for a minute or two. Timeform, widely known as one of the leading race timing organisations in the industry, have listed every race winning time from the Cheltenham Festival differently to the Official Winning Time on the British Horse Racing Authority’s website. That’s all twenty eight races over the four day Cheltenham Festival. Remarkable! We have all the data that we need at our fingertips, Race IQ, sectional timing, race finish percentages, etc. But the most important part of it all we can’t guarantee. An accurate race winning time…….

As if that wasn’t bad enough we had the farcical standing starts which saw Maughreen, leading fancy for the Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, whip round at the start, and too many false starts which ruined races for plenty of punters. The introduction of rubberised hurdles, which no doubt will reduce the number of injuries for the contenders, but may create more fallers as the hurdle could have less give in them? Tuesday’s Exeter card saw twenty seven total contenders over seven races. A frighteningly low number by anyone’s standards. And then we have the 2025 Aintree Grand National to look forward to looming on the horizon. The average punter must be dreading the thoughts of a repeat of last year’s race with twenty bunched runners still in contention coming down to the third last fence (hurdle). Worrying times indeed for the National hunt enthusiast….

Is it any wonder that some punters have their sights set firmly on the start of the UK Flat Racing season already…

Till the next time,

Look after yourself,

Graham