“Every Cog is Internal” - Katie Stephens.

 

Katie Stephens is the manager of Hereford Racecourse and a senior person within the Northern Racing

company. She came out with that line at a recent

meeting at Uttoxeter racecourse when illustrating the close and mutually interdependent relationship the

separate limbs of the Thoroughbred Racing world have - that no part exists or functions without the other parts. I think those who attended learned a lot from her. I

believe there are many ideas we could employ. For

instance, certain dates in the racing calendar are “owned” by a particular fixture - The Grand National, Derby Day, Cheltenham Festival etc. We are much the same - Spring Bank Holiday Monday is Appleby, the last weekend in August is Tregaron etc. But other dates “up for grabs” are auctioned by way of an online

auction. The highest bidder gets the date and the bid, however much it is, goes to prize money. This is a

process we might want to consider. Breeders of

Thoroughbreds are much better organised than our breeders. The Thoroughbred Breeders Association carries a lot of weight politically and economically (and any of you who get the Single Farm Payment when you breed horses as opposed to growing crops or keeping cattle, sheep or pigs, want to thank the French Trotting

Breeders for their efforts in this area). Trainers and Jockeys are well organised and exert their influence. The Jockey Club or HRA (Horse Racing Regulatory Authority) is very prescriptive in the management of racing. Thoroughbred racing has a number of issues it has to wrestle with. But the message is clear, we are all in this together - breeders, owners, trainers, drivers,

professionals, amateurs, promoters, track stewards, BHRC officials, bookmakers, feed merchants, farriers, equipment suppliers - we are all cogs within the same machine, we all work together, and when one cog is out of line, or malfunctioning, problems will occur. We all need to work together.

 

Northern Racing approached the BHRC back in July to discuss their diversification into Harness Racing. This is exciting stuff. I worked with Sir Stanley Clarke back in 2000 and 2002 on this idea. He, the founder of Northern Racing, has since very sadly died and the company sold, but the dynamism, the drive to seek out new business ventures is there. Uttoxeter would provide about a ¾mile track with excellent facilities, but HRA

restrictions will put paid to Harness Racing there in 2008, but there is every chance that Hereford will host a quality meeting next year. Hereford is a good venue in a strong racing area and because of it’s very light

summers Jumps racing schedule has a lot of dates

available for Harness Racing. It will be very easy to find a date which is suitable for Hereford and which does not conflict with one of our premier meetings. The prospect of hooking up with Northern Racing is a very exciting one indeed.

 

Another area, perhaps less exciting but no less

important is handicapping. “Oh no” you groan, “not handicapping again”. Certainly for the umpteenth time, but I hope the last, I want to go on record as saying that I was never easy with, nor in favour of the rule which limits horses below 20yards in the open handicap

system to races of £2000 or less. I have never been in favour of restrictive practices, but I am in support of anything which will assist, stimulate and improve our sport. In early August I had to take legal advise on

bonus payments being made available at certain events. Whilst the “20yard rule” is certainly enforceable, our lawyers were very concerned at some features in our handicap system - most notably the £1500 maximum pull and the way we factorise earnings. We are advised that the European Commission is very keen on sports management and administration. Anything which is seen as discriminatory and out of line with established European practice is technically illegal. We are advised to put our house in order - or face the consequences. We have to move to a modern model of race classification. No other European Country operates as we do and they seem to be doing ok on the other side of the Channel. Horses are classified, in Europe, on what they have earned - win or place. All earnings are accounted for. A Euro is counted as a Euro, not factorised. I have

suggested within these pages, a simple system before - and many of you support my views. From the feedback I get, many of you would support a system along these lines. My starting points are that the vast majority of horses should be eligible for heats and finals, and that once a horse has won £15,000 or over, it is entitled to be at the back of the field.

 

Suggested system:

There is a 10yard gap between each class. Any horse in Class C 1 or better can enter a Heat and Final race.

No horse can owe more than 50yards in any race.

Maidens can race together with horses in Class C 1, 2 or 3, where there limited entries, but it is preferred that maidens race against maidens.

 

All promoters must strive to put Conditioned and

Selling races into their programmes, and any promoter carding more than 10 individual races in a season, must card 10% of their races as Conditioned or Selling Races.

Prize money to be split as follows:

1.        Where prize money is over £1000:

           50% - 25% - 12% - 8% - 5%

2.        Where prize money is under £1000:

           60% - 30% - 10%

 

Along with a lot of people, I believe this sort of system would be fair and offer a wide menu of racing. By

insisting on Conditioned and Selling races, we offer races for horses who are not competitive in the handicap and be in line with the rest of Europe. Of course we would need to look at Trotters because the differential factorisation of horses earnings depending on where they come from is, quite simply, against European rules.

 

And if you want any persuading that change is needed, just cast your eyes over these sobering statistics:

 

Is this right, fair or reasonable?

The anomalies exist because of factorisation and not taking place money into account.

 

Of course, when we change - not if - we may well have to consider phasing a new system in. So that, say for 2008 no horse is worse off than it was under the old

system, but by 2009 the new system applied to every horse. We might want to factorise 2 year old earnings - we may well be able to get away with that.

 

But, we need to do something. We, like the rest of the world, have to account for place money in the handicap system, and we need a system that is easy to understand. We need a system that allows young horses to move out of the maiden, novice, improver strangle hold, where many a good young horse, capable of doing a 2:00 mile has to run week after week for low money before it has chance to run in a lucrative handicap race. For God’s sake, let’s grasp the nettle and get this sorted out.

 

Another area where people want change is in the system of 2 year old races we have. Despite plenty of money on offer, the entries for the major 2 year old races is

disappointingly poor. Many of you believe that we should have a limited menu of 2 year old races, but

further expand the Sire Stakes and Breeders Crown into 3 and 4 year old races. At present, the Sire Stakes runs a limited (with much lower prize money) 4 year old and

up series. And yet, these races are often the best on the card. I think more people would enter and support would be better if there were races for 3, 4 year old and aged horses, than the system we have now. Not

everyone can prep a 2 year old. Some of out best blood lines do not throw 2 year old winners. Today’s Man and Disraeli Hanover never got many top juveniles, but their older horses have won literally everything. Switch the emphasis, it may well be better.

 

One thing that has not been for the better is the “Galliano affair”. Rule M7 was definitely broken, but the rest of the story is best summed up by the old

saying:

           “The road to hell is paved with good intent”

Rule M7 is a well drafted rule that does not achieve what it was set out to.

 

I was very sad to hear of the death of George Coward, a man once described to me by Barry Gray as ‘the finest man he had ever met in Harness Racing’. I did not know the man very well, but admired and respected him.

 

One of the racing highlights of the year has been the Rasus Young Drivers Championship. We have seen driving of the highest quality, we have seen keen

competition, we have seen keen sportsmanship. Whilst Sara Morgans is the winner, every participant was a winner and the sport has benefited enormously from this initiative. This is one of the best ideas that has been

developed over many years. All these young drivers are great ambassadors for the sport. I would like to thank them all for taking part, thank Rasus for setting this up, thank the owners who allowed their horses to be driven, thank Raymond Jenkins and thank all the others who worked so hard to push this programme through. The BHRC, and me especially, see this as an initiative to take forward and develop.

 

To finish on a funny note, have any of you logged on to the Wales & Border Counties Chat Room. I tried a

number of years ago and found it difficult. But I have better things to do than go on it and talk about what should be done, I’m trying to do something. I

understand some of the comments are funny, some

confusing, some insulting, some defamatory. I am told some of the comments are not particularly

complimentary towards me. I think I’ll live. As Oscar Wilde said:

           “There’s only one thing worse than being talked            about and that’s not being talked about”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gordon Garnett