Transit Gloria
by Terry Clark
THE two youngest starters in the 12-horse Cheltenham Gold Cup were horses who had "arrived" on the big-race scene only this season. Sure enough, they were among six - half the field - who failed to get round.
One of them, seven-year-old Rince Ri, escaped serious injury and may yet have a future. The other, six-year-old Gloria Victis, was killed in only his fifth English chase.
Better and more mature horses than these - some of them winners of the Gold Cup - have never recovered from it. Other French-breds aged five and six running against their seniors at Cheltenham were Makounji (pulled up, Mildmay of Flete), Prince Sorinieres (seventh, Kim Muir), Majadou (third, Cathcart) and Tresor de Mai (fourth, Cathcart). Six-year-old runners bred in England and Ireland were: Upgrade (sixth, Mildmay of Flete), Wave Rock (fell last, Grand Annual) and, of course, Flagship Uberalles, favourite but only third in the Champion Chase.
I can't say that I complained beforehand that horses of this age shouldn't have been running but I can say that it has bothered me ever since they changed the rules to open up the Grand National for Cyfor Malta last season (I spotted several six-year-olds entered for the Aintree marathon this season).
I can't say that Gloria Victis' performance in the Gold Cup was that of a novice, though there was clear evidence from his races in France and from his first English win at Newbury that he would jump to the right. Raceform, the official English form-book, says of his demise at Cheltenham: "Although just headed, he was running a tremendous race when taking what proved a fatal fall. It is small consolation to his connections that he had already justified the decision to go for the Gold Cup."
But had he? Does jumping boldly until you are killed justify the decision? Many a wise head on the National Hunt scene would rather see a less flambuoyant individual jumping economically, hunting round, perhaps fiddling a few fences, maybe even saving something for himself, than the nostril-flared flyer who hits the headlines and captures the imagination of the ill-informed in the Press-room, creating a soap-opera scenario of laughter when he wins and tears when it all crashes down into the bottom of a ditch. It's the old conundrum of when is an accident waiting to happen?
Cyfor Malta never actually reached the Grand National line-up: he injured a leg which put him out for the season. He won at Cheltenham and Liverpool when he was five. But we haven't seen him since.
Hold on, says the Devil's Advocate, surely Antonin, Or Royal and Klairon Davis were six-year-old winners of big chases at the Cheltenham Festival. Yes, they were but were they really the same again after their exertions? Strangely, but not without good cause, it is a Cheltenham hurdle, not the Gold Cup or the Liverpool Grand National, which often draws the comment from trainers that it's a rough race which leaves its mark and is one to avoid.
Yet, every year, the Triumph Hurdle has a huge field of four-year-olds careering round Prestbury Park, sometimes in as desperate a furore as you'll ever see from a much-criticised pack of hunters out with the hounds. Have a look through past winners of the Triumph and see how many survived, physically or mentally. Come to that, have a look through past losers and see what lists of never-seen-again and never-won-a-race-again you will find.
We hear no complaints from the British Horse Racing Board or the Jockey Club. These venerable gentlemen are so aware of the public image that they have changed the Grand National out of all recognition yet they allow six-year-olds to run in it. These are the same guardians of the turf who are so P.C. that they will ban a jockey for days because his whip waving on a horse didn't look good to the public even if he didn't actually injure, mark, or in some cases even hit, the horse.
Jockeys before the start of the new English Flat-racing season have actually been told by the authorities that, with regard to whip offences, what appears to be happening may be what matters, whether or not there is actual whip contact or not. They have been told that, in connection with whether a horse is being ridden out for a place or not, what appears to be happening also concerns the authorities, not always what is actually happening.
Punishment for these lesser crimes of seemingly hitting a horse or seemingly failing to ride out a horse at the finish are reduced, per pro so to speak. But what about the horse? If a jockey considers that what is under him cannot respond further, he simply should not feel obliged to go ahead and hit the animal for the sake of appearances to please the same political correctness that, with the other hand, can dole out a fine for his misuse of the whip.
If I can now add two and two together and make five or six, are we not now in the situation where horses can be entered for major races at an immature age (that's the five or six I'm talking about) with the riders of these horses told that they must be seen to be wringing the last dregs from them in the cause of the public image of racing? What hypocrisy that these same policemen of the turf have been bowing to pressure to modify the course for the Grand National in the name of animal welfare! It's all about image, isn't it? They bow in one direction. They genuflect in another. They end up with their heads between their knees, no doubt feeling dizzy from going round in circles chasing the public good.
How dare those whose silly headlines demanded Gloria Victis' participation in the Gold Cup declare that Fulke Walwyn ran Mont Tremblant and won it, so therefore it's all right for this year's baby to run! OK, I might be past my prime, and there may be a bit of emotional hankering for the golden days of the great horsemen like Walwyn, Fred Rimell and Fred Winter and great jockeys like Arthur Thompson, Dave Dick and Bryan Marshall. But the operative word is horsemen not Press men. Yes, they loved winners, but their first love was horses.
Racing is in danger of going the way of all sport. You can be sure not only of the first priority but of the first three in either order: Money, Money and Money. It is a combination Trifecta that has footballers paid millions, with a university course dedicated to one of them; snooker players as TV presenters; rugby stars mixing with royalty; and ex-swimmers on game shows.
Whatever you think of that, the difference in the racing game is that it involves another living creature who does not have a bank balance, or a defence against the hype: a noble animal, the thoroughbred racehorse.
We are not talking here about prizemoney alone; one of the problems in jumps racing is that owners these days are loathe to keep "store" horses i.e. paying for the feed and exercise of young potential chasers until they are mature enough to go into action.
Another trend in chasing quick returns is to expect the more slightly built Flat-bred horses to contend with the National Hunt animal and make an early-age switch to obstacles and long distances. On all counts, horses under the age of seven should be barred from entering races which are known to affect the constitution of even the toughest of animals: races like the Grand National and the Gold Cup.
There are novice chases and there are novice-chase championships. No one can say, categorically, of any individual, Gloria Victis or any of the others, that he would have survived, or stayed sound longer, had he been kept to his class, but keeping to your class until you have had a certain amount of experience - which should be clearly defined in the rules - is surely common sense for the racehorse and for racing. Ironically, this has commercial value, too: where's the sense in ruining a potential star by aiming him too high too soon?
There are parallels in Flat racing: once upon a time, yearlings were raced. Even today, some all-age sprint races are open to two-year-olds. And there is one country in particular where two-year-olds start racing soon after Christmas in the icy blasts of winter when many of them are, in fact, only about 18 months old.
That country is the same country, France, from which so many five-year-old jumpers come to England for their far-too-early chasing careers.
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TERRY CLARK, a former racing
editor in Fleet Street, is editor of the MAJORDATA racing agency
at Visit
the Majordata Web Site |
