The Mirror Racing postbag is seldom empty, but the postie got a particularly good workout in the wake of the Juddmonte International at York on Wednesday. A few readers got in touch because a tip for Item proved correct – stopped clocks, and all that – many more wrote to lament that the race, as a spectacle, was a mess, and the remainder wanted to talk about Action.
Was It Team Tactics?
Was this a case of team tactics – but with the aim of hindering an opponent rather than helping a team-mate? Most expected Action would be on pacemaking duties for Constitution River, but instead he spent the early furlongs of the race at the back of the eight-runner field rather than at the front of it. Overhead footage showed him directly on the outside of Constitution River’s market rival – and 5-6 favourite – Ombudsman, whom William Buick sought to make his ground on the inside rather than sweeping round the outer, as has been his wont.
Personally, I don’t think it affected the result. Perhaps, as Ombudsman’s joint-trainer John Gosden suggested, the rain had made life difficult for the market leader, or maybe – for some other reason – the five-year-old just wasn’t at his best. But the thrust of the correspondence is that the stewards, at the very least, should have held an inquiry into Action’s running and riding – and I’m in full agreement. In the race of the season, as in any other, justice must not only be done but manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.
ITV Racing Plays Politics
Ebenezer Scrooge hoped the visit of Jacob Marley’s ghost was a hallucination triggered by an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese or a fragment of an underdone potato. I desperately felt the same after ITV Racing’s opener to the York coverage on Wednesday, when Ed Chamberlin had somehow become Prime Minister and was addressing the nation. But it was all true. Too horribly true.
Non-Runner Madness
Benvenuto Cellini. The can of worms that keeps on giving. Since the Epsom stewards declared the Derby favourite a non-runner because he had a foot on the running board of his stall, hardly a week goes by without a similar case going the other way. On Wednesday, Native Instinct got his nose wedged between the gates after he anticipated the start. He sustained a swollen gum and a cut, but still goes down as a runner. Madness.
Is Racing Popular? You Bet
The Saturday of York’s Ebor Festival brings to an end the English summer’s marquee meetings. The combined crowds across 14 days at Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood and York is bearing down on 500,000 people. They were there to watch the horseracing, and to bet. Are you listening, Mr Burnham?
