No Racing on Christmas
But maybe a little on Good Friday. (The Independent)
Beaten Favorite Drugged
“The dark cloud of doping returned to threaten racing yesterday, when the Jockey Club confirmed that a post-race sample from Turnaround, who finished last when favourite at York in August, has tested positive for the tranquilliser acetylpromazine.” (Guardian)
British Racing Revives
“It’s something to warm the heart at the advent of winter. Bago and Grey Swallow may yet join them. Perhaps the true litmus of racing’s gains is to consider instead what it is about to lose. Refuse To Bend and Sulamani will depart to stud, almost certainly to be joined by Haafhd. Otherwise it will be ‘as you were’ in 2005, with the three-year-old crop thrown in for good measure. Racing has never had it so good. A sport that withered on two decades of inflated bloodstock values has contrived a stunning recovery.” (Times)
Well-Laid Plans Go Awry
“By the off Pedrillo was the 7-2 favourite. The plan was laid. All it needed was for everything to go to plan. It spectacularly didn’t. The race was won by the joint-longest-priced horse in the Cambridgeshire’s history as Spanish Don came home at 100-1. ‘I suppose it’s my popularity that made him 100-1,’ said winning trainer David Elsworth. ‘Even the muppets in the Racing Post said you couldn’t leave him out. It was a surprise he was 100-1. It wasn’t a surprise he won. I had a few quid on, but I’m a mug punter, aren’t I?'” (Guardian)
French Trainers
Gathered with journalists to talk about this Sunday’s Arc and a few other things: “Of course the main topic of conversation is the big race here this weekend. But that did not stop these horsemen from ranting about who will go to the Breeders’ Cup, the foolish behavior of the Italian Racing Authority in a laughable suspension of Gary Stevens, and the terrible statistics of outside post positions on the turf at Lone Star.” (ESPN)
Related: “Arc features 12 Group 1 winners” (Daily Racing Form); “Take your pick in wide-open Arc de Triomphe” (Blood-Horse)
Turf Serfs
“Ascot will be a millionaires’ playground today, but for stable staff it is just another underpaid and overworked day.” (The Guardian)
Ascot Closing
“Fancy Royal Ascot next year? Well, don’t go to Ascot — the meeting is at York.” Ascot, Britain’s most illustrious racetrack, is closing for redevelopment. (Reuters)
Open House, Loose Horse
“I arrived, slightly late, at Richard’s to be met by a loose horse galloping down the road with its reins between its legs followed, at a respectable interval, by the screeching wheels of two 4x4s full of expectant horse catchers. Goes well on the firm was the overriding impression the horse gave.” (Telegraph)
L’Incroyable Pari
French organizers transformed the Stade de France in Paris into the “world’s smallest horse racing track” Saturday. “The idea was to meld sport and spectacle into a giant show designed to attract new fans to more legitimate racing, and in that sense, it is difficult to say whether the bet paid off. The racing Saturday was certainly unlike anything fans would find at a real racecourse.” Indeed. The show included a “techno-music light-and-horse spectacle between races.” (International Herald Tribune)
Not in Fallon’s World
British jockey Keiren Fallon’s assertion that it’s not possible to fix races comes in for some mocking from Dan Liebman. “Question for Fallon: What world are you living in? Someone get that man some smelling salts. Shake the pixie dust out of his eyes. Watch him closely because his nose must be growing.” (Blood-Horse)
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Jessica Chapel writes and edits in Massachusetts. Railbird is a Thoroughbred horse racing blog published from June 2004 to July 2019. More / Contact
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