Weekend Preview: A Wise Ruling

It was not unknown for two neighbouring courses to stage meetings on the same day, resulting in small fields and uncompetitive sport. Corruption was endemic. The press, who were generally hostile to jump racing, revelled in tales of wrong-doing. Amongst the crowds were incidents of brawling, pugilism, cock-fighting, drunkenness, prostitution, illegal gambling, and welshing (bookmakers failing to honour wining bets). As a result of these and many other bitterly contested disputes, the Jockey Club finally lifted its head from the sand and established a National Hunt Committee in 1865.

How times have changed. Looking at that excerpt from the Thoroughbred Heritage website, the running note for National Hunt, in a 150-year race, could read: ‘awkward start, early mistakes, little progress.’ That’s unfair, of course, but the misconducted codes of the last two weekends – at Nether-by and Wincantrun – make it seem like a nascent sport with the same embarrassing teething problems, rather than the robust and rooted industry that’s as old as its tweed uniform.

Rules broken, or broken rules? Rules and regulations provide necessary structure to any sport, injecting integrity, of heightened importance in racing with its marriage to betting, and it’s only right that the laws are revisited at times, especially in light of recent awkward events. To that end, let’s have a go at modernising three of the most significant rules of racing, those which have been brought into sharp focus at the beginning of the National Hunt season:       

1. DISTANCE

Races must be run [as close as dammit] over the advertised distance. Updated safeguards in accordance with the Wetherby Act (2014):

                1.2 The advertised distance is on a need-to-know basis.

1.3 It is the responsibility of each course to measure the distance annually manually, preferably using the ‘one, two miss a few’ methodology.

1.4 Course records should be categorised as time immemorial, as time immaterial.

2. GOING

For integrity of data, accurate going descriptions must be publicised daily, to be assessed only by scientific modes of the heel or the stick.

2.2 A clerk of the course must undergo rigorous training to ensure that he or she is able to fulfil the CoC’s primary role of appearing on TV one hour before the first race.

2.3 Saturation is an acceptable course of action. (see also FIXTURES)

                2.4 A clerk of the course retains the right to change the official going if:

                - 3 senior jockeys say so.

                - 15 apprentice jockeys say so.

                - 1 high-profile trainer applies sufficient pressure.

3. QUALIFICATION

With acknowledgement that this is a mere pipe-dream and virtually un-enforceable, horse races should ideally be confined to those horses eligible to race under the specified conditions. The duty of care in this administrative matter lies with those persons entering the horse and NOT the administrative body. To clarify, an administrative matter doesn’t matter administratively in matters of administrative fact.

*Special exemptions for non-qualified participants:

-          Nobody notices.

-          The horse in question has a relative who can take up the engagement, as per the relaxed rule regarding disqualified trainers.

3.1 To qualify for handicap races, a horse must run a minimum of three times in order to show its merit, at the discretion of the BHA.

3.2 To win handicap races, a horse must run at its minimum three times in order to shadow its merit, at the misdirection of the BHA.

On the subject of rules, like a maverick cop who doesn’t always adhere to them, Buywise is aiming to take down the Paddy Power Gold Cup on Saturday.  The ruling he’s duelling is that only good jumpers make good chasers. To Buywise, jumping isn’t the name of the game. Winning is.

Buywise has won four of his five starts over fences for Evan Williams, and, ironically, it’s his one defeat that suggests he can win a race like this, because it came in a race like this, at the Cheltenham Festival, where he shaped best. That was the Rewards4Racing Novices Handicap Chase, a key piece of form, as the first two were Present View and Attaglance, who are also coming to the party on Saturday, and though Buywise was beaten seven lengths in fifth, he lost at least that much ground by tuning out at the crucial jumps.

All bar three of his rivals, of which Present View is one, has raced more over fences, which can be seen as a negative for experience but a positive in terms of exposure, and Buywise has that classic up-and-coming profile that tends to win out in such big handicaps. His jumping needs to improve, but it’s better to have a big engine and a faulty part than working jump leads but a worn chassis.

Timeform top-rated with a ‘p’, Buywise is already ahead of the game by our reckoning, As a rule, you wouldn’t normally recommend a suspect jumper in a competitive handicap, but if there’s one thing we’ve learnt from the last couple of weeks it’s that rules can be broken.