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An obstacle hits an obstacle & a new kind of hurdle

(Haven’t written a blogpost in ages primarily due to exams and new role with The Oxford Student paper and am considering doing something a bit different online with a variety of options, not just about racing. I would apologise but doubt anyone cares!)

But as a sort of postscript to my last post on the plastic hurdles in use in Ireland but not in Britain, the Galway Hurdle earlier today was run over Easyfix hurdles and seems to be the biggest race to be run over them so far and has done so since 2009. 20 ran and the fact that the type of hurdles has hardly been mentioned suggests there is no real issue with them from trainers.

Since then a spokesman for the BHA told me Britain probably won’t be seeing them in use due to safety concerns.

 “Our Veterinary team liaised closely with their Irish Turf Club counterparts over 3 years (2008-10) whilst the Easyfix hurdles were being used on a growing number of Irish racecourses.

 We looked at the faller/injury statistics that these 3 years of racing generated and compared it to our traditional timber hurdles data in GB as well as the brush hurdles that are used at Southwell/Worcester and Haydock. 

 (NB The Easyfix hurdle was also subject to some modifications in Ireland during this period.)

 Ultimately, towards the end of 2010 and having compared the statistics, BHA took the view that it would not authorize the use of Easyfix hurdles on GB licensed racecourses (not that any were actively seeking such authorization) as the Ire faller/injury rates were both higher when compared to our 5 year rolling averages.  The manufacturer was informed and accepted our position.”

Most intriguingly was this suggestion that a different model – one which would fall over but not expose horses to any cuts or scrapes timber may provide:

“We currently have a variation of the traditional timber hurdle on trial with a number of trainers.  It comprises a single moulded foam pad that covers the entire existing frame.  We are looking at a possible racecourse trial later this year, depending on user feedback.”

Something to look out for perhaps… 

Easyfix - the future?

Quevega survived a last-hurdle blunder to win the Ladbrokes.com World Series Hurdle at Punchestown this week but had she made the same mistake at another Irish track like Ballinrobe she may not have won so clearly. Easyfix hurdles are in use at several of Ireland’s lower-level tracks after being approved for use at all racecourses in November 2008 by the Irish Turf Club. As yet the BHA has not approved them for use in British racing.

Easyfix, an Irish company, make plastic hurdles which are widely praised by many top UK jumps trainers who use them for schooling their horses. Champion trainer Paul Nicholls uses them and his assistant, Dan Skelton says they are a “league apart” for training purposes. Skelton told me: “We use Easyfix at home for schooling over hurdles and fences and are very happy with them. The great thing is they’re padded. The birch doesn’t wilt off and so maintenance is lower and this helps prevent injury caused by the obstacle. For schooling they are very safe. There is no opposition to using them at home.”

The hurdles were demonstrated after racing at Perth in 2008 where Racecourse Manager, Sam Morshead expressed a desire to use them at their following April meeting in 2009. Since then little has been heard in the UK of them and, as seen this week, Punchestown do not yet use them.

Skelton said: “Punchestown don’t use them for their festival races and they won’t do so for Championship races until they are standard in the UK. There would be an unfair bias toward horses that have raced over them before and therefore some Irish horses would benefit over the others. Traditional hurdles will continue to be used in Championship races until the product is used across all tracks.”

The advantages of the hurdles are that they are padded and fixed. They are easy to move for training purposes and intriguingly from a commercial point of view it is possible to put a sponsor’s name clearly on the front, as is the normal practice with fences. Thus its likely Cheltenham could widen sponsorship opportunities for the likes of the Champion Hurdle where the sponsor’s name is in view when jumping the final flight. Morshead also explained to me this week the problems with the current hurdles: “At one of our meetings around 40 hurdles can get damaged taking 10 days to repair at a substantial cost.” The maintenance costs of plastic hurdles are less than the costs of timber hurdles adding a further attractiveness to racecourses. Another benefit Sam identifies is with the running of bumper races: “The safety element of not having to run National Hunt Flat races over holes in the ground make them a good thing in my view. You can simply move them off the track to stage a bumper and they don’t leave hazardous holes.”

So how soon could it be before we see them in use in the UK? The BHA is reluctant according to Sam Morshead: “I have been very keen to race over Easyfix hurdles at Perth for quite a few years. I was disappointed in the first instance when the BHA decided not to allow the go-ahead to use them at Perth. We’ve had successful schooling sessions with the Easyfix hurdles and trainers have been happy with them. The BHA have produced statistics indicating that the falls which occur over the Easyfix hurdles are worse than those over traditional timber hurdles thus leading to more fatalities due to somersaults being more likely. If these statistics are true then I can accept that. I can also understand that if, in this economic climate, the BHA felt the cost of changeover would be too much.

My ground-staff and I have seen them in use in Ireland and everyone was in praise. But, for one reason or another, the BHA has been more reluctant than the Irish Turf Club to approve them.”

Dan Skelton concurs with regards the praise they’ve received in Ireland: “Ultimately, jockeys need to be considered most before we use them in races. They are the ones who have to ride over them and they want to be safe. Ruby [Walsh] obviously rides over them a lot in Ireland and the reviews are fairly positive.”

The statistics the BHA are said to have produced raise an interesting issue. If the Easyfix hurdles are safer then the BHA are wrong. If the BHA is right, then the Irish Turf Club is has made a mistake from a welfare perspective. 

Nevertheless, it is to the Irish Turf Club’s credit that they have taken the initiative to test them out given that Easyfix’s figures suggest 1.88% of fallers out of 75 races and 1061 runners over the Easyfix in 2008 compared with a 4.45% fall rate of 1100 runners in 78 races over traditional hurdles in 2007. The statistics are from races at Sligo, Kilbeggan, Roscommon and Ballinrobe racecourses. An innovation such as this, which has been embraced by trainers, is certainly worth trying. Paul Nicholls said in 2008: “I see the Turf Club have given the go ahead for the Easyfix Hurdles to be used on any Irish Race tracks. We in Britain should eventually follow suit after a watching brief, as these are the way forward.”

Despite the Nicholls yard’s obvious enthusiasm for the artificial obstacles, Skelton brings up one issue: “One concern about the plastic hurdles is that they don’t fall. This is a problem not in itself but because some horses have become accustomed to traditional hurdles and never experienced a hurdle which doesn’t fall in a race. This could obviously cause problems and injuries especially for the more experienced horses used to racing over hurdles which fall.

“Perhaps more horses will be debuting having schooled over the Easyfix and in Ireland will be debuting over the Easyfix and then they could continue to race over them no problem because they aren’t used to traditional hurdles.”

Skelton’s point illustrates the need for there to be a transition period if Easyfix were ever to come into use in the UK. Courses like Perth and perhaps Towcester, which also showed interest in schooling sessions in 2008, would be likely candidates for such a trial. Haydock and Worcester already use ‘Fixed brush’ hurdles for some of their races.

The BHA’s stance on the issue is that new fence and hurdle designs should be encouraged with the aim of reducing “manageable risk”. Whether that could include changing hurdles to a new plastic design, which has existed for some time, is unclear; but given that there are approved fences with an open ditch to make them more difficult, and that Aintree’s Grand National fences are also approved, it seems unlikely that pressure for a British trial of Easyfix hurdles would go ignored. Unlike on many other issues, people in racing are clearly open to change.

Sam Morshead is realistic: “I would hope they can be part of the future but the welfare and safety element has to be sorted first.”

Talking to Dan Skelton one gets the sense that plastic hurdles are the future but there is a long way still to go: “We’ll take advice from jockeys, experts and others. People like Paul Nicholls will obviously be involved in any plans. I’m not cautious necessarily about using them in races. We all think something’s going to happen but it will take time. When something does happen we have to make sure we get it right. The last thing anyone wants is for racing to make changes without carefully considering everything and then having to change it back again because it isn’t working.”

Jockey personality transplants make a good weekend

It can’t just have been me who watched Tom Queally coming into the winner’s enclosure at Newmarket and wondered whether this was a flat jockey we were seeing. Queally may have been told to do something (or been through the ‘Dettori-personality-training-club’), I don’t know, but his encouragement of the crowd really made an already hair-tingling moment even more so. I’d love to have been there but it still looked great on TV, which is probably more important to attract new fans to the sport. Too many times has a jockey won the major race and barely managed a smile. With the exception of Rooney on occasion, the football generation almost always demand utmost passion from their sportsmen. This is partly why, in my view, darts has been seen to perform better than snooker in terms of attracting new fans – the personality of the players. I'm not expecting "Ryan 'the monster' Moore" but Dettori is one of the most famous sportsmen in Britain for a reason and if more jockeys (I appreciate not all) can take a similar approach to how they look to the media then the better.

In terms of the Champions Series, the organisers should be pleased with how it all went – Channel 4 did a good job and the whole event seemed more polished to my untrained eye. The website for the event is also a fantastic effort. But points go to Dettori and Queally who, together with their horses (Frankel was the most impressive winner of a flat race I’ve ever seen) made the start, given the recent negative press racing has had, to the Qipco British Champions Series the best it could possibly be.

The end of the whip talk

Slightly misleading title - depends how you read it. I’ve given my ideas on the whip previously and haven’t changed them. However, if racing were to keep the current rules I would prefer them to automatically disqualify any horse whose jockey breaks the rules. That would leave the whip on slow-mo replays but not with the ‘aggressive’ force used by Maguire in the National (sorry for using that example again). The present rules can be briefly found here.

On another level, were the whip to be banned, say, after the final fence, or throughout, it would have implications on global rules, particularly on the flat (probably not at all on the jumps). Currently, from what I can see, there are no global rules, such as Fifa’s in football, which is quite handy. Also, were Britain to make changes, they would maybe be copied across the world rather than there be a boycott. Things would probably stay as they are for the immediate future with foreign jockeys adapting. Whether trainers will not want to come to the UK is a question I cannot answer but it’s worth asking.

I’d also be interested as to whether point-to-point racing would change its rules in line with any ban. I wouldn’t go anywhere near suggesting I know what the point-to-point rules are and would guess the disciplinary system isn’t up to much, but given that many jockeys come through these ranks it would seem strange for them to begin their careers using a whip in finishes and when becoming professional to stop.

This is my third and, I hope, final post on the whip for now. The debate continues and, as normal for a blogger, it’s been hard to resist giving my opinion. But this blog was not meant for constant talk about the whip and as I imagine for many in racing, they’d rather talk about something else. So would I.

Do you have a racing blog?

After a first few days blogging I'm beginning to get to grips with basic technology. But would like to, at some point make this a better blog and looking better.

I want to put a big list of blogs on the side of my page and will soon search the net for them but if you have a racing blog which isn't on my list then please tell me in the comments below and whether its a tipping or general blog. Any racing blog is fine but I'd like to separate the two. Thanks very much, Tim.

My views on public opinion and the whip

Last day before going back to Uni and last day of gym membership. I will now revert to being an academic workhorse (OK thats probably not going to happen) and a physical slob (odds on chance). Oxford has decided it’s a great idea for us all to do exams on Bank Holiday Friday morning and Saturday afternoon. I’m sure there’s something big on TV we’ll be missing... oh of course, the 2000 Guineas. Anyway, here’s my views on the whip.

Towcester’s announcement they intend to ban the whip was wrong. In the same way Stoke and Bolton couldn’t announce that their managers had agreed they fancied playing their FA Cup semi-final for 60 minutes rather than 90, a racecourse can’t suddenly decide it is changing the rules of racing. It would look amateurish and farcical. The sport would appear unregulated. The British Horseracing Authority is there for a reason.

They did, however, make some interesting points which have stirred up a bit of interest especially after David Ashforth’s article in the Racing Post where he called for a ban on the whip. The debate has moved centre-stage with regular national newspaper articles on the topic. The same thing happened in 2008 and I’d recommend reading this article from then in The Times which includes lengthy opinion from David Muir (RSPCA) and Choc Thornton. Back then the current BHA Communications Director, Paul Struthers said correctly: “Things cannot stay as they are, so we are starting with a blank sheet of paper. Racing needs to get on top of this problem before other people start trying to do it for us.” The solution was harsher whip bans, which from a welfare point of view are correct. The whip is not cruel unless abused by excessive force or frequency which is what was meant to be stamped out. Jason Maguire in the Grand National is one of many examples which would suggest it probably wasn’t.

Towcester claim that their ban would attract more people to the races. The BHA and Rfc say they are to undertake market research on whether people are put off racing by the whip. As a young child I wasn’t personally put off by the whip at all and remember strangely seeing it as quite cool. I was, however, an existing racing follower and my initial guess now is that in this world where political correctness (which is usually incorrect) is rife, future children will be brought up where the whip seems a strange and unwarranted oddity. Since meeting people at university from metropolitan backgrounds I’ve had to learn to cut out virtually all my jokes which could potentially offend anyone (even the College cat) or risk having my head blown off by some feminist do-gooder. Their children are going to take political correctness as the norm. There may be the odd backlash but the tide of opinion is moving in this direction. This has benefits – the next generation will not tolerate any racism whatsoever. But it also means racing must adjust itself so to be tolerated in the future.

ATR’s Sean Boyce disagrees: “First off there is little or no evidence of the public ‘outrage’ that we’re seeking to address. Secondly public opinion is often wrong. Thirdly, public opinion is never set in stone. It is fluid, mutable and we have a key part to play in shaping it.”

The BHA should make sure their research is thorough, not token, and let us know the results in an unbiased way before they make any announcement on the whip. I wait with anticipation but would rather they tell us now what this surveying will consist of.

Assuming my guess is right about public attitudes, how should racing respond? Like I predict many others have, I have changed my mind over this issue. Two years ago I would have told you to get lost and keep things the same because the whip isn’t cruel. Last year until a fortnight ago, I held Ashforth’s position before he had made it. I saw the banning of the whip to hit a horse during a race as a great signal racing could make to show it was modern, 21^st Century and totally going with the Racing For Change thing. The PPEist in me would compare this to Blair’s Clause IV moment, a bold symbolic modernising move which David Cameron’s team have repeatedly sought to emulate, to rid his party of its old ‘nasty’ image. Were it to be done by racing without pressure from outsiders then it would generate tons of positive publicity for the sport across the national news bulletins and media outlets. I never considered the whip cruel but thought it unnecessary.

My position has changed to one I can’t be certain, but am pretty sure, I’ll keep. David Muir, the RSPCA’s Equine Consultant wrote in 2008:

“In my view, it is only fair that a jockey should be able to bring a horse to attention. They are pack animals and during a race they can revert to herd instincts and get distracted. Using a whip to make them concentrate is acceptable.

 The new whip has been generally accepted now, especially by the National Hunt jockeys. The old one, which was a nylon rod with a leather thong on the end, could inflict unnecessary levels of pain; this one does not. But what still causes me a problem is excessive force or frequency and the rules need to be more specific and probably stricter. In jump races, I wonder if we could say you can't use the whip after the last obstacle. We'd still have a first, second and third in every race, but they would have to be ridden home with hands and heels.”

I hadn’t considered the distraction argument in that a horse may look around before jumping a fence and it would be dangerous not to bring them to attention using a whip. Once the horse has jumped the last, distractions are no longer dangerous. Horses can be straightened using the whip without hitting. Jockeys who can’t do this should learn as they are disadvantaged.

My view is this:

Jockeys carry whips and are allowed to wave them around without hitting the horse as much as they like. In Flat racing this would be it – all hitting banned.

In National Hunt racing:

Jockeys can strike a horse a maximum of 3 times (or X times – to be decided by jockeys and regulators as this is a safety issue) between each obstacle. Once the last fence is jumped hitting is banned. Any breach of these rules, which would be simple to see, would result in disqualification for the horse and it would be placed last.

My reservations surround what Nicky Henderson has to say: “The 'hands and heels’ series for young riders has been a success, but I’ve watched a couple lately and it’s noticeable how difficult it is to ride a horse for a long way without that extra bit of persuasion.” 

The last thing we want is horses stopping because they can’t be bothered, especially in races like the Ascot Gold Cup or Eider Chase. Clare Balding says her view changed after seeing Ruby Walsh drop his whip on Big Buck’s and still win. I am far less optimistic because Big Buck’s is genuine and I have the picture in my mind of a jockey riding away on a horse chewing the grass like you see at the starting stalls. But I think my rules would, as John Francome has maintained banning the whip would do, increase jockeyship. They would require jockeys on horses who do nothing in front to ride accordingly and finish later. This in itself would require jockeys to know their horses better, either by riding them out or by being prepared better. Tactics would come to the fore and jockeys who put in more effort will be rewarded. We would, no doubt, see more of Paul Carberry’s ‘Harchibald’ rides.

In addition my rule would allow for smacking when horses are distracted in jump races. This tends to happen most by the stables, which inconveniently means jockeys give their horses a smack when they are passing the grandstands first time round. If this was down the back straight it wouldn’t be a problem.

However, the main point of the rule would be to effectively remove hitting with the whip from finishes, where close-up slow-motion action replays are used on TV. People would hardly notice the whips absence, because no doubt the jockey will be waving it past the horse’s face, but there would be no smacks or cries of cruelty.

Over at the excellent Steeplechase blog, which has a comprehensive review of all opinions, Joe McNally rightly says: “Out of sight is out of mind. Unless exposed to excessive use of the whip in graphic fashion, the public have no detail on which to make a subjective judgement. Jason Maguire, unwittingly, opened Pandora’s box.”

It's a very tricky subject. I can understand how pathetic this reason is to change a rule when there isn’t really any welfare issue but for the reasons outlined above I believe it is a necessary change and would take racing forward.

Thank you for reading if you made it this far!

My next blogpost will explain, in briefer fashion, how the implementation of any such rule would work. I believe very strongly that the way to go about this is through organised incremental trials followed by feedback, adjustment and then a full rollout and not Towcester’s suggestion of one track going it alone from this October. A major issue in all this would be what I mentioned in ‘Gordon’s Global Lesson’ – namely, how would the international racing community react? Are their rules already different to ours? I somehow doubt that Point to Points would embrace the changes as they relish not seeming to be in the 21^st Century but as they produce many future jockeys they are interesting. And I wonder what the implications would be for getting horses into starting stalls.

Please write your comments below.