Tuesday 1 November 2011

Whip again!

Decent sort of weather today and a busy one, this morning some of them did quicker stuff on the all-weather, Here's to Harry, Seeking Power and Forcefield worked on Lucinda's woodchip (here's to Harry particularly impressive) and Peter Buchanan was in this afternoon to teach some of the youngsters to jump including one of last week's recruits, Goldtrek who was a natural. Peter reported that he picked up the first whip ban of his 7 year career last week at Uttoxeter, not for excessive use but for a technicality that had changed (unbeknown to him) regarding the time a horse should be given to respond to the whip. Peter is a superb horseman and for him to be banned for what is effectively a welfare issue indicates to me that the new rules are profoundly flawed, lots of us, including many jockeys have failed to pick up on the minutiae of the changes and clearly my initial welcoming of the changes was misplaced, though I was always disappointed by the manner of their introduction.

Here's to Harry (Gemma)

Anyway, enough of that, not sure I will be declaring anything for Musselburgh; good, good to firm in places is probably a bit quick for me so it looks like Hexham Friday and Kelso Saturday, excellent card at the latter which I expect will draw another huge crowd - where does all the money go?





No comments: