War Path – Kings Pact Stakes
It’s been a tough week, so I’ll tell you straight off the bat, I’m not going to do the soft sell here. But I’ll try and use small words and short sentences for those who are hard of reading.
I try to give credit where credit is due, but here’s the deal – if you want me off your back, all you need to do is do your jobs properly. If not, I consider you fair game. OK? Good. With the caveats out of the way, let’s get down to business.
Clairwood. Sunday, 17 March 2013. The King’s Pact Stakes. Oh dear. Yes. Oh dear indeed. My Sanctuary cantered down the 8/10 favourite.
A number of runners were fractious at the start, but the majority loaded equitably. Craig Peters mentioned that My Sanctuary had been skittish behind the gates and the sweated up and obviously nervy filly scooted into the gates last. The field were ready for the off when My Sanctuary reared up in the pens. Alec Forbes managed to stay on board.
She continued to fuss and eventually fell right over ending up on her hindquarters, struggling and thrashing around in the stalls. For those with a front on view, her flailing legs thrashed dangerously through into the no 6 stall of eventual winner, War Path.
The jockey got to safety, the filly got to her feet, the back gate was opened and she was backed out. The rest of the field were unloaded, My Sanctuary was examined for a head injury and trotted up by the on-course vet. For reasons known only to those at the gates, she was passed fit to race. The field reloaded without incident, the bell clanged and the gates sprung open. Well, most of them.
The beleaguered My Sanctuary’s gate stayed shut while the rest of the field jumped. The filly crashed through the gates and gave chase after the field. For the first few metres the jockeys could be seen looking around, listening for the hooter which never came and then they continued riding. At the 300m mark a stray dog somehow joined the fray.
Anton Marcus rode a copybook race to steer War Path over the line to her first victory, Along Came Polly finished a little over a length behind in second and they were followed by My Sanctuary in 3rd.
My Sanctuary pulled up with a unilateral epistaxis and was suspended pending an endoscopic examination. It is not clear whether the epistaxis is the result of the head injury or an exercise induced pulmonary haemorrhage.
After an inquiry, the stipes invoked rule Rule 61.5.10.1 (which somewhat tellingly falls under the heading “Faulty Starting Stalls or Interference By A Handler”) and states that “Should the starter consider that through any faulty action of the starting gates or from any other cause, a fair start has not been effected, the starter may declare a “no-start” (false start).
Should the starter not declare a “no-start” (false start), the Stipendiary Board may, after a hearing, declare any horse which was impeded at the start by a front gate not opening a non-runner, provided that a horse which is ultimately declared first, second, third or fourth in a race by the judge, shall not be declared a non-runner.” With My Sanctuary finishing 3rd, the result stood.
As the runners were parading for the day’s feature, on course punters staged a protest, blocking the exits from the stipes boardroom and jockey room and police were called in. The Kings Cup runners were led back to the saddling enclosures and the rest of the day’s racing was abandoned.
Mayhem
Mayhem and a veritable electronic avalanche ensued in the electronic media, chat sites and social media. The proverbial properly hit the fan and Eskom did not even step in with a convenient power outage to mitigate the damage. Brown stuff everywhere.
The operators merrily made off with their day’s cut, but issued a press release the following day to throw the punter a conciliatory bone. Races 7 and 8 are rescheduled to Sunday, 24 March and there’s some arrangement about reinvesting some of the money into next week’s pools. Apparently no-one is too concerned for the 16 runners, the lost stakes and missed opportunities in race 9.
While we merrily rage about why the operators chose Rule 61.5.10.1 over rule 61.5.13 (“Should the starter declare a “no start” and the RACE cannot be re-started forthwith, the RMR shall after consultation with the SB either: 61.5.13.1 declare the RACE a “no RACE” and abandon it;”), or even 61.6.11 (“The only HORSES which shall be deemed to have started will be those in the stalls when the starter releases the gates; provided that the SB after a hearing, may in its sole discretion and within the time period specified for the lodging of notification of an OBJECTION, declare any HORSE to be a non-starter.”), I’m sorry to say we’ve rather missed a few salient points.
Before we get our knickers in a firm twist over the merits of 61.5.10.1 vs any other, how about we consider a few, if I may be so bold, possibly more important issues. A clearly distressed horse was loaded into the stalls, proceeded to fall over in the stalls endangering itself, its rider, its handler and its neighbouring horses, it sustained a head injury and after a cursory examination was passed fit to race again.
People. Priorities please. A horse fell in the stalls and ended up with an epistaxis and a suspension. The starting gates were faulty. A dog was on the track. And you’re playing ‘my rule is better than yours?’ I think we have bigger problems here.
How about some lateral thinking
I’d like to venture a possible explanation. And a possible solution. First off, I think our problem is that our priorities are entirely backwards.
Those who hate the “pony club brigade”, brace yourselves. Our industry is called HORSE racing. Without the HORSE there is no racing. A horse without a rider (owner, trainer, groom, punter) is still a horse, but a rider without a horse is merely a human. Without HORSES, there are no owners, no trainers, no jockeys, no grooms, no punters and no operators.
So why on earth do we ALWAYS put the horse at the BOTTOM of our priority list instead of at the top? I’m fairly sure Sunday’s decision to keep My Sanctuary in the race was at the very least influenced by the fact that she was favourite. There was money on the horse, and well, we all know money talks. Hmm. Imagine for a second that we stayed true to our original purpose (the horse) and she was scratched at the start instead. Simple. Elegant. And we may have seen the rest of the day’s racing.
Adv Brett Maselle is a bit of a thorn in the side of our operators and NHA officials and one of the issues he has raised in the past was the lack of endoscopes on our local racetracks allowing horses to be properly and correctly scoped in the event of a suspected epistaxis (as happened to his horse in August 2009).
The matter was raised in the 2012 NHA AGM and the minutes (issued to select parties in January 2013) reflect that “the cost of an appropriate endoscope would be in the region of R250 000 and R300 000. This would require a capital expenditure of more than R1,25 million given that it would be necessary to purchase five endoscopes” and it was further stated that “given the financial circumstances of the industry, an expense of this magnitude could not be justified.”
Dr Marianne Thomson wrote to notify the SP that in fact, with a little effort, serviceable second hand endoscopes could be purchased for far less. I verified the fact with the head of another leading veterinary practice. Well how about that?
Everything Important I’ve learnt from my horse
Because horses are so ridiculously honest, they make exceptionally good and uncompromising teachers. They require you to be very pure and unambiguous in your thoughts, emotions and actions. This is mainly because we ask them to do a whole bunch of exceptionally dumb things. In order to do the dumb stuff we ask, they need to trust us.
And you cannot ask a horse to jump a jump or walk past something scary or perform a movement if you’re not 100% confident and committed. Incongruity makes them fidgety and nervous and they are quick to exploit any doubt or lack of commitment and use it against you.
They quite reasonably think that if you are not sure or committed, then why on earth should they be? A generous horse might help you out for a while, but usually not for long.
I’m inclined to think that people work on a similar basis, but of course with civilization, good manners and proper upbringing, we are systematically taught to ignore our instinctive reaction to things.
And before you protest, how many times have you been nice to your mother-in-law, complimented your wife’s cooking (or your husband’s DIY), or done something you’re not comfortable with simply to be polite? That’s conditioning in action. Human beings are programmed to paper over our base instincts to maintain appearances.
When there is incongruity between our intentions and our actions, the result is never particularly elegant or successful. HORSE racing is fundamentally about HORSES. When we start having betting, turnover, pools etc as our focus, well, is it any wonder that things go south ?
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. With respect to the people I’m about to offend, the majority of the folks in charge on any given race day are not horse people.
Twenty and thirty years ago, we had the likes of Tommy Loftus as our course manager. The positions of starters, handicappers, stipes, stable managers, etc were filled by ex jockeys, trainers, breeders, competitive riders. In short, people who put the horse first because they understood that they had to and the reasons why.
I’d love to know how many of our starters have ever sat on a horse, nevermind actually been put through the pens in a race situation. Or explained an expensive injury, or a loss of form. And just in case you think I’m picking on you, the same question can be asked of the rest of the administrative staff.
Ask Monty
As you know, I love quoting from horsemanship guru Monty Roberts. A favourite quote suggests that when you’re struggling with a problem and trying to work out how to ‘fix’ your horse, take a look in the mirror – that’s your problem.
Monty also refers to “True North” in his teachings, with True North being a traveller’s reference point to keep them focussed and heading in the right direction on their journey. Perhaps if we focussed a little more on the horse and a little less on the parties, the prawns and the Pick Six, we might just have a little more luck. I’d like to suggest that we check our true north and look in the mirror a little more often.
