Tweet

racing news / captain's blog /

Captain's Blog - 15th February 2011

It looks as if the abandoned Totesport meeting at Newbury is going to be staged on Friday. All parties have come together quickly to reach this decision which should be applauded and we will bring you all of the action on .

The whole incident on Saturday has raised questions such as should the first race have been run and should the BHA have had a more coherent and proactive plan for emergencies such as this? It is very easy to be critical and wise in hindsight but I do not think that any criticism can be apportioned to the course or the BHA. When the first race was run nobody knew why those two horses had died, they may have both had heart attacks or the like, how were the course to know that there were electrical forces to possibly blame? As for the BHA having an emergency plan, well what should they plan for, aliens landing in the paddock? All out of the ordinary incidents will require extraordinary treatment. In this incident the BHA reaction in my opinion was quite imppressive. As an industry we should be concerned with what happened but pleased with the way we reacted. Hindsight lends one to criticise but that would be entirely unfair on this case. It was entirely a case where reacting in the appropriate way was the only way to go and that was achieved by all concerned.

Incidentally congratulations to my colleague Nick Luck and the Production team at on Saturday for presenting a calm and balanced approach to the whole thing. I cannot say that it made for good TV because the subject matter was so grim, but it was handled with necessary sensitivity and journalistic integrity.

I have a day off today and will be taking it easy until some friends of ours arrive for a two day stay. They are due to be here at lunchtime when I will be making copious amounts of tea and making sure everybody is comfortable and happy.

Time to spend an hour or so crunching some numbers form Dubai last week. Have a good day.

Today’s Selection

1:50 Southwell - Figaro Flyer (each way 9/2 Sky Bet )