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Captain's Blog - 10th November 2011

Punching did the business for us here on the blog yesterday at 13/2 and many thanks to those of you wrote comments on the website. I always like to read your comments even if some are less than complimentary sometimes. I also always like to hear from you on our Wednesday night shows when we cover Kempton and last night we received plenty of missives on a wide range of topics.

Once again the whip raised its ugly head, but I guess if things are to change we must keep the debate alive and if the jockeys want to fight the new regulations they must stop using the penalties as the battleground. The penalties are harsh but they are not the problem, the problem is the rule itself that gives rise to the penalties. Let me spell it out, seven hits of the whip in a Flat race and eight in a Jumps race are not enough and the jockeys should stand up tall and fight this issue on those grounds. Unfortunately fighting the mere consequences of a totally flawed rule will not change the rule. That is obvious, I would have thought.

I make no apologies for banging on about this again because it is so important. Last night I conducted an interview with Jamie Spencer and he told us that he could have won a race at Nottingham at the back end of the season but he finished second beaten half a length because he had already used up his allocation of strokes by the time he got to the final furlong.

In essence therefore, as a professional sportsman, he could not give his best to win and he should have won! This makes a nonsense of the sport. Some may say that the rules are there and jockeys should just ride to them and get on with it! I cannot adopt this approach because the original rules were perfectly workable. Now we have a sport where doing your best can be an offence and in any sporting arena that is totally unacceptable.

I could go on for ages about this and I am getting a bit heated typing this so I will leave it alone for now - but not for always, as this rule is spoiling horseracing.

I have a day off today and am being sent to the laundrette. Yes the washing situation has reached breaking point at McNae towers and the washing machine is working overtime but still there are piles of dirty clothes that need cleaning and to restore some order to the situation I am being dispatched this morning.

The whole episode will remind me of my student days when I would load up a washing machine in the laundrette and then got to the bar, on my return seven pints later my washing would be on the floor even dirtier than when it first went into the machine, dumped there by some angry student who wanted the machine. It's a tough life!

All the best folks.

Today's Selection

3.20 Southwell - Dickie le Davoir (each way 10/1 Various firms)