The Seven Sins of Racecourses and a Segway into Grass-Roots Owning Optimism

When preparing for this blog I had a think about the worst ownership experiences that I’ve endured. I remember back in management consulting days that for some unknown reason everyone talked about the “seven secrets of success”, so I thought I would build this blog around “seven sins of sloppy, surly service”. Regular readers of this blog will know that I suffer from the irritating habit of a love of alliteration – one of Hughes’ horrible habits. Maybe there should be an Owners for Owners award, and I’m definitely open to suggestions as to what the prize should be. I’ve done them in alphabetical sequence.

Catterick and its meal vouchers: on New Year’s Day my wife and I trekked all the way up to Catterick to watch Future Gilded win – which was fabulous. They had run out of meal vouchers. “Don’t worry”, they said at the O&T Desk, “they’ll see you right”. I went off to enjoy an exquisite Catterick lunch, queued for ages and then was refused service. Back to O&T desk. Still no vouchers and was told to go back and mention the name of the attendant. Back to the queue. Still a refusal to serve me. Sent off to “the Office”. They found me a voucher. Third time lucky, back to the queue. Bingo – served a beautiful, cold, gristly bap. A delightful owner experience.

Ludlow and its Owners’ & Trainers’ Admission: off to Ludlow for the first time and followed signs to the car park, then to the Owners’ & Trainers’ entrance on the inside of the track. Bounded in and presented my PASS card, they commented, “We don’t see many of them”. Told that I was at the wrong entrance – despite the sign. Equally told that I was in the wrong car park, and to get into the “right” one I’d have to drive back out again and proceed some distance to the other side of the course. However they relented and let me in. The first of our owners I bumped into on the course hadn’t been so lucky and had been asked to pay. Fortunately I had printed a copy of the email I had sent to the course listing the names of the owners who would be there. Again I was sent to “the Office” to clarify the situation. Their response was that they hadn’t received the email. Funny that. Every time I go to “the Office” brandishing an email, I’m told they hadn’t had it.

Plumpton and its Owners’ car park: arrived at the Sussex Riviera in a monsoon, tried to park the car, pointing to the ROA badge on the windscreen. The attendant refused to acknowledge it and wanted to see “the badge”. He made me get out of the car to find it in the boot. It wasn’t a badge but the PASS card he wanted. Allowed to park in the middle of a swamp. As with Ludlow I’d followed the signs correctly but arrived at the “wrong” car park.

Southwell and the winner’s room hospitality: half a dozen owners and friends travelled up to Southwell for the last race on the card. The horse won and we were taken to the winner’s room to celebrate with a glass of fizz. We were given the smallest quantity of champagne that I’ve ever received and, like Oliver Twist, I dared ask for more. After receiving another thimble full, the jobsworth then raised his arm, pointed to his watch and said, “Drink up, I’ve got a home to go to”. Charming.

Wincanton and prize-money: like many tracks, Wincanton is inclined to put the money into one or two races at the expense of the others, so the prize-money is derisory. Our horse came 4th in a really competitive, 17-runner handicap hurdle that will have driven a tremendous amount of Levy money. Our return? £238.

Wolverhampton and its lino: as far as I’m concerned, the least enjoyable race track in the world. To stand on its artificially surfaced paddock on a wet Wednesday evening in mid-winter is as dire as it gets.

Worcester and “family fun” days: what a dread phrase! Probably only rivalled by its “Ladies’ Day”, a term used extremely generously to describe the participants. A most awful experience.

And yet, despite all of this, I adore going racing and am still optimistic about the sport – which is where the segway comes in (or segue, as my wife would have it). There was a really encouraging announcement recently that grass-roots racing is going to receive an extra £9.7m in 2018 as the BHA tries to halt a decline in the number of horses taking part in races at Class 4-6 level. Richard Wayman, the Chief Operating Officer for the BHA, stated encouragingly that: “Although there has been growth in total prize-money in recent years, much of this has been at the top end. The returns to our sport’s participants further down the scale are simply not sufficient at present to be sustainable. Targeting grass roots with extra funding will help racing’s participants to maintain their involvement in the sport and keep more horses in training.” Hear, hear.

I’ll raise a glass of Champagne to this, while eating a pork bap on a family fun day on my next racecourse visit, once I’ve found the correct car park and been allowed on to the course. Champion!

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Wet, Wet, Wet & Wonderful Wincanton .... But Oh the Prize Money

Firstly, please accept best wishes for a great New Year, and may there be plenty of winners.

Really encouragingly for Owners for Owners, we finished the year on a high when Quick Decisson (not our name or spelling, by the way – we bought him named from Irish point-to-pointing), trained by Philip Hobbs and superbly ridden by Tom O’Brien, won at Wincanton on Boxing Day. It’s not often in racing that a horse follows the script, but for our first-ever runner under the Owners for Owners banner to win his first-ever race under rules was a fabulous start. It was the last race on the card, the weather was filthy, the going appalling, the floodlights almost had to be switched on to watch it in the dank early evening gloom .... but for all the owners, it was a real high with much embracing and kissing in that wonderful moment just after the line when you know you’ve won a race. We knew that QD (aka “Denis”) had shown a fair bit of toe at home, reflecting a US-bred, speedy dam line, but it was really encouraging to see the stamina kick in as he stayed on up the long Wincanton home straight. He won relatively easily, with a number of decent horses well behind him. There is an interesting form line through Mr Marvellous, whom we thrashed into 10th place, trained by Colin Tizzard. He had run 4th behind Oscar Rock in a good bumper at Newbury at the end of November, and is currently in the top half of the ante-post betting for the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival. Philip intends to reflect on the result for a week or so, and then decide whether to stay bumping or switch to novice hurdling. Either route is fine with us.

The directors at Wincanton could not have been more generous after the race, as they plied us with sandwiches, mince pies, champagne and free run of their well-stocked bar. The new Chairman of Wincanton, Guy Henderson, went out of his way to be friendly to everyone and it is easy to see why this track is regularly voted the best racecourse in the South West. He is determined to introduce lots of innovations and has set a goal of doubling the number of annual members. Best of luck to him.

However, one of the Jon Hughes Laws of Racing is that the longer the name of the race, the lower the prize-money. Denis won the “Connolly’s Red Mills Bumper Challenge Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race”, and in the process bagged the derisory first prize of £1,364.58. Second, third and fourth picked up around £400, £200 and £100 respectively. That is scant reward for the investment in horses aged 4-6. I’ll be examining the whole area of prize-money on the blog throughout 2013.

On the way back, Jack and I called in to our Lambourn recommended pub, The Pheasant, for a (quick?) celebration. I’m sure you noticed that there was another decent race on during Boxing Day, for rather higher prize money, namely the King George at Kempton, won very bravely by Long Run beating Philip Hobbs’ Captain Chris by a head. We walked into the bar and stepped straight into the post-race party with all the Waley-Cohen family including jockey, Sam. We didn’t want to intrude but they immediately started talking to us and when they found out that we had just won the bumper at Wincanton they seemed genuinely thrilled for us. To be slapped on the back and told “Really well done, you’ve got to start somewhere .... Who knows, it could be you winning at Kempton in a few years’ time” was the icing on the cake of Denis’s win.

Boxing Day hangover has now just about worn off!