RACING FORUM

Posted: **Wed Aug 22, 2012 16:31 pm**

More interesting comment from John Osborne - Muhammed Ali never did what Snow Fairy did on Sunday. Leon Spinks probably had a more varied diet than is recommended for a high level sportsman, but the fillies which Snow Fairy beat on her comeback run were a collection from the highest level at the top of their game. The winner overcame some crowding and the tighter the squeeze the more determined she looked. The scenes in the winners enclosure were of great joy with plenty of relief bearing in mind the injury which had seemed to threaten the winners career. Ed Dunlop is a very popular guy and his punching of the air showed just what this filly means to all concerned. Mrs Patino believed Snow Fairy would come back, though many thought it unlikely. The believer won.

I don’t know the exact nature of the injury which seemed to threaten an end to a globe-galloping career. I do know that it was a leg injury of the type which signals the end in most instances. Horse people have dealt with this scenario for centuries and many remedies have been attempted to bring champions back to former glory. I am a vet and therefore a part of the collective which desires evidence and justification for particular modes of treatment though there is an enormous parallel world of alternatives. I know people who have received such treatments on themselves and felt a benefit, evidence enough for them to embrace the world of alternative medicine and to shelve their scepticism. Some of the remedies which are dressed up and sold can seem beyond contempt to someone from a scientific background, yet the customers are there. I suppose it could be argued that when Pasteur’s bread went mouldy, most saw dog food while the genius saw the road to penicillin. An open mouth catches no flies but an open mind maybe changes the future.

In my previous blog I made reference to money and the stock market and may have been misunderstood. The stock market is fascinating for investors but not a spectator sport. The bloodstock world is a stock market of another sort and fascinating for those with “skin in the game”, but that alone is not interesting enough for the casual bystander. The enormous amount of money in other sports, including the Olympics, is there because the sport is of interest to large numbers of people. A punter on horseracing has, for a limited time, ownership of the racehorse, skin as it were. If you are not an investor or a gambler, is there anything else in it for the casual observer? I am sure there is if people can understand what is happening. My boys could explain the nuances of cricket or American Football from a short time viewing on well-presented TV coverage. There are no cultural or experiential bases for their understanding but that was not a barrier. The key was the presentation. The story of Clive Cox and Reckless Abandon, the story of Snow Fairy, these should be the tales we tell to hold the attention. Attention translates into money, eventually.

You can get tomorrows racing paper today! Now that should be a licence to print money, although the Racing Post App issues the digital version after the races. I suppose as long as Tom Segal is on the staff then the Racing Post could claim to have tomorrows racing results ahead of time, most of the time. The world is shrinking and accelerating.