Monday, 1st March 2021
If you’re a jockey quietly trying to get your horse beaten, standard procedure might be to drop the anchor out at sea….
In other words, it is better to do the ‘stopping’ work a mile out rather than on the run in – where shenanigans are more blatant and obvious….
The trick is to see to it that your horse is never positioned to be involved at the business end of the race….
Another way to get that job done is to blast off from the start at a rate knots impossible to sustain for the full duration of the trip….
And if you were looking for a textbook example of such a ride then you might watch Richard Johnson’s on Mellow Ben at Kempton in the Close Brothers Handicap Chase on Saturday….
Before I go further, I should declare a vested interest in this issue – having backed the horse. And I should also make it clear that I’m not suggesting Johnson stopped the horse or that he deliberately set out to get it beaten. Not at all. I’m 100% positive he didn’t….
All I’m saying is that how he chose to ride the horse ensured it got beaten anyway – because he went way too fast early doors….
An aggressive ride can be a positive thing, of course. It can take other horses out of their comfort zones. It can get them ‘at it’. It can draw out mistakes and weaknesses from those playing ‘catch-up’.
Maybe that’s what Johnson set out to do. But an aggressive ride that leads to victory is almost always a fine balancing act on the part of the jockey. On Saturday Johnson got the balancing act arse about elbow….
Energy is a finite resource. The more aggressively you expend it, the sooner it runs out. Johnson expended too much energy too soon on Mellow Ben. He was too aggressive in the early stages of the race….
The pace he set off at was totally unsustainable. He was always going to be overhauled in the later stages of the contest. The horse was set-up for ultimate defeat virtually from the word go….
Now, I need to tread carefully when seeming to criticise a jockey or the ride he’s given to a horse – because I expose myself to accusations of ignorance….
Within racing there’s a prevailing school of thought that says anybody who hasn’t actually ridden a winner under rules should shut his damned mouth and keep his thoughts to himself. And I understand that. To a degree….
All the many complexities and subtle nuances involved in riding racehorses at speed in a race environment are likely entirely lost on me….
But I’ve been watching races for 30-odd years. And whilst watching isn’t riding, you do pick up a little useful insight. For example, I know when a horse has gone off too fast….
I knew Mellow Ben had gone off too fast on Saturday. Two fences into the race – and that’s what I was saying to myself. Too fast. I pretty much knew the horse was beat at that point….
And if I could see it then why didn’t Richard Johnson – a four-time Champion jockey whose has won more than 3500 races – seem to be aware of it?
I don’t know. It isn’t as if the horse was mad keen, pulling Johnson’s arms out of their sockets and giving the rider no choice but to go as fast as they did….
A line of five got racing right from the start. The way I read the race, Johnson wanted his man at the front of that bunch – and was prepared to go as fast as was necessary to get there and to stay there….
Why? That’s the question I keep coming back to….
Why go so quick early doors? Why expend so much vital energy in the opening salvos of a valuable and competitive big-field 3-mile handicap?
You might say that the horse was ridden similarly by Johnson at Newbury in November and put up something like a career-best….
But he didn’t win that day. And he didn’t win because he ran out of gas in the late stages of the race. Doing too much too soon ultimately saw to it that he got beat….
So (with lessons not being learned) the writing was on the wall at Kempton on Saturday when he went off even harder still under Johnson – over a furlong-and-half further and in deeper company. He was a cooked goose a lot further out than he had been at Newbury….
Like I say, the ride made no sense to me. Earlier in the day trainer Chris Gordon had said this: ‘I’m looking forward to him running a decent race.’ I wonder if Gordon got the kind of race he hoped for….
The rules of racing say that jockeys should be seen to ask their horse for ‘timely, real and substantial efforts to achieve the best possible position….’
I wonder how going off as quick as Johnson did contributes to that end….
He finished beaten 18 lengths and out of the money. Would a more judicious and measured ride possibly have improved on that outcome?
I don’t know. Perhaps. Probably. But the question is never asked….
On Saturday Nigel Twiston-Davies was called into the stewards’ room to explain the running of AI Dancer – who ran down the field and never looked on his game….
Okay the horse had been backed. But do the rules only apply to horses that see money? And do they not apply equally to horses that are given rides that get them beat at the front end of races rather than the back end?
It would be interesting if – now and again – we had a rider called into the stewards’ room to explain why he chose to go off at and maintain a pace unsustainable across the duration of the trip….
I suspect that most of the time it would boil down to honest miscalculation. I guess that’s what happened on Saturday with Mellow Ben. It happens a lot….
But it doesn’t make it any easier to swallow when you’ve backed a horse and you know it’s beaten for sure before it even hits the landing side of the second fence….
Regardless of the result on Saturday, Mellow Ben is the one to take out of the race for me….
He’s been freshened up; Saturday’s race might just have brought him on in terms of absolute full fitness; and he’s going to get opportunities on his preferred good ground in the weeks ahead….
On top of that he is a well-handicapped horse on a mark of 135 – and he might be a tad lower come tomorrow morning if the official handicapper trims him a pound or two for the defeat. That would be bonus….
He’s been rated as high as 145 in the past and at 8-years-old it isn’t as if his best days are already behind him. They could well be ahead of him….
Regardless of the defeat on Saturday, he went about his work with a verve and enthusiasm that augurs well. He’s a horse rated to win as and when connections get him to temper his aggression so that he conserves sufficient energy to finish races competitively (it’s a fine balancing act as I say)….
If he were my horse, I’d think about dropping him back in trip. The way he attacks his fences at speed, he’d be a real handful at 2m5f – and more likely to maintain his run into the later stages of his races. Just a thought….
The photograph doing the rounds on social media shames Gordon Elliott….
And that shame is compounded by his version of events on how the photograph of him sitting astride a dead horse on his gallops came to be taken in the first place – which reads to me like the fabrications of a man scrabbling to wriggle out of an indefensible position….
It’s an old photograph, Elliott says. As if age somehow lessens the impact of the image. I sat down without thinking, he says. The hand gesture is me telling someone to give me a minute on the phone. The picture wasn’t staged….
You can make your own mind up. I can only speak for myself. I’m appalled. And disappointed – to the point where I can’t find the words to express the depth of it….
Given my line of work I’ve often been put in positions where I’m effectively defending the sport – which can appear cruel. One thing I often say is that the animals that take part are cared for like Royal babies….
I like to believe that to be the case. I sincerely hope it is. But something like this makes you wonder. And any doubts raised do incalculable damage to a sport that doesn’t need more bad news….
I don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s not for me to say. I haven’t had time to fully digest the situation. But it puts a bad taste in the mouth. And racing simply can’t make the mistake of brushing this thing under the carpet. That’s for sure….
That’s all from me for today. I’ll be back tomorrow. Meanwhile….
Anything to report? Anything to say? Anything to share? Contact me at: nick.pullen@oxonpress.co.uk
Until next time. Stay tuned.
Operated by Spa Publishing Group Ltd (Company No. 15830286) 
