Category: News

In preparation for a busy new season at Stratford, the racecourse is pleased to be at the forefront of improvements in horse welfare, following the implementation of an exhaustive research project by the University of Exeter, in partnership with the sport’s governing body, the British Horseracing Authority.

From the opening fixture on Monday March 14, take-off boards and fence and hurdle sight boards will change in colour from fluorescent orange to white. The research, concluded in 2020, found that horses have reduced colour vision compared to humans, seeing colours along a continuous range from blue to yellow, and therefore cannot distinguish between many of the colours that humans see as red, orange, and green. What originally appeared to be an excellent idea to paint the take-off boards bright orange has in reality been of little help to the horse.

The research was carried out at 11 racecourses in a variety of different lighting conditions between February 2017 – 2018, and included trials with horses at training grounds too. Fence colour significantly affected the way a horse jumped the fence with regards to its takeoff and landing distances, and the angle of takeoff that a horse made during a jump. The colour of the fences plays a role in both the shape that the horses made whilst jumping a fence and the total distance jumped. 

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, trainer Richard Phillips reported, “To start with we were slightly dubious about the whole concept but the evidence was quite striking. To both the riders and those on the ground the horses seemed to jump the obstacles with white rails more fluently and with more precision than they did the orange obstacles.” 

Over the space of a 12 month period, equine casualty records over the last five years have consistently indicated an annual average of 176 fatalities in racing at large, predominantly, but not exclusively, due to jumping errors. BHA has successfully reduced faller rates through a combination of means, including managing field sizes, altering distances or starts to accommodate the distance to the first obstacle and through better monitoring of licensed personnel. There is no zero option here in a sport as fast and unpredictable as Jump racing, but the Exeter University research maintains a downward momentum on injury rates through a remorseless focus on safety, without sanitizing the sport.

The research, overseen by BHA’s Senior Course Inspector Richard Linley, who has extended experience of race-riding in a highly successful career as first jockey to the Rimells, has some relevance to other equestrian sport too.

One fall is a fall too many, but if this seemingly innocuous change reduces risk without diminishing the spectacle, then the sport and all its followers are winners.

Stratford’s new 2021 season opened under intermittent blue skies and a temperature slightly above the average for the time of year. But whereas one might have expected a buzz of anticipation around a season of summer jumps action ahead, or even the Cheltenham Festival the following day, the atmosphere remains subdued and professional.

The number of horseboxes in the car park outnumbered the volume of personnel at the course all engaged in going about the day-to-day business of horseracing. The nearest to a crowd was the smattering of walkers on the railway bridge overlooking the 2m start.

However, that didn’t take away from some interesting action on the course, with good ground appearing at last after a winter of wet and bottomless conditions.

The season began as it had finished, led by Warwickshire’s leading trainer, Dan Skelton in the juvenile hurdle, whose Stepney Causeway made all and won by 2 ½ l under brother Harry – further confirmation, were it needed, that the Skelton camp is in fine form approaching 28 of the best races of the year later this week. The Skelton run of form was compounded by the later win of Vision des Puy in the Handicap Hurdle, picking off long time leaders Glory And Fortune and Global Society 150 yards from the line.

In the Novices Handicap Chase, the well-known colours of Andrew Wates, whose winning record includes Rough Quest in the Grand National of 1996, were carried to victory by Kap Auteuil, picking up his second such race this year. The 22l victory  under Harry Bannister, despite a hike of 12lb, shows there may be more to come and no-one was surprised if the 6/4 favouritism was any guide.

“Andrew Wates has been an immensely patient owner, and he’s had to wait a long time for this fellow to come good,” said trainer Toby Lawes afterwards, reflecting on his seventh winner of the term.

The West Country took home a winner of the following Novices Handicap Hurdle when Blazing Saddles was a competent if unspectacular winner from Isthebaropen and White Turf, under Matt Griffiths for Jeremy Scott, this the pair that enjoyed a heart-stopping success at Ascot in February when the Dashel Drasher won the Betfair Ascot Chase by the scruff of the neck.

And it was as far west again for the feature Handicap Chase over 2m 6f as Joueur Brasilien, another French-bred, took up the running from long time leader Orrisdale and held off the Skelton challenger Accordingtogino to win by 3 ¾ l, bringing success to west Wales and Rebecca Curtis.

I watched that race with trainer Kim Bailey, one of very few trainers to attend the fixture in person. And if truth be told, a trainer’s main raceday role being to chaperone owners, their absence is very understandable, especially among those with strong teams to despatch for Cheltenham during the week. The Bailey yard has enjoyed a tremendous winter with a fine run of form and a first Grade I for 25 years. Kim, however, confessed to feeling very stressed about his best Festival team in years, “Actually, I get stressed about every runner I don’t own myself,” he remarked. Such is the life of a top trainer, where expectation often exceeds reality. Not every ugly duckling turns into a swan.

One team this season where reality has exceeded expectation is Bailey’s neighbour across the Withington valley at Ravensbrook Farm – Fergal O’Brien. It’s next to impossible to keep the likeable O’Brien out of the headlines nowadays, and his momentum was maintained in the Novices Hunters Chase, appropriately enough for a track and a trainer that trade on their roots in the Point-to-Point field.

For a field that had seen more racing than most of today’s competitors put together, the field was most unruly at the start, wound up by 10 year old Golden Tobouggan, who sweated up and had to be taken to post early. No surprise therefore to see him and Alex Edwards make the running , but not before he’d sidelined another candidate in Maitre Express by kicking him at the start and forcing his withdrawal. The race itself was marginally less eventful, but at the business end, it was I’m Wiser Now who took advantage of the freewheeling style of Golden Tobouggan and Gottgottgetaway to take the inner berth up the straight and win by 5 ½ l. With the Point-to-Point season due to restart on March 29, it remains to be seen whether subsequent hunter chases will fill as well as those to date, but so far, they’ve produced some of the largest fields in recent years. Meantime, however, this notched O’Brien’s 86^th winner of the term.

The afternoon had brought bright Spring sunshine to see out the Bumper to conclude the card, and with it, another local winner in the Charlie Longsdon-trained Parramount. Well backed at 6/4 favourite, he proved the second leg of a double for Champion jockey Brian Hughes, successful earlier for Rebecca Curtis. Hughes plans to swerve Cheltenham, and focus on the lesser fixtures during the week, where he can pick a hat-full of rides and consolidate his lead at the top of the Riders’ table. And whilst he may be ruing the modest challenge by northern-trained horses at this week’s Festival, that decision may give him the last laugh come the evening of April 24 when the season closes.