Giving French the whip hand is a recipe for disaster
Romanet was back in the news this week when he said that, within the next five years, major racing nations would outlaw the use of the whip, other than for corrective purposes.
Romanet’s theory is that because of what he describes as “the influence of better quality television on public perception” the use of the whip will be totally restricted.
Essentially, he believes jockeys will only be allowed use the whip to prevent accidents and not to improve a horse’s placing.
Hilarious or what! No one in their right mind wants to see horses abused, but the whip has long been an essential part of a jockey’s armoury and you may as well close the game down entirely if it is ever banned. The vast majority of horses live better than many humans and the odd gentle tickle round the rear-end is hardly a huge price to pay for the kind of pampering which they enjoy.
Romanet can now be mentioned in the same breath as the so-called punters’ pal, John McCirick — a proud boast.
Let’s leave McCririck for a moment and concentrate on Romanet. You’d easily know the Frenchman has never stood at Thurles on a cold February day willing the favourite to do the business. The French have a completely different attitude to racing, compared to the Irish, the Brits or the Australians.
They don’t have any bookmakers, so gambling for them can only be regarded as a bit of fun. They have to bet on the tote and everyone knows that’s a medium where you are basically wagering against yourself. There are no guaranteed prices, so the more you have on the more you reduce your odds.
Monsieur Romanet, come to Thurles some day with us, have a monkey (€500) on and then see whether you can resist the urge to scream “give him another one” at your jockey.
He says it will be alright for a pilot to carry a whip for safety reasons, in case of say a horse swerving.
Imagine the confusion that could cause. The temptation to give a horse a crack or two, and then claim in the stewards’ room that you thought he was going to swerve, would have to, at least on occasions, prove overwhelming.
Romanet then drew attention to the fact that in Norway the whip can now only be used in dangerous situations.
That moved an Australian called Peter McGauran to respond in a manner which was highly amusing.
Said McGauran: “It’s great to see that the famous racing jurisdiction of Norway is going to set the standard.”
Whatever you think of Romanet, however, at least his ideas are not as nutty as McCririck’s. He too is in favour of doing away with the whip, which is bad enough, but McCririck is prepared to go even further.
He is on record as saying that a horse should be disqualified if the jockey is found guilty of using the aid too much.
Now how could stewards police that? You back a winner and then have to suffer the agony of an inquiry, after the stewards decide there are grounds for considering whether the particular jockey utilised his whip excessively.
If this was to ever happen then racing, as we know it, would simply cease to exist. On-course bookmakers would join dinosaurs as an extinct species.
They wouldn’t be able to afford to pay double-result and so all betting would have to be off-course.
If you have ever raced in France, then you will know what a boring sport this can be, without the possibility of taking on the traditional enemy. Leave well enough alone, I say.
Meanwhile poor attendances at meetings in general, and especially at Fairyhouse over Easter, mean there will more than the usual spotlight on Punchestown next week.
Racing in Ireland is struggling in more ways than one right now and if Punchestown can buck the trend then it will be a massive performance.
Anyway, the two days at Limerick, last Sunday and Tuesday, made for some interesting reading and there may well be lessons to be learned. Sunday housed an excellent National Hunt programme and the local executive did plenty to market what was on offer. It was a smashing sunny afternoon, but Limerick was disappointed with a crowd of some 2,800.
Fast-forward to Tuesday and a drab all-flat card. The place should have been just about deserted.
But it was a night for the students and admission all round was a paltry €5.00. What a success this was.
The course was absolutely buzzing, with over 4,000 on site, at least that’s what we were told at the time.
A story in Thursday’s Racing Post, however, had the attendance at 5,800, so the truth probably lies somewhere in between!
In any case, there’s a lesson there for anyone interested enough — getting young people through the gates is surely the only way to go.
