Matt Chapman proves his value
Many of us don’t really care anymore whether racing is available on terrestrial tv.
I know there are solid reasons why it is considered important to the industry, such as ensuring that sponsors get a decent run for their money and attempting to attract a wider audience to the game.
But, overall, the hardcore punter would lose little sleep if racing disappeared completely on a terrestrial basis, as long as At The Races and Racing UK continue to be accessible.
But there are occasions when one does realise the value of watching on a mainstream channel and Sunday was certainly a case in point.
The Arc meeting is one of the great days of the year, but you couldn’t see it on a terrestrial channel. BBC, Channel 4, ITV and RTÉ just didn’t want to be at the races.
There were, however, three channels that had the meeting, ATR, Racing UK and Sky Sports. I watched all three, as best I could, and felt that what was on offer on Sky was especially tame.
The other two, by their very nature, had more fish to fry, besides Chantilly, and so were constantly leaving France to provide a full service to their customers. That was exactly as it should have been.
But as the British and the Irish totally dominated the meeting, you just yearned for Channel 4 and Nick Luck’s trusty microphone.
Then the yearning became even greater when the remarkable Aidan O’Brien banged in the 1-2-3 in the Arc, to leave us all rubbing our eyes in sheer disbelief.
Such a feat had never been done before and may never will be again.
This was a massive story and, in the normal course of events, would have been covered from every angle.
But that was never going to happen and it quickly became apparent any further viewing of both Sky and Racing UK was largely a waste of time.
ATR did better, though, and in the irrepressible Chapman really impressed.
In the immediate aftermath of the Arc, he valiantly tried to grab a word with O’Brien, but the trainer was surrounded by many wanting to congratulate him and Chapman soon realised the timing was wrong.
Undaunted, however, he shoved his equipment in the direction of one of “the lads’’, Michael Tabor, and found a willing partner.
It was good stuff and you just knew that Chapman, when he had finished with Tabor, would again go in pursuit of O’Brien. And he did, got his man and viewers finally had something to celebrate.
It emphasised why ITV, who will take over terrestrial coverage of racing in Britain on January 1, were right to make Chapman part of their team.
They have made some questionable choices otherwise, very questionable, but he is clearly not one of them.
The race itself, of course, was seriously enjoyable, for obvious reasons, and left you wondering just how staggering — it’s already staggering anyway — a record O’Brien will have if deciding to train for say another decade or two.
I was lucky enough to be around for many of the achievements of Vincent O’Brien and was at Ballydoyle on several occasions during his long tenure there.
It was easy enough to assume there could never be another, at least not in my lifetime, like him again.
Lightning rarely strikes twice and it was just impossible to believe anyone would ever be thought of in the same way. But Aidan O’Brien is surely now at least on a par with that great man.
Where is it all going to end? In eight days, O’Brien will turn 47.
Assuming, for the sake of argument, he decides to keep going at Ballydoyle until normal retirement age, 65 or 66, then that’s another 18 or 19 years. Does wow cover it?
horses that got beaten at Chantilly over the weekend are worth noting going forward, namely Pleascach and Promise To Be True.
There was so much publicity surrounding the Arc that Jim Bolger didn’t really get the credit he deserved for the performance of his Pleascach in a Group 1 for fillies and mares. The four-year-old was making a belated seasonal debut and coming back from an absence of 386 days.
To say that she ran a blinder to be beaten a short head into second by Speedy Boarding would be an understatement.
The worry about her now, though, is the so-called bounce factor. Mind you, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Bolger might think of the bounce factor as a load of hogwash.
Promise To Be True went to France, having performed very disappointingly in the Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh when only fifth of seven behind Intricately.
But there was cut in the ground that day and, returning on good ground at Chantilly, Promise To Be True finished half a length runner up behind Wuheida in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac.
What was encouraging was the manner in which Promise To Be True saw out her race and I’ll bet there’s lots more to come.
It does seem clear, however, that a minimum requirement for her is a sound surface.
If the word soft or yielding appears in the going description where she is running in the future then here’s one who will run a mile from the daughter of Galileo.
