Departures 2009

The biggest problem with water jumps seems to be if a horse leaves their back legs in them they cam slip on coming out and wrench the back. If, as IS says, the water is sloped at the back, this can alleviate that and I hate to point it out, but if a horse leaves his back legs in an open ditch or an upright, they often come to grief as well.

If you count up the falls occurring at the water jumps in comparison to the open ditches and plain fences they come out well. Especially since the countrywide dumbing down of water jumps, they are all piddly now and the majority of jockeys love riding them; most think they're the easiest fence to jump on the course.
 
krizon said:
A tiny, residual bit of variety, bloodnok - the 'proper' fences you allude to consist of exactly two of standard widths and heights. The only time chasers get to have a bit of variety in their boring diet is if they enter the Aintree Festival or, better still, Cheltenham's much-maligned x-country - it's daft, really, calling it a cross-country race, because it's really what original chasing was like. What passes for chasing in the UK is just galloping at two standard jumps, repeated ad nauseum. (A bit like my diatribes about them!) :lol:
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Now proper steeplechasing is what takes place in Paris today and I hope will be on RUK :)
 
132 dead (horses in training, not retirees, etc.) this year so far, according to the 'confirmed' on here. Don't know what is on Racehorse Memories - possibly quite a few more.

One bit of Good News is that, in spite of the reference in the RP to TOM'S TOYBOX injuring a fetlock (see posts in October), the dear boy was out this week, looking fit, even if not in winning form. So - hurrah!!
 
I see that article mentioned the following :

Racing For Change would be delighted with Newbury's efforts to reach new markets this week. Both divisions of the maiden were sponsored by Pinkejobs, an organisation which describes itself as 'an online diversity jobs board specialising in providing vacancies from gay friendly employers throughout the UK.'
Reaching out to gay, lesbians and transgenders, the race sponsors also had their splendid pink gazebo just outside the weighing room.
The Captain must relate, however, that Pinke Jobs staff appeared to being having difficulty recruiting the midweek Berkshire crowd to enter their 'Best Dressed Racegoer' competition.
He suspects that may be down to their being too many of the infamous 'Brians' being present who haven't yet decided they should be Brionys.
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This had me raging. So political correctness, who's being non-politically correct here?! How about if I decided to set up an employment agency "specialising in providing vacancies from straight friendly employers throughout the UK." ???? What a load of cock. It's the world gone mad. I'd love to see the furore if someone set up a 'straight' employment agency rather than a 'gay' one. Tossers.
 
I hadn't heard that sad news about Ping Pong Sivola - she had such a great attitude too and such an exciting style of racing.:(
 
Far more interesting to me than Pinkejobs is the picture of GINOLAD, recruited to Venetia Williams from Australia, bunnyhopping through one of those ghastly, incredibly soft and highly dangerous bloody fences at Flemington.

Australian jumps racing is apparently under some serious threat of being closed down due to welfare concerns over its high level of fatals, and I can see exactly why those occur. We're talking elsewhere about the dumbing-down of NH, and this looks to be exactly where it ends up - soft-as-a-baby's-hairbrush crap (I can't bring myself to call them fences) which a poodle could brush through. Not an obstacle at all - a floppy, useless hindrance which any horse would learn to disrespect within two or three minutes.

Aldaniti, was it you who put up the sight of one of Oz's horses on its way to a fatal rotational over just this sort of rubbish earlier this year? I know I had a good old discush with several people about it, but can't recall now if it was on here or another forum. Whatever, there, plain for all to see, is what's so damn wrong about reducing NH to appease the ignorant - horses being rushed at floppy, flexible nylon stuff that greyhounds whisk over. I imagine that at the end of a season, you can cut bits off and use them as a household broom, which is all it's fit for.
 
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krizon said:
Aldaniti, was it you who put up the sight of one of Oz's horses on its way to a fatal rotational over just this sort of rubbish earlier this year? I know I had a good old discush with several people about it, but can't recall now if it was on here or another forum. Whatever, there, plain for all to see, is what's so damn wrong about reducing NH to appease the ignorant - horses being rushed at floppy, flexible nylon stuff that greyhounds whisk over. I imagine that at the end of a season, you can cut bits off and use them as a household broom, which is all it's fit for.
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I can't remember but the story sounds familiar :confused:
 
Shadow Leader said:
I see that article mentioned the following :



This had me raging. So political correctness, who's being non-politically correct here?! How about if I decided to set up an employment agency "specialising in providing vacancies from straight friendly employers throughout the UK." ???? What a load of cock. It's the world gone mad. I'd love to see the furore if someone set up a 'straight' employment agency rather than a 'gay' one. Tossers.
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I remember seeing an add far a 'dog and gay friendly' Hotel. I imagine everyone else gets the cold shoulder :blink:
 
Yes, that is happening at virtually every racecourse across the country now, it's a joke. The fences are being built with far less birch than they used to have and are flimsy and pathetic. Many seem to be smaller as well.

All in a poor attempt to pander to the tree huggers who won't be happy until the sport is banned altogether anyway. Which is ironic really as in themselves these new jelly-like fences encourage sloppy jumping as the horses learn not to respect them as they realise very quickly they can go through them which in itself probably causes more falls anyway.
 
Shadow Leader said:
This had me raging. So political correctness, who's being non-politically correct here?! How about if I decided to set up an employment agency "specialising in providing vacancies from straight friendly employers throughout the UK." ???? What a load of cock. It's the world gone mad. I'd love to see the furore if someone set up a 'straight' employment agency rather than a 'gay' one. Tossers.
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That sounds like an application to join the workforce of the Daily Mail. Shame on you ;)
 
bloodnok said:
We're talking elsewhere about the dumbing-down of NH, and this looks to be exactly where it ends up - soft-as-a-baby's-hairbrush crap (I can't bring myself to call them fences) which a poodle could brush through. Not an obstacle at all - a floppy, useless hindrance which any horse would learn to disrespect within two or three minutes. QUOTE]



Krizon I replied to one of your posts earlier on this thread re: water jumps and while I still don't like them if getting rid of them means we end up with these Ozzy fences lets keep them! They are horrible.
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Hallo, bloodnok - did I not respond to you? My salaams and apologies if I overlooked your post (I'm sure I wouldn't!) - okay, I understand that people may not like water jumps, just as in the past any number of obstacles were gradually removed from steeplechasing (in its pure, old form of replicating a day's hunting over a course). No-one in the UK is advocating a return to five-barred gates and six-foot drops (although the Czech Rep has the equivalents!), but the Oz nylon brushes are diabolical. They really are just traps and will probably bring about the demise of Australian jumps racing by causing the very falls they thought they'd prevent. Who on God's green earth advised the courses to install them, I don't know, but they really ought to spend a week in the stocks. (Now, there's another nice olde-tyme custom we've sadly disbanded as 'not very nice', too!) :lol:
 
If no-one knows owt different, Alders, I'll ask tomorrow, but one did come back very, very late, minus all the tack - being headcollared back by the groom, but absolutely fine. Otherwise, I understand all the others were okay, but I'll check to be sure.
 
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