Newmarket 3.45 yesterday.

C

Colin Phillips

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For those who are not aware this race was run in atrocious conditions yesterday.

Electrical storm and torrential rain that started as the horses were in the parade-ring (I think!) made it a very unpleasant experience for the 2-y-o fillies, the majority of them making their racecourse debut.

Two horses refused to enter the stalls (who could blame them?!) one of which was the favourite. The form of the race can probably be ignored, even though the winner was quite impressive.

Should the race have been allowed to go ahead in such conditions?

In this country, storms that bad rarely last long, wasn't there a case for postponing the race for a while.

There are precedents in other sports (golf immediately comes to mind), has it happened before in racing, I have something going around my head about a snowstorm at Cheltenham!!!

Would there have been any great practical problem in postponing the race until the worst of the storm had passed?

There would certainly have been quite a few positives if that had happened.
 
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Was the snowstorm at Cheltenham not the year Desert Orchid won? I could weel be wrong though!
 
I had gone across the course to photograph the finish and sheltered from the worst of it in a little tent beside the crossing with several guys from the Weatherbys 'works hospitality' just behind - we none of us could believe they ran the race in that!! The thunder and lightening was pretty scary never mind the incredible deluge! I would not have been happy as an owner for my 2yr old filly to be put through that fto

Then the guys dragged me protesting into the Weatherby tent and plied me with wine while the rain came down - what a hard life!!
 
I don't think they should have run in that either and if one of them had been mine I would have withdrawn at the last minute. Newmarket is under new management and maybe he is not as 'hands on' as the old management were with things that could be disasterous for the public and the horses. I doubt if Lisa Hancock would have let the race go ahead.

Condiions were pretty bad the year Dessie won too, it was touch and go whether he would be pulled out or not and the ground was really soft. He finished a brown horse!
 
In a time when the Health and Safety Extremists rule the world I was amazed that the race was not put back for say 15 minutes initially. That was one hellova of a storm. With the mains electricity supply going down and thousands of people trying to find any semblance of shelter all the conditions were present for a tragedy. I know the stalls have rubber tyres but I couldn't help thinking that it was not the best idea to have people, horses, metal structures, and electrical equipment exposed as happened. Add to that the impact of such a violent storm on the horses and the risk of damage to both equine and/or human life and limb, to continue was an a irresponsible decision.

At a tangent,the new structure at the course, whilst pleasing to the eye, is more suited to a Mediterranean climate than our own. There is limited shelter for the bars and amazingly where there was shelter there was 2 to3 inches of ground water swilling around as some bright spark has built it so that water collected in the open runs down to the sheltered area and buildings.
 
It would be interesting to know what the trainers were saying/thinking whilst the horses were loading.
 
Isinglass said:
Newmarket is under new management and maybe he is not as 'hands on' as the old management were with things that could be disasterous for the public and the horses. I doubt if Lisa Hancock would have let the race go ahead.
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No opinion on yesterday's race, but must comment on the "under new management" comment. In an age when the trend is heading towards having twelve year old girls as racecourse MD's, the appointment of Stephen Wallis, who did such a good job at Epsom in difficult circumstances must be seen as a positive step for Newmarket.
 
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