Arrayan A Rise Too Far?

It has certainly been an eventful week and we made the front page of the racing press on Friday, but sadly for the wrong reasons. Arrayan approached the final flight of the handicap hurdle at Taunton with an eight length advantage and the race seemingly at his mercy. He jumped the hurdle well, only for jockey Conor O’Farrell to lose his right iron and fall out the side door. It is just one of those things that happens from time to time – it happened to Robert Thornton only recently and (I’m sure he won’t thank me for mentioning it!) even the great A P McCoy at Cheltenham on New Years’ Day in 2003, but I do feel sorry for Bill and Angela Tincknell, the horse’s sporting owners.

Arrayan arrived at Pond House with some fairly modest form to his name and ran in his first handicap from a rating of 92. Subsequently, he has won a couple of minor races at Wincanton from a handicap mark of 93 (which the Racing Post refer to as a “low-grade handicap hurdle”) and Hereford from a rating of 100, where he clearly handled the rain softened ground better than his rivals and has netted his owners £4228.25 for those successes. Horse racing is an expensive sport for owners to become involved in and after training fees, entry fees, transport costs etc. there is not much left over.

You can imagine my dismay however upon learning that he was due to go up a further 12lbs in the handicap for his last flight departure – this time to a rating of 131. Don’t get me wrong – I am not for one minute suggesting that horses should be handicapped according to the number of times they win or how much prize money they have won, but it is no surprise given the current economic climate that owners are losing interest in racing, especially when their chances of success are hindered by some rather creative handicapping. In Arrayan’s case he has now risen 38lbs for two successes and that seems harsh.

I will be travelling to London tomorrow (Tuesday) for the unveiling of the Grand National weights. Following the addition of Or Noir de Somoza to our squad, we now have six entries in the Aintree spectacular and I will be talking with Mike Vince with my initial thoughts and reactions to those weights. Check back here on Tuesday to hear the interview and find out more…

We were joined this morning by Channel 4 Racing’s John Francome and Alice Plunkett, as well as their film crew. John had paid a visit to Neil Mulholland’s yard first and he rode his Gold Cup hope Midnight Chase up the gallops. Then they came to Pond House to join us on a quick tour around the yard and take some footage of a few of our intended Cheltenham Festival runners including World Hurdle second favourite Grands Crus.

Martin & David with Channel 4 Racing presenters John Francome & Alice Plunkett on Monday