Hello everyone, it’s been a fair few months since I last got the writing head on but due to a very testing autumn and winter personally (and I don’t mean the weather although that hasn’t helped either, which sadly resulted in my dad passing away on Becher Chase day morning in December.
The racing has taken a bit of a back step, in fact the whole jumps season for me hasn’t really been a write off but in the same vein, neither has it been getting my full attention either.
On the many times my brother and I took the bus to Wigan to visit my dad in hospital on the afternoon visits, we always passed a now closed pub in Ashton-in-Makerfield, a regular stop for many Haydock racegoers with it’s various pubs, and on it was a beautiful mural of the much missed and much loved television presenter Caroline Flack who sadly died in 2020 with her well known quote “In a world where you can be anything, be kind”
Poignant words and while we all do our best to live by this sometimes we can fall out of the wheelbarrow while doing it and occasionally need picking up and dusting down before carrying on.
Last Friday I had planned on taking in my first meeting of the year at Bangor-On-Dee for the North Wales National, a meeting I did last year but as has been the case with plenty meetings this season, the weather intervened and decided to waterlog the place, leaving the inevitable news that it’s abandoned.
With that happening I decided to do something I haven’t done for a quite a while…..
I revised my plans and changed tack to have an afternoon instead on the All Weather at Wolverhampton, now I don’t follow the sand all that much but a day’s racing is still a day’s racing regardless of the code and the quality and while plenty on Twitter (I refuse to call it X despite the man whose name sounds like a cheap perfume bought off Leigh market) slag it off as “betting shop fodder”, the horses are still owned and trained by people simply wanting to get on in the game and earn their corn just like anyone else so I was more than happy to support it.
Now here’s where things got interesting, on Twitter on Thursday, Trainer Katie Scott, who trains in Galashiels in Scotland, had two runners on Friday but none of the owners could make it down the M6/West Coast Mainline to be at Wolverhampton and with owners getting 8 badges per horse, Katie put up a first come first served to anyone interested, quick as a flash I dived in and took advantage, after all free entry and a nice dinner isn’t to be ignored.
Friday came and despite several issues with the trains, I got into Wolverhampton, after a lot of train and station hopping (I may add) and arrived at the racecourse bang on opening time, badge collected and attached and complimentary race card given, it was into Dunstall Park and straight into Owners and Trainers to bag a table.
Dinner wise, after a nice brew to warm me up first, I headed up to the food station and went for the lasagne with garlic bread and a couple of potato wedges that were so big, you get the impression the chef wasn’t bothered and just wanted to cut the spuds quickly.
A delicious meal it was indeed, tasty and went down well. It’s the sort of food you wish more courses would serve instead of moderate burgers for £9, sell something like this for the same price and I’d definitely pay for it.
The first two races came and went which resulted with a couple of winning bets, then race three it was down to the parade ring for the first of Katie’s runners, Jackmeister Rudi in Division 1 of the 6f handicap, having given a Katie a quick nod to who I was, I waited for her father, Murray, to come in and we chatted before Jason Hart came in for the leg up, I didn’t give instructions, as the late Lester once said “A good jockey doesn’t need instructions and a bad jockey would just ignore them” after which it was off to the bookies for a small wager then racecourse side to chat with Katie and see Jack run an honourable second picking up £1652 in the process to head back over Hadrian’s Wall with.
After that run and seeing the debrief in the winners enclosure, Katie and Murray headed back to the stable area, it was just the two of them who came down so they were doing the work, while I went back to enjoy the rest of the card and have a nice chocolate brownie with cream as the last part of my complimentary dinner.
Finally the last race of the day came, a 5f Classified for horses raced 0-50 and in this race the stable was represented with Rockley Point, an 11yo who gave Katie her first ever winner as a trainer, so he holds a special place in not just her heart but with everyone who works at their stables.
Phil Dennis took the ride on him and again he gave everything but this admirable veteran couldn’t match the pace of the younger hooves to come a noble fourth, who knows, maybe the BHA can do a veteran’s sprint series for horses aged 9 and over? he’d definitely be in his element in that case.
After the race and saying our goodbyes, along with thanking Katie for her lovely gesture of kindness, it was back to the station to head back home for the relatively easy hour long journey from Wolverhampton up to Wigan.
In all honesty, this was an enjoyable afternoon in the Midlands, normally this time of year in racing everything is all geared around the C word, Cheltenham, but it was nice to have a change and simply enjoy the racing.
I would like to thank Katie for her offer of an owners badge, normally when I go racing it’s always on the outside of the parade ring so to be on the inside gave the afternoon a whole new perspective and one of the benefits I found about being at Wolverhampton is that like at a non league football match, you can get good access to chat with jockeys and trainers.
After the 1m Novice race which was won nicely by Prince Maxi, I found myself ending chatting with trainer Charlie Longsdon, who was pretty impressed with the run by Paramount, who ran a cracking race to be second on his flat debut, he will be better over slightly further at around 1m2f.
Racing wise next, I’ll be back over the jumps this Saturday as the Road To Aintree gets brought to the fore with the Grand National Trial at my local course, Haydock.
If you wish to check out Katie’s website – https://www.katiescottracing.com/
Till then it’s goodbye.
Words & Photo’s – Neil Watson
Arseonlineracing Publication – Published : February 2024
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