In the Racing Post today he declared 'from an aesthetic point of view racing has changed for the better since Monday of last week and hopefully there will be no turning back'. I bet if he asked the average man in the street he would not have seen any difference. The whip issue has been raised by the BHA when there was no issue to raise.
As a punter I don't know what he is watching but to see loads of jockeys accepting the issue a furlong out and not trying to attain their best possible position is a disaster for racing. In the first race at Yarmouth yesterday 9 horse were bunched at the furlong pole where 2 kicked on and the rest just capitulated. If my memory serves none were touched with the whip at all. How can this be good for racing? As Head of News, Smurthwaite should know this is a 'cheat's charter' and that can only be bad for racing, bad for racing's image and bad for punters.
"The average man in the street," - whom the BHA are mistakenly bothered about ...
Only watches racing on Grand National.
All this upheaval on the Flat - just because of the bloody over-rated - boring to Flat enthusiasts - sodding Grand National.
"The average man in the street," - whom the BHA are mistakenly bothered about ...Only watches racing on Grand National.All this upheaval on the Flat - just because of the bloody over-rated - boring to Flat enthusiasts - sodding Grand National.
no backbone and his occasional articles lack conviction; unlikely to aspire beyond a desk from where so many contextualise subectivisational data, don't they james?
no backbone and his occasional articles lack conviction; unlikely to aspire beyond a desk from where so many contextualise subectivisational data, don't they james?
Paul Haigh, who made an acrimonious departure from the Racing Post after 23 years as a senior writer last week, will smile at the latest leak of bookmaker-funded largesse at the Post's HQ in Canary Wharf. Haigh claimed that the Post was effectively in the control of bookmakers, a view that editor Bruce Millington described as "absurd". Haigh would have enjoyed an email exchange between the Post's head of news, Tony Smurthwaite, and Victor Chandler's head of PR. It revealed that the paper had taken delivery of "12 bottles of fantastic French wine". "It has made a lot of people very happy - and it hasn't been drunk yet," Smurthwaite said. Unfortunately the PR man accidentally sent the correspondence to all racing writers on his mailing list.
He enjoys some 'fine wine', imo...Paul Haigh, who made an acrimonious departure from the Racing Post after 23 years as a senior writer last week, will smile at the latest leak of bookmaker-funded largesse at the Post's HQ in Canary Wharf. Haigh claim