Monday Musings: Wokism

There was a race at Thirsk on Friday which has given me at least a double pause for thought, although the first of them was barely a pause, just a momentary operational stalls malfunction which brought a ridiculous decision from the course stewards, writes Tony Stafford. Indeed the worst in the history of racing in this and probably any other country.

The 4.35 race was a handicap over 1m4f. Post-race, the stewards stuck their heads together and were satisfied that the berth occupied by the grey, Red Force One, had opened after the others, and declared the horse a non-runner. Presumably they came to that conclusion at least in part as he would not have qualified for any prize money, which he didn’t, finishing tailed off.

I had reason to look at the race a couple of times, still having no clue that anything had been amiss. As the stalls opened, you could see the grey horse was a stride or so behind the others at the outset, ambled along for the first 20 strides easily into the leading group and after a furlong was right in the hunt.

Flat racers probably go around 30 strides to a furlong, so somewhere near 360 strides in a mile and a half race. Thus, if he was inconvenienced at all by the blink of an eye slower exit, it represented one of the 360 strides of the race – 0.28% of the full distance. No wonder he was a non-runner!

Would the stewards still have declared him thus if he had won the £5k plus first prize or even been placed? Wokism, or rather Jokism. Racing is going to the dogs if we have people like these administering the Rules in this way.

The race itself threw up a winner for my great friend Wilf Storey, 85 I believe and still going strong, or rather, strongish, given that the stable strength at Grange Farm stables, Muggleswick is down to a handful. But the team with granddaughter Siobhan Doolan also to the fore, had five wins last year and now two this season, both with the ex-Charlie Fellowes filly Idyllic, from just 13 runs.

I went to see the then three-year-old after Siobhan had successfully bid 9,000gns for her at Newmarket’s HIT sale last backend. Once a winner for Fellowes from ten runs after her 62k yearling purchase, she is by Bated Breath, who stands at £8,000 at Juddmonte, so was hardly excessively priced when Siobhan pounced.

But here comes my bone of contention. She was ridden with rare judgment, strength and skill by the 3lb claiming Paula Muir, who after Friday has ten more wins to go before she loses her claim. If you seem to think Scots lass Paula has been around for a while still to be claiming, you would be right.

In the two years 2018 and 2019 she rode first 22 winners from 216 rides and then 15 from 257. So far this year, she has had the grand total of 13 rides. That’s right, 13, coincidentally the same number as Wilf has sent out with the same horse providing both successes. And ten of those have been for Wilf, who also contributed five of last year’s seven victories, although she did have a more credible 82 rides in 2024.

Chatting to Wilf after the win, he said, “I can’t understand it. Here’s a girl who had had more than 1,000 career rides and now 85 wins. She does a light weight, and she’s really strong and can claim 3lb, yet she can’t get a ride.”

Wilf told me she rides out for Kevin Ryan. “I understand it’s usually on the difficult ones, or those two-year-olds coming up for a first run. She gets a fair bit of knocking about and told me she might pack it all in at the end of the season.”

Investigating this apparent statistical oddity I found that, apart from the ten rides for Storey, she has had one each for another Durham handler in David Thompson - a horse that won its previous race but was 4^th of eight when she rode it and did not keep the mount next time, Barry Murtagh and Ryan. Murtagh put her on a 150/1 chance which ran entirely to expectations finishing last of 15 while Kevin Ryan entrusted her with a 50/1 debutant that again didn’t confound the betting market in last of eight.

Before Saturday, Ryan had sent out 40 winners this year from 308 runners, with 33 individual winners from the 94 horses he had raced. You might have thought he could have found her a ride or two more with chances of doing something. A win for his powerful stable would undoubtedly give Paula’s career that little bit of help she needs to help push her back into the limelight.

Every horse she rides gets a proper go as you will see if you watch the video of Friday’s win. Having got Idyllic back on terms with the favourite Ancient Myth, ridden by Mark Winn (ten wins from 138 rides this year) for David O’Meara, that had swept past her at the furlong pole, she pushed her mount back on terms and, confidently with hands and heels, took control for a comfortable neck win.

As I said, watch the race and tell me why she shouldn’t be riding every day of the week rather than the twice a month of 2025. It was planned for her to renew her acquaintance with last year’s dual winner Edgewater Drive at Ayr today, but the ground has dried up too much for him.

Back to Idyllic. Having raced at 1m3f in her previous three races, Idyllic was now up another furlong at Thirsk. Somehow the Wilf Storey horses, especially the females, over the many years of his career and our friendship, always seemed to become more stamina oriented as they developed. It will not shock me to see Idyllic winning over even two miles later in the year.

**

Admittedly, the five-runner field that divvied up the best part of £1.5 million for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Saturday, did comprise a field of Group 1 horses. But it left a sour taste that 2023 St Leger winner Continuous – tailed off after playing a significant role in the majority of the race - could cop forty grand for last place as the Aidan O’Brien second-string. It was £110k for a below-par Jan Brueghel, Coolmore’s number one, in fourth. It would be understandable if most racegoers found that to be money hardly well spent.

Ascot’s Nick Smith did his best to justify this 20% rise from last year’s figure which meant that Francis-Henri Graffard, who won both races, last year with 25/1 shot Goliath and now with 11/10 favourite Calandagan, is well over £1.5 million in stable earnings from the two victories.

The obvious rejoinder to Smith’s case was the standing still in money of many other races around Ascot from top to bottom level. This race is the jewel in the course’s crown, but it is no coincidence, that neither winner will ever be on show in their own country’s biggest event, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in October, from which geldings are excluded.

One who will presumably have booked her place having finished runner-up only a length behind the winner is the Andrew Balding-trained filly, four-year-old Kalpana, who looked sure to win when Oisin Murphy sent her past the one-paced Jan Brueghel. He, with Continuous, did not help Rebels Romance’s cause as the second string raced on leader Jan Brueghel’s girth until the action heated up in the straight.

Ascot is legion for trouble in running up its short straight even in small fields. That seems absurd given the wide expanse of the track – two handicaps on Saturday were scheduled to field 22-runner races and there were little noticeable hard-luck stories in them. At the Royal meeting, some handicaps accommodate 32 runners. The Godolphin horse was the one that was hamstrung as Kalpana sneaked through between horses and Calandagan came widest of all after lobbing along in last place for the first ten furlongs of the race.

Calandagan clearly found Ascot an easier track to handle than Epsom where Jan Brueghel beat him narrowly in the Coronation Cup. If he didn’t already have it with a series of previous near-misses at the top level, it was cemented that day at Epsom in which he earned the reputation among many (including me) of being a little wimpish.

There was no sign of a wimp from him now though, as he followed up an easy Group 1 score in France last time by reeling in Kalpana, unlike those Thirsk stewards the day before. The BHA should announce an investigation and with seemingly no possible argument to the contrary, turf out the culprits!

- TS

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