Tell Me About This 'Ethos' !

Don't you just love the way many industry professionals throw the 'ethos' thing into the ring when getting all misty eyed and lyrical about horse racing?

Robin Bruss, in particular, regularly conjures up this Utopian horse environment where mythical thoroughbreds bound gracefully across emerald turf to polite applause from parasol wielding spectators........making it all seem so surreal and genteel. Betting does, of course, take place. But its out of view so as not to offend women and children who might be distubed by crass financial transactions and yobs yelling home their fancies. After each impeccably bred performer is returned to unsaddling we are all supposed to reflect in awe that another 48x inbred to What-A-Hond out of a three legged donkey who traces back to Alexander The Great's mule train has vindicated his breeders faith in the mating. ( Whilst being very careful not to ask why the three full brothers that preceded the latest one could not raise a gallop ).

Racing's snake oil salesmen were quick to confuse me when I came into the sport. At sales time the buzzword was 'investment'. I was soon to witness a number of moth eaten but earnest people clutching catalogues whilst prodding and poking a variety of bored looking young horses in search of the 'next big thing'. Judging by the expressions on the faces of the 'about to be patrons/victims' they had no idea what they were supposed to be looking at. But it was a nice day out in the sun and maybe the seller would ante up some drinks and lunch when it was all over. God knows they were about to learn about 'free lunches' in the months ahead!

At around about that time I read a comment by an Irish racing personality (sorry, can't remember his name) who sagely stated - 'Nobody ever committed suicide with an unraced 2 year old in his yard'. Thankfully SARS never sent a working group into the industry to examine this mindset of owners or they would have been heartened to see just how easily people are prepared to part with their money with almost no expectation of a return. Had they done so they might have been tempted to peg the marginal tax rate at 75%.

Nevertheless I too fell for the spin and acquired a mismash of rather strange creatures. I say strange only because I found ( and still find them ) somewhat 'challenged' as individuals. Why this surprised me I am not sure - particularly as I soon came to learn that in breeding it's a case of 'The more incest the better' or suchlike. Small wonder they all act as if they escaped off the set of Deliverance.

Eventually these poor souls had to be put to the test on a racecourse. The vast majority of them were abject failures. This was like hitting a light switch. The 'investment' word disappeared and was seamlessly replaced with the two words which still make me break out in a cold sweat - 'Game' and 'Fun'. I was also quickly introduced to a new bestseller : Excuses volumes 1-50. These were audio books and the trainer of the moment had them word perfect.

Given all of the above I tend to side with the hardcore punters. Their needs and desires are so simple and transparent it remains a mystery to me why the mandarins habitually fail to supply them........They just want everything to work efficiently and fairly. Then we can still enjoy following our champions whilst having a real good strike on them too.

Well Garrick, a sober (some would say cynical) picture that you so eloquently paint.

From a fellow 'moth eaten' knows-nothing-at-all, I will respect your viewpoint, as long as you respect mine, which goes something along the lines uttered by Mike Hammer towards the end of an episode:

'Tomorrow I am going to watch the Jets play in the Yankee Stadium, and they might even win!'

or in the words of Einstein "...if you keep getting the wrong answer, change the question".

I am with you Garrick.I was lucky enough to own horses in my twenties,so I learnt my lesson relatively early.It's much cheaper identifying good horses and 'investing' in them when they have shown their ability on the race track.And I don't have the monthly keep to pay

As always a worth while and thought provoking post from Garrick.

thanks.