THE dawn of a new decade offers the optimism of a fresh start.

Racing could do with a bit of that as it enters 2020 facing some huge challenges that threaten the very fabric of the sport.

As it’s the panto season I’ve rubbed the magic lamp and the accommodating genie has doubled up the usual three wishes to six to help racing end the next year in a healthier state than it starts it.

 

Returning Heroes

Every sport needs great champions.

Cricket got a big boost in the summer when Ben Stokes slogged England to a nerve-jangling World Cup Final victory. For a few sun-soaked weeks thousands more youngsters needed little encouragement to tear themselves from the Xbox screens to pick up a bat and imagine they were out in the middle at Lord’s facing the ‘super over’.

Rugby enjoyed a similar shove when Johnny Wilkinson booted England to World Cup glory in 2003 and even the obscure sport of curling got its moment in the spotlight when Rhona Martin and her pals cleaned up Olympic Gold on the ice.

Racing needs something special to capture the imagination and Tiger Roll is in with a chance of doing just that. His two Grand National victories have already ensured he is a racing legend but a third would surely see him burst through the barrier few horses manage to breach and into the hearts of the nation.

When the public is asked to name a racehorse, three-time National hero Red Rum is top of the list. Tiger Roll could easily be opening airports by the end of the year.

Enable will have a more romantic retirement but her presence on the track in 2020 is no less important than Tiger Roll’s Aintree attendance.

To see one of racing’s greatest fillies return as a six year-old is unheard of and a third Arc de Triomphe win would, perhaps, encourage the owners of other Flat stars to keep them in training longer than just a couple of seasons.

There’s been a definite shift towards delaying the inevitable departure to stud and that needs to continue for the future of the sport.

 

Too Hot Coolmore

You have got to hand it to the brains behind Coolmore – they have masterminded the most incredible domination of the top Flat races.

It’s hard not to have the utmost admiration for its unrivalled success on the racetrack and that success, of course, comes through the superb development of the breeding operation.

There’s no doubt Derby hero Galileo – the most influential stallion of the last 20 years – has helped immeasurably but Coolmore was always going to be where the next super stud was going to be unearthed. That will continue.

As much as you have to admire the way it has become all-powerful, sport thrives on competition.

To see Aidan O’Brien’s runners fill five of the first six places in the Derby is most impressive but equally worrying.

It cannot be healthy to have the premier Classic dominated by one stable. If Epsom’s greatest race is ever to get back to its popularity pomp when hundreds of thousands flocked to the Downs, then it has to be a race to capture the public’s imagination.

That can only happen if the best three-year-old colts are scattered around different stables with different stories attached to them.

 

No More Whip Talk

One word I would love to hear less of in 2020 is ‘whip’.

It’s a subject matter than keeps being dredged up over and over again when there’s nothing else to write about and, yes, I get the irony of that last statement.

The strange campaign to ban jockeys from using a whip is curious on a number of levels but I don’t think it’s being over-dramatic to suggest such a move could end up killing the sport as we know it.

To start with jockeys do not carry whips these days. Indiana Jones used a whip. Fred Archer and Lester Piggott used whips but what Richard Johnson, Ryan Moore and their chums use to persuade their mounts to run faster is nothing of the sort.

Made of compressed foam and designed to make a cracking sound without inflicting pain, the subject of the whip is not about horse welfare. It’s solely about perception and racing's rulers need to educate not eradicate.

If they buckle under the pressure it will give a foot in the door to ‘animal rights’ groups with ulterior motives. They don’t want to see the whip banned – they want to see the whole of horseracing banned.

Campaigning to do away the whip with press releases using such inaccurate language as “thrashed” and “beaten” is just their first assault.  They will not stop until there is no horseracing and no racehorses.

For those of us that love the sport, that is not worth contemplating.

Those people who see the banning of the whip as inevitable to help attract a new audience to the sport are deluded.

If, as they will have you believe, there are queues of people waiting to flood into racecourses the moment the jockeys are forced to put down an essential tool of their trade, imagine how they will react the first time they see an injured horse.

Racing has done an excellent job of being open and upfront about animal welfare. As well as showing how well horses are treated it also doesn’t hide away from the sad truth that, on rare occasions, horses do die.

No one likes it and everything that can be done to avoid injuries should be done. Racing is a tough sport on horses and riders but the whip is not about animal welfare.

It’s about well-organised groups wanting to end horseracing forever. If they are given this inch in the argument there’s no telling how much they will be able to take in the future.

 

Frankie Factor

It’s more than 23 years since Frankie Dettori etched his name into immortality by riding all seven winners at Ascot on QEII Stakes day.

A statue of the charismatic jockey – or, at least, one that looks a little bit like him doing a trademark flying dismount – marks the phenomenal feat at the entrance to the Queen’s track.

Luckily, the real thing is a lot more realistic and he’s still doing what he does best at the grand old age of 49.

If he could be preserved, perhaps not in bronze, it would be great for racing. The sport hasn’t had anyone with the mass appeal as the cheeky Italian and when he does retire he will be almost irreplaceable.

He’s had his troubles for sure but his standing within racing and in the wider world has remained intact.

When he was booted out of Godolphin seven years ago it could easily have been the beginning of the end.

The link up with old friend John Gosden has given him the hottest of Indian summers with the likes of Cracksman and Enable ensuring he is still leading the charge on the biggest days.

A desire to ride with his budding-jockey son Rocco is one of the reasons he intends to keep going. Racing has many more to wish that Frankie will continue for a good few years as, without him, racing’s profile will be all the poorer.

 

Something New – My Three To Watch

Its not easy to reach the top in any sport and racing is one of the toughest.

So the likes of Aidan O’Brien, John Gosden, Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson are where they are for good reason.

Understandably, they are not going to give any ground away without a fight but there are some hugely-talented people currently lower down the pecking order worth following in 2020.

Alastair Ralph is one. Having done his time learning from the likes of Paul Nicholls and Henry Daly, he started training at his Shropshire base four years ago.

This season is sure to be his most successful as he only needs another couple of winners to pass his personal best of 14. It’s only a matter of time before he gets a horse to give him a glimpse of the bigger stage and punters should take note.

Ex-amateur jockey Sam Drinkwater is another. He might not have hit the big numbers yet but there’s no doubt he knows what he’s doing.

Tour Des Champs showed that when causing a 50-1 shock on New Year’s Day in 2017. Sadly, injury robbed him of his stable star but Drinkwater has squeezed plenty out of limited resources in the three years since.

It’s doubtful he’s even a household name in Tewkesbury near to where he trains but it’s likely there’ll be more heard of Drinkwater in racing circles in the coming year.

Clued-up Newmarket trainer Martin Smith – who recently moved into the historic Kremlin House Stables – is another to keep a close eye, especially during the summer months.

 

New Year

My final wish is just that – to wish all Unibet blog readers and punters a happy, healthy and profitable New Year.

Steve