An extraordinary effort by racing’s bureaucrats has resulted in the Greenham Stakes card scheduled for Newbury on Saturday being moved wholesale to Chelmsford within a matter of hours. The card is of particular importance to a small number of people associated with possible runners in the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas in a fortnight’s time, who want to use trial races to find out if their horses belong in that company, and there was much relief mingled with surprise that that card will go ahead, albeit in very different circumstances from those planned.
Newbury’s Friday card was abandoned at first light after 5mm of overnight rain left standing water on parts of the track. A decision about running the Saturday card was postponed for only a few hours and all seemed lost when news of the inevitable abandonment came through before 1pm.
Shortly afterwards, however, word filtered out that the entire card could be saved and run on an unspecified all-weather track. About 90 minutes after the curtain came down on Newbury’s hopes, a planned replacement at Chelmsford was unveiled.
Rearranging a card at such short notice is unprecedented for British racing and there was no disguising a certain amount of backstage chaos while all the props were moved into place. Weatherbys, racing’s secretariat, seemed to have some trouble persuading its computers to accept entries, the deadline for which was initially 3.30pm, then 4pm, then 4.15pm. Entries eventually opened shortly after 4pm, giving trainers a whole 12 minutes to get the job done.
In the circumstances 48 declarations across seven races is not a bad return, even if it is well down on the numbers that would have been expected at Newbury. The Spring Cup, traditionally a big-field handicap, has been a notable sufferer, reduced to seven participants from the 17 who had entered to run at Newbury.
But that race and others on the card are really just there to provide a card around the Greenham and the fillies’ equivalent, the Fred Darling. Among those happy to be able to use those races was William Haggas, who has runners in both.
“These horses are ready to run so, while it’s disappointing to lose Newbury, it’s great they’ve made the late switch,” Haggas said. “We’re only two weeks and a day away from the 1,000 Guineas so, if we’d left it any later, rescheduling wouldn’t have been an option.”
Of Besharah, his Fred Darling runner and last year’s Lowther winner, he said: “She hasn’t run on the all-weather before but it’s better to do that than run on heavy ground and it’s definitely better than it being abandoned. She is very well and, while there is a question mark about the trip, she’s got a better chance of getting it on the all-weather.”
Robin Mounsey, spokesman for the British Horseracing Authority, wryly acknowledged there had been “considerable challenges” in getting Newbury’s fixture across to Chelmsford in the space of a few hours. “But the Greenham and the Fred Darling are important trials and it seemed in the best interests of everyone, trainers and jockeys and owners and punters, to do all that we could to get it on. We were flat out for a few hours to turn this around in time to stage a strong fixture.”
Mounsey accepted that lessons had been learned from the process and indicated that things should run rather more smoothly if the BHA found itself trying to do something similar in future. He said Channel 4 coverage had been crucial to providing the funding for the restaged races, so it would not have been possible to hold the rearranged card over to Sunday or early this coming week. The prize money on offer will certainly be less than would have been available at Newbury but still amounts to an impressive effort from Chelmsford, sponsors and the levy board in the circumstances.
Meanwhile Paul Nicholls will have nine runners on the Scottish Grand National card at Ayr as he mounts what he describes as a last-ditch effort to keep his champion trainer’s title from being grabbed by Willie Mullins. The Irishman has a lead of just over £100,000 with a week to go.
“If we’re being realistic, I need a good day [at Ayr],” Nicholls said on Friday. “If Willie wins the Scottish Champion Hurdle, which it looks like he may, then we’re in trouble. It could all be over by the end of the card but, if I have a good day, it’ll be interesting.”
Nicholls points out that Vicente, his Scottish National runner, was hampered by a loose horse at a late stage when fifth at the Cheltenham Festival. He plans to run Southfield Theatre and possibly others in next week’s Bet365 Gold Cup but the season is over for his Silviniaco Conti, who suffered an atrial fibrillation when pulled up in last week’s Grand National. The trainer said the problem corrected itself without intervention and hopes the multiple Grade One winner will be back in action next season.
