Treadwell makes comeback at Taunton, by Chris Cook
The Grand National-winning jockey Liam Treadwell is making a comeback, more than a year after announcing his retirement. The 33-year-old will be in action in the last race at Taunton on Monday, riding Czech Her Out for Michael Scudamore.
“About the end of the summer, he started riding out and getting a bit more involved,” the Worcestershire-based Scudamore said on Monday morning. “Eventually, he told me: ‘I want to give it another go’.
“He’s done plenty of schooling and riding out, here and at Olly Murphy’s yard. It’s nice to have him back and be able to support him. I think he just decided, you’re a long time retired and he could do a bit more.”
Treadwell’s biggest moment came a decade ago when he won the National on the 100-1 shot Mon Mome. Injuries took a significant toll on the jockey and he said, of the decision to stop last year: “Since I banged my head in a fall at Bangor a couple of years ago it’s always been tough coping with the pressure. For my own health and relationships with my family and friends, it’s the right decision to focus on something else.”
Czech Her Out is a 50-1 shot and unlikely to provide a fairytale comeback, but Scudamore promised Treadwell would have other opportunities in the weeks ahead.
Sandown officials mull a single finishing line, by Chris Cook
Officials at Sandown are going to do some measuring this week, just to establish what the consequences would be if they were to move to a single finishing line for their jumps races. The issue of the London track having different finishing lines for steeplechases and hurdle races has been a hot topic at intervals over the years and became so once more on Saturday when the photo finish camera was pointed at the wrong winning post, so that the wrong result was officially announced for the second race, costing bookmakers thousands of pounds.
“We’ll survey it this week,” Andrew Cooper, Sandown’s clerk of the course, told me on Monday morning. “If you chose a single finishing line, it would be the hurdles finishing line [also the line for Flat races and bumper races]. So the question is, what difference does that make to those running on the chase course?”
Sandown has had the two finishing lines for at least 50 years, Cooper says, back to the days when photo finishes were introduced. They are necessitated by the fact that hurdle races and chase races have separate finishing straights, which meet the finishing point at slightly different angles. If you want a finishing line that runs straight across the runners’ direction of travel, as is the long-established norm, then you need two different lines at Sandown.
If, on the other hand, you were prepared to compromise in favour of a single finishing line, you’ll create a bit of a bias on the chase course’s run-in. Those who stick to the stands’ side will have slightly less ground to cover than those on the far side, because they’ll meet the finishing line at an angle. The question Cooper wants answered is, how much is that difference?
If the difference is marginal, there is a chance of Sandown switching to a single finishing line, in the cause of avoiding confusion such as we experienced on Saturday. “My mind isn’t closed to that idea,” Cooper said. He mentioned the possibility of trialling a single finishing line at one of the track’s fixtures, though certainly not next month’s Jumps Finale.
“As long as there are two winning posts, human error of some sort is always a potential scenario,” Cooper said, and this is the core of the issue for me. The Racetech employees who made the mistake on Saturday looked thoroughly miserable as they left the stewards’ room after what we imagine was a stern talking-to. Jockeys have been in that situation in the past, having stopped riding after the first post when they should have ridden out to the second. If we can avoid setting traps for people to fall into, we should really do that.
As a footnote, I was interested when one of our readers commented on Saturday that one way forward would be to drop a big, black bag over the winning post that was not in use before each race. But Cooper advises the risk would be that said bag would nudge the mirror, used for photo finishes, which is attached to the post and is carefully calibrated at the start of each raceday to make sure it’s pointing in the right direction.
Today’s best bets, by Greg Wood
The Monday before Cheltenham will never be an afternoon to trouble the top of the betting turnover table, but there are a few runners today that might help to build a little momentum before the biggest betting week of the year.
Achille (4.00) is certainly worth an interest in the best race of the day at Taunton. Venetia Williams’s chaser is very lightly-raced for a nine-year-old and has finally started to show his French form from four years ago in his two starts so far in 2019. The time of his latest success at Sandown was very impressive and his overnight price of around 11-4 is very fair.
Shintori (5.05) also has obvious claims on the same card after finishing a close third at Plumpton last time out, while Secret Door (3.50) and Roman Spinner (7.00) should both go well at decent odds. The latter ran better than her finishing position might suggest last time out and should get a better pace to aim at today.
Stratford 2.10 Red Force One 2.40 Master Vintage 3.10 Clondaw Westie 3.40 Eskendash 4.10 Bletchley Castle 4.40 Starsky 5.10 Full Time Party
Plumpton 2.20 Myplaceatmidnight 2.50 Champion Chase 3.20 Potters Hedger 3.50 Secret Door 4.20 Heresmynumber 4.55 Polar Light
Taunton 2.30 Urtheonethatiwant 3.00 Scaramanga 3.30 Micras
4.00 Achille (nap) 4.30 Smarty Wild 5.05 Shintori 5.40 Miss Honey Ryder
Kempton 5.00 Physics 5.30 Bubbelah 6.00 Sybil Grand 6.30 Vegatina
7.00 Roman Spinner (nb) 7.30 Elysees Palace 8.00 Cottingham 8.30 First Call
