Ride of the week

I was having a look this morning at the ride of the week thing that At The Races do.  You know the one where they pick five rides (no sniggering down the back there, small boys) and get the viewers to vote on which of the five they think was the best?

Firstly, I’m not sure what’s in it for the viewer/voter (here’s your chance to vote for the ride of the week …), but there must be something, a Halifax account or 10% off your next Tesco car insurance premium or a free madbid account or one of those forklift trucks that you can drive over your foot and sue your employer, or one of those chairs that go up and down the stairs at two and a half meters per hour that you never wanted because they’re only for old people, but now that you have one you can’t believe you ever lived life without one.

Secondly, I’m not sure what a jockey has to do to get onto the shortlist.  Over jumps it appears that you have to lose your irons or throw your whip away or be under the horse’s belly for a few strides after he makes a mistake at the second last fence on the far side before galvanising him on the run-in to get up and win by a neck.  On the flat, you have to run up the back of every other horse in the race before extricating your own horse and, again, galvanising him inside the final 100 yards, to just put his nose in front on the line.  Under both codes, it appears that there is a lot of galvanising going on, and if you win by more than a half a length you are immediately excluded.

Thirdly, I’m not sure about the title: Ride of the week.  They may be missing the words Most and Dramatic.  It’s the tabloid age.

Richard Hughes is a top class rider, but he admitted after the Coventry Stakes that he didn’t excel on Strong Suit.  The colt managed to win because he was so superior to his rivals, not because he got a top class ride. Even so, he’s the first of five on the shortlist for ride of the week.  Ryan Moore was on the list because he got Strawberrydaiquiri up in a driving finish with Johnny Murtagh on Spacious in the Windsor Forest, not because he got the filly settled in front and dictated a pace to suit himself.  Frankie Dettori was on it because he weaved his way through the Hunt Cup field on Invisible Man and got up to win by a half a length.  Pat Smullen was on it because he drove Rite Of Passage up past Age Of Aquarius to win the Gold Cup, not because he had the gelding perfectly positioned throughout, and timed his run to perfection.  Kieren Fallon was on it for his power-packed finish on Afsare in the Hampton Court.  Actually, we only ever saw the finishes, therefore they must have been the only part of the races that counted.

There probably weren’t many more dramatic rides or dramatic finishes during Royal Ascot week than these five, but there were better rides, rides that made a difference.  Johnny Murtagh was probably on the best horse in the Golden Jubilee, but he maximised his chance of winning by bouncing Starspangledbanner out of the gate, bagging the stands rail and dictating the pace.  I heard a comment afterwards that Murtagh didn’t have to do too much, that he just had to sit and steer, and that there wasn’t even a huge amount of steering to be done, but that’s the thing about the good rides, they look simple because the rider makes it so.

I remember as a kid watching Liam Brady on The Big Match nonchalantly pass the ball around midfield with ease, finding his target with pinpoint accuracy every time, and thinking, I could pass the ball that well if I had as much time on the ball as he does.  That’s the thing though, he made the time, he earned the space, he made it look simple.

I thought that Maxime Guyon’s ride on Byword in the Prince of Wales’s was top notch.  I think it was the youngster’s first ride at Ascot, not an easy track to ride, yet he was always in the right place and he kicked at the right time.  Again, he was probably on the best horse, but he kept it simple and was always the most likely winner.  And I thought that Tom Eaves’s ride on Excel Bolt in the Chesham was top class, taking the colt, drawn in stall one, down the stands rail as the others slugged it out on what may have been at the time, and ultimately proved to be, the slowest part of the track.  He finished only third, so I guess that doesn’t qualify for ride of the week.  Winners only please in the tabloid age.

* For more of Donn’s thoughts, visit www.donnmcclean.com.

Categories: Horse racing Irish Racing