THE END…

So that is the end of another Flat racing season then… This time around there was no Frankel.

The season started with grim news surrounding Godolphin, an organisation that continues to underperform considering the huge amount of money it invests in bloodstock – much of it seemingly unwisely.

Although they ended the season on a brighter note than they started it, Godolphin still has a way to go if it is to achieve the major global targets set.

Observing from afar, it appears Godolphin has accrued too many highly-paid chiefs and not enough Indians. The policy of boycotting British trainers and insisting it is a Dubai-run organisation may be all well and good, but there is no denying such a policy has resulted in a strangulation of prize-money won.

At the other end of the spectrum there were success stories for the Hannons Richard, and for the solid Ballydoyle operation overseen by Aidan O’Brien, who will start next year with an untold spectre of riches.

Declaration Of War, Magician and Kingsbarns represent the older division, and all three look likely to snap up high-profile races next year.

Richard Hughes and Ryan Moore can look back on 2013 with satisfaction, as can Johnny Murtagh, a man apparently possessing a Midas touch in both the riding and training sphere. For once the juvenile crop, spearheaded by Toormore, War Command, Australia and Kingston Hill look exciting.

You can go off some horses. Not all of them are like those charming ponies that canter across young girls’ bedroom walls.

Nor could they fill the hooves of the Herculean character that was Boxer in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. He was the workhorse that tirelessly hoisted the farm on his broad shoulders when it was faced with ruination. This before, exhausted and burnt out, he unwittingly aiding his own demise. In his determination to aid the greater cause, complying with the wishes of the pigs in charge, he willingly presented himself on his final journey to the establishment known as the abattoir.

I am not expecting, or requiring such a drastic one-sided relationship from racehorses that I might temporarily support, but just lately I get the feeling one or two are taking me for something of a fool.

As an example there is the case of Penina, a filly running in the nursery at Doncaster last Saturday from a mark of 66. Constructing a case for her was not that difficult after a recent fourth in a similar race at York.

From a low-profile but normally reasonably successful yard, punters seemed to agree with me as she was an overnight market-mover, touching as low as 4/1 in the morning. Penina finished twelfth of twelve, beaten a total of twenty-eight lengths. For a third-favourite in a six furlong event, that takes a bit of doing.

Most horses (although not necessarily as obliging as Boxer) are willing subjects that by and large will do their best. However, as far as punters are concerned, there is a drawback.

That is, as you have doubtless noticed, horses can’t speak. Therefore we have to second-guess what they will do the whole time. Because they cannot be asked, we have to guess whether the trip/ground is right; whether a left-handed/right-handed track suits; whether they have a headache; in short, if all is well within their world.

In fact, betting on racehorses requires a great leap of faith and a good deal of guesswork. Unable to eliminate guesswork completely, all we as analysts can hope to do is remove as much of it as possible. We accept that, but at times it seems as if, like the husband that doesn’t recognise his wife is cheating on him, we are the last to know.

Look at Favourite Treat on Saturday. I thought he had a good chance – something that was reflected in the betting. He was no good thing; but, with recent form on a soft surface and a progressive profile, he was entitled to run a race of sorts.

All of a sudden, around mid-morning, almost doubling in price, it seemed common knowledge that a telescope would be required to spot what sort of race he would run.

Bookmakers could not give Favourite Treat away. This was explained by halfway as Favourite Treat (hardly living up to his name for his supporters) began to lose ground. He became systematically passed by horse after horse until settling like a stone on an ocean bed for nineteenth place out of a field of twenty – beaten in excess of fifty-two lengths.

Now, I appreciate that in a field of twenty there will be nineteen tales of disappointment and misfortune. However, it strikes me no half-fancied horse should be beaten as far as fifty-plus lengths in a seven furlong handicap without a resoundingly good reason. As far as I know none has been forwarded for Favourite Treat.

Perhaps the horse could enlighten us, perhaps he had a word with his stablemates who then laid him on the carrot exchanges (hence the market drift) telling them he would rather stick his snout in a bucket of treacle than run in the Betfred Fun And Friendly Handicap. Perhaps he had a word in Fred’s ear. Whatever mitigating circumstances may or may not exist, Favourite Treat was neither fun nor friendly on Saturday.

Losers are all part of this business. Backing winners means an acceptance of backing losers. But there are losers and then there are horses that are just ‘no good’. And it is alarming when the market is able to predict a poor run from a fancied contender. Something has to be wrong in the cases when that is what it does.

There was worse to come for favourite backers when Rhombus, the 13/2 market-leader in the November Handicap, was never seen with a chance, trailing in a dismal eighteenth of twenty-three, beaten over fifty lengths.

Ground or no ground that is a staggering distance for a fancied horse to be beaten in a Flat race (Forgotten Hero was five lengths further back in nineteenth – Lahaag was over a hundred lengths behind the winner in twenty-first position).

I know it was late in the season and horses can topple over the edge. But, if that is the case, should trainers not take some responsibility? By definition a trainer is supposed to do just that – the clue is in the title.