And Another Thing

September 2008

Mistakes

RACING is a great leveller. Open your mouth and make a statement and if proved wrong, there is no hiding place.

My comments regarding Jim Bolger’s bid to win the Group 1 Coolmore Fusaichi Pegasus Stakes with Lush Lashes need repeating. I may as well draw attention to them rather than afford some one else with the opportunity.

I felt sufficiently superior this morning to tell Mr Bolger that the ground was too soft for Lush Lashes and that in running her he ran a serious risk of Halfway To Heaven confirming Goodwood form. In which case, there was the possibility of Lush Lashes being labelled unlucky on the day but unable to overturn the form next time.

Do not do it I warned! Cannot win on the ground – ground that is soft but not as we know it Jim!

Good rhetoric – bad assumption. Can do it, did do it, result: Jim Bolger, not for the first time, makes me look foolish. Jim Bolger is my nemesis. He doesn’t even know I exist but, having been caught out by the assumption that Finsceal Beo had only poor form to her credit before the 1,000 Guineas of 2007, the vendetta – initiated by me – gathers momentum. This was my big chance to prove finally that I knew better than he did. Don’t give me no Lush Lashes!

As they came to gather her in, she kept galloping and it was Bolger four – me nil. With no Joe Cole to save the day, this gap looks likely to widen. For in the true tradition of those that look like genii on occasion and idiots on others, I shall whittle away at Mr Bolger in the foolhardy belief that I shall expose him in the end.

So some advice for myself: Get over it; it is just a horserace. You have not started World War III, nor have you actually lost money as you failed to place it where your big gob was. What you have done is to get carried away with your own importance, thinking you knew better than a renowned trainer who, after winning the Group 1 for fillies, followed up by winning the Irish Champion with New Approach.

That is the nature of this beast. Get on a roll, start backing a few winners and you delude yourself into thinking you have cracked the code.

The fall to earth can be a long one, unless of course you have experienced before. If not, you are new to the game, a liar or have never expressed an opinion. For the time being, it is life as we know it Jim – it’s worse than that he is dead Jim – or to put it bluntly, he got too big for his boots Jim!