I have a challenge for you. Look at the results from a racecard for a particular race and then watch the video of that race. I will be amazed if the two show any resemblance to each other.

Some racing offices are creating race comments that have very little to do with how the race is run, and trainers are causing the problems by how they seed their runners.

I have seen so many examples lately of dogs being incorrectly seeded by trainers and racing managers are letting them away with it. The worst culprits are the local graded runners being put in opens.

You might think that if a trainer has a middle seed that he would always seed his dog ‘middle’. I have seen cases though where the locals were thinking, ‘the inside (or outside) of the track isn’t running well, I’ll change his seeding’.

But it isn’t just graded trainers, a lot of open race trainers are nearly as guilty. I can think of one open racer, who is trained by a friend of mine, who has been seeded rails, middle and wide depending on the perception of the track, not the dog. And yes, I have, on occasion, abused the system myself.

I know some trainers change seeding depending on the type of traps they are running out of. For example on the curved front traps, the outside boxes are popular but on the old ‘Tom Smith’ built traps, trainers seemed to prefer middle. There doesn’t appear to be any bias on the latest traps that are used at the Ladbrokes and Corals tracks and at Henlow.

Another point – I noticed that there were only six wide seeds among the eight trainers championship races. Only the trainers know whether they seeded the runners because Towcester is considered a railers track.

Of course it is also possible that the trainers decided to not enter their wide runners for the same reason. Either way it would be ironic because in the Lowther Stakes and British Bred competition, the wide seeds ran particularly well.

Have my dogs suffered because of bad seeding? We get injuries like everyone else, but it is very hard to pin it down to trouble caused by the draw. But I am certain that there is undoubtedly extra trouble caused by bad seeding.

A few months ago I had a pup seeded middle but drawn on the outside of a known wide runner but who had been designated ‘middle’ by the trainer. The pup was battered all the way to the first bend and it took months for his confidence to recover.

What can be done? Well we could insist that dogs remain with a certain seeding until a racing manager approves a change. But I would hate to see trainers losing the power to decide the seeding of their own dogs.

If we highlight the issue though, it might get something done.

 

I used to keep stud dogs years ago and we had some success with the likes of Ratify and Highway Leader. These days, British breeding is in a dire position which is a great pity.

Our former open racer Take The Crown only has three litters of racing age and 27 of the 29 pups have reached the track.

The oldest (Apr 15) are out of Borna Empress and include Ambion Hill who won a novice open race final on SKY. His litter sister Maureens Wish represented John Mullins in the Trainers Championship meeting.

The other two litters are both 19 months old. All seven pups out of Bang On Midget are racing, most at Romford where most look destined to go 575 when the are old enough with another running A2 at Central Park.

The third litter out of Ballymac Mighty are at Monmore and all ten are racing. The best two so far are Supreme Rioja who has already won three opens and Artic Lightning who has won A2 and is in the British bred final at Sheffield next week.

As for Take The Crown, he is living the life of a lord of an Essex lord with owner Darren Price. There is some frozen semen if anyone wants to use him.

 

(My apologies to Pat that this article was delayed in transmission. It would have included a preview to the Trainers Championship meeting and would have contained the line ‘I’d have a few quid on Kevin Hutton, but leave it until after the second race when he should be a big price’ Oops!!

But don’t worry, Pat has volunteered to take part in a new, and very different type of tipping competition starting next week. Keep watching – Ed)