When is an open, not an open?
When all the runners are locally trained.
Okay, technically within the rules it IS still an open race. But not within the spirit of racing.
On Saturday, the home of the English Derby will stage three open races. Of the 17 runners – there is an empty trap before we start – 16 are locally trained.
Yet this is at a track paying £250 to the winner and £50 to the also-rans.
Dig a bit deeper still and you find that half of the runners in the hurdle open will be sent out by Jason Foster.
Okay, it is a hurdle, and this is hardly a precedent, but at the track that famously pioneered the ‘one trainer per race’ philosophy, it is another indicator that the industry is stretched to bursting point.
Because Wimbledon is far from exceptional.
On Saturday at Harlow, Paul Clarke supplied three of the runners in a four-runner race. And yes, it was graded that way; there were no withdrawals.
For the record, the Clarke trio took the first three places, though not necessarily in the order that the SPs predicted.
On the same night at Henlow, where seven of the eight races were for four runners, trainer Kim Taylor supplied half the field in three of the four-runner races.
Meanwhile, the biggest UK sales promoter concedes that he may not be able to stage any more auctions due to transportation red tape.
In Ireland, Cork follows the lead of Limerick in cancelling sales due to lack of entries.
None of this is due to Foot And Mouth, quarantine or any type of extraordinary circumstance.
If a remedy was put in place now, it would take three to four years to start to arrest the decline.
There is no remedy being offered by the industry or the bookmakers who make millions from it.
At what point will this situation be recognised as a crisis?
