Few (assistant) trainers were more delighted than Rab McNair to hear that Towcester promoter Kevin Boothby is to replace the Towcester and Oxford straight-fronted pneumatic traps with the old fashioned spring loaded curved boxes. Though among the trainers, few have been more forthright than Patrick Janssens in their condemnation.
But far from playing the ‘I told you so’ card, Rab is “just delighted” that change is coming. Always a Boothby supporter, the Scotsman finally lost patience as race after race was cancelled – for one reason or another, but most often, trap failure. In fact, Rab was quite willing to withdraw the kennel runner from the RPGTV Puppy Derby Final but for being overruled.
He said: “I have supported Kevin Boothby from the very start. He is a proper dog man like myself, but I had reservations about his starting traps right from the beginning. For all my years on the flaps, we used the big heavy curved boxes and the way I saw it, ‘if it ain’t broke. . .’ The reason that the new style of traps were brought in all those years ago was probably money.
“It took one person, or no people, to swing them onto the track off a gantry. They could save on two sets of wages compared to rolling them on and off. But to put them on the arm, they had to take some weight off them.
“That was when the trouble started. Some of the traps don’t even sit on the track properly. You could even see a gap under them and the dogs didn’t get down in the traps properly with their feet under the curves. The new traps should have worked but they never did. I know you need to make progress, but I’m still the bloke who wants to pull up the bonnet of the car when it breaks down, not find some mechanic with a laptop.
“Anyway, over time I have taken a lot of stick from some of the old flapping lads. Every time something went wrong they’d be on the phone ‘are you still in love with Boothby?’. It became harder and harder to defend the track. But I always reminded them, that it was Kevin who kept the pressure on the others. How many £20K races would there have been if it wasn’t for him?”
Interestingly, Rab believes there will be an unexpected bonus in the switch to the heavy curved boxes.
He said: “Everybody knows that the boxes they have at the moment favour the three and four. It’s all very well for the journalists and TV presenters to be criticising trainers for seeding their dogs wrong. But if you know your dog has a better chance from three or four you will enter him as a railer and suffer trap one if you get it. Even that is better than five or six by seeding him middle.
“I have no doubt that there will be a lot more dogs being entered as middle seeds on the new traps because the real railers will be the only ones seeding rails. Maybe I am remembering this wrong, but I don’t remember there being a bias for the middle traps when Lord Hesketh first opened the place and used those big heavy eight-runner boxes.”
But that applies to other track too, not just Towcester?
“That’s true. But if I am being quite honest, I am not too bothered what other tracks do if I am not planning to race there. ”
So will that be the end of the debate once the new traps are installed?
Rab said: “Yes, we move on. I have known since the start that they weren’t right. Kevin Boothby disagreed and wanted to be proved right. I don’t blame him. If I have an opinion, I’ll stick to my guns until it is quite clear that I’ve got it wrong. He has spent most of his life proving people wrong which is why he has re-opened three tracks that everyone said would never happen.
“Personally, the only other thing I would change, if I could, would be to make the distance a bit longer. I think an extra 10 metres would be an even better Derby. It is a bit like Shelbourne Park. The 525 isn’t great, the 550 is better, but the 575 (526m) is a better run than both.”
On the subject of the Star Sport/TLC English Derby, the ante post favourite Fromposttopillar remains on schedule to have his first sprint solo at Central Park next month.
Rab said: “He is in fabulous shape. In fact, he is a bit fresh, very full of himself. Queen Beyonce and Queen Jessiej are both due in season and I have spoken with Brendan (Keogh) about when Fromposttopillar should cover them. We haven’t made a decision yet, but I wouldn’t want it to drag on to when we are getting him ready for the Kent Plate. That 500 metre trip is probably my favourite of all the race distances, even ahead of the 515m at Hove and the Derby course at Towcester. I can’t wait to see him on it.”
However the omens aren’t looking so good for one of the kennel’s other stars.
Rab said: “Warzone Tom has been treated for a wrist problem. We have just started galloping him and there has been a reaction. I don’t want to write off his career just yet but it is a concern.”
In the meantime, Rab has just started no less than 20 youngsters behind the drag hare.
He said: “I can’t believe how well they went. In fact, they went so well that I thought the battery was going on the drag. I recharged it overnight and it turned out that it wasn’t a battery fault after all, they were absolutely flying. I know that there will be a lot of interest in the two Droopys Sydney litters out of Beyonce and Jessiej, but trust me, the King Turbo’s out of Queen Charlotte’s look a bit special too.”
