If you're a fan of the coalition you could go for Daring Dream in the 3.50 at Ayr and if you're slightly more sceptical about how our arrangements are going to work out you could try Midnight Fantasy in the 3pm at Wolverhampton.Neither horse won! According to the article in the Guardian:
Graham Sharpe, a spokesman for William Hill, said its odds on Daring Dream were 4-1. "We can only hope that the PM is a better politician than tipster or this could cost us hundreds of thousands," he added.(http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/27/david-cameron-turns-racing-tipster)
Now we know that his 'picks' for the Cabinet are almost as dicey as his racing tips! 'Tally Ho' Fox may have withdrawn from the chase having fallen at the water jump but others are also about to flounder in the mire.
The Health and Social Care Bill is now an old nag that is badly winded. Its jockey, Lansley is sweating. The saddle has slipped and it doesn't look as though he will make it intact passed the post. However, Lansley took a swipe, with his whip, at the jockey riding the highly favoured NHS, as they came over the last hurdle. This has devastated the chances of NHS even surviving the next fence!
'Bagpuss' Pickles is mounted on NP. Next up is 'Apple Schnapps' Shapps on the plain filly P. Bringing up the rear of the parade is 'Disgusting' Clark riding F. As the more astute will have already noted the letters put together are: NPPF . This is short for the National Planning Policy Framework . Whichever way you look at it NP or P and F are a bunch of flea bitten nags. They've been starved of nutrition. But Pickles continues to whip his horse. If he gets the chance, he'll also whip the other two - jockeys included!
So, Mr Cameron - who would you tip to win the race to get through this Parliament unscathed? Will it be the winded Health and Social Care Bill that has already kicked NHS in the teeth? Will it be the flea-bitten National Planning Policy Framework that has caused all right-minded race goers to wince at the prospect of a ruined countryside?
Arturo and I reckon you have a few more 'picks' of the day, up your sleeve!
Why all this horse racing obsession, do I hear you ask? As well you might! It's because Arturo and I were totally incensed by what we read in the Daily Telegraph yesterday. This was the title: Stop horsing around with the sport of kings. Cack-handed attempts to solve the whipping row have left the horse-racing world in disarray. It was written by Jim White.
I am not quite sure what Jim White really thinks! He seems as anxious as the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) not to stir up the rage of those who faint at the sight of a horse being whipped. He writes:
The BHA’s whip issue began at the Grand National. Every year millions tune in to the scramble round Aintree, including some who find racing abhorrent. And this year the likes of the charity Animal Aid, which has long had a beef about the race, were gifted a publicity godsend.
The 'godsend' in question was the vision of the winner of the Grand National, Ballabriggs on the point of collapse. He had been whipped many times in the final furlong by his jockey, Jason Maguire.
The furore that broke out, after the race, resulted in the BHA investigating the use of the whip by jockeys in all races. A solution was reached. Jim White wrote:
Laws were introduced on how many times a horse could be struck, restricting jockeys to seven uses of the whip in a race, including a maximum of five in the last furlong.
Jockeys went up the pole about this! They stated that in the rush to the finishing post, it was impossible to count the number of times the whip was used. Jim White claimed that it was:
A compromise so weak-kneed as to be counter-productive, all it did was add confusion – as was proved when the French jockey Christoph Soumillon had his £50,000 winning cheque withheld on Saturday after stewards claimed he hit his horse six times in the final furlong rather than the statutory five.
One jockey, Richard Hughes, has declared that he no longer wishes to ride under these conditions. He has left the 'sport'.
There have been many debates about whether it is cruel to whip a horse! Those involved in the 'sport' claim that it is not cruel! However, the horses have not been asked!
All Arturo and I can say is that we know many who would be only too happy to take the place of Richard Hughes and ride without using a whip at all!
Possibly, if you asked the horses themselves, they'd say that they would be only too pleased to give up the 'sport' all together. They would prefer to roll around the paddock! But who's interested in what an animal thinks?
I've come a long way from 'Boy David' Cameron's racing tips! But the one lesson that Cameron can learn from the 'whipping' row is 'Don't fudge the issue'. If something or someone is blatantly in the wrong - say so and act accordingly.
'Bye'
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