Watch Channel Four Instead

The bastardization of Group race names received another boost in England on Sunday with a Group 3 contest at Glorious Goodwood: the Select Racing UK On Sky 432 Stakes. Run over the common distance of 1 mile 1 furlong and 192 yards. Imagine winning and recounting the thrill to the fellows at The Club as you sink into the button-back leather armchair with your fifth gin in hand, “I say chaps, did you see my filly win the Select Racing UK On Sky 432 Stakes at Goodwood, what-what?” Just trips off the tongue, doesn't it? Race names like this are a con to fill out space in a catalogue pedigree. I think there should be a restriction on the number of letters and spaces, as with horse names. The race’s registered name is the Select Stakes, and Sunday’s running was the 42nd renewal. The winner, Lady Gloria, a previous G3 winner by Diktat from a Pivotal mare, was the rank outsider at 33 to 1. Serves them jolly well right.

As an aside, Great Leighs, in Essex, is the first new racecourse opened in Britain in 80 years. I noticed on an American blog recently a list of USA tracks which had closed in the last four decades and there were 40 of them. The latest, Bay Meadows, near San Francisco, closed its doors a couple of weeks back. People laugh when I tell them racing is a sunset industry. I have a memory of Bay Meadows. There was no live racing happening but I watched the 1998 Stradbroke/Queensland Derby via simulcast satellite at that track. Generously, I tipped Toledo to all and sundry - he was back on a fast track and I thought he was a good thing (he broke the race record!). Paid US$18 which helped pay for the trip. Russell Cameron must wonder why I smile every time I go by.