Horse Racing: Timeform Blasts Cheltenham Plan

Six months after a Festival meeting at Cheltenham which caused a total of 11 fatal injuries to horses, the controversy over their deaths, and a subsequent Horseracing Regulatory Authority report on the circumstances, will be re-ignited next week when the latest edition of Timeform's Chasers & Hurdlers annual describes a key recommendation of that report as "perplexing" and "absurd".

Nine horses were killed during the Festival meeting itself, and two more subsequently died from injuries sustained there. Chasers & Hurdlers 2005-2006 (Timeform, £66.00), to be published a week tomorrow, agrees with the HRA view that "no single factor, or combination of factors" was to blame for the death toll, but it is sharply at issue with the HRA over its proposal that Cheltenham "should aim for ground that is officially easier than good" for future Festivals.

This, Timeform says, "is absurd [because it is] increasing the risk of extreme ground conditions at the Festival [and] placing Cheltenham's clerk of the course in the invidious position of being a hostage to fortune. If rain lashes the course after it has been heavily watered, racegoers and television viewers may find themselves witnessing the unedifying spectacle of runners struggling up the Cheltenham hill in the sort of taxing conditions that seemed to have become a thing of the past."

The annual warns: "Cheltenham in a mudbath nowadays has the potential to be a public-relations disaster for jumping. If implemented, the new instruction will also increase the risk of abandonment."

A day's racing has not been lost to the weather at the Festival since 1978, when heavy snowfall on Wednesday evening forced the postponement of the Gold Cup until April. The claim by such a respected publication that the HRA's proposal could increase the chance of abandonment at Cheltenham is therefore a serious one.

However, Paul Struthers, the authority's PR manager, insisted yesterday that doing nothing had not been an option for racing's regulator. "It's not about us pandering to animal-rights organisations, it's about being realistic about the age we're living in," Struthers said.

"The stats are clear on this, that the quicker the ground, the higher the risk of injury and fatality. We certainly understand that people have concerns when you're producing what is in effect artificial going, but at the same time Cheltenham places once-a-year demands on horses, as was shown by our report.

"It would be naive to think that in this day and age, we can simply sit back and say that this year was a one-off. If anyone thinks that fatality rates like that will be tolerated forever by the public at large, they need to get with the programme. This is a recommendation, and relates to the first day of the meeting. We are saying, if you do this, the stats show that injury rates will reduce."

Chasers & Hurdlers has never ducked an argument, and this edition includes observations on, among many other things, the structure of the Grand National handicap, the growing influence of French-bred jumping horses, and Ascot's plans for a jumps festival of its own around Christmas.

Timeform's final ratings, too, are sure to spark debate. Few would argue with its ranking of Brave Inca as champion jumper and leading hurdler, but its top-rated staying chaser is the perennial Gold Cup disappointment Beef Or Salmon. This year's Gold Cup winner War Of Attrition is rated only third, behind Kingscliff, who has also received the "squiggle" alongside his rating that denotes a horse of dubious character.

"That's their opinion," Robert Alner, Kingscliff's trainer, said yesterday. "To me, he's genuine, and he proved it with the way he stayed on [to beat Beef Or Salmon] in November. At Haydock a couple of years ago he pulled deep muscles at the third and still ran all the way to the line. He's never shown any sign of being ungenuine to me."

Ron Cox's tip of the day


Out For A Stroll 3.45 Kempton

With recent rain making most going forecasts uncertain, it could be wise to side with Out For A Stroll on the dependable Polytrack at Kempton. Unlucky with traffic problems on Bank Holiday Monday at Epsom, he can cruise in here for a jockey who won on him last year. Yesterday's tip Royal Dignitary went in at 7-2. Among our other winners was the 18-1 Pay Time at Redcar