attached is entries for a mile handicap on Monday at Chelmsford... When will this embarrassing story end for the BHA?
SQUIRE was entered in this race Nass, thought it "best" to pull him out! This whole saga is an absolute disgrace. A stain on the BHA and a stain on racing in general. The latest move by the Best team is for Jim's wife to apply for a licence. If its granted although there will be conditions it will almost be "business as usual". Amazing how he was guilty and got 4 years, retried, found guilty again and got 6 months! Poorly handled and farcical from beginning to end.
tis a broad church the racing industry , from honest and honourable to the cynical and crooked , bit like society as a whole , but the arbiters of justice in this instance have indeed made a total mess , difficult to comprehend the thinking behind it -- apart from leaving it open to random decisions that have no logic ..... business as usual .....
That race on Monday could be a farce, he will probably win the race with a punt and that will pay for his court expenses. BHA are jolting from farce to farce at the minute, and I've not heard anything from Rust throughout any of it. They look completely rudderless and veering off course. The thing with Best is that because he lands plots, the BHA will have been pressured by the bookmakers to act, this sort of thing is happening every day. You just need to see some of the markets at Southwell on the sand to see what I mean. Jollies drifting and then starting slowly, others shortening and breaking alertly. Yet it's very rare for the BHA to get involved. Spot fixing in Cricket meant prison for some, in horse racing it means very little.
Personally I can’t understand why one chap gets banned and hundreds more get off scot free! Come on people they are all at it. And I’m not having a go at them for doing so incidentally when prizemoney is at a ridiculously low level. It’s almost a necessity that trainers operate like this in order to merely survive in the industry. Meanwhile, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Any sport that revolves around the triumvirate of man, betting and handicapping is always going to be open to abuse. Was what Best ‘did’, incidentally, any worse than the running of Cocktails at Dawn at Aintree earlier in the month or countless other examples in recent memory. Re the named animal I told you what would happen prior to the race and it transpired as such. Although, as stated at the time, I never knew connections would be quite so blatant in the running of the horse!
