Saturday March 18th 2023

Is that 12 hours plus on the piss then? Round and round they go, I'd get bored waiting for something to happen. You can tell I'm not a petrol head. Have a great day and night.

I fancy Truckers Lodge to run well,it was 50 50 who I napped.I backed him EW 6 places but with heavy ground four and a quarter miles and the new whip rules there might not be 6 finishers.

Less than 6 finishers crossed my tiny too. Can't be certain but I think it has happened that there were only a handful of finishers and made the likes of Sky's 6 places and short odds seem ungenerous. And shrewd!

When I was nine years old, there was a Swiss boy at my school for a couple of years. I was used to having endless disagreements at that age, just pointless repetitions of the same opinion. I had not learned to recognize that there could be different opinions which individuals hold, I felt that my opinion must be right. One day when I was saying for the fifth time, "I don't agree with you", he just turned to me and said, "You don't 'ave to agree with me." (As a Swiss French speaker, he dropped the "h".) I was flabbergasted as I had not encountered this type of thinking and it stopped me in my tracks, left me speechless. My CPU just fried. I had no reply.

In conclusion, in relation to this issue of differences of opinion about use of the whip, I think that we are not going to find common ground about this issue. I am content to live with that. There seems to me to be very little point in pursuing it.

However, in terms of your comments

"Now if you and Joe still think hands and heels ,no whip use can persuade a horse to win then in reality you should pack in watching the sport."

1. Joe and I hold different opinions and these cannot be parcelled up as if we are part of some groupthink. For a start, he was not discontened with the the previous whip maxima.

2. The whip has not been abolished, so it is the jockey with the most skill under the current rules who will achieve the best result.

3. There were, as has been pointed out, plenty of exciting battles to the line last week that did not see much use of the whip. It seemed to me that the horses were having an epic contest.

4. The new rules will inevitably cause some horses more difficulty than others.

5. I doubt that the British public would like to see unlimited use of the whip as in Hong Kong. The British culture is sensitive to animal welfare, there is a long history. Perhaps in Hong Kong, not so much.

"Driven by the ever-growing sensitivity of the general public and animal rights campaigners, the net is undoubtedly closing in on whip use in racing, resulting in a worldwide trend towards limited the amount of strikes and the way the jockeys can use it.

It is a change that will probably hit Hong Kong and Asia last, where the gambling-orientated masses don’t seem to have the greatest sympathy for the animals competing."

From HKRacing in 2017

6. "you should pack in watching the sport". It is essential for the sport that the widest possible audience takes an interest and watches it, it does not exist in a vacuum from our society. As you have said, there is something of a crisis for small trainers and the last thing horseracing needs to do is bury its head in the sand about legitimate concerns. The BHA clearly does not intend to do so. The more people who enjoy horseracing, the better.

7. As I said before the hullaballoo, I believe it will all settle down to a new norm as the jockeys are intelligent and will find ways of thriving under the new maxima.

Do you ever get BORED.

Finding something said in 2017 says a lot about your reasoning. Try looking at what the HK CEO said recently at the Aussie conference in response to Harringtons speech.

Different opinions I've no problem with at all .

When you say 'they protect the sport and stand up for it', you mean, in this case, allowing them to use coercion with the whip on horses who are not willing to dig any deeper, for whatever reason. I'd much prefer, by a million miles, that a winner's prize goes to a horse willing to give everything than one who needs coerced into and past its own barrier.

No,you are twisting words again. Look at the rules in HK.

If you hit a horse out of contention in HK you are for the high jump. Big time . You can though keep at one that's responding . It's well known I won't tolerate horses being hit once in the wrong place or hit when they've given their all. It's just foolish however to think as you do that they can perform to their maximum under hands and heels, you are in dreamland.

Your views are based on what ?

What you do not like to see . There's not a semblance of horse knowledge there ,not a jot.

I'd like to see the sport thrive. I like to see horses who give their all because that's what's in their character. Whatever understanding I have of horses has come from 55 years watching racing: I am comfortable with that knowledge, but always trying to add to it.