Nicholas Godfrey Blog: Friday October 31, 2014. Countdown to Breeders' Cup (USA) 2014

BREEDERS' CUP SANTA ANITA (USA)

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY NOVEMBER 1, AND 2, 2014 (CH4) (ATR)

INTERNATIONAL HORSERACING

Your adventure into the world of Global Horseracing a

warm welcome to Nicholas Godfrey (GB) (Racing Post)

http://www.racingpost.

LEE MOTTERSHEAD THE MONDAY COLUMN
RP Monday October 27 page 9.

“Australia a land of opportunity as Adelaide's win proves.
“Team (Aidan) O’Brien"

“Wishful Thinking: whets the appetite. Heart warming stuff. “

THE BREEDERS’ CUP (USA) 2014

FLAG? WHO’S? THAT SEEMS AT PRESENT TO POSE A PROBLEM:

“ THE BREEDERS’CUP, even with American racing’s medication issues, remains a fantastic event and it is set to be so once again this week. Britain sends a typical strong team and, regardless of whose flag might be flown, Toronado will be a representative of that team.

“Who’s camp the star miler actually belongs to became a question after it emerges Al Shabaq Racing had said no to the Richard Hannon-trained Santa Anita favourite and stablemate Osaila carrying the Union Jack rugs that signify representation and membership of Team British Racing. As decisions go , this one was surprising and somewhat regrettable .

“In explaining why Sheikh Joaan’s two runners would be set apart from the other British raiders it was explained they are Qatari-owned and it would therefore not be “appropriate” for them to be part of Team GB. Wrong.

J Margaret Clarke Turfcall Factfile

Owner Sheikh Joaan chose to place Toronado and Osaila in training with a British Licensed Flat Turf Trainer, Richard Hannon.(GB). The Hannon team of handler - riders have been working with these two horses every single day, ongoing over several years. It is this Hannon Team who have taught these two horses all they know to date, their success on racecourses around the world are due entirely to Team (Richard) Hannon’s expertize and highly skilled working practices, for which owner Sheikh Joaan has chosen and paid Hannon to carry out for him this highly skilled creative work of art.

If Sheikh Joaan had wanted his racehorses to carry the Qatati Flag he would have needed to have them trained by highly skilled horsemen in his own country. The possibility that there are no highly skilled horsemen in Qatari, or any licensed trainers either, is possibly the reason this owner has them in training with Hannon in Britain. If owner Sheikh Joaan refuses to allow his horses to compete with the GB flag at the Breeders Cup (USA) this weekend, he will be doing the equivalent of smacking Team Hannon in the face. . . It is the skill and expertize of the Hannon Team both in theory and in practise that has achieved such success for this owner Sheikh Joaan.

Does owner Sheikh Joaan really want to abuse Team Hannon in such a dreadful way in America? After all they have achieved with Toronado and Osaila in Britain? Sheikh Joaan to take issue to snub, in such a cruel and evil way as to take all the credit for what British Team Hannon have worked and achieved for him? No, no, no.

TEAM GREAT BRITAIN HAVE THEIR OWN FLAG THIS IS HOW IT WORKS:
Team (Richard) Hannon (GB). Team (Sir Michael) Stoute (GB) Team (Charles) Hills (GB) Team (David) Simcock (GB) Team (Tom) Dascombe (GB). Team (Jamie) Orborne (GB)
etc ....

TEAM IRELAND HAVE THEIR OWN FLAG THIS IS HOW IT WORKS:
Team (Aidan) O'Brien (IRE)
Team (Conor) Murphy (IRE)
etc ...

TEAM FRANCE HAVE THEIR OWN FLAG THIS IS HOW IT WORKS:
Team (Andre) Fabre (FR)
etc ...

TEAM AMERICA HAVE THEIR OWN FLAG THIS IS HOW IT WORKS:
Team (Todd) Pletcher (USA)
etc ....

“These horses” said spokesman Harry Herbert “are followed by not just the sheikh and his friends but also by the Qataris and should always be flying a Qatar flag. All the more reason that the Qataris should know the true, truth about how these horses are trained, and how fit they need to be athletically fit for horseracing. They should know that not just anyone can train or ride racehorses. And that no one can train a racehorse in a chicken run. As neither can a horse be brought in from a field and be taken straight to a racecourse and expected to win a race. No one is saying that the people from Qatar can’t wave their own flags.

“Nobody ever sought to argue Sea The Stars was running from Hong Kong instead of Ireland and, in the same way, horses taking part in equestrian events at the Olympics represent the countries of their riders, not those of their owners. That is how it should be.

Christopher Tsui the owner of Sea The Stars chose an Irish trainer for Sea The Stars, John Oxx. Sea The Stars was trained in Ireland for the whole of his racing career. If an issue had come up as this then Sea The Stars would have been run bearing an Irish Flag. Because Ireland was the country he was trained in. At the request of his owner Tsui. Tsui who understood the importance of how a racehorse is trained, he made absolutely sure Sea The Stars was trained properly. That Tsui who owns Sea The Stars lives in Hong Kong was not the issue.

http://www.sportinglife.com/racing/news/article/465/8792590/john-oxx-stars-of-the-future

It would be good if in the 2015 running of the Arc each horse had a saddle cloth that stated which country each runner was trained in as well. An excellent way forward for global horseracing. Yes, yes, yes.

"When Treve defended her Arc crown it was a victory for France, even though she is Qatari-owned.

Some of these other countries who run horseracing, India for instance, have shown a complete lack of respect for both the racehorses rights and needs and the people who work with the racehorses every day, their rights and needs. By rights India is not fit to run any sort of horseracing.

THE TRUE REASONING

GLOBAL BLOODHORSE LITERATE RACING RIGHT EQUUS ZONE
defined

The highly skilled art and creation in preparing a thoroughbred racehorse for competition on global racetracks is something that needs to be properly understood by everyone. Which at present is far from the case.

“TORONADO has always been trained throughout his racing life in Britain . He was bought by Shiekh Joaan after his two-year-old season and, although the owner has financed the majority of the horses career, the crucial expertise that has taken him to Group 1-winning heights has come on British soil from a British-based trainer.

“Anyone can fly any flag after any race but the unwritten rules and understanding of the sport do not need rewriting. If Toronado triumphs in the States on Sunday it will no doubt delight many in Qatar, which is a good thing, but he would be a British winner of the 11.40 Breeders Cup Mile Turf on Sunday November 2. http://www.breederscupraces.net/mile.html