Love Me Tender is a 4-year-old, trained by Willie Mullins. He trotted up in a maiden hurdle at Listowel yesterday and is already being touted as a likely winner of one the novice hurdles at the Cheltenham Festival. Love Me Tender is a 5-year-old, trained by Willie Mullins for J.P. and runs in the Beginners Chase at Listowel today.
Confused? I'm not so much confused as annoyed. The opening paragraph, one would assume, must be factually incorrect, don't you think? I am, after all, someone who cares little for research and study. Yet, the above is perfectly correct. Willie Mullins has under his care two young horses with the same name. It is perfectly feasible, if the 5-year-old does not take to fences, that the two horses with the same name could run in the same race. As proved today, both can run at the same meeting and in the future on the same day.
Before coming to this country, the owner of the second horse to change countries, which I believe was yesterday's winner, should have been obliged to change the name of his horse, perhaps to Love Me Tender Too or something along those lines. Yes, I am mounted once again on my hobby-horse; reminding readers that the names of racehorses matter. Unlike the racing authorities of Ireland and Britain, and no doubt the rest of the world, who might find registration plates more convenient. I watched a race from Mundheim the other day where the commentator, someone they doubtless pulled-off the grandstand to try his hand at calling a race, used the racecard number as often as he used the names of the horses. He must just as well called 'the one horse leads from the four horse.'
To have two horses with the same name running at the same time is stupid, with the potential for punter confusion. It may be a cause for hilarity now but the joke will very soon go cold, believe me.
When you are as old as I am, time passes so quickly. It seems only a few weeks ago I was settling into the new flat season; my interest dragged from the familiarity of National Hunt to the awakening stars of the flat. Now, the time has come to embrace the final embers of the season, with three of my favourite flat races about to be run, the Cambridgeshire, the Arc, the Cesarewitch. Memories, I have a few, too few will be remembered, though, not with my ailing memory. I shall always remember the 2026 St. Leger, of course. Thvery same race I have advocated needed to be either removed as a classic or upgraded to an all-age race, its prize-funded adhanced to make it a rival to the Arc. Saffie had her day in the sun. It proved one of my other hobby-horses, that the sport needs more female jockeys riding in and winning our most prestigeous races. In fact, we need so many big races won by female jockeys that it stops being a story that transcends our sport.
I do not read any of the 'how to bet better' articles featured in The Racing Post. Neither do I pay any heed to the wise advice of the paper's experts, not even Tom Segal or Paul Kiely. Winning is fun, of course, where losing is a pinch to the heart. To me, a non-bettor and too cowardly to be a gambler, the greater fun would be in finding winners through my own knowledge, my own instincts. And the experts are not true experts as they lose as often as anyone, with only their winners given any prominence in The Racing Post. And when you have as many experts as The Racing Post has on its staff, at least one of them should have a winner worth boasting about on any given day.
Correctly, there is daily in The Racing Post at least one article containing facts and figures of the doom and gloom coming our way. It is true, the Labour government are intent on destroying our sport. Now whether that is due to ignorance or malice only they can say. Whichever it is, the sport needs to be in conference to come-up with a strategy for survival. Prize-money over the past few years has steadily increased, at least at the highest echelon of the sport, whereas in France it seems to be going in the opposite direction. But if we lose the financial support of bookmakers, which seems likely, the result will be prize-money reduced to unsustainable levels for owners and trainers. I just hope the B.H.A., or anyone, has a cunning plan to outwit Andy Burnham and his gang of conniving destoyers of industry.