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Horseracing at Evangeline Downs, Saturday 4th November 2023

January 15, 2024

I like to go along to the horse racing when I get the opportunity and after our stay in New Orleans Jen and I had moved out of town to Arnaudville. It’s a small town that’s only around twenty minutes drive from the Evangeline track. As there was a meeting going on during our stay we called in one evening.

The track seems to be secondary to the casino, which was far busier than the racing. It was free to get in although few of the people present had much of an interest in the live racing and spent their time on the big betting hall that had races on the telly from other locations around the country.

It was a strange atmosphere indoors as smoking was allowed. It felt like going back in time twenty-years. Maybe it’s a casino thing, although the casino wasn’t what I consider a casino. I always expect to see Bond in a tuxedo playing Baccarat, but instead we got Bart Simpson’s aunts feeding the fruities.

The racing was probably the most unusual that I’ve seen, bar the races for midget horses in Jeju where the jockeys could bring them to a halt by putting their boots to the ground. Each race was no longer than 350 yards, with some of them just 250 yards. It meant that only those horses that could make a lightning start were in with a chance.

Something else that was unusual was that there were always exactly six horses in each race, like going to the dogs. There were only six jockeys in total as well, each of them riding in every race.

Our betting strategy of Jen selecting a horse on the basis of its name paid off and we finished up well ahead. I resisted the urge to play the slots on the way out and we headed back to Arnaudville quids in.

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Waldridge Park v AFC Newbiggin Reserves, Saturday 16th September 2023, 1.30pm

October 16, 2023

I hadn’t expected to be back in the UK so quickly, but visa issues meant that it’s likely that my time in Saudi Arabia is done, at least for the time being. For what it’s worth I found the Saudi people to be incredibly friendly and the country to be modernising at pace. From a groundhopping point of view, I got to tick off ten of their grounds that I’d not ever expected to and across different divisions. Whilst the standard of football is patchy at the moment the fans are passionate about the game and with the world’s playing talent following the money it can only get better.

Prior to heading up to Chester-le-Street, Isla and I called into a couple of stables as part of the National Horse Racing Week. One of them was very well-organised with activities. At the other one, it transpired that the open day was actually six days earlier. Nevertheless, the trainer’s mother very kindly gave us a private tour.

The game that I’d earmarked for the afternoon was at the Riverside Sports Complex at Chester-le-Street. It’s right next to Durham’s cricket ground. I parked up and after what seemed like an eternity downloading the parking app and entering all of my details I wandered towards the entrance.

To my right I spotted some football action on one of four grass pitches and in the hope of adding a bonus tick to my list of grounds made my way over.

It turns out that there was a game going on. I had to speak to two different fellas to find out the teams, with each of them only knowing their own team and not their opponents. Nevertheless, we got there in the end and I established that Waldridge Park, in blue, were taking on Newbiggin Reserves, who were wearing a white kit.

A bit of further research revealed that the fixture was in the fifteenth-tier North East Combination League Premier Division, which sits just below the bottom rung of the better-known Northern Alliance League. I love the idea that organised Saturday afternoon football exists to this extent and beyond.

There were about twenty-five minutes remaining when I rocked up and the visitors were leading eight-one. I stayed long enough to see one of the Newbiggin players send a free-kick from just outside the box into orbit, but when you are seven goals to the good nobody is going to criticise you for that.

I left them after a few minutes to head to the game I’d originally intended to go to but was able to keep an eye on the remaining tier-fifteen proceedings from the main stand. Newbiggin added two more goals for a ten-one rout.

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Middlesbrough v Huddersfield Town, Saturday 19th August 2023, 3pm

October 12, 2023

The new season hadn’t started well for the Boro with defeats in both of the first two fixtures. I hadn’t seen either match live as I’d been working away but Harry hadn’t been too impressed with the home game.

I’d got back into the country the day before this match and took the opportunity to do something with Harry’s sister Isla. She’s into horses rather than football and so we went for a trek on the moors near Boltby. I’d forgotten how strenuous horse riding can be, particularly if you have a cantering posture that involves standing upright. I was still stiff legged as Harry and I walked to the Riverside twenty-four hours later.

I wasn’t confident at all that we’d take anything from the game. It wasn’t so much that we’d lost a lot of the key players from last season, or that it would likely take their relatively unknown replacements time to settle in. No, it was the presence of former Boro boss Neil Warnock in the away dugout. I don’t know the stats but he always seems to take points from us. His time with us might very well have been due to a desire by Gibbo to eliminate that annual six-point handicap.

The summer recruitment had stepped up in the days before the game with Latte Lath and Engels arriving and starting. Chuba had secured himself a move to Ajax which probably looks a little more impressive than it may turn out to be. Unless, of course, he gets to wear the ‘14’ shirt.

Huddersfield could easily have built on their opening goal, but once we’d equalised it looked more likely that we’d get the winner. Silvera was a handful but struggled to get his efforts anywhere near the target. It finished level which, on past experience, I consider two points dropped by Colin rather than us.

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Horseracing at Catterick, Monday 28th November 2022

December 5, 2022

It’s been quiet for a while on the horseracing front. The syndicate voted to keep Ironopolis and run him as a three-year-old. It’s a decision I was pleased with as I think he has potential and I’d rather see him win in our colours than in someone else’s.

It was also decided that as he won’t run until Spring at the earliest, we would lease a horse for a few months for over the winter. One of the syndicate members has a suitable horse and so it’s ownership was temporarily switched and a few of us went along to Catterick to see his first run over hurdles.

Catterick is a small, quiet track and just the sort of place I like, particularly on a winter weekday. There was a lot of fog in the air, so much so that there was some doubt over whether the meeting would go ahead. The commentator struggled once the horses were more than about fifty yards from his position and so had to just make assumptions as to where he thought they might be.

The owner’s badges entitled us to some lunch and so we had cottage pie in an upper tier restaurant that would have normally provided a great view of the course. On this occasion it was fine for the hundred yards or so to the right or left but of little benefit elsewhere.

Positive Force didn’t have the best of days. The bookies had him down as fifth choice in a field of seven and he finished sixth. It might have been that he was still not fully rested from his flat season efforts or maybe the ground was a bit of the soft side. Alternatively, he may just be a horse that isn’t keen on jumping over things.

There was talk of a possible run on the all-weather, so maybe reverting to the flat and a shorter distance might suit him better.

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Horseracing at Newcastle, Tuesday 21st September 2022

October 5, 2022

It had been a few weeks since Ironopolis had run at Ripon and we were keen to put that disappointment behind us. He is bred to get well over a mile and and with the races getting longer as the season progresses, he was entered into a ten furlong race at Newcastle on the all-weather surface.

Jen, Isla and I drove up north through the Tyne Tunnel. Isla is getting a bit old now to believe that she has to hold her breath when we drive through a tunnel, although I suspect her mam still did it at that age. Soph was telling me recently that she still gets a bit anxious when the hazard warning lights go on in a car, a consequence of me telling her as a small child that they were the warning that the ejector seats were about to activate.

The meeting was very quiet. It seemed that just about everyone there had an owner’s badge on. Maybe it’s all funded by the bookies or the racing channels rather than relying on gate money. Whilst we could have watched from the owner’s balcony, we took seats in the grandstand which was pretty much deserted.

Ironopolis ran well. He didn’t really get involved until the last couple of furlongs but then picked off all but two highly rated horses for third place. The jockey was open in his assessment, reckoning that he was difficult to steer and might win one race a year. It’s likely that he won’t run again this season but hopefully he will continue to develop and we’ll see him progress as a three year old.

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Horseracing at Ripon, Saturday 13th August 2022

August 25, 2022

Ironopolis had the second run of his career in a one mile restricted novice race at Ripon. Isla was away on holiday and so it was just Jen and I that went along to see how he got on. We were able to leave the car in the shade under a tree in the Owners Car Park and got in just in time for the first race.

There was a good turnout with the Club Enclosure sold out and plenty of people taking advantage of being able to take their own beer into the Course Enclosure. A brass band was knocking out the tunes in the bandstand. It made me wish that it was a drinking day.

We watched the first race from the Club Stand. When it was time for Ironopolis to run we could have gone into a a small section reserved for Owners and Trainers, but we had a good enough view from the seats immediately behind that section. There was a dedicated bar for us too, where we caught up with some of the other syndicate members, before heading out to the parade ring for a chat with the trainer and jockey.

The pre-race chat between the syndicate mainly dealt with the horse being backed into 6-4. He drifted to 9-4, but still went off as 2-1 favourite in a nine horse field. There was a consensus that the price was too short, although I could see why he would attract support after a strong finish on his first run and an assessment in the race card that he was likely to improve.

The word from the trainer was that he still doesn’t do much when working at the stables. He didn’t do a lot in this race either and was never in contention, jogging home in sixth place. The jockey reckoned that he didn’t like running around a bend. Others thought that he likely needs softer ground and a less undulating track. Perhaps he needs to be told that lower grade horses usually get their balls chopped off.

We watched the third race from the grandstand, for a different perspective. As we were looking after the dog we called it a day after that one and headed home. Hopefully Ironopolis will be back on a track that suits him before long.

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Horseracing at Redcar, Sunday 17th July 2022

July 24, 2022

Back, I think, in 2019 I joined a horseracing syndicate put together via a football message board. It was interesting to get involved with but when I took the job in Moscow it proved less enjoyable to follow from afar and so I gave it up. A couple of years later, there was an option to rejoin. Jen and I were back in the UK by then and so ended up with a twentieth share in a two-year-old that, after a tight vote, was named Ironopolis.

He’s a horse whose grandad won the Derby and is likely to do best at distances around the mile mark. Isla and I have been to see him ride on the gallops a couple of times earlier in the year at his stables at the top of Sutton Bank. Oddly, he declined the carrots that Isla had brought. Maybe we’ll try apples next time.

With him not being bred for the shorter sprints there was little opportunity for him to run early in the flat season. Besides all that, he’s a bit of a late developer and so it was mid-July before he finally made it to a track.

Jen and I got Owner’s passes and Soph and Isla came along as well to see how he got on. On entering the grandstand at Redcar, Soph and Isla were given free entry by a bloke who had some spare passes. Result.

We watched the first race of the day from the steps at the front of the grandstand and then I made my way over to the Owners and Trainers stand to catch up with the other syndicate members. Some I knew from the stable visits or from the message board, others I was meeting for the first time. The word from the stable was not to expect too much and that this opening outing was primarily intended to get the horse used to the experience of racing. Nevertheless, it was hard not to see it as an opportunity to gauge how he compared to the other horses in his 7f maiden.

He started slowly out of the stalls and was trailing in the opening stages but picked up as the race went on. Once he got into his stride he began overhauling other horses to finish in fourth position and in the prize money. I think he won around four hundred quid for the syndicate kitty which isn’t far off a week’s worth of training fees.

We got a debrief from the jockey and assistant trainer in the parade ring afterwards. The gist of it being that it took the horse a while to realise what he was supposed to be doing and it wasn’t until he went past the horse in second last position that he started racing.

A fast-finishing fourth place was seen by everyone as a very pleasing outcome for a first race. Hopefully he’ll be back on the track again before too long to gain some more experience.

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Rothbury v West Moor & Jesmond, Saturday 14th May 2022, 2.30pm

May 24, 2022

The Boro’s season is over, but there is still the odd game taking place. This one was the final fixture for both sides in the twelfth-tier Division One of the Northern Alliance League. It was pretty much a dead game in that neither side were involved in matters at either end of the table and West Moor were guaranteed a sixth-place finish regardless of the result. Rothbury had a little more to play for in that if results elsewhere went their way, then they might move up from ninth position to seventh. I doubt that it kept them awake the night before.

The drive up to Armstrong Park was a scenic as it gets. I think that it just about borders the Northumberland National Park. It’s a fair distance though, around seventy-five minutes from Teesside, although as I didn’t have anything planned for the afternoon it was no big deal.

That morning Isla and I had been to have another look at the racehorse. We watched him on the gallops and had a chat with some of the stable staff. Apparently, he’s not one for the minimum distances so won’t make his debut until later in the season when the races get longer. Oddly enough, he doesn’t like carrots. Weirdo horse.

There was a clubhouse, I think, at Armstrong Park or maybe it was just the changing rooms. A few people were stood in front of it, but most were sat along one side of the pitch on a raised embankment area. The smart folks had brought camping chairs with them but most, like me, had found a spot where a level piece of ground met the slope so that there was somewhere to angle your legs downwards. As usual there were dogs in attendance including a spaniel and an enormous Dalmatian.

Rothbury were in red, with West Moor in blue and white. They each had to volunteer a sub to run the line, although the Rothbury lad was so biased that after a while the ref, who rarely strayed from the centre circle, just ignored him. The lack of exertion from the man in the middle wasn’t only limited to covering ground, but extended to whistle blowing. If he could let play go on he did do and on the occasions when forced to blow his whistle he did it so quietly that it undermined any authority that he may have had.

The visitors went two up in the first half, with Rothbury pulling one back early in the second half before West Moor rattled in another two to make the game safe. There was a late consolation for Rothbury and it finished four-two.

At the end the ref continued his minimal effort approach by blowing just twice to bring the game and the Northern Alliance season to an end.

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Middlesbrough v Derby, Saturday 12th February 2022, 3pm

February 24, 2022

The Boro games are coming fast and furious at the moment. That’s what happens when you combine a Championship season with a good cup run, although I suppose it’s nothing compared to the second UEFA season where we had to fit in League Cup games up to the quarter final, FA Cup to the semi and the UEFA Cup all the way to the final. Happy days.

I’d spent the morning of the game on a Boro-related activity in that I’d been to a racing stable just past the top of Sutton Bank. Now that I’m back in the country full-time I’ve joined a horse racing syndicate made up of Boro fans and my granddaughter, Isla, and I went along to have a look at our horse.

We chatted with the jockey riding him out and then went up to the gallops to see him run past. I can’t tell a slow horse from a fast one in those conditions but the other syndicate members who all know a lot more than me seemed content with his progress. Hopefully there will be some enjoyable days out racing.

After swapping one grandchild for another, Harry and I set off for the Riverside for a game with a bit of an edge to it. For some reason a fair few Derby fans blame Steve Gibson for their financial misfortunes rather than their own overspending and then penalties for cheating by breaching the FFP rules. There had been an announcement the previous day that a settlement for our claim had been reached but there was still some tension as we walked to the ground.

We made it through the underpass just before the arrival of a heavily-policed group of Derby fans walking from the station. Plenty of pictures of our chairman had been stuck to walls and lamp posts along the route to goad them and there were a few Boro fans wearing Gibbo masks.

Outside the stadium we passed the fanzone area. I could hear some music but didn’t know whether it was live or a DJ. I later discovered that Finn Forster had been playing. He’s a fella that I’ve seen a couple of times before and if I’d known I’d have got there early enough to take in his set. I’ve tickets for his Stockton gig next month and so I’ll have to settle for seeing him then.

There was a heightened atmosphere inside the ground too with more sections down the sides joining in with the singing led by the North and South stands, particularly when the songs glorified Gibbo. I recognize everything that he has done for the club, but I’ve not felt the same about him since he came out as a Conservative supporter. Despite my disappointment over his political allegiances, I joined in. When he’s under attack from the opposition I take the view that despite being a Tory, he’s our Tory.

And the game? Another great performance. We passed Derby to death until space opened up for Jones on the right and his accurate balls into the box led to our first three goals. A late fourth from Watmore put us well out of sight and back into the play-off spots.

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Selangor Horse Racing, Saturday 19th January 2019

April 30, 2019

Jen and I had been to the Royal Selangor Turf Club in KL a couple of times before but as I’d never been able to get a reply to my inquiries about going in a posh bit we had always just been in the non-air-conditioned and noisy sections.

This time though I got an almost immediate reply to my email and we were able to book two places in a special lounge for 170 ringgits a head including lunch and afternoon tea. We stayed over in KL the night before in the Bukit Bintang part of town and had half a suckling pig to eat. Half a pig between two seems a lot, but they are slaughtered at only two weeks old so it worked out fine. Fine for us anyway, less so for the pig.

Next day we took a cab to the track, got dropped off at the regular entrance and then wandered up to the VIP bit. It looked as if a wedding party were also in attendance but fortunately they were doing their celebrating in a different lounge to us.

We collected our badges and a race card from the front desk and took a couple of escalators to high in the stand. We were shepherded into our lounge and seated at a table for eight that had a couple of fellas opposite us.

I’d have much preferred a table for two. It’s no reflection on our table companions who were friendly enough, it’s just I’m quite anti-social and don’t have any interest in small talk with people I don’t know. Or any size talk really.

The lunch was good. It had a few prawns and some fish in it. Probably some other stuff too but I wasn’t paying attention. We got a glass of wine and then a refill. That was the lot though and when I asked for more they claimed to have run out. The only other option was Carlsberg which I’m starting to conclude is probably The Worst Lager in the World and so it was a relatively low-alcohol afternoon.

The betting was hectic in that as well as the live racing beyond the window we also had Macau and a couple of Australian tracks on the telly. I was able to bet with my phone for the Australian races which made things a little easier, but a punt on the live stuff and the Macau racing required frequent trips to the tote lady sat by the door.

Afternoon tea wasn’t as good as lunch and with a lack of wine and the air-conditioning on the warm side we’d had enough by about four o’clock. Just the two winners all afternoon meant that we failed to claw back any of the admission charge and instead put us slightly further out of pocket on the day.

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