Horse Racing: Equality.. and quality

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Jun 25, 2006 | by ALASTAIR DOWN RACING'S No1 WRITER

TIMES have changed at Royal Ascot and this year's meeting provided a radically different and more socially inclusive experience.

Nobody is pretending that Duchesses are drinking in the same bars as dustmen, but the old Ascot's rigid separation of the Royal Enclosure from Tattersalls is not so painfully obvious as it was.

On ground level everyone mixes together and the embarrassing rituals of old - such as the dread tunnel through which Tatts patrons had to walk to get to the paddock - have largely been consigned to history.

Of course there are the inevitable enforcements of social divides between those in the cheap seats and the gilded folk who can afford to pay top dollar but, overall, there is a little more equality and a little less exclusivity.

Of course it isn't perfect but Ascot are very much open to suggestions for improvements rather than pretending every detail is right.

The mindset of the old aristocrats who used to run the place has totally disappeared and in an age where privilege of any sort is held up to suspicious scrutiny the new Ascot of Douglas Erskine- Crum has given it an acceptable face.

Yet it is clearly not acceptable in all quarters. The die-hard snobs who regard Ascot as one of their last bastions of appearing better than their fellow man don't like it but, between you and me, who gives a Donald Duck what they think?

In a sense you can understand the erosion of social divides is a problem for such people, but will someone explain to me why it is that our politicians are so wary of being seen at the races?

In Ireland at any half-decent meeting you will find half the cabinet in attendance. Yet in Britain few politicians would want to be seen dead at the races.

There have been notable exceptions such as the much missed Robin Cook, who never let his socialist convictions prevent him from enjoying a day at the races.

Scot Nat leader Alex Salmond is another enthusiast as is Michael Howard, yet for some reason most shun a sport that is just as much the working man's pastime as it that of the nobs.

My journalistic mentor was a left-wing Tory called Sir David Llewellyn, a quiet and gentle man who came from a long line of Welsh coal owners.

He was loathed by the Establishment because he always put the interests of ordinary men and women above those his fellow members of the ruling class.

If that great and kind man were alive today, he would be telling the Blairs, Browns, Reids, Straws, Camerons and Campbells that there were more votes to be won on the racecourse than lost.

On the racing front at Ascot you could argue that the week's highlight was the hugely popular victory of Ouija Board in Wednesday's Prince of Wales's Stakes. There has hardly been a sporting gig at which this extraordinary mare has not turned up over the last three years and, I am reliably informed, she will be on the bench for England against Ecuador this afternoon.

Though this column will never be a forelock-tugger when faced with the land-owning classes, I have to say that the current Lord Derby is a brick, rather than one of those things that rhyme with it.

Ouija Board is some star, but her connections are not far behind her because rarely has a top-class racemare been so fearlessly campaigned.

For me the other great performance - arguably greater - was the victory of Nannina in Friday's Coronation Stakes.

This was the best, strength-in-depth Coronation field I have seen or expect to see with the 1,000 Guineas winners from five countries plus three Group One winners as two-year-olds in contention.

Yet this rattling good fast-ground filly beat them all pointless and she won't have her colours lowered whenever ground conditions are in her favour.

Finally, a word on what I have seen of the BBC's coverage of Flat's showpiece meeting of the year, which is the principal way that the vast majority of racing fans experience Ascot.

As usual Clare Balding and Jim McGrath have underpinned some terrific, committed and highly informative television that has taken the Royal meeting into the nation's front rooms.

Healthy competition promotes excellence and it a genuine shame that I sense a continuing weakening of the BBC's interest in the coverage of racing.

They are making the same mistake as the politicians - and both the sport and the dedicated team who produce the Beeb's coverage deserve better.