REMEMBERING A GOOD EGG AT UTTOXETER

A week of racing staged in - for the greater part – very warm and sunny conditions came to an end at Carlisle, Pontefract and Uttoxeter today, and it was the action at the last-named that jogged my memory about one of the most amusing pieces of racing telly I think I’ve ever seen, or likely ever will.

Wasn’t it about this time ten years ago, I thought, that Robert Cooper had visited Uttoxeter on a rather hotter raceday than today, frying pan in hand, and proceeded to try to fry an egg on the floor of the paddock or public area – and more or less succeeded?

Indeed it was.  A quick bit of research later confirmed that the anniversary had just passed, but also that my memory of a hot day hadn’t become exaggerated and embellished at all with the passing of time.  July 2006, the Met Office website advises, was the warmest day on record for much of England and Wales, with temperatures reaching their highest in many places on Wednesday 19th, the day of Sir Bob’s Uttoxeter visit.

A specific temperature for the course that day still evades me at the time of writing this, but Met Office maps would place a conservative estimate of temperature for that corner of Staffordshire at 32 degrees, and possibly closer to 34.  No wonder Cooper's attempt got as far as it did.  

Opportunities to pause for breath during the working day at the Sportsman were few and far between, but with monitors covering all racing channels within eyeshot it was impossible for some of us in the racing office not to be drawn for a while to the sight of Attheraces’ king of whimsy trying to score himself his impromptu late cooked breakfast.

It was hilarious, inventive, original programming, and you’d almost wish another heatwave upon a day of racing covered live by ATR, if only to see how the same protagonist might fare repeating the exercise with a link of sausages.

(Not that the news it was hot outside was a revelation to us down in Hammersmith, you understand, as London was a good few degrees hotter and certainly stuffier than Uttoxeter, and the completely glass-panelled Sportsman office amplified the heat to a degree that even the aircon couldn’t cope with entirely adequately.  Put any typos in my copy back then down to hot, sweaty, slippery keyboards inducing mistakes – that’s my story, at least).

It's doubtless that concern will have been raised in the run-up to the meeting, and certainly during it, that conditions had tipped too far for racing to proceed safely, not least as Uttoxeter’s jumps card – inclusive of a novice chase and handicap hurdle each run over as far as three miles – compelled horses to run further and carry an awful lot more weight than their Flat contemporaries at Catterick and Lingfield on the same afternoon in the unprecedented, searing heat.

Sometimes, however, we don’t trust our sport’s human participants enough to do the right thing by their equine accomplices in potentially trying situations.

Ten out of 50 runners across the six races were pulled up, most of them in lieu of being forced further by their riders on a hot day in a lost cause; 27 horses came out of their respective races well enough to be able to race again no later than the end of the following month, so within six weeks; and nothing paid the ultimate price.

And there was water.  Lots of it.  At this remove I’d struggle to recall whether by mid-2006 racing was already in the habit of providing, as an absolute matter of routine, as much water paddockside as required to slake thirsts or revive the hot and wobbly; but either way, every horse in need of a dousing duly, and conspicuously, got one at Uttoxeter that day.

Ditto at Worcester’s jumps fixture played out in only slightly less strong heat that evening, where the ready supply from the adjacent River Severn gave rise to a bucket of water count to rival a typical episode of Tiswas.  Again, all 64 competitors reportedly came home from the races that evening (albeit with a small number of firm ground-induced lamenesses).  Again, lost causes weren’t pursued foolishly by riders.  Again, around half of those to run were out again before the end of August.

Racing in extreme heat wouldn’t be an ideal, preferred scenario, but if the admittedly limited evidence of this time almost exactly ten years ago is any guide it’s not a uniquely dangerous one if due responsibility is exercised – something all may wish to consider should temperatures hike up yet further at any stage this summer.

And if they do, remind me to go racing at an ATR track, ketchup and bun at the ready.