LOOK SHARPE: Jumping to Conclusions?

Sports betting PR legend GRAHAM SHARPE writes…

I JUST DON’T GET IT………Sometimes you hear someone say something, and you think, usually to yourself, for fear of upsetting or disappointing them, ‘I really just DON’T GET that.’

It seems to have been happening to me quite regularly of late, sparked off by the frankly farcical way in which racing’s jump season comes to a halt, declares again that Brian Hughes is again the champion jump jockey of the season, and Paul Nicholls the champion jumps trainer of the season. Then, within hours, promptly starts a new season…virtually without any significant gap to allow measured reflections of what has gone before, as everyone immediately looks ahead to what will happen next…

Wouldn’t it be far more logical and sensible to run each jumps season from January 1 to December 31 for statistical purposes in terms of the champion this, that and the other, and just admit that, like…….. (WARNING – old person reference, possibly meaningless to youngsters of under 50!)….. the Windmill Theatre, it never closes.

On a similar basis, and again concerning jumps, I just DON’T GET why I can so often be watching a jumps race in which the runners get off to what appears, despite the best efforts of the starter, to be a staggered start, with one or two runners so far behind after a hundred yards or so, that they already have been given no real hope of winning? Sometimes it looks like an invitation to cheat or to work towards a runner being handicapped with less weight for future races, which may be an ultimate target.

I understand that introducing stalls to jumps racing would almost certainly require new, custom-built stalls, as on the whole, jumpers are bigger than flat horses.

Also, stalls could face problems with being moved to the right place occasionally when the ground is particularly soft or heavy.

But in my opinion, the benefits of ensuring that punters’ selections get off to an equal start as often as possible would outweigh those occasions when it would be necessary to revert to the current system and also ensure that there would be fewer complaints from punters of runners not being given the best chance of winning their races.

And while I’m on a jumping roll – I just DON’T GET why it is that champion jockey Brian Hughes wins so many races, is so continuously and conspicuously easily one of the best jockeys riding – if not THE best – yet gets the leg up on so comparatively few top class jumpers, and is often absent from the major meetings. Instead he’s off riding – and generally winning – at the minor meetings. I’d definitely want him riding my horse if I was ever fortunate enough to own a good class – or, even more so, perhaps, if I had a bad – jumper.

And finally in this jumped-up column – I really just DON’T GET why our newly crowned Monarch, King Charles, gave up his fledgling jump racing jockey career in the eighties after his first (only) six rides produced form figures of 242UU0?…..

Could it, just possibly, have had something to do with the fact that his little sister not only achieved equestrian European Championship glory, and became an Olympian in the form of equine sport – BUT, and perhaps more significantly,also won races both on the Flat and, probably, even more significantly, over jumps.

GRAHAM SHARPE

Views of authors do not necessarily represent views of Star Sports Bookmakers.