Foxglove

What are those people thinking about, what are they looking for as they walk the route that the horses will shortly run? Not all of them are jockeys, so who are the others?

The state of the going is every bit as important to trainers and to knowledgeable owners.

Most walk the course for their own interests, and a very few are trusted observers for others who cannot, for one reason or another, do the job themselves.

It is a big enough responsibility to walk the course on your own behalf, never mind for somebody else.

The state of the going is an obvious consideration. Does it offer a spring in it to help a horse to each following stride or is it 'dead', with no resilience?

Is it firm, 'top of the ground' to benefit those horses that 'like to hear their hooves rattle', as the saying goes, is it holding, typical of our Sussex clay, pulling at shoes and tendons?

Is it heavy, which favours some horses and not others, and puts the clerk of the course on tenterhooks, there being enough between heavy going and a hard shower of rain to have to call the meeting off?

It is not that horses cannot gallop through the really wet ground, which is often easier on them than when ground is sticky, but a safety decision. If an ambulance cannot get to the furthest part of the course and back, the races must not be run.

Trickiest of all is ground that has patches of this and areas of that, for the horses will be galloping hard, and sudden deceleration caused by a patch of different ground could cause all sorts of trouble.

Horses that have been 'regularly and fairly hunted', as the qualification demands, will be better equipped to handle such going if intelligently ridden by jockeys who also have proper experience in the hunting field.

Then there are the fences, which are solid, inviting, but intolerant of mistakes.

This one has a downhill approach at a time that runners are still settling: it sorts sheep from goats.

Elsewhere, this one has a patch of wet ground before it, which will cut up with the many hooves speeding across it.

At another fence, the ground slopes from one side to the other, and a horse can be saved valuable effort if it is placed well here.

There is a long run to the winning post after this fence on the second time around, and if you ride it so across the angle you can save enough ground to make the difference of a place or not, but you must not hinder or endanger horses coming up fast behind or around you.

Racing is not just a matter of going as fast as you can all the way around the track, especially when you are riding in excess of three miles and 18 fences. Each horse must be ridden to its own requirements, each course too, and both are different each time you ride. So are the horses that gallop all around you, and their riders as well. For fast thinking, acting and reacting, it knocks computer games into a cocked hat.

Today, I walk the course for no other reason than remembering.

My racing days are long gone, and my last 'owner' having moved away, I no longer walk the course to report back to anybody. It is still agreeable to do, though, and offers its challenges without the responsibility.

The old skills stay with you, even if there is no longer the call for them.

The weather forecast is testing, and between my walking the course and the races starting the going could change dramatically, but those who have walked it in seriousness will have anticipated any likely changes, and will be ready to perform their art to the highest standards.

This was first published in the West Sussex Gazette April 30. To read it first, buy the West Sussex Gazette every Wednesday.