98% of under 30's in the UK have never seen a horse in the flesh according to someone from the BHA. That may or may not be true but how many under 30's realise they are listening to and are themselves using phrases that come from the gee gee's? Since joining the Gordon Elliott Racing Club and following horse racing more closely, it never ceases to amaze me the number of racing terms that are used in everyday parlance. Most of them have been used during the last couple of years in the never-ending roundabout of parliamentary processes and elections over Brexit. Phrases like "front runner", "running mate" and "in the running" all come from the world of racing. As we now appear to be "hitting the home straight" on what way we leave Europe, a second referendum looks a "long shot" while a no deal Brexit would not have backing "across the board". With another deadline looming at Halloween, it looks like it will "go to the wire".
On Saturday night in Tramore, Co. Waterford the last thing on anyones mind, young or old, was how Britain would leave Europe as Flat To The Max went in a four horse, 2 mile Handicap Flat Race. Shane Crosse and his 5lb claim took the ride and he had Max handy early on disputing second place with Jake Peter as Cray led and the hot favourite Sneaky Getaway was held up by Danny Mullins at the back. They had to cross the winning line three times before they finished and there was nothing by the way of incident or change of position on the first two laps. Flat To The Max seemed to be travelling well but when they got to two out Sneaky Getaway relegated Max to last. Shane Crosse was already flat out on our horse by this stage. He was still just in touch with the other three but never looked like he had a chance against Sneaky Getaway who cruised to the front, still on the bridle, in the last furlong and never looked back leaving the commentator to hail him the "hands down winner". I've heard that term many times before but never realised it was from horse racing until that moment. Flat To The Max stayed on to finish closely behind the second and third horse and he got €820 for his trouble.
He looks a good, big, strong horse but he didn't really kick on from winning a 2m hurdle at Gowran in November last year so reverted back to the flat and ended up moving from Gigginstown to us. As the flat begins to wind down and we start to look forward to the jumps year starting properly at Down Royal after Halloween, will we see Flat To The Max give us a run for our money over hurdles again or will he even be able to travel between the north and south of Ireland? Or will the latest Prime Minister, bit between his teeth, ears pricked and blinkered, run us out of the money and straight into the open ditch. Maybe it's the association of all this horse racing terminology with politics that has led to the under 30's having no interest in horses given that most of them either didn't vote in the referendum or voted remain.
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