I saw in the news yesterday that jockey, Richard Hughes, has effectively retired by giving up his riding licence. He’s done this in protest to a new rule that limits the amount of time a rider can whip his horse.
Apparently the new limit is seven times in a flat race and eight in a jumping race with an additional five in the final furlong or something. This has Richard Hughes up in arms, claiming it hinders the riders.
Why? The rules apply to everyone you idiot. It doesn’t state in the horse-riding law book that everyone may whip their horse to death except for Richard Hughes who must only whip his horse seven times!
Hughes says that this about the new law:
“I can't ride horses like this. It's like telling Lionel Messi he can't use his left foot.”
No Richard, it isn’t like that at all. If you really want to use that analogy then it would be the equivalent of telling an entire team and its opposition to only use their weaker foot not just one player you self-centred moron!
I don’t get what his problem is; the regulators have simply limited the amount of times you can whip a horse, because frankly it’s animal cruelty. Everyone has to abide be these rules so there are no competitive advantages at all. What on earth is this guy moaning about?
It’s not like they’ve changed the rules so all jockeys must ride their horses facing backwards! Why can’t he ride horses like this? I’m not an expert but why is the whip so essential in riding a horse? All you do is get on its back and hold on. You don’t even need a saddle for that! If he cares about whipping so much, why not introduce a different rule: for every time you whip a horse in a race, you have to take the exact same amount of whips when you get off. How’s that Richard?
The thing is, horse-riding isn’t even a bloody sport. No, in fact that’s exactly what it is: a bloody sport. Get a bunch of horses together, put a load of short blokes on their backs, whip them to buggery until they get to the finish line. And if they don’t make the finish line? Shoot them in the head.
You’re telling me that’s a sport? Football is a sport, rugby is a sport, swimming is a sport, fencing is a sport, show-jumping is a sport, hell even chess is a sport! Horse-riding is not a sport! In other sports you support a team or an individual; in horse-riding you support the horse with your money on it. Again: NOT A SPORT!
The fact is, if the government put a blanket ban on betting on all sports, horse-riding would die overnight. Football wouldn’t. Rugby wouldn’t. Nor would any other real sport. Horse-riding exists for one purpose, betting on it. Have you been in a betting shop recently? It’s depressing. All you find is a tatty old man clutching the Racing Post looking desperately at a television as his horse tumbles over and takes a bullet right between the eyes. His life’s become so desolate you feel it’s him that deserves the bullet. Put the poor guy out of his misery.
Okay so it’s not just horse-riding that gets bet on. People put money on other sports these days too, like football for example, but at least that’s a real sport where you can make an educated guess on who will win, and weigh up the risk of backing an underdog.
Say for example I support a football team from the conference, Stockport County, and they’ve been drawn against Chelsea in the FA Cup. Of course I want County to win, but if I’m putting money on it I’ll choose Chelsea. There’s not much chance of County winning so I wont bet on them to do so.
In horse-riding you just look at the betting slip and put money on the horse with the stupidest name. Either that or you’ve heard from someone that so-and-so will win, because let’s face it, the winner is determined days before the race is scheduled anyway.
I’ve put a few bets on in the past, usually with football, and I’ve done reasonably well. Picked a few winners of World Cups and European Championships, heck I’d have a 100% record if Greece didn’t beat Portugal in the 2004 Final!
I tend to just stick to betting on national football tournaments now. Just who’ll win, not which team will have the most corners, or which player will score the most own goals, or which ground will have the most amount of pigeons landing on the grass, or which player will get sent of in the 85th minute. Just the winner.
Betting should never be central to a sport. The competition itself is central, actually you don’t even need that, all you need is a game with rules. Once betting becomes central then you don’t have a sport. The National Lottery isn’t a sport is it? So why do people still think horse-racing is?
Horse-racing’s popularity is fairly low these days anyway. It’s only really the Grand National that gets people taking an interest in it. I used to get swept up in the rigmarole of it all and put money on a random horse when the big event came around. I stopped doing that a while ago after realising the ridiculousness of the ‘sport’.
I don’t really want to fund the bullet that goes spiralling into a horse’s cranium to be honest.
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