Driving to Newmarket through a biblical-style deluge that had sheep, cattle and horses queuing in twos in case Noah had to get busy, I feared for my day’s sport last Saturday. But it takes more than rain to stop the British enjoying themselves and there they all were: the fashion train-wreck hen parties in garish satin and flimsy chiffon, the likely lads in hair gel and shiny grey suits, the county set in panamas and brogues. At the flower-filled July course you get up close and personal with the horses and their handlers in the parade ring or the winners enclosure; there is a sense of involvement that simply isn’t possible on some other tracks, and after a season seemingly dominated by drug scandals and warnings-off the sheer buzz of enjoyment was hugely reassuring.
Racing was rocked back on its heels this year by the disclosure that at Moulton Paddocks, one of the two Newmarket yards owned by Godolphin, 11 horses had tested positive for illegal anabolic steroids. In very little time their trainer Mohammed Al-Zarooni had been banned from the sport for eight years and vanished, never, one imagines, to be seen again in racing. It was bad enough that one rogue individual at such a level had disgraced the organisation. But then came a report from the British Horseracing Authority condemning the woefully inadequate management structure of the Moulton Paddocks Stable, castigating them for not keeping proper medical records and for muddling stable responsibilities.
Some gloated: big boys aren’t always popular. Most of us were simply saddened that the Dubai-based Godolphin, an organisation which has eight times been British racing’s champion owner and which has sent out 205 winners of Group One and Grade One races around the world, was being dragged through the mire.
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