Swedish racing is “an emerging market” according to one of the officials charged with running it and on Tuesday night it made a bid for the attention of the wider racing world by staging an international jockeys competition under the strikingly bold title of the Lady Jockeys Thoroughbred World Championship. Hayley Turner and Sammy Jo Bell were among nine riders from various countries to compete here in front of a small but appreciative crowd including Benny Andersson of Abba fame, a longstanding racing fan. “It’s a small sport in this country. Very small,” Andersson noted and even his money and support over decades have not been able to change that. But there is
Jake Fisher Authentic Jersey certainly ambition and also an urgency born of necessity. In 2019, Sweden will have to give up its monopoly over betting on racing, from which the sport has derived a steady income. ?? Talking Horses: French rider urges use of female weight claim elsewhere Read more “We have to make a new and better product for the future,” said Dennis Madsen, head of racing at the ruling body, Svensk Galopp, which brought members of the foreign racing media here to see action at this track, opened just last year. The card was also broadcast live in Britain on Racing UK; Madsen would very much like to stimulate overseas interest in his sport, from both punters and owners of horses just below the highest class who might come here in search of a winning opportunity. Madsen is struck by the fact that Swedish punters stake millions of euros each weekend on trotting racing, a sport almost unknown in Britain. There are dozens of trotting tracks here, against just three for the Flat racing familiar to British punters. Even a fraction of the turnover that trotting attracts would turn around racing’s finances. “If you reach for the sun, maybe you come to the stars and that would be good enough for us,” Madsen said. This event cannot hope to live up to its title, at least not in year one and without the participation of any rider from North America. As is the nature of all international jockey competitions, the distribution of mounts can never be entirely fair. But everyone seemed to be having fun and France’s promising young Maryline Eon won a couple of races and the overall title to make up for her two saddles that were lost by a baggage handler between here and Paris. Danielle Johnson, who is about to finish second in the jockeys championship in New
http://www.nflbengalsofficialshop.com/Nike-Jeff-Driskel-Jersey.html Zealand, won one race and went close in another. Advertisement Other jockeys also gave up more than just their time to be here; Sammy Jo Bell’s whip, alas, did not make it out of Manchester airport, where security staff told her: “You could do some serious damage with this.” Bell retorted: “It’s cushioned! I’d do more damage with my iPad if I hit someone with that!” Hayley Turner made it, just hours after her winner at Windsor on Monday night, and insisted that this, her second comeback in as many years, will last no longer than the first. She enjoys taking part but is a broadcaster first and foremost these days. Andersson was briefly disappointed to hear this, as he has a two-year-old filly, Sing A Rainbow, in training in England and wants a jockey. He would prefer a woman (“Because … why not?”) and suggests he will hire Josephine Gordon when his filly makes her debut. Now 70, Andersson has lent his backing to this event but denies suggestions that it was his idea, pointing the finger instead at Derek Thompson, a ubiquitous presence for decades in British racing media who also, somewhat surprisingly, turns out to be influential in Scandinavia. He performed MC duties and introduced the jockeys to the crowd here in unapologetic English. “I’m a feminist,” Andersson said. “This [event] has nothing to do with that. This is not active feminism because feminism is about equality and it’s not very equal to have a race where you exclude the guys. But Thommo said it and I said: ‘Yeah. OK. Fine. Go ahead, I’ll support it.’” Andersson enjoys
Authentic Carl Hagelin Womens Jerseycoming to Bro Park (“I think it’s going to be really nice”) but expresses a strong preference for English racing. “That’s the country for racing. I know there’s Ireland and Italy and France and the US but it seems like it’s coming from England. It feels like that to me. The traditions and the beautiful tracks you have, the breeding industry ... all of it.” There is a part of West Sussex that will be forever ABBA, as it turns out. Goodwood is Andersson’s favourite track. Amanda Perrett’s nearby stable is “a wonderful place, amazing ... Even if I hadn’t known her, I’d have said, this is the place to keep a horse.” The prize money for the very best English races has also been an attraction for the 70-year-old, now a 25-year veteran of the racing game. “I thought, if I have a good horse in training in England, maybe it could pay for 20 years of breeding in Sweden. I’m still on that track...” Advertisement Anseanachai Cliste, a nine-year-old chaser at the centre of a possible doping inquiry triggered by events at the Cheltenham Festival on Gold Cup day, remains a possible runner at Perth on Thursday after being withdrawn from two engagements at the same track on Wednesday. Stephen McConville, who trains Anseanachai Cliste in Portadown, County Armagh, and his son Michael, who has ridden the horse regularly in point-to-point events, have been under investigation by the British Horseracing Authority since the horse was taken out of the Foxhunters’ Chase, the race after the Gold Cup, at Cheltenham on 17 March. At the time, an official report said only that the stewards had ordered the horse be withdrawn as “they could not be satisfied the horse had
http://www.authenticducksstore.com/chris-stewart-jersey_c-430.html been administered only normal feed and water on race day”. More recently, it has been reported that a blood-covered syringe was found in Anseanachai Cliste’s box, and that a subsequent dope test on the horse revealed that it had banned substances in its system. Anseanachai Cliste won the Ulster National and a first prize of ?13,500 just nine days after his withdrawal at Cheltenham, and before the result of the dope test ordered on 17 March had been confirmed. He has also run twice since that victory, at Kelso on 28 May and then at Downpatrick on 18 June, finishing unplaced on both occasions. The gelding was a 33-1 chance for the Foxhunters’ in March prior to his sudden withdrawal, but arrived at the Festival meeting on the back of eight straight victories in point-to-point events between February 2016 and March 2017, for six of which he was ridden by Michael McConville, who is also the nine-year-old’s owner
