Why Tony McCoy will never be SPotY

It’s November, so let the racing fraternity roll out their annual passionate plea for Tony McCoy to be nominated for BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
But what chance has he got? A reserved Irishman who quietly dominates his sport year-in, year-out against the likes of Jenson Button, Formula 1 world champion, photographed in the newspapers with gorgeous women, promoting designer clothes and generally acting the good guy.
Or how does our man square up to David Haye, the new heavyweight boxing champ? He is David, he beat Goliath. How much more of a fairytale do you want? He used to be a model and has a sense of humour that is bred into any cockney.
The problem is that McCoy’s still not a household name. Everyone knows a jockey called Frankie Dettori and, yes, he’s won the championship before but not nearly as many times as his National Hunt counterpart.
So we’ve got to ask ourselves why nobody knows McCoy. Is it because the Italian is in the mainstream media; captaining a team on A Question of Sport, opening his own restaurant, releasing his own brand of food (it never took off but we’ll overlook that).
Given the choice, I’m sure McCoy would rather win another championship rather than some popularity contest and one would have to be sacrificed to win the other. It’s a Catch-22 situation.
Winning a championship requires regular winners and this can’t be done if you’re swanning about on Ready, Steady, Cook or wearing the silver condom outfit on Hole in the Wall. But if you want the general public to get to know you, you must go on these types of shows and get your face regularly seen on the box, like Frankie has done in the past.
McCoy is, in a kind way, a nutcase - single-minded and determined to ride as many winners he can and he’d rather go to Bangor in the rain than the BBC.
Anyway, McCoy’s best chance of winning SPotY have passed. Racing is not a priority for the BBC anymore after they reduced the number of broadcasted fixtures, so it is unlikely that they are going to nominate a man who is from a sport they’re trying to shove in the corner.
But this could be leading to a bigger picture of racing’s own future.
With the Derby now kicked off television’s ‘crown jewels’ - sporting events that, by law, must be shown on terrestrial channels - will there be a time when racing is only available to watch via satellite?
Channel Four Racing has had it’s rocky patches and it’s clear that watching racing isn’t a priority for the majority of the population of Great Britain.
Tony McCoy and racing could be on the same path - ticking along without Joe Bloggs giving a damn.

Bumper System Update

It's been almost a month since I let you in on the little system Jimmy Pugh and I had developed, so I'll tell you how it's going.

The system involved backing all the horses that ran in the Cheltenham Champion Bumper in their first few starts over hurdles. Here's a breakdown of how they've done since:

Dunguib (1st) - the winner of the bumper, he was always going to be decent over timber. He won first time out at odds of 1/7. Not enough to make you rich but it's profit nonetheless. He's in tomorrow at Punchestown 1.50.
Some Present (2nd) - he won first time out at 13/8. He's come second twice since then.
Morning Supreme (5th) - won at 1/2. Entered in a Fairyhouse Grade 1 at the end of the month.
Cranky Corner (7th) - won at 5/4. Well beaten at Aintree since.
Shinrock Paddy (8th) - won at 1/2. Entered in same Grade 1 as Morning Supreme. Thank God Mr B Connell doesn't ride him over obstacles - he looks dangerous enough on the flat.
Pepe Simo (9th) - won twice at 5/2 and 8/11.
Benbane Head (10th) - beaten first time (5/4fav) then made amends at Cheltenham when 8/1.
Meath All Star (11th) - well beaten behind Some Present first time when 5/1.
Long Strand (12th) - tailed off at 10/1.
Red Harbour (14th) - third at 9/4fav.
Fennis Boy (17th) - third at 100/30.
Henry King (18th) - second behind Pepe Simo when 13/8fav.
Double Dash (20th) - second at 7/2. Entered for Plumpton on the 16th November.
Lightening Rod (21st) - tailed off seventh at 7/1.
Cadspeed (22nd) - weakened rapidly when 9/10fav. In on the 16th at Cork 2.35.
Bygones of Brid (23rd) - tailed off 4th at Chepstow when 33/1.
Quinola des Obeaux (last) - won when 8/11fav. In the Grade 1 on the 29th too.

So from these, it looks as if there is no profit in the system this year. Yes, it produces winners but they are good horses and hence win at very short odds. Backing them on their second start looks unprofitable as well as many get beat at short odds but some have improved for their debut.


Finally, here's a round up of the remainders:

Rite of Passage (3rd) - since transformed into a decent flat horse. Won the November Handicap at Leopardstown when 7/1. Holds no entries but is sure to go hurdling sometime.
Quel Esprit (4th) - entered tomorrow at Punchestown 3.30.
Lead The Parade (6th) - unraced/no entries.
Latin America (13th) - unraced/no entries.
Gagewell Flyer (15th) - unraced/no entries.
Sicilian Secret (16th) - entered on Sunday at Cork 3.35.
Abroard (19th) - been campaigned on the flat since, won in September at 10/1. Will probably go hurdling at some point.

You have to have a full package Down Under

The Melbourne Cup is great, isn't it?. The race that 'stops a nation'. I suppose the only event that we've got on these shores to compare it to is the Grand National but we don't have a Bank Holiday just for that race, so I suppose, you can't really compare them.
It's run in the middle of the night, our time, and also the picture quality is not great and both add to the aura of the event. The fact us English can't win it either makes it all that bit more elusive.
I think I know why we can't nail the race. So many seconds we've had: Bauer in '08 went as close as we've ever been, missing out by a nose. But the problem is that we see the race is run over 2m2f. That's a marathon trip, comparable tot the Ascot Gold Cup. So we think, 'Let's send over our Ascot Gold Cup winner, they'll do it easy.'
Off the likes of Yeats and Persian Punch went and back they came with no success. Why? They're too slow. A Gold Cup horse is a gritty stayer who just plods his races out. A Melbourne Cup horse has to travel, settle and have an electric turn of foot.
We need to change our perspective on the race, no longer should we send the dour stayers but fly over the classy 1m4f horses, those, perhaps, not quite your Sea The Stars but the likes of Mastercraftsman and Fame And Glory.
Admittedly, we did have a taster of some O'Brien Classic talent in Changingoftheguard but he came nowhere in the St Ledger, hardly the classy individual needed for a raid Down Under.