US Edition
It is something I have always taken for granted, but horseracing fans in this country are a very friendly, sporting bunch, compared with fans of other sports.
Take, for example, the ultimate tribal event, the Cheltenham Festival. Is there ever any bother from the English or Irish fans? Very, very rarely. Not even when they are completely “blathered” after a day in the Guinness Village.
That is not to say there have not been dust-ups on racecourses, but they are pretty well always caused by fuelled-up football fans having an outing before their season kicks off.
However, it is the sporting nature of racing fans that is to be celebrated. If an Irish hotpot falls, Annie Power style, at the last at any of the big festivals, the gasps of horror are just as loud from the British fans as the Irish. And that is because respect and admiration for the horses comes first, the betting slip in their pocket second and their allegiance to country a distant third.
Flat racing crowds are equally sporting. No matter how many winners Ireland’s Coolmore-backed Aidan O’Brien or Godolphin fire in at Royal Ascot, the applause for the next one is never mute.
If there was one place in the world outside Dubai where Sheikh Mohammed and his family feel welcome, I would hope that it would be on British racecourses where the fans appreciate them racing their horses.
But the recent Ryder Cup is a reminder that we should not take such a great attitude for granted. At first glance, one would have thought that a middle-class game such as golf would be a safe haven from unsporting behaviour. Golf, after all, is meant to be a bastion of etiquette. Where you stand when your opponent is playing a shot and what length socks you wear were once sacrosanct. But that all ended during the 1999 Ryder Cup at Brookline, when the United States team encouraged their fans to behave like oiks.
The exact moment was when Justin Leonard sank a magnificent putt on the 17th green. He proceeded to run around the green celebrating with his team as if they had just won the Super Bowl.
But the match was not over, and the Spaniard José María Olazábal still had a live putt to make for the Europeans. Yet by the time he was able to play on, the US team had trampled all over the line between his ball and the hole.
If there had been an ounce of sportsmanship in the US team, they would have apologised for their disrespectful conduct and conceded Olazábal’s putt. But they did not and the Ryder Cup has now become synonymous with unsporting behaviour among the fans, who cheer missed putts and any adversity suffered by players on the opposing team.
And not surprisingly, the European fans are now just as unsporting as their US counterparts.
The aficionados and ex-players who populate the commentary boxes at Ryder Cups try to dress up this behaviour as somehow showing passion, spirit and patriotism while spewing out platitudes. But they must know in their heart of hearts that this Ryder Cup bear-pit mentality, which the players themselves actively encourage, is eroding dangerously the true ethos and decorum of the game.
Will they really be surprised when elements of the crowd start baiting and distracting players in regular tournaments? Because that is inevitable.
The morning after this year’s Ryder Cup, golf fan and Virgin radio presenter Chris Evans said live on his show that he had not enjoyed the spectacle. And he is the most positive man on this planet. People tune into his show to be uplifted.
So do not take your kids to the golf course if you want to teach them good life skills. Take them to racecourses.
Returning to the subject of the two powerhouses of domestic Flat racing, Coolmore and Godolphin, despite their shelling out at the premier British yearling sale in Newmarket last week, turnover fell nearly 25 per cent to 95,395,000gns compared with last year’s record spend.
The “real” state of the market, however, will become apparent at the sales this week and next when trainers try to buy stock to fill their yards for next season.
Racing fans can give golf supporters a lesson in sporting behaviour
The recent Ryder Cup only served to highlight how far apart the two sports have become in terms of the conduct of spectators