Timeform Debate / Jamie Lynch / 31 December 2011 / Leave a Comment

News, views and reviews. A lot happened in 2011, so much so that we've had to split Jamie Lynch's look back on the year into two parts, especially as he waffles on a bit. Here goes from January to June, touching on some of the bigger stories from the world of racing (and the world at large), as well as touching on some of the sillier ones.

January

Backdrop Revelry, revolution, revulsion. Revelry in the Ashes as England win the series; Australia smashed. Revolution in Egypt as civil unrest consumes; Cairo smashed. Revulsion in broadcasting as Keys and Gray are exposed; women, erm, had the last laugh.

Racing Something old: veteran Monet's Garden fights for his life, and wins. Something new: McCoy sets yet another record by completing the National full set courtesy of Synchronised, who's much too slow to ever win a Grade 1. Something borrowed: the chasing crown, by Long Run from Kauto Star, in a weather-delayed King George. Something pink and not blue: in a crackdown on former trainers named Jeff (either spelling), Pearce and Huffer are amongst those warned off in the insider-laying case of Sabre Light.

February

Backdrop Block, Shock and Two Smoking Barrells. Block by a pensioner in Northampton who prevented a jewellery heist by attacking the robbers with her handbag (great footage); shock and aftershocks as earthquake devastates New Zealand; and Ashley Cole shoots a work experience student at Chelsea's training ground.

Racing There's no such thing as bad publicity. Try telling that to Gerald Ratner, Tiger Woods, Enron or Andy Coulson. Say the name Thomas Edison now, and most people think of him as a pioneer and a force for good. Back at the turn of the twentieth century, when trying to safeguard his direct current as the standard for electricity distribution in America, Edison went to extreme and gruesome lengths to discredit the rival alternating current, including a series of staged animal electrocutions - from horses to elephants - using AC to demonstrate its dangers.

In February, racing suffered a sickening re-enactment in the paddock at Newbury. There are times when racing lets itself down, or, more accurately, racing is let down by one or several of its many, many component parts, but this wasn't such an occasion, instead to be filed as just one of those things. Edison, perhaps unsurprisingly, lost out in the AC/DC duel, but he put it behind him, moved on and redeemed himself in the eyes of the public - though he didn't have a Grand National to defend.

March

Backdrop 'The bosses of our mass media succeed in their aim of taking our minds off disaster' - Ernst Fischer. Rupert Murdoch, the very embodiment of the word mogul, had a few issues of his own to deal with through 2011, but, if Fischer was right, then Murdoch's busiest month by far was March, when Libya became a war zone and Japan became a disaster zone after an earthquake 8,000 times stronger than the one in New Zealand.

Racing Cheltenham. I used to be one of those people who thought they were being clever and different by saying that the National Hunt season suffers from a preoccupation with the Cheltenham Festival. Naive. Naive and wrong. In fact, the beauty of the National Hunt season is that it has this inherent narrative building towards Cheltenham, and the meeting lived up to the hype again in 2011, consummated by a phenomenal Gold Cup. Remarkably, though, the snapshot of Long Run, Denman and Kauto Star jumping two out in unison was only the second best racing story of the month, behind Steve Whiteley. Remember him?

April

Backdrop Loads of injunctions, and one big junction. The definition of junction is the act of joining, a union, and nothing brought the country together like the marriage of William and Kate. Well, maybe half of the country. Myself and the other half of the country were listening to Keys and Gray on Talksport. Meanwhile, it came out that nine-tenths of celebrities were already hiding behind an injunction, and in some cases a super-injunction (is the next one up a super-dooper injunction?), to prevent their personal junctions from getting out. Even Andrew Marr had taken one out. Either Andrew Marr or Dale Gibson; I can't tell the difference.

Racing Right then, time to dish it out. Alesha Dixon - do some better songs. Brian May - address the hair. Gemma Atkinson - bite the bullet and do another soap. Sue Cook - stop living off Crimewatch. These are, of course, unfair and unjust criticisms because I don't know these people or their line of work, but these people saw fit to dip in and call for the end of the Grand National after a tragedy-tinged renewal, and, because they just about qualify for I'm A Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here, they were pedestalled by the wider media as paragons of virtue to front the campaign against cruelty. Public perception was the byword of 2011 in racing. The National is one of the few days where racing can permeate the general public, but it's people coming to our party and not the other way round, and, like on Come Dine With Me, people often go to the party wanting to score it a 3 rather than a 10.

The Guineas snuk into April.

Most of you know what we at Timeform think of Frankel, not that anyone needs telling how good he is, and so instead of me boring you with a paragraph of trite stuff, I'll leave it to everyone's best friend Wikipedia with an extract from them:

Please read this personal plea on behalf of Wikipedia plagiarist Jamie Lynch.

Frankel (horse)

Frankel is a thoroughbred racehorse. A thoroughbred racehorse has four legs.

Frankel's four legs go faster for longer than any other racehorse. Rough estimates put Frankel's value at $4,000,000,000,000,000.

On 30th April 2011, Frankel won a Group 1 race like no horse ever has before. He was so far ahead after two furlongs that some jockeys believed it to be his pacemaker, and some jockeys believed it to be a runner still completing from the previous race. Some racegoers at Newmarket fainted. Rough estimates put Frankel's speed in the first half of the race at 211mph.

May

Backdrop At last, we got him. The most wanted man on the planet man was finally brought to justice in May. It had been a long overdue, but he couldn't stay hidden forever, not with Twitter really coming into its own, to the extent that, for some time before the ultimate deliverance, most of already knew it was Ryan Giggs. In other news, US troops killed Osama Bin Laden, and, on the 21st, we all seemingly survived the latest doomsday prophecy.

Racing At their respective May meetings, it's York for the purists and Chester for the hedonists. The times they are a changin', though, and Chester overtook York for equine quality in May, with at least half a dozen proper Group 1 horses seen in action; Brown Panther, Colour Vision, Await The Dawn, Treasure Beach, Nathaniel and St Nicholas Abbey. While their stars were rising, over the jumps and over in Ireland, Kauto's star had dimmed completely, after he was ignominiously pulled up at Punchestown. Contrary to the widespread presumption, Paul Nicholls surprisingly didn't retire him on the spot, but what does he know? Come on, Paul, do the decent thing; public perception and all that.

June

Backdrop Grease, Greece and Grecian 2000. The greasy, slippery Sepp Blatter walked over in the FIFA presidential elections; maybe the BHA isn't so bad after all. Greece goes into meltdown as the prime minister announces that the country is short of about €110bn. Wayne Rooney decides not to help Greece out and instead buys himself some new hair.

Racing For a second time this year, the country is brought together by Royalty, with everyone to a man rooting for The Queen's Carlton House in the Derby. In reverence, all the other British horses fall in line, but the liberal French and Irish have different ideas. Treasure Beach looks like winning until a statuesque Mickael Barzalona flies by aboard Pour Moi in a manner that is scarcely believable even looking back on it now. Gallic flair or slight misjudgment? We'll never know I suppose, but never will less time be spent on deciding which picture should go on the front of the Timeform Annual.

Click here to read Part 2.

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