While writing the last blog post a sentence "disappeared", unable to find it I re wrote it only to find that once the blog had been 'posted" (and the headline cannot then be altered) there it was, in all its senseless glory! IT at its most useless.
The grammar that was perfectly clear today was the article in today's Racing Post titled "Struthers slams BHA for releasing Jacob footage". In essence established jump jockey Daryl Jacob lost his rag with amateur jockey Noel George after Noel committed the cardinal sin of attempting to creep up the inner, taking Daryl's ground and apparently contributing to an incident which left Aiden Coleman on the floor.
After the race Daryl grabbed Noel's silks in anger whilst both jockeys were still mounted. The stewards on the day dealt with the minor altercation, doubtless bearing in mind the justifiable anger of the senior rider whose extensive experience would have left him in no doubt whatsoever that the stupidity of the amateur's actions could have led to an extremely serious and life threatening incident. In years gone by the perpetrator of such poor and dangerous riding would have left the track after a proper bollocking and a well placed punch or two from the jockey who he 'cut up', this would be followed up by a lengthy and educational 'talking to' from the stewards.
Today, things are very different. This morning Daryl Jacobs is the man being presented in the trade paper as the bad guy, having received a one day ban while only the part of the altercation showing Daryl yanking at Noels silks was released on film by the governing body. In the meantime the truly guilty party is let off scot free and the most important part of the footage is not shown although it would, undoubtedly prove two things, one- that the actions of Noel were dangerous to the point of placing Jacobs and others' lives in danger and two, that Jacobs was provoked by those actions into responding in a way he would not otherwise have done.
One day at Musselburgh George lost his temper with a jockey who had been pushing his luck in races over a period of time, an arrogant young man (who has since been through the mill and emerged a better person for it). Having almost been put on the floor by the riders foolishness George rode him into the fence as they pulled up which very nearly unshipped the offending rider.
Later a steward who will remain unnamed, told George a complaint had been made against him. George explained what had happened and much of it had already been noted on the film of the race, having explained his reasons for his actions the highly respected and experienced steward (who had ridden all his life) agreed that George was right to take action and replied "Oh George next time please batter him in the shower so we can say he slipped on the soap".