TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/920057
Cut. The barriers clatter open. A species more atuned than ours would detect the flood of adren- alin engulfing the brains and bodies of the bystand- ers in seething torrents – and be horrified. The crowd bellows as one. How do you like to watch a race? Through a thicket of strangers' heads on the stands? Coolly detached, on a weighing-room screen? Down on the lawns with the micro-skirted 20-somethings and their arm-pumping beaux? In this movie, you get to see it every possible way, even from a horse's back as grass clippings fly and the jockeys jostle and bick- er in squeaky-voiced Australian. The 23 runners stream away. They've two miles spiralling round this wide track to run, the sky and faraway cityscape beyond. You'd think, over such a distance, it would be perfectly possible to tack over from a high draw and grab a bit of rail – but, no, you suddenly realise why a big number is so hopeless: ev- eryone's vying for a forward position, and if you're drawn wide you either sink to the back and forfeit a head start, or are trapped out for that long you have to run so much further. That's what the luminous yel- low colours are doing. Running further. Tiberian from barrier 23. The French longshot. Literally an outsider. They pass the stands. Down by the winning post, in that group of young folk, they've heard the sto- ry of the French stallion and gleefully shout, 'Come on, Tiberian!' at the thunderous blur. In the weighing room, the French trainer stares up at the wall-mount- ed television: he wears a look of mute concern. His horse has no cover and is six or seven off the rail; he is also well towards the back. Up in the rarefied view- ing area outside the Committee Room, where a 100 or so in hats and finery sit tightly-squeezed on pad- ded benches, politeness and decorum is just about to give away to a bit of uninhibited yawping: 'Come on, Tiberian!' Other horses may have been mentioned, but this story doesn't have ears for them.