As the John Rowles song goes: ''If I only had time, only time...''
Betting, keeping up with the two-year-old horse racing, let alone anything else, takes time. At times, far too much time. It's the way it is. From my perspective, there's an overflow of racing. I won't say poor racing because I kind of like betting good juveniles when making their second or third start against inferior opposition.
It's like a conveyor belt from the Generation Game. Instead of winning prizes, you store horses in your hippocampus (that's not a place hippos camp) and wait for that synaptic nerve to fire up like an inch of pure magnesium. Which, somehow, with years of experience and knowledge leads to a bloody good winner.
If I was a conspiracy theorist, I would say there is too much racing because someone somewhere knows it stretches the stamina of even the most big-lunged beast with a brain the size of diploblokeus. ''There's too much racing'' is often the voice of those who actually have some understanding of what they are doing rather than the greyhound mentality which cannot see enough races.
I once chatted to someone who said they preferred greyhound racing to horse racing because there wasn't so long to wait for the next race. I didn't say anything but I was horrified by the statement. To me, it was like saying they preferred painting by numbers compared with a true artist who loved (or was tormented) by each and every stroke.
Each to their own. (I know who I would rather be).
It is difficult when you have three or four two-year-old races with a five or ten-minute gap and then a meeting is running late. However, efficient, professional and hardworking, no one can really look at two things at once.
