STEVE DENNIS

Weblog:  Desperate measures for desperate times

Owners and trainers neither game nor spirited

WHERE are all the two-mile chasers? That isn't a geographical question (they are just down the road, turn left, second on the right, box marked two-mile chasers) or a nostalgic one (same place as the bleedin' snows of yesteryear, guv'nor, ask that Frankie Villon geezer), but a what-is-the-matter-with-people one.

Four entries for the Game Spirit Chase? And one of those is a novice (Take The Breeze). Why isn't the field busting out all over with bold owners and trainers vying to take on the under-a-cloud Master Minded? There's plenty of prize-money, and plenty of time for any horse to recover from a hard race before Cheltenham.

Sure, the two-mile division is oscillating between rank bad and mediocre at the moment, but surely there are enough of them around to make a double-figure field. Kalahari King I can forgive (obviously the horse here stands for his connections; who couldn't forgive a horse anything?) and Big Zeb ran the other week, amazingly managing to keep his feet, but where are the others?

Why isn't Petit Robin in the race? Why not Well Chief? Twist Magic? Where are the Irishmen Tranquil Sea, Golden Silver, Newmill? Why isn't Fix The Rib in the race? Cornas? Free World? Planet Of Sound? Oh Crick?

Why does the old canard of prize-money assail the eardrums like the chorus to a particularly monotonous Europop floorfiller but we still get only four entries for the Game Spirit? If I owned a horse rated above 130 who could run between 2m and 2m4f and wasn't ill, I would have melted my trainer's mobile phone with instructions to enter the beast.

What do they have to lose? If Master Minded is back to his best, then there's wads of place money to pick up. Sure, finish too close to Master Minded and the handicapper may look slightly askance at your horse's rating, add a few pounds, but hey, the prize-money makes up for that.

If Master Minded is still having the kind of problem with his ribs that Adam had, then he probably won't win. So an even bigger pot is up for grabs. If the race is to become just an exhibition for the current numero uno, then let's make it a ten grand race and share the rest of the cash out among horses and owners who'd be glad of it. Let's take the cash and divvy it up across a week's worth of  all-weather meetings, a grand here, two grand there - money that will make a difference.

Take a first-time racegoer to Newbury, show him/her the four runners in the Game Spirit, and then try to come up with a convincing reason why only four owners wanted to run their horse for all that cash. And he/she will look at you andthink 'what a silly sport this is, I'm staying in next week to grout the bathroom tiles'.

Everyone makes such a fuss when the likes of Venn Ottery or one of Fergus Wilson's ne'er-do-wells has the temerity to turn up, but surely that'sthe point. You can't win it if you're not in it - and if you're not in it, not trying to win it, what's the point in owning that kind of horse? Keeping their horses in cotton wool? Cotton wool for brains.

Read my column in the Racing Post every Sunday