The fans may think we spend money unwisely
"The fans may think we spend money unwisely." The unwise decisions? "Paying pounds 2.75m for Mike Sheron and putting him on the best part of half a million a year, or pounds 2.25m for John Spencer makes the fans say we should never have spent that sort of money." They are also unhappy about the pounds 500,000 paid for the now departed Vinnie Jones. So was Wright, who called it "a desperate measure that far exceeded our financial means". I don't know where they think the money comes from." Even if money can be found, it is not always the answer, as Wright said. The fans think that you just wave a magic wand and you get money. QUEEN'S PARK RANGERS go into today's match with Crystal Palace knowing that defeat could cost them their First Division status - and perhaps much more. Their millionaire chairman, Chris Wright, is making no guarantees that he will continue to dip deeply into his own pocket to maintain a club that, he says, has already cost him "millions and millions".
I think the racecourse has presented this too much like a normal day's racing. "I hope there will have been a lot of viewers at home watching for two hours, wanting the European team to win yet not having a bet We have to start attracting a wider audience to racing. All exciting stuff, right down to the last when the rival captain, Olivier Peslier, rode Handsome Ridge to victory, crowning a profitable week for owner David Platt, whose Elegant Lady had won at Chester on Tuesday, and bringing the European team a victory."We've got to develop a different dynamic," Savill said. But Frankie - "Frankie for the Middle East" as the race commentator had it - was relentlessly upbeat both on the track and in front of the cameras and kept the Middle East ahead with a double on Mythical Girl and Diktat.
That the white-capped outsider of the four, Opera King, should carry off the pounds 50,000 first prize only added to the bewilderment. First blood to the Middle East by 35 points to four and the prospect of a designer chic show evaporating into the gathering mist.But the Europeans, led by Robert Sangster, slowly edged their way back into contention, winning the second through a neatly timed late challenge by Jimmy Fortune on Carry the Flag and an equally impressive victory by the former Group 1 winner, Lavery, ridden by Mick Kinane. Kieren Fallon, the champion jockey, flew in for the last, just in time to lift the European team to a 1-2-3 which secured victory for the super-rich owners of Europe over the mega-rich owners of the Middle East and at least bequeathed the inaugural year with a near-perfect finale.The earlier encounters had not been so promising. At least he bothered to enter a horse: Henry Cecil, no great admirer of Middle Eastern owners, stayed away resolutely, more preoccupied with the fate of his Oaks triallist Ramruna than some artificial moneyfest at Goodwood. Winners were greeted with the traditional post- race shibboleths - "nice sort, slow to come to hand, shed a plate last time...", the shorthand on which the sport thrives. Asked what he thought about the concept of the Shergar Cup, Paul Cole's face looked vaguely panic-stricken as if someone had asked him to solve the riddle of the Sphinx.
"It's a change and very interesting and prize money down to ninth place is very encouraging for everyone," he said, which fell a little short of the rah-rah required of the occasion. Total prize money of pounds 400,000 helped the cause, but trainers could not quite grasp the notion of team, even for an afternoon. Ranged against him was racing's highly developed suspicion of gimickry and the relentless rhythms of a sport defined by its selfishness. If the idea was to encourage wider participation from the non- racing audience, the event has some way to go Most of the crowd were regulars. Cries of "Come on, you Middle East" did not rent the air.No one can fault Savill for courage or creativity. One disgruntled bookmaker, who had just been charged pounds 100 on top of his annual membership to take his pitch only to report takings as "dismal", claimed he only became aware of the Shergar Cup last week. The fixture is not on the British Horse Racing Board list, so the industry was asked to act quickly, not one of its strengths.
Rather more significantly, the late development of the concept, billed very ambitiously by its instigator, Peter Savill, as the Ryder Cup of racing, meant that substantial swathes of the racing public had no idea of its existence. This is still stiff upper lip country. Glorious Goodwood was not. The sweep of the South Downs might make a mighty backdrop to racing in the sunshine of mid-summer; a bleak spring afternoon is a more bracing matter. The result, a late flourish by the Europeans to win by 126 points to 120, was greeted with a few cheers and a slightly discordant fanfare Nothing too extravagant, you understand.