THERE are so many subjects for a rant this week, but we’re covering old ground with most of them, and it’s an old bugbear which has raised its head most recently, and therefore I’m dedicating the bulk of this column to the fake drama needlessly added to racing.

I’m talking specifically about the announcement of photo-finish results as if they were the quarter finals of the dreadful nonsense that is Britain’s Got Talent, although you can throw in any “reality” show in which an audience vote is milked for maximum dramatic effect.

The final race at Sandown on Thursday produced a thrilling finish in which Chevallier beat Jailawi by a short-head after a prolonged tussle in the straight. The drama of the race befitted an evening card of both quality and intrigue, but the event was not enhanced in any way by the hamming up of the photo announcement by judge Graham Ford, who presumably thought he was adding some tension to the proceedings when leaving a pregnant pause before calling the winner. He wasn’t.

Racegoers and punters who took an interest in the concluding race got their thrills from watching a battle between the front two through the last furlong of the contest. What they wanted afterwards was to know who had won, and quickly.

If you’ve backed one who gets beaten a nose, you tend to suspect that your money has gone west, and listening to a racecourse official deliberately pause for dramatic effect before confirming the bad news is rubbing salt in the wound. If winners had their experience enhanced by the same process, then there might be some argument, but in similar vein, when you’ve backed one that’s scraped home by a short-head or less, you need to hear confirmation of the result quickly for fear of heart failure, or at least, that’s my overwhelming experience.

TENSION

In similar vein, I was reminded about Great British Racing’s short-lived initiative to produce a moving graphic proclaiming “PHOTO” in massive letters for those at the track to view, which would disappear to reveal the name of the winner at the appointed time, the idea being that the tension would be increased and racegoers would benefit from the sense of theatre provided.

What the well-meaning marketing team behind that daft idea failed to comprehend is that racing comes with all its own drama attached - the best way of ramping up the tension of a photo-finish is simply to show people a replay, not a slogan.

When Final Approach was adjudged to have beaten Get Me Out Of Here by a nose in the 2011 County Hurdle at Cheltenham, it came as a huge surprise to those watching on TV, some of whom had backed the runner-up at long odds-on in the photo, but that intrigue was lost entirely on those watching on the big screen at Cheltenham, for whom a replay of the finish, or even a still on the line was deemed to be too mundane.

Instead we got a revolving graphic which we were told better enhanced our enjoyment of the occasion. Nonsense, of course, and the notion soon foundered.

The phony drama enacted at Sandown on Thursday is of no benefit to anyone other than the perpetrator, and I must offer my congratulations to RUK pundit Eddie “The Shoe” Freemantle for making exactly that point on air, and with considerable feeling.

I sometimes feel that this column is in danger of turning me into a curmudgeon, and worry that that is a bad thing, but when I see Freemantle, the king of the curmudgeons, in full flow, I realise that a) I have some way to go to match him in the grumpy old man department, and b) I really should be striving harder towards that goal.

GOING REPORTS

Another subject guaranteed to raise the hackles of serious punters is that of going reports, and their seemingly unerring inaccuracy.

Bangor is the latest jumps track which seems to be aiming to provide ground softer than good for its summer jumps programme, and the card there on Thursday proved to be somewhere between frustrating and farcical for those trying to eke a living from the sport, with horses being withdrawn on account of the ground at the 11th hour despite no change in the official going report.

The suspicion is that tracks are being advised to water heavily even when weather reports suggest that rain is likely, and the belief that soft ground is safer than fast is presumably the driving philosophy. Whether this is true is hard to establish, but it’s a retrograde mindset, and the emphasis must be on providing a good cover of grass, rather than attempting to take the sting out of the surface through artificial irrigation.

Constant watering cannot be beneficial to turf management, and my concern is that short-term gain will merely lead to long-term damage, both to the turf, and to the breed as a whole.

Finally, on the subject of going reports, I must salute the efforts of Emma Marley at Ayr to provide detailed going and weather updates on a video link via twitter on the morning of racing. It may be that the information conveyed to the public is exactly the same as can be found on the BHA’s website, but the willingness to provide such and engage with the public via social media is most welcome, and should be the benchmark for all courses.