SATISFACTION is wonderful thing. Get yourself a slap up meal, all the trimmings.

But it’s not so much fun on your own? The ‘look at my dinner’ Twitter photos are nothing but a massive irritation if you are not interested or participating.

Racing salivated over the clash of Energumene and Shishkin in the Clarence House Chase at Ascot on Saturday. But were we dining alone?

There was no media build-up outside the racing channels. At least Cheltenham does capture the general interest.

Even after events went according to plan and we had the thriller we prayed for – something you would have thought would engage the wider sporting audience – the coverage outside the racing media was disappointing. The race did not gain any more space than a normal Grade 1 Saturday race report.

Perhaps neither horse has a ‘following’ yet, unlike horses like Moscow Flyer, as an example.

Not news

The BBC did not cover the race result in their bulletins. If it’s not bad news, or Rachael, Bryony and Hollie, they are not interested. A [not very well known] British tennis player in Australia was more likely to make it.

The Sunday papers gave little more than their general one-third page space to the report and it was not a sporting event that captured the attention of any ‘columnist’.

The Irish Sunday Times’ sports supplement had 10 pages of Premier League soccer, four of GAA (in January), five of rugby: two of cricket and one golf. The two racing pages needed to include Sunday racecards.

It’s noticeable now that big racedays rarely attract big-name sports writers such as the late Hugh McIlvanney.

And if it was any other sport, after such a highly anticipated match, a rematch would almost surely be agreed. Signed on a dotted line almost.

Think boxing, athletics, the next tennis or golf ‘major’. But here we had to wait and hope that both trainers were, at this stage, committed to meeting again.

While the race met its billing for us, our expectations that the sports world would look on and become excited, want more and get more engaged in the sport, could have been a bit wide of the mark.

Hitting full stride!

THERE was an interesting aside to a Zoom call of racing writers this week to discuss the World’s Best Racehorse Rankings. Aidan O’Brien kindly joined to give his views on his classic contenders for 2022.

Oddly the media struggled to come up with any questions for Aidan, possibly struggling to get their heads around flat racing in the middle of January.

Finally ATR Speed ratings expert Simon Rowlands broke the silence. But it was a lesson in trying to get rid of someone coming to the doorstep selling unwanted produce!

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

“Simon, Simon Rowlands - Aidan, can I ask do you use striding analysis at all in disseminating how far you think a horse will stay?”

Aidan: Not really Simon, no.

Simon: It would just raise a few doubts about Tenebrism getting a mile, I think.

Aidan: Interesting Simon, yes, thanks for that.

Door closed!

No further questions, your honour.