Sue Montgomery: While the sun and Frankel are shining, the climax of the jumps season falls flat

Inside Track

(GETTY IMAGES)

At this time of year and in this weather there is nowhere better to be of a morning than Newmarket Heath, where hope is still riding high on every trainer's hack and every goose in the town is still a swan.

The centuries-honoured ritual of thoroughbreds honing their fitness and well-being on the steep slope of Warren Hill is enacted daily. It's a splendid show and a free one, too; any who care to get out of bed early enough to watch can see getting on for 1,000 horses pass before their eyes in a couple of hours.

Some of them are already stars. There goes Workforce with his lead horse Tazahum, fancied to make a successful handicap debut in tomorrow's Esher Cup at Sandown; and surely that was young Frankel moving so sweetly and smoothly behind his security blanket Bullet Train. Some are darker beasts; Carlton House in particular has been showing eyecatching action and Friday's nuptials in London may yet be followed by another right royal celebration at Epsom in June.

Next weekend's Guineas meeting down the road at the Rowley Mile will inevitably burst some bubbles but for now all is as it should be, with the nascent elite Flat season poised to reveal what narratives it will. The year may be fascinating and deliver true celebrities; it may, as some inevitably are, be run-of-the-mill and difficult to market without recourse to a new imperial wardrobe. We'll see.

The jump season has begun to struggle for an identity beyond what have become the holy grails of Cheltenham and to a lesser extent Aintree. The current domestic campaign officially ends today and, although the various championships are done and dusted, in theory any title could have gone down to the last race of the season, the 8.15 at Kelso this evening, and that wouldn't have suited those who planned the so-called climax at Sandown. Ludicrously, the new season in Britain starts tomorrow, overlapping the symbiotic Irish programme, which stages its remaining major festivals this weekend at Fairyhouse and next month at Punchestown, with the same dramatis personae involved. Try to explain the logic of all that to a newcomer.

Today's card at Sandown, where the stage is formally ceded to the Flat after the main steeplechase of the day (apart from a jolly finale where the jump and Flat boys ride against each other. Oh, and contests at Haydock, Kelso and so on), used to be a day of some stature, condensing some of the best of the old season with promise of the new.

The Whitbread Gold Cup as was (its current tag Bet365 is perhaps appropriate, given the year-round treadmill that is the modern sport) shared the afternoon with the Derby trial. Perhaps the rot set in 10 years ago when, after the loss of the Cheltenham Festival to foot-and-mouth disease, the Sandown executive staged two extra jump contests, designed to attract top two-mile hurdlers and chasers.

Then, they were welcome; now they seem slightly irrelevant and the most interesting races at the meeting are on the Flat, notably today's Bet365 Mile, even though it has attracted only five runners. It marks the reappearance of one of last season's best three-year-olds, Dick Turpin, who will be attempting to give his trainer, Richard Hannon, his fourth successive victory in the Grade Two contest. Opposition to the big, handsome black colt includes his contemporary Music Show, also a Group One winner, and the progressive five-year-old Cityscape.

Kieren Fallon has made no secret of his admiration for the progress of lightly raced Afsare on the home gallops and gets his chance for some compensation for the loss, because of suspension, of his ride on Native Khan in the 2,000 Guineas to Olivier Peslier when the Luca Cumani-trained four-year-old makes his Group race debut in the Gordon Richards Stakes.

The usual professionals are involved at the sharp end of the jump championships – a 16th title for jockey Tony McCoy and a sixth for trainer Paul Nicholls, after a sharp tussle with Nicky Henderson – and should be celebrated despite the incoherencies of their programme. Nicholls, with the help of Ruby Walsh, may be able to consolidate his supremacy with two short-shots, Sanctuaire and Tataniano, and in the marathon feature the more sportingly priced Meanus Dandy, who has the fast ground and right-handed course in his favour.

Flight or fight, the whip stimulates heated responses

There is no subject in racing that provokes more heated debate than that of the use of the whip and, as a function of the emotion inevitably engendered, it often comes without light. The very words concerned – whip, whipping, whipped – have connotations of sadistic abuse and it is almost superfluous to state that of course misuse of the implement should not be tolerated.

But there's the rub. Connotations; fast-forward to implications and then image. Never mind that how the human – particularly the non-horsey human – views something associated in the human mind with punishment is very different from its effect on the equine half of the centaur combination that is horse and jockey.

Consider these premises, in no particular order. Your basic horse is a prey species and domestication over millennia has not changed that. Most horses win races because they are measurably better athletes, under the given conditions, than their rivals. Horses, despite anthropomorphic comments to the contrary, do not really know either where or what a winning post or a first prize is. The only time a horse in its natural state will run through the pain barrier is when it is running for its life in fear. One of the things that stimulates the hormonal rush that can lead to a burst of life-saving speed is sudden sharp pain.

Racehorses are educated behind the scenes to go past other horses; some take to the concept with ease and even with competitive relish. But hardly any will voluntarily go through the wall to their limit; in extremis a horse needs a stimulus to conjure an effort that will perhaps take it out of its comfort zone. A smack with a whip equates somewhere in the primeval equine mind with a big cat's claw. Equally, sudden movement or noise are also danger signals, like a jockey waving the whip or giving a shout.

The managers at Towcester racecourse want to ban the whip in a finish because they think that their customers think it looks cruel. To human eyes the act of whipping can carry that perception – a beating or a flogging – but it is to a horse in the first instance a stimulus. Most jockeys can feel if or when a horse can react no more; the riders that don't are punished and perhaps should be more severely. But if you buy into the notion of horses competing head-to-head for man's pleasure, then there has to be an edge and ultimate effort is part and parcel of that. And, consequently, the use – but absolutely not misuse – of the whip.

Turf Account

Chris McGrath's Nap

Muhandis (3.05 Musselburgh)

Up in distance for his handicap debut on what may prove a workable mark. His trainer's first runner at the Scottish track in five years.

Next Best

Eyre Square (4.00 Haydock)

Stays well and handles faster ground; has risen in the weights but looked the type to cope when last seen over fences and has confirmed his upward mobility over hurdles in the interim.

One To Watch

Stargazing (M Botti) has been steadily getting her act together in low-grade contests at Wolverhampton during the winter and can carry on her progress on her return to turf.

Where The Money's Going

Despite not having made the cut for Monday's Irish Grand National, Beautiful Sound, who needs two defectors to make the field of 25, continues to attract support at a general 5-1.