The government may for the moment have disbanded its circular firing squad, but racing has never shown a greater ability for self-harm. For once last Saturday I was not on a racecourse. Unfortunately, Mrs Oakley had had a late-night mishap with an Ugg boot and after a midnight ambulance, a night in A&E and her hip-replacement operation, my presence was needed elsewhere. Jump jockeys are only too familiar with A&E wards and limb-setting operations, but on our first acquaintance we marvelled not only at the skill and care of the NHS teams but especially at their patience with an astonishingly high proportion of abusive and aggressive patients with dementia. As one trauma ward doctor put it to me: ‘Hospitals are not a place for rest.’

As it happened, Mrs Oakley’s accident did me a favour in keeping me from a day at Ascot that can only be described as a major embarrassment and a high-profile disaster for jump racing. Thanks to the cost of living, small fields and uncompetitive contests, racing is losing spectators at an alarming rate. After Saturday that exodus will only increase and potential race sponsors will think twice about spending their money.

I was eagerly awaiting travelling to Ascot to see three of jump racing’s stars: the Champion Hurdle favourite Constitution Hill, last year’s champion two-mile novice chaser Edwardstone and L’Homme Pressé, a Cheltenham Festival winner in March whom I believe could win the next Gold Cup. Many racegoers purchased tickets for Saturday with the same objective. Come the day, not only were all three withdrawn from their separate races by their trainers (respectively Nicky Henderson, Alan King and Venetia Williams) but the second race on the card became a walkover when four of the five declared runners were withdrawn by their handlers because of what they called ‘unsuitable’ going, i.e. the ground wasn’t soft enough to run their horses on safely.

The feature race, the Chanelle Pharma Chase, was reduced to a match between two horses when another three declared runners were pulled out. That meant that a total of 15 horses contested the first five races on the Ascot card. Sure, small fields can sometimes produce enthralling contests but most people come racing for the spectacle and the betting opportunities provided by larger fields, preferably the minimum eight required for each-way betting on the first three.

In today’s culture we like somebody to blame, so who were the villains? Speaking at Haydock, where his Hitman, rerouted from Ascot, put himself in the picture for the King George on Boxing Day by winning the Betfair Graduation Chase, champion trainer Paul Nicholls was amazed that his Milan Bridge had benefited from the Ascot walkover, declaring: ‘It’s not that bad at Ascot. It’s good ground. Sometimes you’ve got to take the wraps off and run these horses.’ At Ascot, trainer Gary Moore insisted there was nothing wrong with the ground. He had run three horses with a history of leg trouble on it at Ascot the previous day with no bad consequences: ‘It’s very safe. There’s nothing wrong with the ground. I’m surprised so many have come out.’ But he added: ‘It’s easiest to say, “If in doubt take them out”,’ and he admitted that you can regret the harm done after choosing to run.

So should we castigate Nicky Henderson, Alan King and Venetia Williams, three of the very best trainers in the land, for withdrawing their horses? Hard to criticise them for paying more than lip service to the notion of putting the horses’ welfare first. Alan King’s Betterforeveryone had returned home jarred up after racing at Ascot the previous day. Their first duty is to their horses and for the star animals concerned, with a carefully chosen racing programme leading up to key contests at Cheltenham in March, missing their Ascot dates will cause major headaches. For top-class horses this is the very beginning of the season – why take risks now?

Should we blame Chris Stickels, the clerk of the course, then, for wrongfully describing the going? He didn’t. He adjusted the description to make it clear that the ground wasn’t ideal for trainers whose horses needed an easy surface. The trouble was that after the summer drought, as other courses too are finding, recent rainfall is not staying in the soil but draining rapidly through. The grim thought for jump racing is that with global warming we may be just at the start of that problem. With the wider interests of the sport in mind, Ascot should try to find a way of compensating those who paid for something which, for reasons beyond their control, the course was unable to supply.

And two good things did happen on Saturday. Gary Moore’s quirky Goshen, whom he admitted would prefer running in a bog, nevertheless collected £56,000 for winning the Coral Hurdle in Constitution Hill’s absence, and 11-year-old Coole Cody, whose trainer Evan Williams said would be happy running down the M4, won the Chanelle Pharma on his first attempt outside handicaps. Fortune favours the brave.

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