Abuse

There has been plenty in the racing news this week about the abuse received by trainers over their horses performances on the racecourse.  I don’t think anyone that isn’t involved can comprehend the sheer volume of it, and this is coming from a trainer with a dozen horses.I had no idea of the tirade of abuse trainers received until February 2015 the day of my first runner after attaining my licence. This was Douglas Julian at Kelso, our local racecourse.  We thought he would run a good race but he wasn’t hugely fancied in the betting market.  He went on to run an absolute blinder to win and make the best possible start to my training career. I was shocked when before I had even got into the lorry to head home I had an email from a disgruntled punter saying they hoped I would break my legs and die.After mentioning to a couple of other local trainers I discovered this is considered the norm and most trainers expect to receive downright nasty emails after horses a, don’t run to punters expectations or b, run too well for punters expectations. If a horse runs below par I can assure you that there will be no harsher critic than the trainer themselves, and if one of our runners finishes in front of the horse you have backed then tough luck, that is the nature of gambling after all.I have received my fair share of correspondence from disgruntled punters, mainly via email.  Some just rude, some nasty and a few downright violent. However, the common theme with them all is appalling spelling and terrible grammar.  They just hit the trash bin now but I did find that original email from that day Douglas Julian won at Kelso.Most sports people receive some pretty harsh critism through social media but we are so accessible through private streams that it perhaps becomes more personal.  The need for trainers to be constantly accessible to agents, owners, jockeys and prospective owners means our contact details are out there for the world to use and abuse.I don’t know how this situation can be improved or how you can stop these emails and messages other than perhaps if the human race decided to just be a bit kinder to one another. Perhaps asking for a bit much!I’m the meantime I am pretty thick skinned and we know we are doing the best we can.