Jockeys and trainers are already concerned about the introduction this season of

Jockeys and trainers are already concerned about the introduction this season of a new style of starting stall and overlaying that with what they see as relatively inexperienced handlers has caused red lights to flash.Wolverhampton last night was the first time the new stalls team, which has had several dummy runs and has been passed as competent by the Jockey Club, operated for real. Given that Arena’s tracks, which include the two other all-weather venues, Southwell and Lingfield, possess 35 per cent of the fixture list, redundancies in RaceTech’s ranks are inevitable.Interwoven with the RaceTech men’s long-term prospects are safety issues. “If it had been up to me, I wouldn’t have been riding,” said 5lb claimer Ben Swarbrick, attached to Mark Brisbourne’s yard. “But as an apprentice I have to do as I am told and I had to ride the boss’s horses.”Arena Leisure recently announced its decision, based on cutting costs, to dispense with the services of the established stalls handlers, employed by RaceTech and deployed countrywide, and put together its own in-house team. As a result of the senior men’s action, the inexperience yesterday evening was in the saddle, not on the ground.

The first race, happily, passed off without incident. All 11 runners loaded calmly and jumped from the stalls without fuss. The race, a six-furlong claimer, went to the odds-on favourite Outlook, ridden by the one star name on duty, Seb Sanders.

The title-chasing rider rode only because his contract with the two-year-old’s trainer Sir Mark Prescott precluded him from doing otherwise, but Sanders accepted no outside mounts at the meeting.The apprentices were in the same no-option boat. In the wake of a decision by the company that runs Wolverhampton, Arena Leisure, to recruit its own team of stalls handlers, jockeys, as a body, are currently concerned about safety standards at the start. The fact was steeped in irony, given the nature of the dispute that had the well-known names refusing to ride at the West Midlands track. With the West Midlands track the subject of a boycott by senior jockeys, the depths of the apprentice barrel were duly scraped to fill saddles and the likes of G Bartley, A Elliott, D Caldwell and T Dean, all 7lb claimers, found themselves in the unusual position of having nearly a full book of rides. The only winners at Wolverhampton last night were unlikely ones. “She had three quick runs on fast ground, and she doesn’t like it.

But I hope we’ll see her again.”Looking forward to next year’s Oaks, the Aidan O’Brien-trained Alexandrova, a daughter of Sadler’s Wells, was introduced into the early betting at 33-1 after a 10-length maiden victory at Tralee yesterday.. The Oaks winner, who ran unplaced in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes after her Epsom triumph, came home jarred up after her fourth place to Punctilious in the Yorkshire Oaks “She’s on the easy list,” added Jarvis. He’ll have a racecourse gallop a couple of weeks before the QEII to put an edge on him.”Plans, though, for Rakti’s stablemate Eswarah are on hold. “He’s back in work again,” said trainer Michael Jarvis, “but there’s no point in getting him too fit too early. The six-year-old will bid for back-to-back victories in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, transferred this year from Ascot to Newmarket, on 24 September, followed by the Breeders’ Cup Mile in New York in October and then the Hong Kong Mile in December.

Already six times a Group One winner, Rakti had a short break after York. Should they remain obstinately shut, the removal of Lottery funding may be used as a lever They have been warned.. Rakti, most recently seen when runner-up to Valixir in the Queen Anne Stakes, has started his preparation for the final campaign of his career, a globetrotting assault on three of the world’s prestige mile races.

“I was pushing against an open door,” he said, adding with a hint of menace that other, stickier doors remained to be tried. Steve is the most coolest guy on the planet and he’s helped me achieve so much. But I’ve been training on my own in Birmingham and sometimes when I get up and I’m hurting it’s been hard to motivate myself. With Tony I’ll be training with people who will keep me up to the mark.” Collins denied that much pressure had been required to alter Lewis-Francis’s approach.

Making this decision is a relief, but it’s a loss as well because I am losing a great person. I know that I’ve got potential that needs to be found and if it’s found it will be amazing.”I was on the brink of moving last year but I wanted to give it another season to see what my options were. But Lewis-Francis has become an increasingly erratic performer, notwithstanding his Olympic sprint relay gold last summer. Bad became worse in June when he was stripped of his world indoor bronze medal after testing positive for cannabis.”I’ve lost my love of athletics over the last couple of years because of the pressure,” said Lewis-Francis, who will now look for somewhere to live with his partner and son “I want to get back to enjoying my sport I’m putting my life in Tony Lester’s hands.