Monday, May 26, 2008

Notes in running

Two performances stood out over the weekend - Henrythenavigator's victory in the Irish 2000 Guineas and Fleeting Spirit's run in Haydock's Temple Stakes. Henrythenavigator looks as though he'll be making his way to Epsom for the Derby, while the filly Fleeting Spirit shaved over a second off the five furlong course record at Haydock and now heads for the King Stand's Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Henrythenavigator may know which way he's going but both Sam Thomas and Ruby Walsh have had trouble in that department over the past week. Sam Thomas took the wrong course at Fakenham last Monday while Ruby Walsh mistakenly sent his mount over the water jump at Stratford on Friday evening when riding a finish. Paul Nicholls now finds himself in the position of having his two top riders serving a ban for taking the wrong course. At Stratford's Saturday evening meeting adjustments were made to the manner in which the water jump was dolled off in order to avoid an embarrassing repetition of Ruby's mistake.

High Street bookmaking is a competitive business; differentiators such as customer service are all important. Recently, in a Coventry branch of Ladbrokes, I picked up two leaflets entitled 'Did we get it right today?' and 'Are we meeting our promises?' The latter publication tells me Labrokes are committed to providing 'the best possible service'. Ladbrokes' boss Chris Bell appears to have been singularly unimpressed with British Airways' approach to customer service during a recent flight and, according to this Times report, hasn't been slow in letting the airline know about it...

No comments: