I DON’T suppose many of you can remember the 1863 Derby, so I’ll probably have to remind you how it played out.

The contemporary report in The Times frames the events perfectly in its opening paragraph. “Yesterday” their reporter intoned, “was most emphatically a bad day for both races – The Derby and the human.”

To cut a wonderfully long story short, the day was marred first by dreadful weather, and secondly by the inability of a Mr McGeorge to get the field – or more accurately, the bad-tempered Tambour Major – to start.

In fairness to Mr McGeorge, he felt compelled to get the field off to a fair start, but every time he dropped his flag, Tambour Major refused to budge. It is almost impossible to believe how the situation developed in hindsight, but despite the errant colt standing rooted to the spot for the first, and then the second start, he was given another opportunity.

I say another. I mean another 29! Yes, indeed, it was only on the 32nd attempt that a start was finally effected. Tambour Major refused to race. In fairness to him, everyone else was bad-tempered by that late stage.

A century and a half later, we should be grateful that big races are not delayed by an hour because of such farcical scenes, but there are still occasions when a false start can leave pretty much all involved feeling hot under the collar.

Such an occasion was last week’s Betfair Hurdle, when the season’s most valuable handicap hurdle had to begin from a standing start, and that scenario saw ante-post favourite Not So Sleepy effectively left at the start, just as Tambour Major was, but without the intent.

Not So Sleepy is a horse who has been transformed by front-running tactics in recent races, so coming into the first hurdle disputing last, rather than first place was a disaster from which he predictably failed to recover.

Orderly fashion

To most eyes, the race ought to have started as normal, with the field approaching the starter in a pretty orderly fashion, especially considering the traditional need to get a good position in this race, where it has proven almost impossible to come from the rear in recent times.

Unfortunately, starter Simon McNeill failed to see it that way, warning jockeys that they were approaching too quickly, and refusing to release the tape as the field converged upon it.

I don’t intend to delve into the rights and wrongs other than to point out the obvious. It is infinitely better to have a rolling start for jumps races than have a standing start, which can lead to some horses setting off too fast after having to be rousted up on the starting line, while also seeing horses caught on heels and losing valuable lengths. Both scenarios make the run to the first obstacle more fraught with danger than it ought to be.

With Cheltenham on the horizon, and with a number of false starts on the opening day last year which had a negative impact on races – the Arkle resembled a grouse shoot more than it did a steeplechase – I have one appeal.

Let’s not allow the relationship between starters and jockeys to become adversarial to the detriment of owners, trainers, punters and viewers.

The reason why the standing start rule exists is because it was found that if jockeys came in too fast at the first time of asking, they would come in faster still granted another opportunity at a normal start.

As such, a compromise was reached to ensure that starts were effected in a way which allowed jockeys to walk towards the starter, which meant amending the starting points for races to allow more room.

This rule was welcomed by the PJA at the time as a big improvement, and that should be recognised. Nobody wants a standing start, but nor does anyone want to be called back 31 times because of the same sinner.

The Cheltenham Festival should be an opportunity to demonstrate the fairness of these procedures, rather than a place to attempt a bit of one-upmanship.

If we are going to punish riders for what looked just about the fairest walk-in I’ve ever seen in the Betfair Hurdle, then next month could be an absolute horror-show.

We mustn’t encourage rule-breaking, but an iron fist is never the answer when it can cause so much collateral damage.

We have over three weeks to ensure that starters, jockeys and those they ride for realise that everybody wants to see a fair start; so get the dialogue going now, iron out any issues which are felt to exist, and ensure we’re not trying to sort the issue out when everyone’s blood is up on March 10th.