One-horse race goes to form at Kempton

IN the sport of kings there's rarely such thing as a dead cert - but a one-horse race?

ON THE JOB: Sportsbeat reporter gets into the thick of things at Man vs. Horse at Kempton Park (James Parsons)

For one night only Kempton Park turned into a one-horse town - man versus beast took centre stage in leafy Surrey and unsurprisingly homo sapien got savaged.

Jamie Baulch lost his 100m dash against a racehorse - despite having around a 15 metre head start.

Baulch, part of the World Championship winning 4x400m British relay team in 1997, admitted he was outclassed in his battle with Peopleton Brook.

Most bookies seemed reluctant to offer odds on this showdown but those who did were not impressed by Baulch's chances.

At 37, Baulch, a 400m runner when in his pomp is not as fleet-footed nor as streamlined as he once was - to be brutally honest he was on a hiding to nothing but he battled manfully.

Or he did at least for a matter of seconds before Fergus Sweeney rode the overwhelming 1-10 favourite to victory in 10.06 seconds - which would place him tenth on the current IAAF 2010 rankings.

Only the mug punters were interested in the 6-1 odds available on Baulch - somewhat narrow but still tempting enough for those who seemed unsatisfied to keep the purse strings tightened.

The winner of the race was to get the chance to donate £10,000 to a charity of their choice but in the end it was split between the two - half went to Bernardo's Cymru and half went to the Injured Jockeys Fund - so a worthwhile outing for all concerned.

In reality Baulch was never going to get the better of his four-legged foe but there is something truly captivating about man dueling with beast.

Whether it be a race between a former sprinter and a horse, a sumo wrestler having a tug-of-war with an orangutan or a goldfish and an amnesiac playing memory games , it's human nature to be to enchanted.

Baulch's defeat also reminds us that humans, however much we like to think otherwise, do not have total command over all they purvey.

It also made for a rather amusing evening at the races.

Did I part with any of my hard-earned money in the main event? Well, you can't look a gift horse in the mouth now, can you?