​Jack Leach, of ‘Sods I Have Cut on The Turf’ fame, is often quoted as saying ‘how can anyone die through the winter when they don’t know how last seasons two-year-olds have trained on.’ I am a bit like that at this time of year, though my inspiration to continue to dodge the Grim Reaper is wanting to know how last season’s novice hurdlers progress when tried over fences. Can you imagine the spirit of someone who leaves this mortal realm not knowing how Ballyburn did on his chase debut at Punchestown tomorrow or Sir Gino on Monday at Kempton? Mortified, I expect.
The fate of this season’s two-year-olds will not cross my mind till next spring and late spring at that.
I wonder if Paul Townend will sleep well tonight? And which horse will exercise his imagination as he tries to drop-off to sleep? Ballyburn? State Man? Galopin Des Champs? Has he chosen correctly; how will he feel if Lossiemouth beats State Man? Mortified? Or comforted by the knowledge that he can get back on Lossiemouth whenever he wants to? Surprisingly, Patrick Mullins gets the nod for Lossiemouth and not in-form cousin Danny Mullins.
Ballyburn is no shoo-in for a debut success as the race has plenty of likely outsiders. An outsider is any horse other than Ballyburn who will start long odds-on. State Man is also no certainly as he could easily be rolled-over by his stable-mate and current Champion Hurdle favourite, Lossiemouth and Galopin Des Champs will not face a stiffer test until March and the Gold Cup. All three might triumph; all three might be defeated by a stable-mate, such is the battalion of strength that lives at Closutton.
Incidentally, is it not ridiculous that the race following Ballyburn’s next step towards equine immortality, is a Beginners Chase over 3-miles and has attracted only three-runners, all trained by Gordon Elliott. Let us hope Jack Kennedy puts his leg across the right one.
The one wish we all will be in accordance with is that all these wonderful equine superstars come home safe and sound.

As is always the case when there is a ‘debacle’ in one of Cheltenham’s Cross-country Chases there is a call for more rails to guide the jockeys and prevent one of them from making an ass of themselves as befell Michael Nolan last week. The point people miss is that though this race takes place on a racecourse, the purpose of cross-country races is to mimic a ride across country where the rider is guided by fences not railings. Cross-Country races should not be considered a novel steeplechase and punters should realise that a jockey ‘going wrong’ is all part and parcel of the jollity.
On this subject, I feel it is unfair on Michael Nolan or any jockey who falls foul of the circumnavigations of the Cross-Country course to be fined or suspended when what can be considered ‘as the inevitable’ happens. The Glenfarglas may be run under the rules of racing but that should not mean leniency cannot be applied by the stewards. Nolan was embarrassed by his mistake and though it was clearly his misjudgement, his horse did not help his cause by ignoring Nolan’s supplications to turn his head. Controversial, perhaps, but could racecourses could reintroduce stocks on the lawn and when a jockey makes an ass of himself, the public could be called-upon to throw tomatoes and other rotten fruit on the miscreant for ten-minutes to prolong the jollity.

As expected, the two horses who died during and at the end of the handicap chase at Cheltenham last Sunday died of ‘exercise-associated sudden death’ or cardiovascular collapse. Napper Tandy broke his neck and I suspect died instantly. The fact that autopsies were carried out on the two heart attack victims should be publicised on all social media platforms so the veterinary truth is there for all to see and for people to realise the deaths of horses on racecourses is not a ‘sweeping it under the carpet’ exercise.

A letter in today’s Racing Post heaped praise on Taylor Fisher who though regarded as a useful flat apprentice is also plying his trade as a jumps jockey, having already won two handicap chases on School for Scandal and is perhaps the only jockey currently riding on the flat, over hurdles and fences and is successful in all three codes. The sort of young man who deserves all the success that comes his way.

​The land that was once Lewes racecourse, high on the South Downs, is for sale. If I had 2.45-million quid lying idle I would be tempted. Thankfully I do not even have the decimal point lying idle.
The racecourse closed in 1964, when I was 10-years old and I have no memory of the place. Strangely, since becoming aware that there was once a racecourse a mile to the west of the Sussex town, I acquired a nostalgia for Lewes, as if its loss was a burden too heavy to bear. Yet for all of its picturesque resonance, the English countryside in all its golden and green glory, with the racecourse closer to the heaven than hell, when the weather is minded Lewes racecourse can be as bleak as a coal-mine and as miserable as the wild oceans.
There was no mains electricity or water and there was no main road passing by. To get to the racecourse from the town of Lewes required a bus ride up hills Tour de France riders would wish to avoid. During spells of picnic weather, though, I doubt if there was a more charming and unspoilt racecourse in the entire world.
Many trainers have tried to be successful at Lewes since its closure, with the racing surface still serene, including John Gosden’s father, Towser, the only trainer, as far as I can ascertain, to make a go of the place. It would be sacrilege to have the land go under the plough and it would be pleasurable to have someone train top-class winners there again. But it closed for a reason and that reason was its remoteness and the huge cost it would take then, and now, to bring it up-to-date. Thankfully, Sussex still has racecourses at Brighton and Goodwood and we should treasure them for there uniqueness. 

Apparently, not surprisingly, social media took full notice of the sad accidents that occurred at Cheltenham last Sunday. What was surprising was that the topic found its way onto I.T.V. news, the channel that currently holds the terrestrial rights to British racing. Ed Chamberlain needs to go talk to the editor of I.T.V. news and explain they should be batting for the same side.
One of the owners of Abuffalosoldier, the horse that suffered a fatal heart attack after winning the handicap chase, wrote an emotional defence of the sport on one of the social media outlets, the letter published today in the Racing Post. He was correct in everything he said and I am grateful to him and the Post for bringing to my attention the unsurprising outburst of counterfeit horror from the ignorant few who rely on the death of a racehorse to air their supercilious prejudices. If only these same people would take an interest in the U.N. war in Ukraine and the natural habitats that are being destroyed by human stupidity, animals both sides of the border being decimated by bomb and chemical! If only these same people would look-up the meanings of the words accident and cruelty and guide their consciences towards animals subjected to the latter and not try to decimate the jobs of thousands of people.

I like Iroko, the G and G trained chaser owned by J.P. McManus. It concerns me, though, that a horse who has yet only run 3-times over fences, with only 2-more planned, is to be aimed at the National at Aintree this season. Given it is considered reasonable for a horse to have run 5-times over fences to qualify to run in the Cheltenham Festival handicaps, is 6 a reasonable number to qualify for Aintree? As Ruby Walsh made plain last weekend, should a horse not be determined a novice by the number of chases it has run in? As it stands, a horse who runs in and wins a novice chase in November and then sustains an injury that prevents it running again that same season becomes ineligible for novice chases the following season and is considered a ‘handicapper’. It is an issue that needs to be debated.

The John Durkan at Punchestown on Sunday is, as things stand on the Thursday, an absolute cracker. Not only is Galopin Des Champs slated for his first run of the season but nearly every other Grade 1 chaser in Ireland. If only we could see such a race at a British racecourse this side of the New Year. By comparison, the Betfair Chase at Haydock on Saturday looks a dud, and yet it could be the best renewal for many a long day.

The B.H.A. still believe, as do the majority of us, that the decision of the Whips Review Committee to disqualify Alphonse Le Grande from winning the Cesarewitch was correct. Yet again the wording of the whip rules has caused controversy and consternation. They are too complicated; they need simplifying. Six-strokes – one over and the horse is disqualified on the day, with connections allowed to appeal on the Tuesday. Simples.

​J.P. McManus is one of the great men of National Hunt history. We all owe him a great debt of gratitude for his loyalty to the sport and unrivalled sportsmanship. I cannot imagine anyone having a bad word to say about him and we need to show him our appreciation for all he has done for the sport while we are blessed to have him amongst us.
Whether he approached the Racing Post or the Post approached him is unknown but what a breath of fresh air it was to read his thoughts, in his own words, on one particular issue of the Cheltenham Festival. He believes that if the maximum number of horses allowed to run in the handicaps was to be reduced to 18 it would encourage trainers to run likely candidates for these races more often through the season to ensure they achieve a rating to get them into their chosen race. Of course, horses must now run more than five times to be allowed to run in the handicaps at Cheltenham and together with J.P.’s proposal I think it can only benefit both the Festival and the season in general.
As he admitted, at the moment if one of his horses look likely to be leniently weighted in one of the handicaps, he is minded to ask its trainer to keep the horse for the Festival and not run it beforehand so as not to risk an increase in its rating. As fair-minded as ever, his proposal is not in his own best-interests but would be in the best interest of the sport.
Note to B.H.A., someone give J.P. a call to discuss this proposal and any other he might be minded to talk with you about. You know it makes sense.

Two letters in today’s Racing Post pointing out flaws in the David Power Jockeys Cup. One, it will only help a select few in the weighing room up and down the country and that northern-based jockeys, due to the majority of the races covered by I.T.V. are in the south and Midlands, are ruled out of the competition from the very outset. And Dan Skelton accusing those who recognise the flaws in the competition of being short-sighted as there might be jam for owners and trainers in the future, is being short-sighted himself.

Constitution Hill did not work as well as Sir Gino at Newbury but that, I would imagine, is quite normal. I have my doubts we will ever see Constitution Hill in his pomp ever again, especially as he now getting older, with the shine of youth now in his wake. But for people to go on social media and suggest the horse will be or should be retired on the basis of a gallop the horse badly needed is scare-mongering designed on ignorance. The Fighting Fifth is where we can judge the horse, not a cold and wet morning on a non-racing day at Newbury.

I must admit I enjoy races like the apprentice race at Lingfield yesterday. Such races add to the unpredictability and intrigue of the sport. Yes, it was farcical in its way, but how about heaping some praise on Tyrese Campbell – I hope I have his name correct – for stealing a race on a mare that had not previously won in 15-attempts. And have some sympathy for the four apprentices who got 10-day bans for believing the front runner would tire at some point and come back to them. They are all inexperienced at race-riding and will have learned a lesson – always expect the unexpected.

Stud farms are farms and as such are as affected by inheritance tax as small farmers. Remember, stud farms are collateral damage in the W.E.F. dictated plan to kill livestock farming stone-dead. Rachel Reeves and Two-Tier are giving no thought to the measures imposed in the Budget as all they are doing is blindly implementing into law what the World Economic Forum, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations want of them in the name of Net Zero. The inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the U.S. cannot come soon enough for those of us who believe in freedom of speech and the liberty to do as we please. 

​The danger in pouring scorn on well-intentioned incentives is to appear a character as grouchy as the misrepresented Scrooge of Dickens fame. In wishing to honour David Power, founder of the bookmakers Paddy Power, I feel Flutter, which now incorporates Paddy Power within its umbrella of betting interests, could have given the matter more thought. 
Our top National Hunt jockeys are not liable for the poor house. It is reported in the Racing Post that our current champion Harry Cobden earned close to a quarter-of-a-million quid from his percentage of prize-money last season, and that does not take into account his riding fees and endorsements. He did not ask for, and does not financially need, a bonus of half-a-million quid, the prize for winning the David Power Jockeys Cup.
I understand that Flutters’ intention is to bring better public awareness of our leading jockeys but do we have to bribe them with riches beyond their imagination to get them to shake more hands, sign more autographs and pose for more selfies?
I have reflected on this issue since the announcement of this new championship last Friday and decided the huge investment in our sport by Flutter would have achieved greater acceptance by the majority – the jockeys love it, as you would expect. Though only those who might expect to be in the top ten come Aintree in April – if the million-plus allocated to the DPJC had gone in sponsorship of races at the bottom sphere of the sport, with David Power’s name and his achievements in life advertised on a daily basis. My suggestion would have benefitted owners, trainers, staff and jockeys from the top of the table to those whose careers are a journey around the country in second-hand cars rather than luxury cars often driven by a chauffeur. As I have said many times before, everyone who works in our sport deserves the opportunity to earn a fair living.

Derek O’Connor is as good a rider as any professional. He may be 40 now and facing the day when he must call close on his career as the most winning point-to-point rider in Irish history, yet he remains the go-to amateur when it comes to the restricted races at the Cheltenham Festival. I do though ask why connections of Fastorslow could not have a found a professional jockey to stand-in for the injured J.J.Slevin. No disrespect intended to O’Connor but Ireland is not short on good professional riders and the ride on Fastorslow might have given one of them a share of the limelight that would benefit their career trajectory. 

The National Trainers’ Federation have implored the B.H.A. to pull their fingers out and come up with an incentive for owners to have top chasers trained in this country. All they need do is look to Ireland. On most racecards in Ireland, at least the top racecourses, there is a conditions race of one sort or another and plenty of beginners and novice chasers. Willie Mullins does not pull his hair out as he peruses the racing calendar as not only is he not afraid to run two, three or four horses in one race but he also has many opportunities throughout the season to run his best horses. I urge the B.H.A. to listen to Nicky Henderson and stop thinking only of turnover and competitiveness, as important as those issues are.

Freddie Gingell goes from strength to strength. He is in good hands with Paul Nicholls and working alongside Harry Cobden. I just hope people do not fill his ears with suggestions he is the next A.P. McCoy or champion jockey in waiting. He is at present second-jockey to Cobden at Ditcheat, second jockey to the best jockey currently riding in this country. He might hold the position of second-jockey for a long time as I cannot see Cobden going to any other stable in the country, can you? Gingell is good, amazing value for his 3Ib claim but he is still very young and that first bad fall might only be around the corner. There is plenty of time available to him for it all to fall flat. I doubt it will. But let us just allow him to gain all the experience he can and will need to fulfil his undoubted potential.

I will tell you where Flutter’s one-million-quid would have better benefitted the sport – supplying fleece covers to our Northern racecourses. Carlisle is a popular racecourse not only with Northern trainers but those based in the south and Midlands also, yet the fixture today is at the mercy of the weather, as will all its meetings from now to the start of the flat. I do not know the price of fleeces, though I would imagine a million-quid would pay for many miles of the stuff. The name of David Power could be immortalised for many years to come if Carlisle, Kelso and Newcastle, say, were weather-proofed in his name.

​Despite ground concerns and a general smallness in field sizes, the 3-day November meeting was an enjoyable watch, if not overly informative for the major races post-Christmas. Of course, though, it was not a happy 3-days, was it? For 2-days and 4-races it was a small feast of interesting races … Then the spectre we all fear came from our peripheral vision to terrorise our soul. It came without warning; it came without sympathy. And there was I, during the race, thinking how much safer the sport had become due to the implementation of white woodwork on the fences, and I remain of that opinion. You cannot strategize for heart attacks, not with horses or humans. Fit as a flea athletes can be taken down by heart problems and it is the same, sadly, with our equine partners.
It is particularly distressing when you are witness to the spectre’s strike, especially when the spectacle that preceded the macabre event gloriously memorable. It was as massively unfair to the horse and is it was for you and me, and heartbreaking for the girl who looked after him, and a real-time  tragedy for his owners and trainer who literally moments before were celebrating what for them was a dream-like win.
Abuffalosoldier had skipped around Cheltenham with the aplomb of a gazelle on a home run. He pinged every fence as if spring-heeled, defeated the unforgiving hill without his jockey having to ask him for more energy than he was already willingly providing. At journeys end, Sean Bowen dedicated the win to ‘Margaret’, his greatest supporter, who had died the previous night and then spoke effusively about Abuffalosoldier as a possible National horse.
Then the happiness became a horror show.
What made the death of Abuffalosoldier’s demise ever-more heart-wrenching and hard to believe possible was that during the race Bangers and Cash had suffered a similar fate. Luckily for both the squeamish and the hard-bitten, the medical incident happened just as the camera panned towards the leaders and I only caught a brief glimpse of whatever was occurring. The odds of two horses dying in one race of similar, if not the same, fatal affliction must be long-odds against. One finished the race, the other only completed half the race and yet both perished. I hope there is no causal link and cannot imagine there can be. Both, I hope, will be subject to an autopsy and that the findings will be published in quick order.
I realise we live a stupidly woke world that I hope will come to end very soon, and I am in no way criticising I.T.V. or the ever-excellent Ed Chamberlain, but I wish the ‘very best veterinary care spiel’ could be excluded at such times, as to my ears, it comes across as counterfeit sincerity, as in ‘we did all we could’, which does not need saying. It was clear to all that the horse had suffered a heart attack and that is what the viewer should have been told in the immediate aftermath.
If the day could not plummet any further in despondency, in the very next race Napper Tandy fell at a hurdle and suffered a fatal injury. The bone he broke also should have been conveyed to viewers, whether it be neck, shoulder or leg. We are a fact-based sport and we should be treated as the adults we are.
One final point, I would be interested to know how many fatalities occur in France over their version of a ‘hurdle’, as they are static, unlike the British and Irish hurdle that has the propensity to swing if a horse should clip the top of them. I believe the reputation French horses have for being better jumpers of an obstacle is due to the type they learn to jump when young, younger than British and Irish trainers would ever dream of schooling young horses. It is a hobby-horse of mine, asking a horse to jump an obstacle that can be moving as no other equine disciple would think to do so.

People, as with horses, can be out-of-form for no particular reason. Harry Derham, as an example, whose horses have been winning here, there and everywhere up to know, suffered to see two of his stable stars run quite deplorable over the weekend. The much touted and expensive to purchase Imagine ran a stinker in the Paddy Power and the naughty-boy that is Teddy Blue was equally bad in the Greatwood. Next time either of them run, either might be win and Harry will be, perhaps, unable to offer a reason why.
I am out-of-form at the moment, unable to form coherent sentences or transfer my thoughts to page with any degree of softness or readability. Thankfully, I have no editor to chuck my ‘copy’ back at me, with ‘must better write’ in red pen to subtly inform me that I might only be keeping the seat warm for someone who can ‘better write’.

​Gordon Elliott has eleven of the twenty runners in today’s Troytown Chase at Navan. Gavin Cromwell saddles four and Henry de Bromhead two. One of Ireland’s most prestigious handicap chases dominated by three of the top four stables in Ireland. Is that good for the sport? Is it a sign of the times? Is it a warning of dire consequence to come?
Where horse racing once held a definite advantage over most other sports is that it could often offer the sporting public a surprise package in the major races, as when Grittar won the Grand National, ridden by an ageing amateur and trained by the two-horse stable of owner/trainer Frank Coton. Or when Coneygree, ridden by a claiming jockey and trained by the Bradstocks, a family operation of less twenty-horses, won the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The claimer went on, of course, be one of the best horseman/jockeys of his generation, Nico de Boinville.
On Saturday, at Cheltenham, and, yes, it was an interesting and exciting day of racing, the meeting was dominated by the top stables in the country. They may be excellent ambassadors for the sport, but Skelton and Nicholls taking it in turns to win the major races is not necessarily good news for the sport. If Sheila Lewis had won the Paddy Power with Straw Fan Jack it would have made a better headline than Paul Nicholls winning it yet again.
At some point in the F.A. Cup this season a minnow will cause an upset by beating a top-tier side. It happens once-a-year but as with Maidstone United last season, they are not going to progress to the latter stages of the tournament. 
A 200/1 winner at Kelso or Fakenham, though, can breakthrough the racing enclosure and become general sporting news; the rank no-hoper defying form and odds to write its own bit of history in a sport with hundreds-of-years-worth of history. Of course, as with Maidstone United, none of these shock winners go one to achieve anything further of note but our sport can not only a newsworthy shock on a Monday but provide equine romance at its very summit.
Remember Norton’s Coin, the 100/1 winner of a Cheltenham Gold Cup that seemed destined to be Desert Orchid’s second victory in the race. The horse was trained by owner/farmer Sirrell Griffiths of Rwyth Farm, Nantgaredig, Carmarthen, Dyfed – yes, I looked it up – as far from the realms of sporting glamour as anyone could get. The old horse still resides there, under the front lawn, where, perhaps, Sirrell and his wife might want their bones laid. He shocked the racing and sporting world that day, defeating the nation’s favourite horse of all-time, yet no one said a word against him. The farmer from Wales had conquered the sporting world and he was revered and respected from that day forth.
I suspect it is circumstance brought about vested interest that is killing the romance. I do not apportion blame on those who presently dominate the sport. I dislike the manner in which, in Ireland, the famous four conducted themselves when the I.H.R.B. brought in sixty races restricted to trainers outside of the top four in hope of levelling the playing field by a degree or two and to keep as many trainers as possible from going broke. But the sport is suffering by the choice of owners to only patronise the select few trainers. Football has gone the same way, with the top few clubs signing the best young talent and leaving smaller clubs with inflated bank balances but a poverty of top-class players.
It is not like the Aintree National is there to supply a dose of romance once in a while, and when Aintree becomes the preserve of the top stables in Britain and Ireland, with exotic runners from the U.S. and France as likely as a permit trainer ever winning the race again, you know a shop window for the sport has been boarded-up. One of my heart-felt reasons for why I believe the changes to the race are not in the sport’s best interests.

​A thousand-years later and the winner of the 2024 Cesarewitch is finally declared and this time it is Alphonse Le Grand. The wheel turns and turns again and we are back where we started. How embarrassing! What a cock-up!
It has now been decided under appeal that the Whip Review Committee was wrong, undermining the whole whip review policy and that Jamie Powell, although he intended to strike his mount ten-times, four over the legal limit, the final strike, the one that should and did and then didn’t get the horse disqualified, was accidental as he missed where he intended to hit the horse and by chance brushed the skin of the horse in another part of its body altogether. It is not complicated at all, if you have all the angles covered.
If the Newmarket stewards had disqualified Alphonse Le Grand on the day of the race, connections could have fought their case on the Tuesday and perhaps, possibly, though perhaps not, won their appeal. Though then the connections of Manxman might have appealed and it would still have taken a thousand-years to know the winner.
Bollocks, do you not agree?
Perhaps a better way to have found the legitimate winner would to have had a run-off on the Tuesday, the two horses and jockeys taking part in a duel on the Heath as in the dark yet less complicated days of yore.
The only answer to stop this sort of affairs ever happening again in a major race is for there to be automatic disqualification when a jockey goes one stroke above the permitted six. If six is the golden number, any number of strokes above that will come with disqualification and disqualification on the day. Sean ‘the flat’ Bowen stayed within the whip rules, Jamie Powell did not. Which of those two jockeys deserves to have a Cesarewitch winner on their c.v.? Powell now must serve a 20-day ban for going over the permitted number of strokes by 3 and must pay a fine that is pretty hefty for an apprentice who until the Cesarewitch had all but been forgotten about.

In France, on Arc day, they had what was termed ‘the Arc Promise’ when connections of winning horses at the two-day meeting were asked or expected to donate a percentage of their winnings to Au-Dela Des Pistes, the French programme for the retraining of racehorses and those who simply deserve a long and happy retirement. They have the same ‘promise’ at the two-day Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris meeting. This one gesture this year contributed 15% of the total revenue for Au-Dela Des Pistes.
Why can France have such a scheme in place and yet our B.H.A. cannot set in motion a similar scheme in Britain?

A similar thought. There is to be, starting today at Cheltenham, the David Power Jockeys Cup, a championship for jockeys comprising every race televised by I.T.V. up until the second-day of the Grand National meeting. Quite why it does not incorporate National day itself is not explained. There is a staggering 1.5-million quid to be dolled out to the top ten jockeys, with money also going to the trainers of their winners and stable staff. Given the importance of horse welfare to the ‘social licence’, could they not have taken a leaf out of the French book and asked for a promised percentage from all participants to go towards the funding of aftercare and retraining of racehorses? Is it too much to ask owners, trainers and jockeys to contribute to the funding of such vital equine charities? If 1% of that 1.5-million were to be presented to R.o.R. or any of our worthy equine charities it would represent not only a noble gesture but would go a long way to secure the funding required to keep these charities going.

​Firstly, I want to be helpful. Secondly, I wanted to raise funds for equine charities by suggesting any owner using a name from my ever-expanding list of possible names should donate £25 to an equine charity of their choice. Thirdly, I want to encourage owners to give their horses half-decent names as horse racing is a serious business with no need for frivolity. 
Of course, as an owner of a horse in training he or she or ‘they’ when it comes to partnerships and syndicates have an absolute right to name a horse as suits them, if for no other reason than they are spending a huge amount of their hard-earned cash on the sport both you and I love. But do you really think Hashehadhisoatsyet is either a suitable or nice name for one of the Creator’s noblest of creatures?
To the horse, no name a human gives it will be regarded as appropriate, at least we should assume that is the case. It is possible that animals have no need for individual names and can engage with one another by means we, poor humans that we are, could never understand. We might simply give each horse a registration number, yet choose to give them names that reflect the names of their parents or village, town or monument important to their owner or simply use random letters to make a word that is pronounceable if nonsensical. And my preference may be alien to someone else.
The names of racehorses, to me, if no one else, is important, and anyway, no Derby winner has ever had a damn silly name and that should be enough reason for owners to give serious thought when they are applying for a name with Wetherbys.
What annoys me most is when the name of a famous horse from the past is reused. I hate this. Classic winners and other major race winners have their names die with them, as does Grand National, Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle winners. But not so Hennessey or Royal Ascot winners, for example. I have asked without success for a cherished list of names be endorsed by the B.H.A. to add to the names that are already given preserved status.
Horses with French or Arabic names annoy me, especially when English and French words are mashed together as in Illegal D’Ainey or Impact Du Bonheur. Then there are all the French names with the name of the breeders’ stud – Du Berlais, De Vassy, De Grugy, D’Oudairies and so on. As an ignoramus when it comes to understanding foreign languages and with a poor memory to boot, it makes trying to remember the names of winners of top races from the past almost impossible for me.
Then there are the Arabic names. Yes, Shadwell and Godolphin are to be thanked and honoured for their mighty contribution to British and Irish horse racing and I do not wish for one moment for them to be anything other than successful – but this is Britain, not their homeland. In Saudi or the other Gulf States, Arabic names would be appropriate but over here those same names are tongue-twisters. We do not need to know how Emmaadd translates but we should at least be able to pronounce the word. Hosaamn, Muqinal, and Elnajmm likewise.
I have just remembered, Rwenearlytheredad is another type of name I loathe. Embarrassingly for me, our greatest patron J.P. McManus is the worst perpetrator of the compound name that must be picked apart to be able to say the word correctly. 
The English language is vast, ever-expanding and with a rich history of words left in the wake of passing centuries. I would be the last to boast that all the names of my list would be acceptable. I would though be embarrassed if I have put up the name of a former famous horse, though I am pretty sure you would find the name Collector’s Item on the list and when my eye eventually falls upon it, it will be deleted.
Because of the similarity of so many of the names of horses imported from France, I would like to have those names translated to English, especially if those horses are yet to see a racecourse. But then perhaps this is just me being xenophobic equine-style. I just wish racehorses would be given nice, sensible names and not be the butt of some in-joke by a human with no imagination or respect for the racehorse.

​I am no fan of the B.H.A. or the muddled way British racing is governed. So, it should come as no surprise to anyone that I am bewildered that yet again the B.H.A. has looked outside of the sport for its chairman. At least the previous incumbent, or present incumbent as he is until his successor takes possession of his desk, Joe Saumaraz Smith had previous involvement with the sport. The new-to-be chairman, the Labour peer Lord Charles Allen, has as much cliff-face experience of horse racing as Ray Allen and his sidekick Lord Charles. You might want to Google that last side-swipe at the B.H.A.
What might prove beneficial to the sport in the appointment of Lord Charles Allen is that one of his many executive positions during his ‘stellar business career’ was as chief executive at the I.T.V. who holds the contract to televise British horse racing for the next few years. I am sure Ed Chamberlain will be championing Lord Allen over the coming few weeks. And, of course, as a Labour peer he might have influence with the government if the sport should need to defend itself in the face of governmental meddling.
What bemuses me is that anyone of influence should think that a sport as nuanced as horse racing would benefit from a part-time chairman with no hands-on experience of horses or the mechanics of the sport itself and will need at least six-months to a year to get a grip on the technicalities of a sport with 200-years of history. Would he know that there is a racecourse in Norfolk or that the Midlands National in run at Uttoxeter or that five-furlongs is the minimum distance for a flat race? And that is without having a clue about the more momentous issues within the sport that he will be expected to deal with.
At a moment in the history of the sport where the future is looking hazy at best, is it beneficial to have for the ‘bedding-in period’ someone in charge of the wheelhouse with limited knowledge of the history of the sport, the perilous position it presently finds itself and how to steer the mighty ship to the calmer waters of self-sustainability? As an advisor to a chairperson of the B.H.A. with experience of the sport, Lord Charles Allen or someone with his business record would be invaluable and doubtless worth his six-figure salary, and that is the way round it should be – the business expert advising the racing person. Unfortunately for the first six-months of his tenure, Lord Allen will be asking ‘why’ far more often than he will be making decisions. 

The Breeders’ Cup, apparently, is the exemplar of how a major race-meeting should be advertised and marketed. Personally, I think it is an overblown bun-fight for racing’s international elite, with the undertone as an exercise in making and selling potential stallions. The majority of the races are run on dirt, a surface alien to all European horses, always on left-handed tracks that are as flat as a pancake, which gives the Americans a big advantage. To Americans looking-in, it is right-up there with pumpkin pie as being quintessentially home-bred.
Selling the Breeders’ Cup to U.S. sports fans is easy-peasy compared to selling the Epsom Derby to people over here. The Breeders’ Cup is glitz and glamour, with eye-watering prize-money that would no doubt solve the homeless crisis in several American cities.
Perhaps the Epsom Derby, a race in decline, no matter that it remains the Holy Grail for British trainers and jockeys, would benefit from a televised draw for stalls and more exposure in the weeks before the actual race. But our big meetings, at least on the flat, are more social events for the well-heeled than considered a major sporting event, which, by the way, was exactly the same back in both the early and heydays of the sport. To the majority of viewers, whether the Derby favourite was drawn 1 or 10 would matter not a jot to anyone, unless they have had backed it ante-post, of course.
If Epsom and the B.H.A. want to resurrect the Derby, it needs to return to its traditional first Wednesday in June, with the Oaks and the Coronation Cup either on the same card or run on the Saturday if the bookmakers need to be appeased. 
The Breeders’ Cup comes at the end of the European season, whereas the Derby is run in the first few months of the season and comprises a field of horses with hardly any exposure to the racing public let alone the wider sporting viewer. You cannot sell something on the basis of what has come before; you cannot apply glitz and glamour to something that does not shine and there is very little shine to the Epsom Derby anymore as it is no longer the be and be all of the sport. In many ways, Epsom is outshined by Royal Ascot and all the summer festivals that come after it.
We should stop envying what other countries have and we do not and simply enjoy what we have and hope our enthusiasm will spread to others.