a quick run-through today's racing post. Friday June 1oth.

​The B.H.A.’s decision to back-track on its proposal to cut 300-races from the race calendar for 2023 is not well-received by most people, it seems. Ralph Beckett, president of the National Trainers Federation is miffed to boiling point on the matter, and from what I’ve heard, when Mr. Beckett is miffed about something everyone gets to hear about it. I just wish that racing people would say what they really think and follow Mr. Beckett’s lead.
As Bill Barber wrote ‘British racing’s structure is not fit for purpose but this row raises more concerns.’
It seems there will no Trueshan in the Ascot Gold Cup next week as the weather forecast is favouring Stradivarius and not Alan King’s soft loving superstar.
The sequel to Lee Mottershead quite enchanting interview with Johnny Tolton, groom to the Derby winner Nimbus, is that with the sort of forethought lacking at the B.H.A., the Jockey Club surprised him with a silver plate and a set of glass tankards if lieu of receiving sweet F.A. back in 1949.
Chris Cook wrote a fine defence of Rob Hornby in his Friday Column. Cook will be chuffed to know that I am warming to him. Apparently, armchair jockeys have had the temerity to criticise Hornby for the way he rode Westover in the Derby. It was plain to see from I.T.V.’s overhead camera that Hornby got unlucky, whereas Richard Kingscott had a dream run from Tattenham Corner to the finishing line. Hornby will hopefully get compensation, and the last laugh, come the Irish Derby and Doncaster St.Leger.
Why is it that you can like someone even though you have not met them? For whatever reason I like Hughie Morrison, especially when he speaks his mind in an appeals panel hearing. He thought Ray Dawson’s riding was dangerous at York recently, as did Ed Walker, and sought to have the result of the Bronte Cup overturned. They failed to convince the panel who believed Dawson’s eight-day suspension was punishment enough. I doubt if the young rider will be employed by either Morrison and Walker in the near-future.
The story-line that should have been given greater prominence was the outbreak of equine herpes at the stable of Dr. Richard Newland. The trainer – is there any need for Racing Post journalists to keep reminding us that Dr. Newland is a Grand National winning trainer – was quite rightly praised by the B.H.A. for his promptness in informing them of the disease in one of his horses, allowing them to inform other trainers of this potentially major contagion so everyone can be on look-out for further cases.
Two horses with the same name, Sierra Nevada, could run in the same race at Gowran Park on Sunday. One was named in the U.S., the other in Ireland. Surely Horse Racing Ireland should have noticed the duplicity of names, even if one is a three-year-old and the other a four-year-old, and, whichever horse was the last to race, had its name altered, if only to Sierra’s Nevada. Don’t get me started on horse’s names as I have the potential to bore you to death on the subject. Heads up, I have an entire page dedicated to potential names for racehorses that owners can chose from if they are stuck for inspiration. No charge, just a small donation to a racehorse rehabilitation charity.
Two lady jockeys worthy of praise. I was really made-up for Josephine Gordon winning a £30,000 race at Newbury, and for my new favourite flat trainer, Hughie Morrison, too. It is too much to expect she will keep the ride on Stay Alert for the rest of the season, especially if the filly lines up in the Doncaster St. Leger, as the owners hope. But at least Josephine achieved a day in the sun after such a long barren period since her last good win back in 2019. It just goes to show that if you keep on going to the coal-face you will be rewarded for your pluck at some point in your career.
The only female jockey worthy of being lauded is Gina Andrews, sister of the presently injured Bridget, who is undoubtedly the best female point-to-point rider of her generation and who won the title this season with 48-winners from 120 rides, suffering only 1 fall and was neither unseated nor brought-down. Perversely, the horse that fell with her was Latenightpass, the horse she won the Aintree Foxhunters on. You couldn’t make it up, could you?
Oh, and if you are wondering where Holly Doyle has got to, she, being the international jockey she is, is in the U.S. to ride Outbox for her boss Archie Watson in the Belmont Gold Cup at Belmont Park. The race, a Grade 2, is worth a cool £162, 962 to the winner. Hubbie Tom Marquand used to be the international jockey in the relationship, now he is not quite so much.