​I believe, with one notable exception, that the problems presently besetting horse racing in Britain at present can be traced back to the day a High Court judge came to the conclusion that the owners of racecourses were disadvantaged by not being able to race when it suited them and from that moment the B.H.A. lost control of the sport. In the past, the sport’s governing body, ruled the roost, telling racecourses when they could race and which type of races they should provide.
Sensible racing people advocate for less racing, whereas the owners of racecourses want to saturate the racing calendar with more and more fixtures. At least that was the case; they have been reined in over the last few years, although Chelmsford is proposing litigation against the B.H.A. if they are not given more race-meetings. In the next year or so the new turf course at Chelmsford comes into action and quite rightly they want additional fixtures rather than having to use fixtures presently allocated to them for all-weather racing.
If we didn’t have all-weather racing or summer jumping, of course, the problem of too many fixtures for too few racehorses would not be the stranglehold that it is. All-weather racing, to my mind, is an evil necessity and I would like to separate all-weather racing, and summer jumping, from turf fixtures.
To first deal with summer jumping as that is far less of an obstacle to be overcome than all-weather racing. I have come to the conclusion that summer jumping should have a designated start and stop date, with a gap of a few weeks either side of the end of the ‘proper’ season and the beginning of the next, with winners in the designated period not included in title races for champion jockey, trainer, owner, etc,. Instead, we should have a summer champion jockey, trainer, owner, etc. I would also like to see fixtures given an environmental slant, with race-meetings in the north and Scotland one week, with two and three-day fixtures to create ‘festivals’ as is done so successfully in Ireland, with the same happening in the south, midlands and the west of the country. Wouldn’t it save on travelling expenses if jockeys and trainers did not have to drive to three or four different racecourses a week but located themselves in one part of the country for the duration of the race-meetings in that part of the country?
I suggest summer all-weather racing should also be excluded from the title race for champion jockey, trainer, etc. The greatest gain from such a radical change would be less incentive for the top jockeys to ride every day of the week, allowing those jockeys further down the food chain to have greater opportunities. Again, once the flat turf season is under way, all-weather racing would have its own summer championships; spreading the glory, as it were.
All-weather flat racing is less of an evil necessity to my mind as it regularly saves the day when winter weather claims National Hunt fixtures. Already it has its own title races, though the victors rarely receive the same acclaim for their hard endeavours throughout the worst of the British weather as, for example, the champion jockey on the turf.
Sidenote: Rossa Ryan rode over 200-winners in 2023, more than any other jockey, including William Buick, yet received no award, no acclaim. 
There is, at this moment in our history when the number of racehorses in training is in sharp decline, too many fixtures. It is unarguable, even when an increase in prize-money is linked to racecourse payments for media rights. It is a no-brainer, as proved when the weather takes it toll on the fixture-list, that too many race-meetings equates to small field sizes and less betting turnover.
‘Premierizing’ the sport may achieve champagne fountains of success. Yet it flies in the face of common-sense when the B.H.A. allow other race-meetings on the major days of the sport – the Derby, Grand National, Royal Ascot, Cheltenham Gold Cup, to name but a few – when their aim is to emphasise and herald to the sporting public the jewels of racing’s crown.
Separate the flat and National Hunt turf seasons from the lesser all-weather and summer jumping divisions and grow the sport from the bottom up, not from the exclusivity of the elite down. Sadly, I doubt if the sport has the luxury of time to get its house in order. In two-years, I fear, the length of the ‘premierisation trial’, we might all come to realise the fate of horse racing in this country.

​I have on my desk, in need of being replaced by an up-to-date edition, is a copy of 2018 ‘Horses In Training’. So many good, bad and ugly things have happened to horse racing in this country since 2018 but a constant source of pride and joy has been Frodon. There he is listed as a 6-year-old in Paul Nicholl’s squad for the 2018 season and also on the list is Pacha Du Polder, by then an 11-year-old, the horse that first brought Miss Bryony Frost, as she was then, to prominence when winning the Foxhunters at the Cheltenham Festival. 
I stand to be corrected but of the 156 horses listed under Paul Nicholl’s name in 2018, Frodon, Dolos, Enrilo and Greanateen are the only ones to still be stabled at Ditcheat in 2024, though a good many are still racing for other trainers.
It is to be doubted when Frodon first arrived from France that Paul Nicholls’ had great expectations of him and I would put a tenner on Nicholl’s not believing he would still be living at Ditcheat all these years later. He arrived not as a six-year-old but two-years earlier, so he has lived and earned his keep at Ditcheat for going-on 9-years.
He cannot, as much as I have grown to love him – I nearly voted for him in the Racing Post’s dubious ‘Greatest Racehorses Poll, deciding in the end to go with my first love, Spanish Steps – to be regarded in the same breath as Kauto Star, Denman, Big Bucks or several other true greats of National Hunt racing who raced under the Paul Nicholls’ banner. He ploughed his own furrow, though, shining bright during a slow period in the career of his maestro trainer. Kauto and Denman in particular were always destined for top honours and though they won handicaps, they were always a grade or two above the rank and file. Frodon came from a lesser parish. He toiled in handicaps from the start, working his way through the grades until he was winning December Gold Cups and other top-level middle-distance handicaps. That, I am sure, is where Paul Nicholls’ thought his rise through the ranks would end. Of course, Frodon never doubted his own ability.
He retires with 19-victories, which for the modern era is remarkable. His win in the Ryanair remains my favourite of his big race successes, though in the record books it will be eclipsed by his King George success when he had his better-rated stable-mates Clan Des Obeaux and Cyrname toiling in his wake. His third Grade 1 was achieved at Down Royal when his exuberant jumping didn’t win the day and he had to rely on courage and determination not to be headed.
John Francome named him the best jumper of a fence he had ever seen and I can’t remember, at least with Bryony, him ever making a mistake of any kind. I have said that anyone of the belief that racing people make horses race against their will should be placed in front of a film of Frodon running in any of the 50-odd races he competed in and point to evidence for their belief. He loved racing and most of all he loved jumping fences, hence when they took out half the fences in the Old Roan Chase at Aintree, as Bryony said, he became confused and disinterested.
It will not be lost on Bryony that Frodon is the last of horses in the yard that we all considered were her mounts, horses that Harry Cobden had no rights to. Present Man was her ride, so was Secret Investor and Yala Enki, and it must be remembered she won a Tingle Creek on Greanateen. I hope she keeps the ride on Il Ridoto after her performance at Cheltenham recently on him and for the benefit of the sport I hope other horses emerge to help keep her name in the spotlight.
My hope for 2024, and will be on-going for the years ahead, is that Frodon out-lives me and enjoys a happy and useful life, continuing to bring joy to Bryony’s life and to the lives of her family.