​Before 1924 there were only 3 races during the National Hunt season worth more than £1,000 to the winner. Bizarrely, and I do think the race should be reinstated, though not at Cheltenham, the most prestigious race of the whole season outside of the Grand National, even though that race stood head and shoulders as the zenith of the sport, was the National Hunt Chase, the race that gave its name to the National Hunt Festival at Cheltenham. It was a genuine 4-miler. It was an amateurs’ only race. It was for maidens. The other two thousand-pounders were the Lancashire Chase at Haydock and the Champion Chase at Aintree. After the inauguration of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, there remained only 3-races plus the Grand National worth more than £1,000 to the winner, as the first running of the Cheltenham Gold Cup was worth only £685 to the winner. Though back in 1924 you could buy a chip shop, a tenement freehold and a family car for £685 and still have money left over for a pair of boots and a week’s holiday at Clacton.
What the Cheltenham Gold Cup in its infancy was not, contrary to modern perception, was a trial or prep race for the Grand National. It may not have held the anticipation and prestige of the Gold Cup we have come to cherish but due to its proximity to the Aintree fixture most of the top horses were already primed and ready for their tilt at the Grand National. What is true is that jockeys, trainers and owners, would have given away both their children and their granny to win over the big-boy spruce fences at Aintree, whereas it took the best part of thirty-years for the Gold Cup to be seen as the Grand National’s equal and another ten before it became the holy grail of the jumps game.

Nick Luck’s good thing for Cheltenham is in the new and improved National Hunt Chase, Haiti Couleurs, trained by Rebecca Curtis. I like Nick Luck; he is a man unscared to nail his colours to the cross, although he does lack the imagination to suppose that any one of Constitution Hill, Jonbon and Galopin Des Champs can be beaten. One of them will be and the going will decide which one.

This will come across as churlish, which perhaps it is, and may be driven by my growing disappointment with Jockey Club Estates, owners, of course, of Cheltenham and Aintree racecourses. Instead of adding Michael O’Sullivan’s name to the Supreme Hurdle as a one-day memorial to the young man, a little more imagination and effort might have led them to a charitable fund in his name, open only for the 4-days of the Festival, with all donations going to an equestrian charity. Owners might have been asked to donate 1% of their prize-money to the fund, winning bets also. Michael loved his horses and a short-stay fund-raiser for Treo Eile, for example, would have been a more fitting tribute to Michael O’Sullivan.
In fact, on a more mercenary level, if Cheltenham raised funds on an annual basis for equine charities throughout the Festival, it would generate good publicity for the sport and raise the profile of the charities involved.

The Racing Post’s ‘Big Punting Survey’ has sort of proved what we have suspected all along – National Hunt is more popular than the Flat, with punters who took part in the survey showing a definite bias for the jumps. What the survey did categorically prove was that the concept of Premier Racing was having no favourable effect when it comes to punters and the sooner the B.H.A. accept that Premier Racing is a dead parrot, the better it will be for the sport.

​In today’s Racing Post it is Paul Nicholl’s turn to inform readers of his hopes and ‘good things’ for Cheltenham. Constitution Hill is ‘unbeatable’, apparently, as is Galopin Des Champs. No novelty there. He seems sweet on Jubilee Alpha in the Mares Hurdle and Kabral Du Mathan in the County. 

Horse PWR is being campaigned again, with glossy posters on the sides of buses in Bristol, London, Liverpool and Birmingham, as the sport once more tries to convince an apathetic public that we treat our horses like kings and queens, which is all perfectly true, though it is depressing such campaigns are needed. The problem is we are always playing catch-up, with a governing body that reacts to situations, rather than being pro-active in regions of the sport where criticism inevitably stems from. Aftercare is now being funded from within the industry but we have been so slow in finding the finance and constructing the I.T. infrastructure to identify where horses go after they leave licenced stables. Oh, and the financing of racing’s aftercare was not an idea that came from the B.H.A.. Mind you, if it were a B.H.A. initiative, the posters would be designed to address the public on why the whip is so integral to the success of racing.

Jack Kennedy is riding again and might well be passed fit to ride at Cheltenham. This is good news, of course. I do hope, though, that he moderates the number of rides he takes at Cheltenham and that Gordon Elliott gives plenty of chances to the jockeys who have so successfully deputised for Kennedy since the latest of his broken legs. Jack Kennedy is such a talented jockey that, as with Townend and Cobden, he takes the advice that he does not need to ride in every race and should be selective in his choice of rides. He has no need to prove himself. How many more bones can he break before the mind and body combine to insist that he stop for good?

Pedantry is a failing of mine. But. David Simcock has a horse running today called Sibling Rivelry. Unless the name carries some kind of significance for the owner, this sort of spelling error should be stamped out by the B.H.A. It can give the impression to outsiders that racing people are bordering on illiterate and that is not the impression that will win us new supporters. Riven means to split wood or stone. Rive is to wrench. Rivalry is thus so spelt correctly.

Writing in the Weekender, which I have quickly spun through – a good piece on Alan Brown and his association with Night Nurse, I can recommend, of which more is to come. In the opening article, Alistar Jones proposes that for Cheltenham five-day declarations should be considered. Though this would cause as much confusion as it would clarify, his overall point is valid. It does nothing for ante-post markets when, for instance, we are left in the dark as to whether Brighterdaysahead and Lossiemouth will run in the Champion Hurdle. Jockey bookings are also a factor that is left in the air until the last minutes before declaration in many instances.
In my opinion, though five-day declarations would not work, it should be a condition of a trainers’ licence that they are expected to act in accordance with the general policy of ‘always working for the benefit of the sport’, with a fine imposed if a trainer should knowingly confuse the public or the betting markets.

I witnessed the worst of Matt Chapman yesterday in his podcast with Paddy Brennan. ‘Unbridled’ cannot hold a candle to ‘The Road To Cheltenham’, with Lydia and Ruby, though at times it can be quite entertaining, while also being interlaced with juvenile banter and boorish behaviour. I must admit winding past Chapman’s opening abuse of Brennan for holding a different opinion to himself and his ‘look at me, look at the top connections I have’ regularly phoning on the hop both Michael Buckley and Nicky Henderson to get the latest news on Constitution Hill. This section of the programme must have gone for a quarter of an hour – as I said, I moved the programme on till I was sure Chapman had buried the bone and moved on to a different topic.
Constitution Hill may well end his career as the top-rated hurdler of all-time but he is not there yet. Night Nurse was rated182 at his height as a hurdler, a mark Constitution Hill is yet to achieve. On ratings Constitution Hill is not the greatest hurdler of all-time, Matt. And you worship at the altar of ratings. And thus far Constitution Hill has yet to achieve a performance to better his Supreme Hurdle victory. He has only won a single Champion Hurdle, whereas many horses won 3, several of them in the golden age of hurdlers, and all of his other graded victories have been walks in the park. And no amount of shouting and confrontational abuse of those with alternative opinions will ever win you the argument, Matt.

​David Jennings horse to back for the Festival is a bold and brave choice, Caldwell Potter, the horse seemingly anchored by the ridiculous price tag that will hang over him until the day he is retired. I believe the best is yet to come from Caldwell Potter and when he is upped to 3-miles+ we will see the revelation before our very eyes. He jumps and gallops and will end up winning staying handicap chases. I doubt, though, he will be winning the Golden Miller at Cheltenham.

My tip for the Golden Miller is Asian Master, though whether his tall thin jockey will be able to do the weight is another matter. Even if Willie Mulllins is forced to leg-up Paul Townend, I still think he will win. I like Fantastic Lady in the Ultima, there is a big race in her. Mambonumberfive for the Fred Winter. Katati Doti for the National Hunt 3-mile 6-furlonger. Supersundae in the Coral. Iceo Madrik as a punt in the Glenfarclas. Jazzy Matty in the Grand Annual. Will The Wise in the Pertemps. Jordans in the Plate. Resplendent Grey in the Kim Muir. Ethical Diamond in the County and Wodooh in the Martin Pipe.
If you cross that lot off your list of possible winners, I will have done you a great service. No need to thank me.

I wish the rules for Cheltenham were different for all other periods of the year, though for fairness and equality perhaps the run-up to Royal Ascot might also offer leniency to jockeys when they infringe the whip rules. As someone who believes ‘one hit and that’s it’ would benefit the sport in the long term, rules are rules and should be obeyed at all times, though it borders on cruel affliction to a top-flight jockey when they have to miss the whole of Cheltenham, as has happened to James Bowen, for going two over at a meeting far removed from the splendour of the Cheltenham Festival as can be imagined. I am not arguing the ban should not be served, I just think in the two-week period up to Cheltenham and Royal Ascot a jockey might be offered a choice. If the offence is deserving of a 4-day ban, for instance, the choice of 4-days covering the Festival should be offered or 8-days after Cheltenham.
Every opportunity should be given for our top jockeys to be available for the top two meetings in the British calendar. We all want the best horses competing, so why do we so easily accept when one of our top jockeys is denied the opportunity of competing.
What if, for example, it was not James Bowen who must sit out Cheltenham this year but Paul Townend or Nico de Boinville, Galopin Des Champs without Townend, Constitution Hill without Nico? Aidan without Ryan Moore at Royal Ascot. It is akin to Morecambe without Wise. Sooty without Sweep. Our top jockeys are always liable to injuries that keep them on the sidelines, so why add to the slings and arrows of misfortune that can hinder their careers with bans committed weeks in advance of the biggest four-days of their season? And Bowen’s ban may hurt him but it also adds to the workload of the trainers who were banking on employing him at Cheltenham and muddies the water for owners and punters, too.

The best news in today’s Racing Post is that from Saturday Shark Hanlon is back amongst the living. He has been dead to us for 3-months and he has now risen from his grave of inequity in time to saddle Hewick, good ground prevailing, in the Gold Cup and, crossed-fingers, good ground prevailing, in the Aintree National. His ban had woke written all over it and though he deserved a rap over the knuckles, to deprive him of his livelihood was a sleight to justice and those involved should hang their head in shame for bringing the sport into disrepute. A dead horse is real life. The same as when I had to drive home from the vets last week with a dead cat in a basket beside me. To pander to woke ideology is nothing short of madness taking hold in the community.

​It is that time of year again when virtually everyone in horse racing is focused on what will happen come March 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th. There is some superb racing at Kelso and Newbury this Saturday, yet as it will have very little bearing on the Cheltenham Festival there is a small element of ‘who cares’ about both meetings, and what is to follow during the next two-weeks.
Although I look forward with growing anticipation to Cheltenham and the wonders it beholds, and also, though less than in days gone by, to Aintree and its National, I am also keenly aware that the top flat jockeys are arriving back from their well-paid jaunts to the Far East and Australia with their tans and expectations of a fruitful summer. There is a myriad of big jumps races to come during the next two-months, starting with Cheltenham and finishing with Punchestown, yet increasingly the Racing Post will be turning its attention to Doncaster, the Lincoln and Guineas trials. And that fills me with dread. The flat only truly grabs my attention in May and June, from the Derby trials to Royal Ascot, after that it takes on, for me, a case of same old, same old.

Of course, now, as trainers and jockeys enter this period known as ‘squeaky-bum time’, firm commitments as to which races horses run in at Cheltenham becomes subject to what the weather and going will be come March 11th. Banbridge will almost certainly run in the Gold Cup, with Joseph O’Brien quite certain he will stay the distance, as long as the ground is not heavy or perhaps soft. So, he, Joseph, not the horse, will be going to church the next two Sundays asking his God to provide the Cheltenham area with climate-change type weather. If it is genuinely good ground come March 15th, Banbridge, and possibly Hewick, forget Hewick at your peril, are the only dangers to Galopin Des Champs completing his hat trick. The derivation of the word hat-trick comes from a conjuring trick which often involved three hats. So, the phrase perfectly fits the magic that Galopin has been performing this season and last season and the season before that.

In today’s Racing Post, in a feature on bookmaker’s great escape at the 2015 Cheltenham Festival, when Annie Power’s last flight fall saved bookmakers from a £10-million pay-out after the first three Mullins hotpots had all won, there is a photograph of Annie Power hitting the deck, Ruby still with his feet in the irons, no doubt praying to Jesus and suggesting he was in need of divine help, with the mare’s head buried between the ground and her neck. How she did not break her neck was miracle enough and it clearly demonstrates how much fate (or divine intervention) is so often the deciding factor in whether tragedy or thankfulness is the story of the day. Annie Power survived and went on to win the Champion Hurdle the following season, seemingly suffering less than the poor humans who held their breath, genuflected, even the atheists, relieved and feeling, if only momentarily, shamed for not believing in a deity as often scorned as praised in these days of Mammon.

I will try to remember to pass on ‘the Racing Post’s experts’ big tip for the Festival. Mark Holder gave his opinion yesterday but I cannot remember if he came down hard on any one horse. Patrick Mullins, though, has given us Ethical Diamond in the County Hurdle. He also describes Final Demand as their most straight-forward horse and cannot see him being beaten in the Supreme or is it the longer novice but not the Albert Bartlett. One of the most prestigious race meetings in the world and even as a life-long racing fan I still cannot remember the bloody titles of many of the races.

I have in my small yet too large for the bookshelves at my disposal racing library, ‘Tales of the Turf’ by Captain X., which I am currently re-reading. The book was published in 1940 and is based on memories of the sport between 1900 or thereabouts and the outbreak of Hitler’s madness. Why the author hid behind the alias ‘Captain X’, I cannot say, though towards the end of the book he – it must be a he as at that time women did not exist as far as jockeys, trainers and Jockey Club officials were concerned – tells a tale of when he was a jockey. If anyone is able to answer this small mystery, I would be grateful for the knowledge.

Finally, the Nicky Henderson employed Simone Meloni has won the Employee of the Year award, which makes for a great start to the ‘Cheltenham is everything period of the racing year.’ While we must congratulate Simone, and all the category winners, I do feel pity for those who turned up in all their finery and went away with only a full stomach and memories that will live with them for the rest of their lives. Given everyone who reached the final are as valued and dedicated as each other, would it not be fairer if everyone was awarded a prize, with a draw made for who should take home the trophy, the cash and the adulation of his or her peers?

​The phrase ‘we will only appreciate his worth when he is gone’ does not apply to J.P. McManus as everyone of us appreciate his worth to the sport. When he is gone, though, there will be a massive hole in this sport, with an innumerable number of people left without the lifeline that has been his patronage. I am not someone who enjoys dominance by any one jockey, trainer or owner. It was novel when Willie Mullins began his domination of the Festival, now I would give blood to see the spoils shared around this March. Yet, if J.P. won every race at Cheltenham this March I would applaud as loudly as anyone. He deserves every winner that comes his way, now and forever more.

Momentum for Dan Skelton’s call for the sport to come together to help horse racing not only survive its present ‘crisis’ but also to survive into the future is building. The B.H.A.’s acting chief executive Brant Dunshea has added his name in support of Dan’s concerns and proposals. Sadly, as we have come to expect from Jockey Club Estates, owner of Aintree, Cheltenham and Sandown, they have poured cold water on Dan’s suggestion that the season should send at Aintree, with a six-week period between The Festival and the National meeting. Jockey Club Estates are a disgrace to the sport for not even considering a proposal that I am sure will soon garner support from all other corners of horse racing.

Andrew Scott of Chatham, Kent – not the actor of the same name, I dare say – quite rightly, in my opinion, in a letter in today’s Racing Post, criticises the introduction of a £250,000 6-furlong 2-year-old race to the Champion Day meeting, proposing that the Royal Lodge, currently run at Newmarket, though formerly a feature race at Ascot, would have been a more fitting 2-year-old race for Champions Day given the industry incentive for more staying-type horses to be bred. Yet another example of the B.H.A.’s inability to join all the dots together.

What is the point of awarding customer excellence awards to fifteen racecourses if some of those racecourses are locked-out on most occasion from the failing yet accentuated premier programme. Namely, Chester, yet also Chelmsford, Doncaster, Hamilton, Kelso, Market Rasen and Perth. They might all feature once or twice on mainstream t.v.. for example, and though the Premier logo is hardly a badge worth having, they are very often obliged to race outside the ‘protected window’ of mid-afternoon.
On this note, I wonder if racecourses are missing out when forced to stage morning or late afternoon meetings. Why is not possible to run 3-races prior to the first televised premier race, allow their customers to watch the Premier races on a big screen, with other entertainments staged in the interlude, before resuming their own meeting once the televised premier races have finished?

Rachel King, the English-born, Australian jockey, has broken another of the glass ceilings for female jockeys by becoming the first female to win a Group 1 in Japan. A small achievement in the grand scheme of things but a great accolade to put on her c.v., even if, as all successful female jockeys will say, ‘I am a jockey like all the rest, not merely a female jockey.’

I take Rishi Persad for granted. Of course, I loathed him for championing Dancing Brave’s Arc victory as the greatest race in the sport’s history, and just because a cache of ignorant younger racing enthusiasts voted it so, it does not make it so. The 1973 Grand National should have been voted the greatest in the Racing Post poll. But that does not infer I disrespect him as a broadcaster. He is a safe pair of hands with a microphone, which is why he is always fully employed and not only when it comes to horse racing.
In today’s Racing Post, as a promotion and reminder for tonight’s industry awards, he wrote of his childhood days in Trinidad helping-out at his dad’s stud farm. He also expressed his admiration of all stable staff, which he came to fully appreciate when learning to ride for a charity race in which he managed to fall-off. Tonight, from the podium, he will express his thanks for the work that all industry staff undertake.
As I do now. 
As with J.P., without the wonderful people who work in all weathers, as much as on our behalf as to earn a living for themselves, we would all be bereft, and in my case, left hopelessly to drift into the unknown. I might even be forced to interact with other sad members of the Devon human race! God bless all industry workers, which coming from an atheist is hypocritical, even if it does come from the heart.

​For a good three-quarters of the big race at Kempton yesterday, I was a worried man. Whether Nico and Nicky were as worried is yet to be established. Hyland usually jumps like a bunny and likes to be at the head of affairs. Yet here he was jumping awkwardly, with, at best, only one horse behind him. The explanation, I decided, was that given Hyland’s novice status and lack of experience in big race fields and with the Grand National in mind, the plan was to drop him out and jump alongside other horses. If that was the plan, I was pretty sure it was not working. Then, of course, one by one he picked off all those in front of him, and on ground he dislikes – Nicky said he was good ground dependent – he finished with some sort of aplomb, though by the time winning began a small possibility, Katate Dori was long gone into the sunset.
Hyland gave Katate Dori a stone and 6lbs and I think in time that will prove a difficult task for any horse. The winner, albeit with a low weight, was impressive and while at halfway I was laughing at my own instincts for tying my Aintree hopes to the Hyland flagstaff, at the finish, given the weight difference, Hyland not liking the ground and the stout way he finished, my belief was restored and the Henderson candle still burnt brightly.
At Fairyhouse, Nick Rockett also became a live hope for Aintree, though in giving him 3Ibs, while he will receive 12Ibs from Nick Rockett at Aintree, my other serious Aintree prospect, Intense Raffles also proved himself well on course for the big race.

Richard Hughes, in today’s Racing Post, highlighted a lack of common-sense on behalf of the B.H.A. With Michael Halford retiring from training, one of his licenced apprentices, Donagh Murphy, decided to come to England in search of better opportunities of proving himself. Richard Hughes is impressed by the young man and had wanted to give him a first ride last week in one of many restricted riders meetings. Yet because of his previous employer no longer having a trainer’s licence, the B.H.A. have rules that mean young Murphy must go to the British Racing School and be tested for his riding ability and fitness and because of this it might be June or July before Hughes will able to use him as an apprentice jockey. Just seems a waste of everybody’s time when the lad has already passed similar tests when granted an Irish licence.

The Eider is one of my favourite races and because it does not have ‘National Trial’ in its title it is great race in its own right. Yesterday’s winner, Knockanore looked impressive and could go in again in something like the Scottish National. On the other hand, the Haydock ‘Grand National Trial’ Chase needs some work doing on the title. It is far from a trial for Aintree and it is unlikely it ever will be again. As Steve Simpson of Preston emphasised in his letter in today’s Racing Post, the winner this year, Famous Bridge, is 80th in line to get into this year’s race, which sums up the hopelessness of the race title. Of course, Royale Pagaille, who has now run two absolute stinkers at his ‘beloved’ Haydock will run at Aintree if his connections decide they want to. ‘Win and you are in races’ is the answer to this particular silliness.

After reading the feature on Dan Skelton in today’s Racing Post, I am firmly of the believe that what British racing needs, and I am not being sarcastic, is for Dan Skelton to become both chair and C.E.O. of British racing, and if he is unavailable to take up the position, the B.H.A. should look for someone of a similar mindset to Dan. He is one of the few people in our sport prepared to put his head above the parapet and float proposals and solutions to the problems that have beset British racing since the B.H.A. became impotent, content to be reactive rather than pro-active. Skelton is right, Aintree should be six-weeks after Cheltenham and be the final meeting of the season. He also right that owners should be treated with the importance their position in the sport demands. In fact, Dan is right on almost every topic he puts up for general debate.

​I will be 71 come the middle of April. How this has happened is beyond me as I was always confident that I would be dead long before I got old. But there it is. It is what it is. No going back now. The seventies were nice, though. Remember 1973?
I cannot say I regret nothing; I would do it all again. Because I regret nearly everything and wish I could do it all again, though better, obviously.
Horse racing has kept me sane and the only reason I am now still breathing is because of my fascination with the sport. I have had a few successes in my time, though not one of them has led to monetary gain or even a pat on the back. But you do not miss what you have never had. Except you do. I miss not being a millionaire, for instance.
Through letters published in first the Sporting Life, then the Racing Post and latterly through this website, I have advocated ideas that might improve the sport in one way or another. Most of my proposals have been ignored, with few to encourage replies from those who disagree with me or who support the brilliance of my mindset. Yet I plough on, relentless in my need to be heard.
Before Christmas I proposed in a letter in the letters column of the Racing Post that breeders should be liable in part for the aftercare of racehorses. Breeders breed to make money and yet once their foals, yearlings or store horses go through the ring and into the care of others, they play no further part in the future of the horses they, and they alone, bring into the world. I suggested a levy on the sale of all horses sold at auction and a month or so later three of our top auction houses brought in a scheme where both sellers and buyers give £6 towards the aftercare of racehorses. That is £12 per horse sold in a calendar year. When this was announced, unsurprisingly, I was not mentioned as the progenitor of the idea, yet I am proud to have made this small contribution to the care of horses.
When summer jumping came in, a stipulation was that no meeting should take place on ground worse than good-to-firm. I applauded the stipulation yet pointed out that for the rest of the year jump racing could take place on ground as hard as a road. Within a few weeks hard ground was banned, with good-to-firm the firmest ground allowed.
I am not always successful with my ideas. Some are too radical, I realise, if well-intended. I still advocate that the flat should start with a bang and not the whimper that has become tradition. Back in the heyday of the sport, the Lincoln Handicap was as big an event as the Grand National, with the Spring Double a bet to dream and scheme about throughout the winter. The Lincoln these days is just a handicap and I thought to dress it up into something akin to the Aintree National. My proposal was a 40-runner race, started from a barrier, as in the good old days. As with the National, the Lincoln would then reflect the way racing used to be, with the jeopardy of the start becoming the equivalent of Bechers Brook and the Canal Turn, the large number of runners reflecting the Chair or the first big open ditch.
I would like to see all-weather racing separated from the flat, with all-weather races not included in the flat jockeys’ championships, with the all-weather titles based on January through to December. I hate the present system of determining the champion flat jockey and would beg on bended knee to go back to the days when the championship started with the first flat race of the season and ended with the last race of the season, so that dogged determination would be considered equal to the privilege of having the best horses to choose from, trained by the top trainers.
For a time before even the divine Hayley Turner, I advocated races confined to females in an attempt at sexual equality. Organically this is now coming to pass, though I still advocate the British racing calendar should include the richest race in the world confined to professional female jockeys as this would catch the eye of the non-sporting media and sections of the public.
I also put the case for restricted rider races as I believe everyone involved in the sport deserves to be given a sporting chance of making a living at the sport. It was also an integrity matter as a jockey with a healthy lifestyle and healthy living standard is less likely to be corrupted than a jockey with outstanding debts. We now have weeks of restricted rider meetings, though it has taken a long time to get to this point.
My present radical idea, though I have yet to put into a letter to the Racing Post, is to embrace point-to-pointing as a sort of ‘conference league of jumping’, with every owner/trainer considered a permit-holder and allowed to go from one side of the sport to the other, with licenced trainers allowed to run horses in point-to-points. Both sides of the sport are languishing at the moment and if one can help the other, surely that can only be good for the sport.
To my mind, every idea, whether whacky or financially unachievable, should be debated as perhaps a grain of the original idea that might lead to revelation. To achieve healthy debate within the industry, though, first we must rid the sport of the B.H.A. and its chairs and C.E.O.’s with only a limited knowledge of the sport and replace it with an organisation led by someone with decades of hands-on experience within the sport and administered by people from within the sport.

​A quiet day, Thursday, 20th of February. In North Devon the weather is very much traditional February weather; wind and rain, with no respite forecast for several days. The weather was similarly wintry for the funeral of Michael O’Sullivan. Appropriate weather for such a sombre occasion, I would suggest. David Jennings attended the funeral, to both extend his condolences to a family so cruelly treated by fate and to give Racing Post readers an insight to an occasion that a week before no one could have imagined would feature on the front page of the industry newspaper.
As David Jennings wrote, ‘Ireland does a lot of things wrong, but we do funerals right.’ The newspaper is worth buying today if only for David Jennings report.
As an aside, how is it that in Ireland burials take place within a week of death, yet in Britain that period can be as long as 3-weeks? In Britain we do a lot wrong, funerals no exception.

Huw Irranca-Davis is the Welsh government’s deputy minister with responsibility for climate change and rural affairs. Firstly, Irranca would make a good name for a racehorse and I have added it to the list of possible names that in the fulness of time will appear on the dedicated page of this website that holds many thousands of possible names for thoroughbred owners to choose from if they are struggling to find a suitable name. It is a free service, though I ask anyone using a name from the list to donate £25 to any equine charity of their choice.
Back to business. As the minster responsible for climate change, he should be held responsible for his crimes against both nature and people. Climate change is a terrible thing and those, as with H.I.D., who are actively changing the climate for the worse should be apprehended, tarred and feathered and exiled to the melting ice-sheets of Antarctica. There should be no need of a trial as his job description, responsible for climate change, is enough to find him guilty as charged.
As for his undemocratic decision to take away the jobs of those employed in the greyhound racing industry in his country, to condemn to no life and little value all those greyhound puppies just born or that are still in their mother’s wombs, I would suggest the Welsh people should rise-up and march on the Welsh Assembly because after this undemocratic decision, taken to appease a noisy minority, what may come next is a ban on people keeping cats, dogs and rabbits as pets. That is the line of travel, my friends – it is thus written in the World Economic Forum’s ‘Great Reset’, the text of which is written across the heart of Sir Keir Starmer and is the unsaid doctrine of the Labour Party.

As anyone who occasionally visits this site will be aware, I know very little and have even less insight into what is going on. My wizard-like instinct, though, is telling me that Racheal Blackmore will retire either during this season or after Punchestown in May. It seems to me that there is a quiet changing of the guard at Henry de Bromhead’s at the moment, with Darragh O’Keeffe riding more of the horses, including the Robcour horses, than Rachael, with Mike O’Connor beginning to be given greater prominence. I may be wrong, I often am, and will be saddened if I am to be proved correct, but I predict we will soon be losing her from the jockey side of racing. 
With Bryony Frost now plying her trade in France, and if we are to lose Rachael too, there is no one to fill the void, no legacy for any female jockey to grab hold of. The era of female jockeys winning Grade I races may be over.

The headline ‘Winter Derby springboard to Bahrain target for Gosden’s Military Academy’ in today’s Racing Post annoyed me. It is only February; we are 3-weeks away from the Cheltenham Festival and races in Bahrain that will escape most of our memories by the end of April warrant a ‘trial race’ in this country. Not that the Winter Derby was originated as a trial for races in a foreign field, and, actually, the Winter Derby annoys me, given how it is given prominence at a time of the year set aside for National Hunt to be the main dish! Flat racing hogs the headlines and the t.v cameras from April to November, is that not enough or is the plan to begin that coverage earlier and no doubt continue longer?

​Today’s Racing Post reflects the sad times we are experiencing in our sport. Yesterday, Neptune Collonges led the cortege at the funeral of John Hales. The gallant grey represented not only John Hales’ greatest moment in the sport but his love of horses in general. It reflects great credit on the man himself, as well as his family, that people as busy as Paul Nicholls and Clifford Baker were both in attendance, as were Dan Skelton and Oil Murphy, as well as Sir Alex Ferguson and Ged Mason.
A great and good man who will both long-missed and long-remembered.
And, of course, the sport continues to mourn the loss of Michael O’Sullivan, whose funeral is also this week, I believe. Today there were touching tributes from the sport’s greatest amateurs, Patrick Mullins and Derek O’Connor. As Patrick expressed in his opening sentence, he wrote out of duty, wishing he did not have to write at all. In his piece, Patrick revealed, it was a revelation to me, anyway (I dare say the better informed were already informed) that he is father to a four-month-old, whether it is a boy or a child he did not enlighten. This week he has seen at first-hand the growing of new life and the taking away of life cut short.
Derek O’Connor, writing in the Irish point-to-point section of today’s paper, highlighted not only O’Sullivan’s talent in the saddle but his prowess as a human being, his kind nature, his willingness to learn and his calm demeanour. It seems no one in the whole of Ireland has a bad word to say about the young man, which, for his family, is the testament they must hold dear to in this hardest of all-weeks for them.
It is not only individuals passing on their thoughts and memories of O’Sullivan. The final page of today’s Racing Post was bought by Coolmore, not to promote their stallions, but to pass on their condolences to the O’Sullivan family and friends. It was a reaching out that showed the kind-heart that the majority or racing people are blessed with.
And, of course, we also lost Joe Saumarez Smith this week, a man the sport could ill-afford to lose.

With the exception of the Ultima, the handicaps at Cheltenham have held up, with a few of them numerically superior to last year. Pleasingly, for someone who advocated the old 4-miler, now the 3-mile 6-furlonger, should be open to professional riders, though I did not advocate it being a handicap, and entries have soared which should provide a more competitive race than for many a long year.

The European Pattern Committee have upgraded the City of York Stakes to Group 1 status, as well as the Long Distance Cup on Champions Day at Ascot. There is also a new Group 1 in France. As if flat racing needed more Group 1’s. Less Group 1’s is what is required to ensure these races are competitive and not merely laps of honour for the one true Group 1 horse that usually takes part. No mention in the article was made of downgrading any Group 1’s to Group 2’s, either.
What also amazed me was that in times of financial hardship a new 2-year-old race is to be included on Champions Day, worth £250,000. All this will do, mark my words, is make existing Group 1’s at the end of the season less competitive and make one of the top stables, no doubt Ballydoyle, ever more-wealthy. As always, flat racing looks after the rich, while allowing the rank and file to feed off crumbs. Wrong impression, old boy, is my thinking on the matter.

The ignorant Welsh Government, Labour, of course, is to ban greyhound racing in Wales. With only one greyhound track in Wales this is more political gesturing than concern for the welfare of greyhounds or even the people who earn their living from the sport, but it does represent the slow creep towards the extinction of all sports involving animals. What next, the forced closure of Welsh racecourses? A ban on keeping horses for the pleasure they provide? A ban on Pony Clubs? A ban on dog agility classes. A ban on using dogs in mountain rescue?

​I am not suggesting that Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan is any way attempting to incrementally take over the world of sport. After all, as far I am aware, he is yet to show any interest in darts, canoeing or slalom skiing, what right-minded billionaire would. But he does own within a consortium a dozen or so top-flight football clubs around the world, including Manchester City, as well as over 900 Arabian horses, a department of horse racing in which he is a leading owner and breeder.
Now, which I dare say is good news for the world of thoroughbreds, he has purchased Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard, one of the great studs in France. His plan is to buy a cache of top-quality broodmares, breed them to the best stallions, in order to have his own stallions in the future. To make his own stallions, of course, he will have to race the prodigy of his broodmare band and I would imagine, as he is basing his breeding interests in France, that it will be French trainers who will benefit from his involvement in the sport.
I must admit to having no love of Manchester City football club, though, mainly because of the top English players who wear the faded blue and white, I do follow with interest their ladies team. As with Man City, the Sheikh will buy his way to the top, which rather alienates me from him. My preference, and my allegiance, always goes to the small man/woman who starts with nothing but hope and achieves success through hard graft. One must not be mean-hearted, though. The Sheikh’s involvement in flat racing, even if it is French racing that will be the beneficiaries of his largesse, can only be good for a sport desperately in need of investment and big-time players to take the place of the even bigger names we have lost over the past few years.

The one Arab owner the sport can do without is Prince Sultan bin Mishal Al Saud who owes Richard Hannon £320,000 in training fees and who has been placed on the Forfeit list, meaning he cannot have a horse run in this country until he has settled his debt. How anyone, even a trainer as successful as Richard Hannon, can be expected to run a business, to pay his staff and the many overheads concerned with the maintenance of a large stable these days, when someone seemingly expects the four-horses lodged at Herridge Stables to be trained for free, is a matter Wetherbys and the B.H.A. need to answer. 
Owners, I believe, should pay their training fees through Wetherbys and when it is noted that an owner is falling behind with his financial commitments, he or she should be moved to the forfeit list until the debt is cleared. This may muddy the waters for some trainers who perhaps have a more flexible finance plan with certain owners, but it is a fact that we do not live in a land of plenty and no trainer should be placed in a position when he or she is sustaining the owning interests of an owner who is not playing with a straight bat.

This website has been in operation since 2018, I believe. Yes, I should know, and yes, I should look it up. I am old, though, with a memory shaped and functioning like a sieve and as Homer Simpson once said – when I learn some new stuff, some of the old stuff just falls out. I will look-up the history of this self-righteous and self-opinionated website and I will get back to you. Just do not wait up, though, as I am as forgetful as a goldfish.
Anyway, to get to the point. In the history of this website, I have written many hundreds of articles or essays or whatever you might want to describe the pieces you can now find almost a daily basis and by a huge margin – actually, if you add together all the contacts I have received on topics other than Edward Courages’ greatest horse, the number would fall well short of the contacts I have received about Spanish Steps.
If you have not heard of Spanish Steps – and not the 3-year-old that came of Ballydoyle a few seasons back. Boy, did that get my back up! – shame on you! Look him up. He raced from the 1966-67-season till the Grand National of the 1975/76 season and won the Hennessey Gold Cup in 1969. He also ran in the 1973 Grand National, finishing fourth, yet inside the all-time course record and the greatest horse race of my lifetime.
I still receive e-mails about him. Only yesterday I receive an e-mail from the son of the man who used to ride for Edward Courage and who then broke-in Spanish Steps.
One fact that tells a story within itself and which many might not know is that Jack Morgan, long-time head-lad to Edward Courage and ostensibly trainer of the Courage horses, choose to be buried next to Spanish Steps, such was his love of the horse. 
If you would like to research the horse, try finding a copy of Michael Tanner’s book ‘My Friend Spanish Steps’. Do not ask to borrow my copy as it is a treasure I intend to have buried alongside me. I cannot have the honour of being beside my all-time equine hero for eternity but I will have his life-story.