​The untimely death of Michael O’Sullivan will weigh heavy on the sport for weeks and months to come. No one should lose their life in pursuit of our enjoyment, should they? Yes, we did not ask him to face the perils of steeplechasing on a daily basis; he did what he did for no other reason than he could not imagine his life differently.  24; his whole life ahead of him. Sad does not do justice to the heartbreak of someone so young, with so much to look forward to, having his life taken so cruelly from him.
At my more advanced age, reading the tributes and memorials, there seems something unseen and indescribably savage about someone ‘passing’ at an age years short of ‘at the prime of his life’. As someone who has never willingly faced the consequences of danger, I can have no concept of what it takes day-to-day to go out between the white rails to face danger as if it were no more scary than singing karaoke sober. As mere spectators or rash punters, we may laugh or swear when a jockey is unseated but for the families of the men and women in silks the heart missing a beat and for the religious a quick prayer must be uttered from silent mouths until the loved-one rises, limbs intact, his life spared for another day, another ride.
As a mere spectator, I owe these men and women of the weighing room a debt I cannot possibly hope to repay.
May Michael O’Sullivan rest at peace, his ambitions are no doubt unfulfilled, but he has achieved something in life so many of us fail to achieve, the respect and admiration of his peers.

Life goes on, of course. I was not intending to post anything today. I thought the day too overburdened by the death of Michael O’Sullivan and I considered myself unworthy to add my two pennyworth to the tributes from people who knew him, who worked alongside him. But though I may be one of the ‘one of us’, a lowly and unknown member of the tribe, and O’Sullivan truly in the upper echelon of the tribe, we were of the same tribe and to have ignored his passing would have seen me in the light of someone who did not care about the sacrifice he has ultimately made to the great theatre of our sport. But the announcement of his death struck me quite hard and yesterday, today and no doubt tomorrow, his death hangs at my shoulder.

Reading about him in the Racing Post this morning, I was struck by the coincidence that as an amateur Michael O’Sullivan had won a race at Cork run in the name of Jack Tyner, the last jockey in Ireland to have died as a direct result of injuries caused by a fall at a racecourse.

When I wrote ‘life goes on, of course’ a few paragraphs ago, I was intending to move on to a second subject. That I wrote on about Michael O’Sullivan is evidence that he his death has a strong influence over my thoughts.
But anyway, life goes on. Pleased to read in the Racing Post today that Nicky Henderson is seriously looking at running Hyland in the Aintree National. He needs fifteen to come out to get a run and it is reasonable to think that more than that number will be scratched before the big day. Despite what I wrote only last Wednesday that I was keen on Intense Raffles for the National, my instincts are now screaming Hyland, Hyland, Hyland. With Nicky Henderson’s record in the National being close to abysmal, it might be taking a wild punt to hoist my colours to one of his horses, yet on the other hand the man thus far has been far too successful in his career to not have an Aintree National included on his c.v. I just hope Nico can do the weight.

​There was something comforting seeing Paul Nicholls interviewed after a race rather than before which has been his plight for the greater part of the season. This was a race Pic D-Orhy on all known form should have won, yet in doing so in his customary style he returned sunshine to the face of his trainer. Sometimes Grade 1’s can be unenlightening, which was the case with yesterday’s Ascot Chase. Pic D’Orhy is obviously a Grade 1 horse over 2-mile 4-furlong+, yet we will never know his true mark as Nicholls never allows him to stray from the set plan. Would he stay 3-miles? Is he a small-field bully? We shall never know. Nice, though, to see Cobden and Nicholls smiling in unison. I suspect Pic D’Orhy has started the ball rolling and by Aintree, Nicholls might be one Aintree National winner away from a 15th trainers’ title.

Yesterday was a topsy-turvy day for Venetia Williams. L’Homme Presse jumped uncharacteristically poorly and was wisely pulled-up early in the race. I am firmly of the belief that the horse has a dislike for right-handed racecourses, perhaps as it puts pressure on an undiagnosed weakness or discomfort. He jumped similarly at Kempton the day he unshipped Charlie Deutsch at the last fence in the King George and though not as distinct, he jumped forever right when third in the same race this season. I will forgive him his lapse, though it is a worry I will take to Aintree if he were to line-up for the National.
Royale Pagaille again ran poorly at his ‘beloved’ Haydock, seemingly cruising into the final bend yet labouring when he hitting the straight. Perhaps the horse is in need of a wind-op. If so, there is still time between now and Aintree, if not to have him right for the Gold Cup.
Yet the day was certainly not a complete disaster for Venetia as Victtorino won the battle against Threeunderthrufive in the valuable handicap chase, though the runner-up gained the greater number of plaudits and the noble defeat might mind owner and trainer to take their chance at Aintree.

In the same race, my favourite horse in training at the present time, Goshen, ran an honourable race back over fences, jumping, apart from one blunder, as well as I have ever seen him, finishing a running-on fifth or sixth and looking like he might appreciate a step up in distance. Would the Moores’ consider running the horse in the Scottish National if the ground were soft? I thought David Noonan gave him a wonderfully sympathetic yet daring ride, always on the inner, always trying to save ground and stamina.

It was pleasing to see Golden Ace back to winning ways at Wincanton, even if she beat Burdett Road, a horse I refuse to believe is a no-hoper for the Champion Hurdle. The problem trainer Jeremy Scott and owner Ian Gosden now have is choosing between the Champion Hurdle and the Mares Hurdle, between Constitution Hill and, hopefully, Brighterdaysahead and Lossiemouth, or, if they take the ‘easier’ option, the latter two, though hopefully not, in the lesser race. Even if the two Irish mares run in the Champion Hurdle, I hope the views of the owner prevail and they go for placed-money glory in the Champion Hurdle. The owner already has a festival rosette to his name; when will he ever again have a horse good enough to have a crack at one of racing’s blue riband events?  Glory goes to the brave, occasionally.

At last, the Racing Post has given prominence to the career of Bryony Frost in France. Yesterday, the first day of the new Auteuil season, Bryony, in the double green silks, won on a 4-year-old bearing the name The Workaholic, a description that would do justice to his rider.
My moaning attitude on this subject, though, does not wholly revolve around Bryony. It is about the prominence of French-bred horses in British and Irish racing and the other British-born jockeys plying their trade in France. I believe it is wrong that the French flat season is reported in the Racing Post while the French jumps scene is largely ignored. I may be alone in my disinterest in flat racing in Hong Kong, Australia and the Far East, yet I would contend during the winter and spring months of the season in Britain and Ireland, French jumps racing is of greater relevance to our sport than what goes on in racing jurisdictions in other parts of the world.

​To David Jennings, great bloke that you are. Jockey Club Estates took little notice of J.P. McManus when he made recommendations to help improve the competitiveness of Cheltenham Handicaps, so why do you think they will take any notice of your equally well-intentioned and worthy of debate proposals to take the boring out of the run-up to Aintree? Jockey Club Estates know best, do you not know that? And the rest of us should remember our place in the hierarchy of life.
In his column in the Racing Post today, David Jennings proposed that horses should have to finish in the top 3 in designated big-race staying handicaps or in the first three in a Grade 1 chase to be eligible to be entered in the Aintree National. If only to improve the narrative of the season, I think D.J.’s proposal is worthy of discussion. He examples Intense Ruffles, my main hope for the race this season, who has only seen the racecourse twice since winning the Irish National, running down the field in two handicap hurdles to protect his steeplechase rating. A horse being trained for one race and one race only.
If I were a betting man, how can I know in what sort of fettle the horse is in to trust having a fistful of money on him ante-post when he has so far run in two races he could not be expected to be competitive in?
The Aintree National is not the race of history, yet it remains the only horse race in this country that comes anywhere close to ‘stopping the nation’. In fact, following the Cheltenham Festival, it can have an air of ‘after the Lord’s Mayor’s show about it’. Aintree have done their utmost to ruin the appeal and status of the race, as well as ignoring its history; they need help to reduce the risk of the race going down the swanee altogether. 
I prefer the idea, or as an addition to D.J.’s proposal, of ‘win and you are in races’, winners of races like the Scottish, Irish, Welsh and Midlands Nationals, the old Hennessey, Becher, Eider and Great Yorkshire Chases, with previous winners of the National allowed to run for 2-years after their National success no matter their mark. What the National needs is the right horses running in the race, horses, in general, in form the season of the race, not horses at the top of the handicap that have not won a race for twelve-months or more and with more letters before their name than numbers.

The madness of the gambling commission might be better alleviated if instead of bemoaning the ignorance of those who believe gambling is the work of the devil, Racing Post journalists invited the opposition to lunch to discuss the matter, to fill-in the gaps in the bemoaners ignorance of the subject. It would also make a good story for the paper.

Eric McNamara has been fined 6,000 of those funny Euros, his son Conor banned for 40-days, by the Clonmel stewards over the running and riding of Mount Ferns in a novice handicap chase. Son Conor, the jockey, said in his defence the horse was hanging badly and he could not take his hands off the reins fearing the horse might run off the course. I have not seen the race and have no view of the legitimacy of the punishments. The McNamaras intend to appeal, which they should do if they believe themselves innocent. What is unfair, in my opinion, in every such incident as this, is why the horse gets banned from racing for 90-days. Was Mount Ferns integral in the dastardly deed; did he call the trainer to his stable one evening to whisper in his ear that ‘an easy race might prove beneficial to himself and his connections?’ Yes, the concept of the long ban is to prevent connections from profiting by ‘pulling the horse’ and thereby getting a better price next time it runs. Yet the jockey only received a 20-day ban. So why does the horse get excluded for 90-days?
If Mount Ferns is a soft-ground horse, a 90-day ban beginning in February could easily be a 6-month rest-period or longer. A period of time that might also exclude the owner or owners of the horse from the racecourse.
A 90-day ban, I suggest, makes sure the stewards cannot be proved wrong in their assessment of the ride given to the horse by the jockey. If Mount Ferns were to run three times in say, for arguments sake, the next 90-days. and proves no better than his placing at Clonmel, then they will be proved wrong and the McNamaras would have been subjected to defamation of their characters. They might sue and the Clonmel stewards would not have a leg to hang their defence.

​My initial thought when reading in today’s Racing Post that a 3-year strategic plan is in place to encourage more people to see horse racing as a career and to then keep those people in employment within the industry for the long-term, was ‘about time the industry coordinated around a scheme to stop this issue becoming ever-more critical to the survival of the sport. No good-quality staff equals no racing. Plain fact.
I do not accord with Dan Skelton that the owner is the most important cog in the racing wheel, they are though as equally important as stable staff, jockeys, trainers, farriers, etc etc. Everyone who works in the industry is as important as each other and everyone must do what they can to take the sport forward.
I can easily come up with an aspect of the sport that would encourage retention of stable staff – less evening racing, especially through the winter months. I am not suggesting no evening racing, though I would argue that having staff, and, also importantly, horses, working through a time of the day when throughout history, going back to the stone age, darkness equalled rest, can only be detrimental to the health and welfare of both human and horse. Circadian cycles of biological activity, and all that jazz.
I would also argue that if trainers were limited to x-number of horses, the number of experienced staff in the industry would then better fit the number of licenced trainers and therefore would cut the work-load of every stable in the country. We do not operate in a land of plenty, and the B.H.A. should recognise that reality and act accordingly. It is not about punishing the successful but doing what is right for the health of the sport and the well-being of those who work day and night to earn a living from the industry.
My second suggestion to the problem, which is now better addressed with the success of the racing schools, is for trainers to train newcomers to their payroll, or at least have a senior member of staff assigned to the task, rather than just throw them in at the deep-end, hoping one or two will learn to swim. Working with horses is a skilled job, but it does not take either abnormal intelligence or a great intellect to master. Just good quality training and advice.

My little head swells with pride when I hear someone with far more expertise than I have, extoll excellence upon a jockey who I hold in high regard. When I heard Paddy Brennan say that Charlie Deutsch is the most naturally gifted jockey riding today, I became light-headed for a brief moment. Of the jockeys riding in this country at the moment I would list Deutsch, de Boinville and Cobden as the top three, though not necessarily in that order. If and when Bryony Frost returns to this country, I would add her name to the list.

Too many good horses are drifting into point-to-points at the moment. As listed by Claire Hart in her point-to-point column in today’s Racing Post, Saint Calvedos, My Drogo and Summerville Boy are all running in the amateur side of the sport. I suspect it has always been so, though with the sport in the place it finds itself in at present, can we afford to let talent slips through our fingers? Reading the point-to-point round-up this morning, it strengthens my belief that point-to-points should be more fully aligned to the professional element of the sport, with those training point-to-pointers regarded as permit-holders, with professional trainers allowed to run a certain type of horse in point-to-points and those who own and train point-to-pointers regarded as permit-holders and allowed to enter certain races ‘under rules’, though both elements of the sport operate ‘under rules’. Experience and competence, winners trained, should be a determining factor, of course, when it comes to someone being given a ‘permit. You could not just give any ‘tally-ho’ a licence to race within the white rails.

Finally, hammering home my point-of-view on a matter no one else cares a jot about. This Saturday we have the Ascot Chase -sponsored by Betfair. The Kingwell Hurdle – presented to you by Bet M.G.M. (no one does Vegas like Bet M.G.M.) And the Rendlesham Hurdle given to you by W.K.D. purveyor of the loveliest soft-drinks on the market. Or whatever W.K.D. sells to the public. Is that form of race-title less confusing when it comes to the history of the sport than the present ‘Betfair Ascot Chase’? After all, the Ascot Chase does not belong to Betfair, does it? They are just fostering the race for a year or two to increase the brand reach of their business. And if W.K.D. want to better get to know whatever service or product they provide to the public, surely my preferred way of expressing the title of a race would provide them with more marketing zing for their money?

​This weekend at Haydock and Punchestown there are races labelled as ‘Grand National Trials’. This is misleading and the titles of these races should be altered to reflect the racing world we actually live in. Apart from Royal Pagaille at Haydock, no horse in either race will likely even face the starter at Aintree, and, though I have advocated Royal Pagaille as a National horse in the past, I pass over him due to his age, the weight he will have to carry, Charlie Deutsch will doubtless prefer to ride L’Homme Presse and a propensity he has got into to banging a fence or two of late.
The best ‘National trials’ are last year’s race or the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Oddly, when the Cheltenham Gold Cup was first run, in the 1920’s, trainers used it as a prep race for Aintree. So, what once was, can be again.

The Grand National weights were published yesterday with no surprises, no horse ‘thrown-in at the weights’, no trainer exclaiming the handicapper ‘has killed our chance’.
Pundits, it seems to me, begin their analysis of the weights allotted by the handicapper by putting a line through all the British-trained entries as you would be hard-tasked to find anyone tipping up a horse trained outside of Ireland.
Personally, as a true patriot, I start with the British-trained horses; my hope/naivety still springing eternal. There are several Irish-trained horses that can be easily written-off as either unlikely runners or unlikely finishers. Envoi Allen, as grand a servant as any owner could wish to own, is both an unlikely starter and even more unlikely finisher. Time, I feel, is catching up with him. Grangeclare West, also owned by Cheveley Park, who I really fancied after his run in the Irish Gold Cup, is walloped with 11st 8Ib, which rules him out of my calculations. Nick Rocket, too, is over-burdened. Hewick needs a dose of global warming to stand a chance; on his ground, I would fancy him more in the Gold Cup than I would on ground with the soft in the description at Aintree. Monty’s Star runs in the Gold Cup and I cannot see him lining-up 19-days later at Aintree.
I like Gentlemansgame at 11st 5Ib, though I have it in my head he will prove too one-paced to quicken clear of the pack at Aintree or anywhere, to be honest. Galvin is too old and Delta Work hard to fancy with 11st 2Ibs and only receiving 10Ib from I Am Maximus, a horse who conquered Aintree against all known sense last year and I cannot believe he will be so very very lucky a second time around.
The Irish-trained horse I like best is Intense Raffles. 10st 10Ibs look a lovely weight to carry, especially given the shape and make of the horse. He is, of now, my top tip for the race, while at the same time hoping a British-trained horse can get the better of him.
My ‘dream result’ would be for L’Homme Presse to win for Venetia Williams and Charlie Deutsch and at 50/1 he should be backed with alacrity as come the day he will be a whole lot shorter. I just hope the Cheltenham Gold Cup does not bottom him out. If he were to skip Cheltenham, I would be very keen on his chances.
Why the experts are giving no mention to Broadway Boy is beyond me. At 10st 9Ibs, he has the optimum weight, is trained by a man who knows how to train a National winner and will be ridden by a jockey who does not deserve to go his whole career without having either a Gold Cup or National winner on his c.v. He might choose Beauport, of course, which would make a very silly boy. He looked a National-type to me last season and I have every faith that the Twiston-Davies team will have him glowing with good health come the day.
For some obscure reason I cannot figure out, having had no faith in him for his whole career, and believe if Charlie Deutsch (I have mentioned his name so many times this morning any would be forgiven ‘I have a thing for him) had not fallen-off L’Homme Presse in the King George, Bravemansgame might not have a King George rosette on his stable door. Yet this season, I see a horse jumps neatly and who gallops relentlessly on and I fancy him more than Paul Nicholls’ other entries, including Kandoo Kid who has more obvious claims as a ‘Hennesey’ winner.
Of the others, if he gets in and Nicky Henderson gets brave, Hyland might be a lively outsider as he jumps like a bunny and looks a nailed-on stayer. Beauport, Fil Dor, French Dynamite, Trelawne and Limerick Lace might come into my reckoning by the time April 5th hoves into view. But for now, I am a devotee of Intense Raffles, L’Homme Presse and Broadway Boy.
By the way, I am very good at reducing the ‘possible winners’ down to half-a-dozen, backing three and leaving the eventual winner amongst the three I reject. Rule The World (comes easily to mind) who I thought would like the ground yet reasoned it was highly unlikely a horse that had never won a chase could win a proper Grand National. So, ridicule my selections at your pleasure, though take heed of my warning not to laugh long about the ones I mention but leave behind, especially Hyland, as for whatever reason, as I write, he is beginning to tickle my fancy.

​You might laugh if it were not so potentially tragic. Sir Gino out for the season with an injury that has travelled from a knock with no concern attached to it, to an infection that has found its way into the ligaments of a hind leg. This is an injury that can go one of two ways and his connections can only hope or pray for a happy outcome. The Donneleys lost Shishkin to a freak stable accident last season, and now something similar, though with a 50-50 chance of the horse racing again, is more than unlucky. And for Nicky Henderson to lose another of his stars for Cheltenham after the gods dealt him a kick to the nether regions last year, is close to being a curse upon him.
While not intending to use this untimely incident to make a point Nicky Henderson laboured upon at the start of the season, if there had been races before Christmas in which Sir Gino had been able to run in, fully realizing that his connections diverted from their planned course to take in the Fighting Fifth, perhaps the stars would have been aligned differently and Sir Gino would not have been doing whatever he was doing to whack his leg and bring about a premature end to his season, if not his career?
Of course, Nicky cannot next season complain that he has a novice who must instantly go into open company due to believing the horse was ready to take on open company in the Game Spirit after one novice chase. I do think Nicky sometimes lays himself hostage to being forced to run inexperienced against in open company in their second season with his policy of one or two runs before Cheltenham with his better horses. It is the modern way, of course, and Willie Mullins, who trains specifically with the Spring Festivals in mind, also campaigns his young horses similarly. I do not like it but then I lack the expertise to judge one way of the other.

Punctuality is next godliness, is that not what our grandparents used to preach? I work on the principle that if I am early for an appointment, I cannot be late. But that is an example of my insecurity, I suspect. 
Figures in the Racing Post have Taunton as winners of the most punctual at getting races off on time, with Hamilton second, Hereford third and Fakenham fourth. I am a jumping man through and through but as proved by the table for the least punctual having the Rowley Mile, Newbury, Epsom and Salisbury in the bottom four, flat racecourses are at a disadvantage due to using starting stalls which will always bring about delay due to recalcitrant horses and starters being overly patient. Nine out of the bottom ten were flat racecourses, while the worst of the National Hunt courses were those that stage major races, where starters seem to want jockeys to line-up so far from the starting tape that he or she requires 20/20 vision just to see what is going on.
Starts in National Hunt, especially at the major fixtures, need to be given some more thought, and on the flat, there should be a limit to how many times stalls handlers can attempt to load any one horse.

Pundits, so-called betting and racing experts, or the one I read in the Racing Post today, anyway, seem to dismiss as ‘crazy’ – not ‘crazy’, though he was dismissive, as if he is an expert on training horses and Venetia Williams is a mere gal new to the game – that L’Homme Presse is to be asked to run 3-times in 7-weeks, first in the Ascot Chase this Saturday, followed by the Gold Cup and then, to my surprise, the Aintree National. This boldness should be encouraged, not criticised. I doubt if L’Homme Presse can beat Pic d’Orhy at Ascot and the best we can hope for at Cheltenham is for L’Homme Presse to chase Galopin Des Champs up the hill for second-place. The Aintree National, though, is the great unknown. He has the form to win it and he should receive a weight (weights announced today) that would give him a fighting chance if he takes to the fences and stays the distance. Due to injury, L’Homme Presse has had fewer races than horses of his age (10) might be expected to achieve and time is running out for him. To boldly go where angels fear to tread. Good on you, Venetia. May the racing gods be kind to you.

The Spa Hurdle – I intend to write down the registered names of the Cheltenham races and in the future only use the registered name as protest at the confusion caused by races of importance at our most prestigious race-meeting having different names year on year on. God damn it! ‘The Turners’ last season was a novice chase, now it is a novice hurdle. Grow a pair, Cheltenham, and sort this out. ‘The Spa Hurdle’ presented to you by ‘Albert Bartlett, growers of the best potatoes you can ever wish to eat.’ You know it makes sense.
Anyway, before I diverted my thoughts to one of my major gripes, I think the Spa Hurdle is the most interesting, competitive and informative of any of the hurdles run at the Festival. It is poo-pooed by many for being a race for slow horses, whereas I think of the race as a throwback to yesteryear when stamina was considered of greater importance in the make-up of a horse than mere speed.

​I like Dan Skelton. Yes, I have sat on the fence for a good while now, liking him one day and going off him the next. Yet after his appearance with Nick Luck yesterday, I now know for definite that not only do I personally like him but he is beneficial for the sport. Unlike me, Dan finds it difficult to sit on the fence on any matter of racing importance, to the point his wife had to text him on the way to the studio to suggest he do just that, in order to prevent himself from putting his foot where his foot ought not to go. He was even honest enough to admit the P.R.A.’s proposal to prevent its members talking to broadcasters, in an effort to bring trainers in line with jockeys who are already paid for interviews, was not thought-through and only succeeded in turning the debate to one of greed rather than the issues at the heart of the P.R.A.’s concern.
It takes a good man to admit a mistake and Dan is undoubtedly a good man.
In the interview with Nick Luck, Dan made a very good case for ending the National Hunt season at Aintree, with the National meeting held over to the end of April, or at least six-weeks after the Cheltenham Festival. He spoke so much sense on the subject, having already canvassed many British trainers, as well as two leading Irish trainers, that the B.H.A. must take his proposal seriously. Everyone Dan has spoken to believes the idea is sound and would encourage its adoption, as do I, which must be a great relief to Dan.
Dan did not mention the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse, yet this race invariably clashes with Aintree to the detriment, I believe, of both races, especially now that the Aintree and Fairyhouse compete for the same grade of horse.
A six-week gap between Cheltenham and Aintree, as Dan made clear, would allow trainers to aim their best horses for both meetings and also, I believe, persuade trainers, as with Paul Nicholls, diverting some of their better horses away from Cheltenham to the slightly easier pickings of Aintree. This year, looking at the calendar, there are only 19-days between the two meetings, which, given how modern trainers like to give their best horses as much time between races, is too short for their comfort.
Of course, and this is why I suggest Dan is only 99% correct, there is also Punchestown to bring into the equation. Would the Irish authorities schedule the Punchestown Festival to fall exactly between the two big British Spring Festivals, as that would make the late running of the Aintree National more likely to prove successful?
Ending the British season at Aintree, with all the various championship trophies presented through the day, with the most famous race in the world on the final race of the season, makes rounded common-sense that I cannot see why anyone would find disfavour with the idea. Yes, as Nick Luck pointed out, Sandown would lose out, yet as Dan countered, the season used to end at Stratford, and it is not like Sandown will lose the old Whitbread or Celebration Chase. It is only the trophy celebration that will move to Aintree and that only originally came about as an exercise in providing the public the opportunity to honour the exploits of A.P. McCoy on the day of his retirement.
I have always advocated the Cheltenham Festival being a week earlier than its present place in the calendar, allowing Sandown and the Imperial Cup, along with the Midlands National at Uttoxeter to fill that void of ‘after the Lord Mayor’s show’ on the Saturday after the Cheltenham. Perhaps this might be affixed to Dan’s Plan when he presents it to the B.H.A.
This is the aspect of Dan Skelton I have come to respect; he is not scared to float his ideas on how to improve the sport and is happy to fend-off any criticism that comes his way. Do I believe the B.H.A. or Jockey Club Estates will talk with Dan on the matter? No. Did anyone listen to J.P. McManus when he made perfectly sensible proposals to improve competitiveness at the Cheltenham Festival in an article he wrote for the Racing Post? No, not really. Jockey Club Estates know best, you see. And they own Aintree. And Cheltenham.

​Lily Pinchin, currently the leading female National Hunt jockey in Britain, has gone public on suffering from Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, otherwise known as A.D.H.D. A brave move, admitting to a mental disorder (is that right?) for someone who earns her living in a job where frailty of any type might be considered reason enough for an owner or trainer to seek blame for a disappointing result.
I hoped Lily would have progressed further in her career after riding out her claim in pretty-quick time for a female. She has always looked tidy on a horse and I have never seen her out-ridden in a finish by a male rival. That said, I have seen very little of her this season as she rarely rides in races that are televised, my main source of information these days.
I hope the film about her career and how she copes with A.D.H.D. reaches a wide audience, not only to promote awareness of the condition but also to give her career a timely boost.

Djelo was both a good winner of the Denman Chase and the right horse to win the race, given he represented youth in a field of seniority. When he won the Peterborough Chase, I had him down as the Ryanair winner, confidence that plummeted when he was put firmly in his place at Windsor by Protektorat. I am not a supporter of Fact To File for the Ryanair, mainly because I think he will still run in the Gold Cup but also as I see him as a horse that will find 2-mile 4 too short and 3-mile 2-furlongs too far. To me, he is a King George horse, as is Djelo.

The saddest aspect of this season so far is the continuing dip in form of the Paul Nicholl’s stable. Irish Hill did manage to win at Warwick yesterday but other than that I saw little to cheer about. Hitman and Bravemansgame ran okay in a race that should have been within their scope to win, and a horse that cost a bundle of money, Histrionic, ran third in an ordinary novice hurdle at Uttoxeter, ridden, I am pleased to say, by Bryony Frost on short jolly from France.
Given Nicholls bounce-back-ability, I had sure this season will not prove a case of how the mighty have fallen, and having written this, he will no doubt come away from Exeter this afternoon with three-winners and a smile on his face. I just want normal service to return, as I dare say does he.

In a letter published in the letters’ column of the Racing Post, Heather and James Maine of Kingston Common Farm put up a strident defence of the P.R.A.’s battle to improve the state of British racing and to achieve increased prize-money from our racecourses. Although everything expressed in their letter cannot be argued against as it is not asking too much to expect racecourses to return a third of their profit to prize-money, and perhaps the Thoroughbred Group do have weak-knees when it comes to negotiating with racecourses. But they are wrong in expecting trainers to be paid to be interviewed by broadcasters. Alan King has annulled his membership of the P.R.A. because of this and I hope others will also consider their position. That said, at least Peter Savill and the P.R.A. are attempting to find solution to the problems all of racing are afflicted by, which is more than can be said for the B.H.A.

Today’s feature interview in the Racing Post is Sam Twiston-Davies, and as with any interview with Sam, the interview becomes as much about his family as Sam himself.  I did not learn anything I either did not know about Sam or could guess about the Twiston-Davies family dynamic – is Sam and Nicola Currie an item, of instance? – but as always Sam is entertaining and honest. 
And you can tell something about Sam’s old man when Sam casually mentioned that Baby Run, Sam’s first Cheltenham winner, and Hello Bud, and I dare say dozens of other old horses that have served the Twiston-Davies family well down the years, are living happily at Grange Farm, still cared-for as the heroes they are, and that the death of Bindaree, aged 30, cut Nigel deeply, the horse that Sam says, gave the Twiston-Davies boys their careers.
The Twiston-Davies’s are good people, though I am still to forgive Nigel for beating Denman and Kauto Star in a Gold Cup billed as a match-up between the two from Ditcheat.

I wish the Racing post would stop including racecards from Sha Tin and Happy Valley and replace them, especially through the winter months, with racing from the provinces in France. Half the horses trained in Britain and Ireland come from the French regions, not to mention the British jockeys and trainers now resident in France, which makes French racing of more general interest to readers than racing from the exotic climes of Hong Kong.

​The much-maligned, including by me, Matt Chapman, in informing his viewers that Cheltenham Gold Cup winning trainer Arthur Barrow was still hale and hearty at 80 and that his Gold Cup winner Master Smudge ran over 100-times, set me thinking. Galopin Des Champs, for instance, will, if we are lucky, have a career-span of forty races, though less, I suspect. Constitution Hill might not go beyond twenty at his present trajectory.
Master Smudge was no freak, by the way. Yesterday, I wrote that Spanish Steps ran 78-times in his ten-year career, that is an average of 7-races per season. A quick browse of a few of the books that are close at hand resulted in the following list. Monksfield, twice a champion hurdle winner, ran over 70-times. Sea Pigeon, also a dual champion hurdler and possible the greatest dual-purpose horse of all-time, ran 45-times on the flat, plus 40-times over hurdles. Moscow Flyer, dual Champion Chase winner and one of  the best 2-mile chasers of all-time, ran 41-times. Desert Orchid had a 55-race career. Silver Buck, Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, ran 45-times.
Of course, the facilities at any trainers’ disposal can be many times better than the facilities trainers used back in the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s and possibly into the 1980’s but does that mean a horse in training today must therefore run fewer times than the days of the golden era of hurdlers, for instance? I do not recall a trainer when interviewed about one of his, and back in the sixties and seventies it was usually a male trainer, claiming that his horse ‘enjoyed being fresh’ and the phrase ‘super-fresh’ was totally unheard-of until Dan Skelton used it as an excuse not to run a horse and to demonstrate his skill at getting a horse 100% fit at home without recourse to running them in a race. To give Dan his due, he has admitted keeping Protektorat ‘super fresh’ proved a mistake.
I always raise an eyebrow when a trainer, even though they either have a point or are making a point, asks the question ‘where can I run him’, there are no races for him? Back in the day, it was customary to run horses destined for the Cheltenham Gold Cup under top weight in a handicap. A week before Silver Buck won the Gold Cup in 1892, he had won a handicap chase at Market Rasen with 12st 7Ibs on his back.
Sir Gino, for instance, is now liable to go to the Arkle Chase at Cheltenham with one novice chase as experience and a career-span of only half-a-dozen races all-told. His oft-maligned, though brilliant trainer, seems likely to decline a 2-mile novice chase at Bangor for Sir Gino as it is too close to Cheltenham, even though there is over 2-weeks between the races and it would be unlikely that Sir Gino need get out of second gear to beat the type of horse that would take him on. A far easier mission, I would guess, than what Michael Dickenson asked of Silver Buck all those years ago in the Cox Moore Sweaters handicap chase.
Trainers no longer choose to ‘boldly go’ where his or her contemporaries ‘fear to tread’. There was a time when a trainer would not hesitate to run a horse twice at the Cheltenham Festival if plan a had gone astray. Nowadays they would be shy away from doing so in case the ignorant few went to the press claiming some form cruelty was being enacted. 
If the major stumbling block to a trainer running a good or top-class horse more often is the programme of races, then the National Trainers’ Federation should instigate talks with the B.H.A. and the racecourses to provide the sort of races that are missing from the calendar, especially in the first month of the season proper and in the lead-up to Cheltenham.
Would any of the greats of the sport I mentioned earlier have achieved more if they were run as sparingly as today’s top horses? Or should that question be phrased the other way around?

​Ten, here, is an arbitrary, if traditional number when compiling a list. I have over 200 racing books, and in selecting ten, I was forced to reject about 30-books I would also take to the desert island if given the chance. The worst book I own by far, in fact if I were made of sterner stuff I would burn it, is ‘Aintree’s Queen Bee’ by Joan Rimmer.
I will not allot numbers to my ten as anyone who has suffered the misfortune to have read this website for a number of years will already be aware of my favourite book, the one I would take to my grave if I had anything to do with my funeral arrangements.
I will begin with a book I doubt any of you even knows exists. It is titled ‘Why Maurice?’ and is by Keith Greenwell. I know nothing more about the author than what can be found in his small yet somehow beautiful book about his favourite jockey, Maurice Barnes, rider of Rubstic, the 1979 Grand National winner. No spoilers here. Good luck finding a copy as it was privately published. A book worth hunting for, though.
‘A Race Apart’ is by now a record of times past, a look back on the beginning of the race to become known as ‘The Grand National’, the book concluding with the 1987 renewal. The author, Reg Green, lived, seemingly, for his home town’s greatest sporting event, going on to write two more ‘love letters’ to the Grand National, ‘Kings For A Day’ and ‘National Heroes’. I fear if he were alive today, he would be mortified by all the harmful changes to the race that have taken place since his demise.
The most beautiful book about the sport ever written, in my estimation, is ‘Pat Taaffe. My Life and Arkle’s. The only fault I have with this book is the length of it. 79-pages. By the final page, which always comes as a disappointment to me when I re-read it, you know both Pat Taaffe the jockey and Pat Taaffe the man. Also, you will have discovered the top four horses Pat ever rode, and you will be surprised by the horse he placed second to Arkle.
The next book deserves to be on every bookshelf of every racing man and woman. It is far from perfect, as any book created without the assistance of either a professional proof-reader and editor would be. At over 500-pages it is too long. But by crikey you learn a heap load of stuff about the greatest flat horse of my lifetime, Brigadier Gerard. The book ‘Brigadier Gerard and Me’ is authored by the ‘lad’ who held the privilege of looking after him for the whole of the time the horse was in training with Dick Hern. Again, this book was privately published by Laurie Williamson and if you would like to buy a copy [email protected] is where you should go. It is more interesting than many a book authored by a racing celebrity.
The best autobiography by a jockey is ‘Born Lucky’ by John Francome, a man never afraid to call a spade a spade, one of the great men of the modern-day turf and a man who if given a week in dictatorial charge of the sport would reek more change for the better than anyone who has had influence at the B.H.A. since it came into being. John is funny, kind and knowledgeable. All the facets you need to an unputdownable read.
‘The Will To Win’ by Jane McIlvaine surprised me and is a book I will re-read quite soon. It is the story of Tommy Smith and Jay Trump and is quite the rags to riches story. As things stand with the Grand National, I doubt there will every be occasion for a book of this sort to be written again. Americans no longer, it seems, has a fascination with the race, and with the emphasis on horses with a high rating only allowed into the race, an American-based horse has little chance of qualifying for the opportunity. A book that truly tells of the long haul to Aintree glory.
A similar book is ‘Battleship’ by Dorothy Ours, a story of a daring heiress, a teenage jockey and America’s horse. The 15.3-hands entire who conquered the Grand National in the hands of a seventeen-year-old jockey, Bruce Hobbs. One of the few books on National Hunt racing to feature Hollywood stars, Randolph Scott and Cary Grant. A book as much about American society as it is about horse racing, which makes for a more interesting read.
‘Brown Jack’ by R.C. Lyle, a leading equine writer of his day, is illustrated by Lionel Edwards, a leading equine artist of his day, with the subject of the book possibly the first horse publicly lionised by the racing public. This book is an affectionate account of a long career that began at Navan and in his first year also took in stops at Phoenix Park, Bournemouth and Cardiff and ended gloriously at Ascot in 1934 with a fifth win in the Queen Alexandra Stakes at Royal Ascot.
The Full Story of the Champion by Ivor Herbert should be on every bookshelf of every sports enthusiast and should be required reading by any young or middle-aged racing fan so they understand why no great horse of their lifetime can ever be compared in the same sentence with Arkle.
When I discovered that there was a book on the life of Spanish Steps, I set out on a mission to own a copy for myself. It was a long quest. In my ever-lengthening love affair with National Hunt, many horses have captured my affection, the last being Frodon, in the middle there was Denman, but first and perhaps foremost, there was Spanish Steps. The copy of ‘My Friend Spanish Steps’ by Michael Tanner, though I cannot remember where I bought it, is a throw-out from the Hampshire Library Services. Unwanted by them, treasured by me. I am sure the author would admit, being I believe, a first attempt, not his most professional of efforts and was also privately published. Ironically, on the day the book was being printed, the owner/trainer of Spanish Steps, Edward Courage, died. If Michael Tanner were to a publish a refreshed new edition of this book, I will be one of the first to buy a copy. From 1966 to 1976 Spanish Steps ran in 78-races, winning 16. Were horses so different back then that they could run so often? Or are modern-day horses weaker or their connections too timid? I wish Spanish Steps was my friend, too. Michael Tanner had the good fortune to know the horse. I only know the legend.
Perhaps I should send a love-letter to Frodon before it is too late?