​I love the Grand National. Love it! Love it! Love it!
Remember the days of steam trains. The mighty machine that was the Flying Scotsman or any of its mates, thundering along at what for the time was something like warp-speed. Observing on the embankment or as it pulled steaming and sweaty like a Grand National winner applauded into the winners’ enclosure, we didn’t notice the tender that carried the coal that fuelled the mighty beast. That is my metaphor to describe what the Grand National is to horse racing in this country. It is the tender that fuels the sport. It needs constant care and the occasional sympathetic overhaul.
From a marketing and spectator-driven prospective, the Grand National is doing swell. People continue to have an annual bet on the race and offices organise sweepstakes and the race will receive prior to the day a certain amount of media coverage, though not in the same stratosphere as in days gone by. The Grand National fits uneasily into the woke narrative of how live should be lived the non-racing press and multinational t.v. stations are required to project. And, of course, it will receive a pitifully small amount of coverage in the aftermath of the race unless there is an equine fatality to highlight or if a female jockey were to be victorious.
You may say I should not evoke the madness of woke in association with a horse race of such history and sporting magnitude. I would argue that the changes in the fences, the race distance and the conditions of entry were based on a kind of knee-jerk sporting wokeism. The B.H.A. wanted to make safe a race where jeopardy is its main component. They set-out to attract a better-class of runner. And yet!
There are 57-horse still in this season’s Grand National. April 15th. 5-15 off-time. Best birthday present ever! If I back the winner, anyway. Has been known, you know. One of those horses is Captain Kangaroo with form figures of UFPFP. If this horse was trained by anyone other than Willie Mullins would it be allowed to still be in the race? It might be he is still engaged as the owners hope to sell the horse on the days leading up to the race in hope of getting a six-figure sales price from someone in want of just having a runner in the race. Yet Iwilldoit, the winner of a Welsh National, was denied entry as he had not run six-times in a steeplechase.
Captain Cattistock, a dour stayer and safe jumper, will doubtless not get a run, though Battleoverdoyen, a horse light of former years and an unlikely finisher and only in the race as a social runner, is certain of a run. Our Power, a horse with good, solid form around Grade 1 racecourses and a possible winner if he should take part, is also unlikely to get in the race, whereas Irish-trained Roi Mage and Diol Ker, both, in my eyes, inferior to Our Power, are certain to get a run.
What the Grand National needs more than better-quality horses is the right horses competing – solid jumpers, proven stayers, even the classy 2-mile 4-furlong horse. Remember Gay Trip. On the latter subject. Envoi Allen would be the classiest horse still in the race, yet though he has won over 3-miles, a condition of the race, he is in reality a 2-mile 4 horse, that’s where most of his good form lies. I doubt he’ll line-up, though he could. Yet I would argue is he a more imaginable winner than either Our Power of Iwilldoit? I don’t think so.
The conditions of the Grand National should be sympathetically tweaked. Not by the B.H.A. but by individuals with life-long involvement with the sport and in particular the Grand National. I qualify to offer my thoughts on the basis of the former and the latter as I have watched over fifty Grand Nationals. Perhaps over sixty and more if you include all the historical Grand Nationals I have watched on YouTube.
There should be ‘win and you are in’ races during the previous 12-months, no matter the rating of the horse, though I would restrict on age. No six-year-olds, for instance. In this category I would include the Irish, Welsh and Scottish Nationals, the Midlands National, the Eider, the Becher and, perhaps, the Warwick Classic.
Any horse that has achieved a first four-place in any of the previous two-years should be assured of a run. The Grand National is a race for stayers and this is the type of horse that should be running in the race, not the classy sort of horse like Envoi Allen.
The Aintree Foxhunter winner, if achieving the qualifying rating. The Grand National is run over a unique course; a horse proven over the fences should be encouraged to take part and this latest qualification suggestion would allow the possible participation of connections from the ‘amateur’ ranks. Remember Frank Gilman, Dick Saunders and Grittar? The Grand National these days lacks what could be termed the ‘Grittar element’ and is not improved by its omission. 
Also, the idea of penalties for horses weighted below 10st 4Ib should be considered or allowed to run if their rating at the 5-day declaration stage is above the rating of any of the declared 40-runners above them. It would be unfair, as entries stand, on the connections of Eva’s Oskar, the present number 40, though better for the race if this rule allowed Our Power to get in, for example.
There is a Racing Post published book by Chris Pitt, perhaps my favourite author of racing books, called ‘Down to the Beaten’, tales of the Grand National. It does not document the victors but the gallant unbowed, those whose glory was to take part. The stories in its many chapters include characters like Keith Barnfield who rode in the race in 1976. Brod Munro-Wilson who rode in the race in 1980. Val Jackson who rode Bush Guide in 1984. Tom Dascombe who rode a Martin Pipe outsider in 1998.
I mention the above as it is a wonderful book, one of my all-time favourite racing books, but also because it couldn’t be written nowadays as horses like the multiple winner Bush Guide would not get in the race and capable amateurs like Val Jackson would be barred from competing. Yet that sort of combination is exactly what the modern Grand National lacks. The romance of plucky endeavour. Where lies the plucky endeavour of the race on April 15th?

​In the summer, at Ascot, there is a 2-mile handicap named after the legendary former Champion Hurdler and one of the flat’s greatest stayers, Brown Jack. If, for whatever reason, his name should be removed from the title of this race,  I shall go to Ascot and stamp my feet very hard outside the office of the clerk of the course. For anyone unaware of Brown Jack’s place in racing history, I suggest research, or a search for the book by R.C. Lyle on the life and career of the great horse, perhaps the first horse to have the same sort of fame and public adoration that we now associate with more recent equine legends like Desert Orchid, Red Rum or Honeysuckle.
Such was Brown Jack’s fame, he became the first racehorse to have a steam locomotive named in his honour, a class 3 passenger locomotive. He also had a public house named in his honour; a pub you can still eat and drink at in Wroughton, Swindon, close to where he was trained by Ivor Anthony.
Just to dot the I’s and cross the t’s, Brown Jack’s main claim to fame is that he won the Queen Alexandria Stakes at Royal Ascot six-years in a row, along with victories in the Chester Cup, Ebor, Ascot Stakes (same year as he also won the Queen Alexandria) Goodwood and Doncaster Cups. He also won the 1928 Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham. He never won the Ascot Gold Cup as in those days geldings were barred from running in the red riband race and considered as highly regarded as a classic back then.
So what do the following famous racehorses have in common with the legendary Brown Jack: Alycidon, winner of the 1949 Ascot and Goodwood Cups; Ballymoss, winner of the 1957 Irish Derby and English St.Leger; St.Paddy, winner of the 1960 Epsom Derby and Doncaster St.Leger; Meld, the 1955 fillies Triple Crown winner; Nimbus, the 1949 2,000 Guineas and Epsom Derby winner; Tulyar, the 1952 Epsom Derby and St.Leger winner; Pinza, the 1953 Epsom Derby winner (beating the Queen’s Aureole) and the 1957 2,000 Guineas and Epsom Derby winner, Crepello?
While Brown Jack had a steam locomotive named after him, the aforementioned had Deltic electric-powered locomotives named in their honour. Though as far as I am aware not one of them had a public house named after them.
There is an historical social statement in G.W.R. naming their new and revolutionary, at least for Britain, class of train, the start to replacing all steam trains (boo) after famous racehorses of the time, alongside those named in honour of British Army Regiment like the Green Howards, Black Watch, Gordon Highlanders and The King’s Own. It wouldn’t happen nowadays, not even, I suspect, in of the honour the military services. Woke, you know; can’t afford to offend anyone’s sensibilities.
It is why it is important that British horse racing continues to honour the names of famous and great racehorses from the past and into the future. It is why the Brown Jack Handicap at Ascot should be preserved, cherished and possibly upgraded. It should never be seen as a mid-band, quite ordinary handicap. It should be a race jockeys, trainers and owners are proud to have on their c.v.’s. Outside of Eclipse and Derby winners of his time, perhaps horses only revered at the time by a minority of the public, Brown Jack’s name leaped from the pages of the racing press to mainstream, no doubt the first racehorse to gain the genuine affection of the public. When he won the Queen Alexandria for the sixth time, his trainer couldn’t bear to watch the race and only knew the old boy had won by the volume of noise coming from the grandstand as people willed him to win.
I would contend that Brown Jack did more for the sport of horse racing than any, or indeed as a collective, of the horses similarly honoured to have a locomotive named after them. We must continue to honour our great racehorses by naming races, grandstands, bars, etc, as no other sector of British society will do so, though, I admit, there are doubtless residential roads and streets built on the old turf of former racecourses that might bear the name of a racehorse, as it is possible there might be an Eclipse or Golden Miller pub somewhere in the country.
I would ask is Frankel suitably honoured by British horse racing? As the only flat racehorse to challenge, to my mind, Brigadier Gerard as the greatest flat horse of my lifetime, shouldn’t he have a race of similar rank to the Brigadier named after him?
Arkle is honoured both in Britain and Ireland with Grade 1 races named in his honour, not that ‘Himself’ will ever be lost to racing history. Yet Mill House is not honoured in a similar way. Red Rum is poorly honoured by a handicap chase if you consider all that he contributed to the sport.
So, let’s us not forget our equine heroes and never allow a sponsor to submerge the name of a great horse under the wordage of race conditions as has happened to the mighty Golden Miller, and by Cheltenham, the racecourse where his glory was established and immortalised in National Hunt racing history.

​I suspect the title of this piece is incorrect as doubtless a previous occupier of Seven Barrows did switch a Champion Hurdler of the distant past to fences. It would be routine back in the days of black and white and with few hurdle races worth winning.
Nicky Henderson, the present Seven Barrows supremo, is not in favour of switching codes with his Champion hurdlers and as a creature of habit when he sits down with Michael Buckley and Nico over the summer to thrash out the ‘what shall we do with Constitution Hill next season’ he’ll no doubt be in the ‘why change a winning formula’ corner. Michael Buckley, by all accounts, will be in the opposite corner, with Nico, perhaps, having the deciding vote. By then, of course, as Nico has intimated, there will have been a secret schooling session over fences, with the outcome having an overwhelming bearing on whether Constitution Hill starts his next campaign in the Fighting Fifth or a novice chase at Kempton or Newbury.
I am not as convinced as others that Nicky Henderson will adopt the tried and tested formula this time around as Michael Buckley’s stated racing ambition is to see his colours successful in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Constitution Hill is not only Michael Buckley’s best-ever chance of achieving his lifetime ambition but also, given he has a medical condition that required a hospital stay and a medical procedure shortly before Cheltenham, perhaps his last ever chance. And Constitution Hill is no ordinary Champion Hurdler. After two races, his trainer was suggesting he could be the best he has ever trained. And that is a statement and a half coming from one or racing’s renowned fence-sitters.
The Racing Post’s David Jennings believes it is long odds Constitution Hill will ever be risked over fences. I think it is even money. Constitution Hill has abundant scope and enthusiasm. He is also clever, as he exampled at the last flight at Cheltenham a few weeks ago. Nicky could sell tickets for the end-of-season secret schooling session.
As I opined when there remained the possibility of Honeysuckle opposing Constitution Hill at Cheltenham, when these sort of decision are made consideration should be taken for what is in the best interests of the sport. We live in straitened times. The decisions of our rubbish politicians make all our lives difficult and perilous. The same applies to our sport.
When I was in my formative years, when more wet-behind-the-ears than in my dotage when I remain naïve in so many aspects of human life, in Lambourn there was a precocious young steeplechaser called Mill House, the best horse Fulke Walwyn ever trained. In Ireland, out of my focus as a nine-year-old Bristol schoolboy, there was Arkle, not yet ‘Himself’ but the horse that became the best any of us had ever seen. As a child with a limited understanding, though a fascination, for a sport as far removed from city life as a trip to the moon, Mill House was ‘my team’ and after his belief-affirming ‘demolition’ of the Irish upstart in the Hennessey Gold Cup, unable to achieve a bunk-ff from school, I ran the best part of 3-miles home from school in order to see him repeat the ‘thrashing’ in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
We know what happened that day and on every occasion they met afterwards. Arkle was dead by the time all the relevant information (form and accrued knowledge) removed the veil of silly protective passion from my eyes. The day Arkle first defeated Mill House I was broken-hearted. I can still feel strands of that disbelief even now. I was growing-up at a time of steeplechasing’s greatest moments and it was only when it was over could I accept the truth. Arkle was supreme and, as my knowledge of the sport increased, I had no choice but to accept Arkle’s place at the top of the pantheon of great racehorses and acclaim his staggering achievements in handicaps as feats of wonder. In time, achievements that will become seen as much myth and legend as the stories of Arthur, Camelot and Sir Galahad.
In the present day, in Ireland there is this potentially great horse Galopin Du Champ. In Lambourn, there is this potentially great horse Constitution Hill. Our sport is at a pivotal moment in his history, as, I would suggest, it was when the immortal Arkle came to the rescue. 
Both Nicky Henderson and Michael Buckley are of a similar age. It might be said of people their age that their best days are behind them and anything achieved in their dotage can only be thought of as last-gasp bonuses. Yet, incredibly, for both of them the best might yet be ahead of them. Their joint decision this summer might have a major bearing on the future health of our sport.
When such decisions are made what is best for the sport should override personal predilection, I believe. If Constitution Hill is trained from next season as a potential Gold Cup horse, we have the tantalising prospect of living again the same tantalising prospect our racing forebears enjoyed when Arkle and Mill House were rematched in the 1963 Cheltenham Gold Cup and for that period of time when it remained possible that Mill House might achieve his revenge.
I wouldn’t put money on Michael Buckley winning the debate come the summer but I hope for the betterment of the sport that Nico sides with the owner. Pat Taaffe had ridden many great horses before he sat on Arkle, as has Nico. The stars are aligning. 
Be brave, Nicky. Be brave.

​Last week in the Racing Post – I now subscribe on-line – Chris Cook wrote an admirable piece, the kind where at the final full-stop you feel a round of applause is deserved, outlining and detailing the countries around the world where in one form or another horseracing takes place. The following is where I unashamedly steal (make use) of Christ Cook’s faultless research.
Countries that stage internationally recognised Group races: Argentine, Australia, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Britain, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, U.A.E., U.S.A.
Countries listed under the International Federation of Horseracing Authority: Algeria, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chad, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, India, Lebanon, Macau, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay, Venezuela.
Affiliated Member Countries: Mongolia, Turkmenistan.
Non-Member Countries: Barbados, China, Dominican Republic, Finland, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago.
Non I.F.H.A. Affiliated Countries: Burkino Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Kuwait, Lesotho, Libya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Zimbabwe.
Former I.F.H.A. member Countries: Columbia, Iran, Israel, Kenya, Lithuania, Madagascar, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Ukraine.
From the group that comprise those countries forming the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, at random I chose to conduct a wee bit of research into racing in Algeria, Bulgaria, Chad and Serbia, to satisfy my curiosity as to how professionally organised it might be, how popular with the public and how well-cared for were the horses.
There is only a minimal amount of horseracing in Algeria; not enough to engage my curiosity towards thorough research. In Bulgaria, on the other hand, there is an aspiration to build a pukka racecourse at Bourges on the Black Sea Coast to be called Todorovden. There is already an historic racecourse near Plovdiv in the village of Voyvodinovo and there is a day in Bulgaria designated ‘Horse Easter’ which celebrates all-things horse-related to the country and this includes amongst the festivities a couple of horse races. Horseracing in Bulgaria is overseen and promoted by The Heroes Club, founded in 1982.
In Chad, to my surprise, there are 25 organised race-meetings at N’Djamena, with the main race of the year the Grand Prix of the Republic. Far from professional, Chadian racing is best described as enthusiasm overcoming the harsh realities of life. The leading owner of racehorses in the country was quoted as saying ‘the gains do not cover the expense.’
Serbia has had to overcome war and their horseracing is about recreating  the past. It has bone-fide racecourses at Bogatic, Belgrade and Zobnatica. The Bogatic Hippodrome holds several meetings a year, with the Christmas event usually drawing a crowd of 8,000. The course at Belgrade was constructed in 1912 and is considered Bulgaria’s main racecourse. Whilst Zobnatica came into use in 1921.
While it is heartening to be confronted by a world-wide enthusiasm and interest in horseracing, while it is also enlightening and downright surprising, it concerns me that though more racing around the world benefits the breeding industry, isn’t it on the same lines a further possible threat to horse racing in Britain and Ireland?
Already the up and coming racing nations of Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain etc, export so many good quality horses from Europe, along with Australia, the U.S. and others, to race for prize-money that dwarfs by comparison what can be won in Britain and Ireland, that it might only need two or three other countries with aspirations to go full-on racing-mode to deplete reserves of horses here to the point it tips our racing on a downward spiral to match  the generally poor standard around the globe.
I could be suggesting that a publicity drive in many of these overseas countries to highlight the possibilities of working in the breeding and racing industry in Britain and Ireland, or indeed owning horses, could prove beneficial even if it may be costly. And without people native to Britain and Ireland willing to work in the industry the sport will atrophy anyway. By nature, and experience, I am a pessimist. Old age doth wither both hope and expectation.
Chris Cook’s article, which is a wonderful example of an excellent writer informing his readers of an unconsidered topic far away from finding the next winner, opened my eyes and set my imagination wandering. Perhaps I like to worry over matters out of my remit, and perhaps the article highlighted my parochialism, the wrong belief that horseracing belongs heart and soul to Britain and Ireland. And, exhibiting a latent xenophobia, it pains me to think that exported racehorses are not as well-cared-for in foreign countries as they are, or should be, here. What the article did bring into sharp relief to me, as it should in everyone with a love and concern for the sport, is the longer prize-money in this country remains pathetically low at the lowest end, the greater becomes the jeopardy of British racing slipping further and further down the league table of global importance. At the moment, flat racing survives on reputation. Once, like Gods of myth, we were immortal. 

​It is, of course, commendable that the York executive have announced increased prize-money at the jewel-of-the-north next season. It’s grand. Whether it is necessary is another thing altogether.
    In the premier league of British racecourses there must lay hidden an innate competitiveness to persuade connections to run the best horses in their most prestigious and valuable races. Yet I contend that the Juddmonte International or the Nunthorpe this season will in no way be better races this year just because York have thrown an increase in prize-money at them.
At the Ebor meeting, for instance, no race will be worth less than £100,000 and every race throughout the season, and I find this the more admirable, will be worth no less than £20,000 to the winner, up from £15,000 last season. The 18-days of racing at York next year will have in total £10.75-million in prize-money, an increase of £750,000 on last year. The City of York Stakes will, at £500,000, be the most valuable Group 2 in Europe. 126 races in 2023 will offer a prize-fund of six-figures and every card will be have £200,000 to be won by lucky connections.
Although it is hooray for York, my problem with this largess is three-fold: the pressure this increase will exert on our other ‘premier’ racecourses’ to follow suit; that the racing at York this season will be just as excellent as in all previous years as York never fails to provide great racing; and the small yet withering fact that at the bottom end of racing’s pyramid we continue to race for paltry amounts that offers no hope to owners to either cover training fees, or, as importantly, entice new owners to the sport.
York caters for the elite and I would contend the elite, despite the cost-of-living crisis that, I accept, affects everyone, are not going to bed starving or thirsty.
The great achievement this sport should aspire to is not six-figure prize-funds for races that already attract the best horses but the bolstering of prize-money at the bottom tier. The York handicaps will be just as competitive whether there is a £100,000 pot to be won or if they are run for £75,000 and the majority of handicaps will still be won by the ‘big guns’, the elite who will also be winning the Group races.
I’ve said it before and I’ll be saying again and again and again. You do not construct pyramids from the top down. You build houses with solid foundations. If you throw a new wing on your house you do not neglect the foundations. If you put a new bedroom on your house you might build across a garage but you do not construct it straight out in mid-air from the second-floor without some form of support underneath. I firmly believe that the strategy employed by the B.H.A. and racecourses should be to reconstruct from the bottom-up as this will allow everyone in the sport the opportunity to make ends meet and attract new owners.
I only wish the B.H.A. had the aspiration to have at least one race at each meeting every day worth a five-figure sum to the winner. A small aspiration and not, on its own, enough to right the ship. But it would be a start, a new beginning. A clear indication that the powers-that-be are giving the problem some thought. If York can afford an increase of £750,000 in prize-money, and this is, I admit, the thinking of a fantasist, why could they donate £50,000 to its fellow Yorkshire racecourses to help increase the value of their bottom-end races. That small gesture would be of far greater help to the sport than a £500,000 Group 2.
This sport will only survive and perhaps thrive if all the diverse elements that comprise its whole come together to work together to make the sport attractive to the majority, not the few. York is arguably the best flat course in the country. It’s success should be the sport’s success. It does not exist in isolation.

​The horse racing industry comprises the equally important racing and breeding sides of the sport. Although the glory of winning classis races, both jump and flat, and major graded or Group races, go to the racing aspect of the sport, I would argue that at the loftier sphere of the sport it is the breeders who take home more of the bacon.
Breeders, I must admit, have the liability of financial investment before they scoop any reward. The major studs that send their mares to the likes of Frankel or Dubawi are paying, perhaps, millions of pounds in stallion fees, not always with the safety-net of no-foal no-fee or with any guarantee that the subsequent foal will be strong and healthy and will mature into a yearling worthy in stature to its blue-blooded ancestry. It is a bit of a gamble and I am quite certain that the balance sheets at the end of the financial year are not as champagne-popping as many of us imagine.
It has to be said that the breeding industry work with a world-wide canvas these days, with their product, even as yearlings, sought by owners and trainers in racing jurisdictions from South America to the Far East. With Juddmonte, Coolmore, Godolphin etc, able to sell their home-breds to foreign countries as older horses. Yet, I would contend, horse racing in this country benefits little from the sale of thoroughbreds. Neither from public sales nor private.
I am neither quick-witted or intelligent enough to undertake the math, yet instinct screams at me that British racing has no tangible access to the goldmine that is million-pound yearlings and £400,000 sale of jumping stock.
I propose a study be established by the B.H.A. into the possibility of a levy or small tax be applied to the sale of all thoroughbred racehorses sold for above £2,000. Controversial, yes. But insuperable problems require both radical solutions and compromise. If I have one overarching criticism of the B.H.A. – I have so much criticism or the B.H.A. So very much. – it is they are only reactive to situation. Is there a department at the B.H.A. with its members noses to the grindstone attempting to formulate a grand plan to get British horse racing out of its generally recognised nose-ward dive towards oblivion? Thought not!
My hazy, not even hastily thought-out on the back of a fag-packet, idea is that the owner of any horse bred for the racecourse and subsequently sold either privately or at public auction pay a small tax on any sale price over £2,000 which would go towards funding prize-money at British racecourses. I am not suggesting double-digit percentages but only ½ a percentage. If that. It is not my intention to frighten breeders away from British sales-rings but to unify the industry, to have both sides rowing the same boat. The greatest benefit to both divides of the industry would be a massive increase in prize-money.
An article in ‘The Economist’ magazine suggested that British horse racing was in ‘deep trouble’. It is, I would hope, not at the precipice of ‘deep trouble’ but unless we can get beyond our present troubles ‘deep’ might become an appropriate description in the near-future. A long-lasting solution is needed and it is needed today not tomorrow. A sales percentage tax may not be the entire answer and to future-proof prize-money other inventive ideas might need to be sourced to bolster the sport’s finances and, indeed, to allow the sport a future.
Look, unlike journalists and proper writers, I lack the patience to conduct research to establish the data and numbers that would give this piece the overlook of expertise or even normal competence, yet my instinct assures me that a hundred-thousand or more horses are sold annually in this country and a small tax on those sales would substantially help finance horse racing to the point of sustainability. 
It would be foolish for any tax on sales to be so high it drives breeders to the auction houses of Europe and yet equally foolish not to explore the possibility of a sales tax that would help the sport prosper. The tax (V.A.T.?) on sales that goes into the Government Exchequer would be far higher than the half-percent I propose. I also admit I have little idea of how cumbersome it would be for this money to travel from the sales houses to the coffers of the B.H.A. and on to racecourses. There is always expense in even the most compelling of solutions that escape the solutionist. 
What I do know is that something radical is required to halt the nosedive toward stupefaction and it is needed now. NOW! It is simply humiliating that a sport with its formative roots and history embedded in the soil of this country has been allowed to become the poor relation in the family of world horse racing.

​Fewer people attending this year’s Cheltenham Festival do not concern me as those of us who live in the real world can testify as to how much the ‘cost-of-living crisis’ is affecting day-to-day life. Added to which, the rail strike was also bound to affect attendance numbers. Fewer people in the enclosed space of a racecourse, though, would have allowed a better experience for those who attended, especially those on a first visit to the Festival. On the credit side, I.T.V. racing achieved good viewing figures, giving anecdotal evidence that those who chose not to attend in person watched the racing on t.v., allowing us to believe that the appeal of the Cheltenham Festival is not diminished.
Therefore, it is a shame bordering on embarrassment that the starts of so many races, including the Gold Cup, were at time shambolic. How difficult can it be to start a horse race?
The problem, as far I can interpret, is that jockeys are lining-up so far from the tapes. Horses are not machines and with the atmosphere rolling off the stands often described as ‘electric’, coupled with the nerves and excitement of jockeys in want of achieving ambitions, the equine blood is up, also wanting to ‘get on with things’. It might be difficult for ‘antis’ and those watching horse racing for the first time to comprehend but a good number of racehorses actually enjoy their racecourse experience and share the thrill of their riders. Quite naturally they want to get into gallop-mode as quickly as possible as experience assures them that is the quickest method of getting to the finish-line. To expect all the runners in a handicap to walk what seems like half-a-furlong from where jockeys habitually line-up for the major races to the starting tape is a recipe for what continually happened last week and on many other occasions.
My solutions to the problem can be as high-tech or basic as required. Firstly, a square or oblong of ten or fifteen yards, made of sawdust or perhaps laser beams, should be set out two-yards from the starting tape. The jockeys have their girths checked outside of the ‘box.’ When the starter raises the flag jockeys line-up and then walk forward into the ‘box’, with the responsibility falling on their shoulders to have their horses pointing toward the tape. Once all the horses are in the ‘starting box’, the starter flips the tape and the race is off.
This suggestion, I accept, is not fool-proof. No starting procedure where horses are concerned can be. Yet it will prevent to a large extent the problem of horses getting out-of-control which is what causes virtually all aborted starts. I also suggest it places greater responsibility on the jockeys for fair and even starts. At the moment the starters’ instruction to walk-in is what is at the centre of the present dilemma. ‘The Box Method’, will not jeopardise the chances of a good break for those horses walking forward by those horses standing still, jig-jogging or cantering; ‘crimes’ which I believe are just natural equine responses and, on most occasions, out of the control of jockeys. Once all horses are in the ‘box’ they are under orders and the starter can flip the tape.

Though it had no impact on the racing, in general the assembling of so many good horses in so few stables is, and will continue to be, detrimental to the sport. No one can argue that Willie Mullins is a genius of his profession. Yet before him the same could be said of Michael Dickenson, Martin Pipe, Fred Winter and so on. They, though, did not have 200-horses to call on and if you go to the form books of yesteryear you will discover the winners of major races were spread across far more trainers than is the case nowadays. It says a great deal when a trainer has six-winners at the Cheltenham Festival and some will see that as a disappointing haul in consideration of previous years. Whether the Closutton maestro thinks it a ‘disappointment’ only he will know.
The advantage in limiting the number of horses a trainer can have at his or her command is that the limited supply of top-class staff will naturally become more available to other trainers. Fifty, for example, less horses require less staff and the people ‘let go’ will hardly be out-of-work for more than a day given the shortage of staff reported by nearly every trainer in Britain and Ireland. Of course, the likes of Mullins, Elliott, Nicholls and Henderson, will easily get around any cap on the horses they are allowed to train at any one time by setting-up satellite yards for horses not due to run until months into the future and this might not prevent situations like we had in the Triumph this year when Mullins had over half the field.
But at this moment in racing’s history, when so many trainers are finding it financially impossible to make a living at the sport, for the future, and for the integrity of the sport as a whole, a cap, to me, makes very good sense. It will spread more horses, owners and staff, around far more trainers, will allow the smaller and middle-band trainers greater opportunity to make a living, keep them in the sport and allow them to offer better salaries and incentives to keep younger and the more experienced staff working in the industry. Tough times require tough solutions that may inconvenience the few. Tough times also call for everyone in the sport to pull together.

​We will draw a veil over my inadequate and quite frankly embarrassing attempt at finding winners this Cheltenham Festival. It’s over. We move on. There is still Aintree to look forward to, after all, and there I might redeem myself. If I can bare face the challenge again.
I believe the best horse won the Cheltenham Gold Cup. We cannot be 100% certain of the obvious as Ahoy Senor fell when travelling bold and well, badly impeding A Plus Tard who, according to his jockey, was equally travelling within himself. Yet, the Cheltenham Gold Cup is a steeplechase and the fences are there to be jumped and Galopin Des Champs did that better than all the rest.
Keeping up my fine record of being wrong throughout the week, Galopin Des Champs did not falter up the hill, as my instinct-driven mind’s eye kept assuring me, but stayed on stoutly as all Gold Cup winners must do. I would not yet, though, hang the mantle of greatness on him as this year’s Gold Cup might have appeared to have a great depth of quality about it, the race fell apart a wee bit with Minella Indo running so poorly (some of de Bromhead’s horses were withdrawn earlier in the week due to coughing, so that might explain his lethargic run), Noble Yeats was out-paced and then ran on like a horse in need of 4-miles, Ahoy Senor fell when looking full of running and A Plus Tard was virtually taken out of the race by the melee that also robbed the race of Sounds Russian. The less said about Stattler the better.
Unless Willie Mullins has one waiting in the wings that the public know nothing about, apart from Bravemansgame I cannot see any credible opposition around to prevent Galopin Des Champs equalling Closutton’s A Boum Photo’s haul of 2 Gold Cups. Of course, ill-tempered fate is always the main combatant that steeplechasers must overcome during their short careers as racehorses and hopefully luck will be on his side as the sport is in short supply of his quality of horse.
I boldly predicted that home-based trainers would do better this year than in previous few years. 18-10 suggests I was as equally wrong as I was with all other selections this week. Yet, I will contend, the Champion Hurdle was won by a British trainer and ‘we’ had the runner-up in the Gold Cup, a marked improvement on previous years. And, thanks to Paul Nicholls, one of the Grade 1 novice chases and one of the novice hurdles, was not won by an Irish-trained horses. Again, a marked improvement on previous years. ‘We’ even kept the Foxhunters at home, and won by a genuine point-to-point outfit. It is always comforting to see ‘an amateur set-up’ get one over the professionals.
It was galling that the Irish were more successful in the handicaps than in the past, though Dan Skelton took two of the most competitive handicaps and the Greenall/Guerrieo partnership announced their arrival in the big-time by winning the Martin Pipe. As a keen supporter of the female jockey, it was especially pleasing to see Bridget Andrews win the County Hurdle for a second-time, fending off in a photo-finish none other than Davy Russell.
I suspect we have seen the last of Russell on a racecourse. His ‘contract’ with Gordon Elliott was, I believe, only due to extend until Cheltenham and with racing going a bit quiet until Easter and, with Jack Kennedy to be back riding in the period between now and Aintree, there seems no reason for him to carry on.
Finally, if there is one aspect of Cheltenham that can legitimately be criticised, it is starts. This nonsense of horses lining-up so far away from the tapes must end. Where is the sense in giving revved-up horses and competitive jockeys such a long distance to keep to a walk? My solution is this: a yard or two before the tapes set out, using sawdust or even a laser line, a box ten to fifteen yards square. Set the horses slightly behind this box and then raise the flag. As long as every horse is in the box, no matter which way they are facing (that will be the jockeys responsibility) and whether they are walking, jogging or in canter-mode, the tapes are flipped. At the moment the starter has too much say in how horses are ridden before the race has even begun. Give jockeys more responsibility to achieve a fair start and stop thinking horses are machines that can be controlled when their blood is up. It is just so embarrassing that in this day and age we cannot start a race at first-time of asking!

​Is Shishkin a naughty horse that spits the dummy out when he doesn’t get his own way? Is there an ailment that prevents him jumping his fences as accurately as in the past? Does he need 3-miles? Does he need blinkers or side-pieces? Has he taken against Cheltenham? Does he need a flat track? Questions. Questions. Questions.
My thoughts on his disappointing failure to win the Ryanair are thus: the bad mistake he made at the 3rd-last fence (?) was mighty and many a horse and jockey would have ended up on the floor. Great sit by Nico and, I believe, great courage from the horse to battle on from it. The major plus, I believe, Nicky Henderson will take from yesterday was the abundance of stamina Shishkin displayed for all to see to be only fourth jumping the last fence and yet to finish a running on second. The horse clearly needs 3-miles in my opinion and, if he has suffered no injury after yesterday’s efforts, Aintree will be the best place to prove him a King George horse for next season, if not a player in the 2024 Cheltenham Gold Cup.
The biggest shock yesterday was that Closutton failed to have a winner. Yes, Willie Mullins did not train a winner and Paul Townend also did not ride a winner. In fact, at no stage yesterday did a Closutton horse look like winning. Doubtless, Willie Mullins will go through the card today.
Ireland still, though, won 5-more Festival races. The rout continues.
And it started so well for the home-runners in the Golden Miller, sponsored by Turners - that, by the way, is how Festival races should be referred to, race-name first, sponsor second – with Paul Nicholl’s winning and Laura Morgan finishing second. I might have preferred it the other way round, though no one can deny Nicholls and Cobden deserved a Festival winner. I suspect Mighty Potter needs further and Appreciate It is not the monster they hoped he would be.
To use an Irish term, it is bollocks that the Irish are now winning all the handicaps as well as the Grade 1’s. Enough said.
In a letter published in the Racing Post several weeks ago, I argued my case for Honeysuckle running in the Champion Hurdle by reminding people that the form-book makes it plain that the de Bromhead horses always hit peak form at the Cheltenham Festival. Quite rightly, as it turned out, my argument was ignored by Henry, though my point has already been vindicated with 3 winners for Henry, with A Plus Tard and Minella Indo to come. Envoi Allen has now won 15-races, 4 Grade 1’s and 3 races at the Cheltenham Festival, a haul made-up by the Bumper, the Ballymore and now the Ryanair. Not bad for a horse generally considered ‘a bit of a disappointment’.
I felt so sorry for Jeremy Scott and his owners. Dashel Drasher is one of the sport’s great triers and even aged 10 he continues to run his heart out. He led over the last only to be collared close home and then had second-place taken off him in the stewards’ room for interference made far worse that it appeared by canny Davy Russell switching from outside Rex Dingle to inside.
Today: Gold Cup Day.
I am a man of opinions. Usually, though not always, my opinions stray way off target. But I have many an opinion and rarely waver. The Cheltenham Gold Cup this year has me in tangles. The only strong opinion I have is that Galopin Des Champs will not win as my instincts say he’ll not get up the hill and that Stattler is too much about stamina to win a Gold Cup. I can’t have Conflated as I doubt his will for a fight. Hewick, if we believe his trainer, will hate the soft ground and might be pulled out of the race. Noble Yeats might, though when did a Grand National winner win a Gold Cup?
Unbelievably, and going wholly against the theme of Irish domination, what instincts I have about the race lead me to the conclusion that the Cheltenham Gold Cup will either go to Scotland or England (or de Bromhead. I fear de Bromhead).
Since the Cotswold Chase, I have thought if the ground is soft and his jumping holds together, Ahoy Senor could win the race. And this was my fixed position until hearing Harry Cobden’s wide-eyed confidence that not only will Bravemansgame get every yard of the Gold Cup trip but he also has no fears about his ability to act on soft-ground. I am conflicted and a bit bamboozled.
And then there is the return to form of the de Bromhead horses and the memory of Minella Indo winning two-years ago on softish ground and A Plus Tard running away with the race on softish ground. And yet ….
Bravemansgame to win, though my heart hopes Ahoy Senor wins. It would be a boost for the sport if the Gold Cup goes up to Lucinda Russell.
Mullins will win the Triumph. But which horse? He runs seven. Zenta is my choice. Hunter’s Yarn for the County, another for Mullins. The Spa Hurdle, sponsored by Albert Bartlett, is a cracker, with a future Gold Cup horses no doubt lurking even amongst the also-rans. Three Card Brag is my tentative selection. In the Hunters Chase I am going out on a limb, not unusual for me, and suggest Rocky’s Howya, a horse on an upward curve, winning Irish point-to-points by long distances. I’m with Magic Daze in the Libertines Mares Chase, sponsored by Paddy Power, to bring down the Mullins hotpot. Though I am with Mullins in the Martin Pipe and the Noel Fehily Racing Syndicate with Haxo.
Long live the Cheltenham Festival.

​The rout continues. I honestly believed the British-trained horses would improve on the lamentable efforts of the past few years. I am wrong. It can only get worse. Our only hope to salvage a shred of dignity from the embarrassment of another huge deficit is for Shishkin to win the Ryanair and for one of the British-trained runners to take the Gold Cup, which is no forlorn hope due to the prevailing ground conditions. I cannot, though, find any hope of either of the two British-trained runners in the Stayers Hurdle, Paisley Park and Dashel Drasher, the former 11-years-of-age and the latter 10, figuring in the finish.
Yesterday was particularly disappointing for the home-trained runners. Hermes Allen was made to look ordinary, when going into the Festival he was our bright hope to land a devastating blow on the Mullins Academy of Excellence. Oh, praise be to the sporting gods for The Real Whacker holding on in driving finish with Gerri Columbe. God-bless Patrick Neville and Sam Twiston-Davies. I doubt if The Real Whacker is a genuine Gold Cup horse but, for now, who cares about next season. The Irish were defeated, though it took an Irishman to deliver the blow.
And then Langer Dan gave the Skeltons another Festival winner. We were 2-1 up on the day, with genuine chances of making it 3-1 in the Champion Chase. Woe is me! Again, as it was last year, the British challenge fell apart at the seams, perhaps due to the ever-softening ground, though it has to be said that Energumene was an emphatic winner and is the top 2-mile chaser around.
Unless the cross-country race returns to being a handicap it will become ever-increasingly less competitive and a race for fading heroes. As with the Mares Hurdle, the quality of the first 3 home was a good-bit higher than the entire field for the Ultima on the first day of the meeting. And the only light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel from the Bumper was the encouraging run from Captain Teague, It is always nice, though, when J.P. McManus has a Festival winner. A Dream To Share. Such a nice name, isn’t it?
The following selections for Thursday’s card come with a wealth warning and a heart-felt plea for any fool seeking punting solace here, that you go to my recent blogs to get a full understanding of why I am ‘the poorest tipster’. At Cheltenham, anyway.
The Turners Golden Miller Chase – the race is named after Golden Miller, the winner of 5 Cheltenham Gold Cups and a Grand National, calling the race ‘the Turners’ does a huge disservice to the history of the sport and the memory of one of our greatest steeplechasers. Mighty Potter is a good thing. Go on Davy!
The Pertemps is a minefield, with the only certainty being Willie Mullins will not be winning it. I tentatively put forward Level Neverending to give Gordon Elliott a quick double.
I cannot see Shishkin being beaten in the Ryanair, though if he is it will be by Willie Mullins.
The Stayers Hurdle will not stay at home, that’s for sure. I suggest Teahupoo to give Gordon Elliott a third winner on the day. I am wary of the French horse, though, Gold Tweet.
I have hope that Fugitif might keep the Plate at home and give Sean Bowen a deserved Cheltenham winner.
If there is a rainbow in the sky come 4-50, give a thought to backing one of the Henry de Bromhead runners in the Jack de Bromhead Mares Novice Hurdle, registered as the Dawn Run Mares Novice Hurdle. Again, as with the Golden Miller! Be aware, Henry runs Magical Zoe in the race, so don’t mix her up with Princess Zoe, my selection for the race. Class, they say, will usually prevail.
The Kim Muir will be won by Henry with Royal Thief, formerly near top class and only set to carry 11st 2Ibs.