​If Galopin Des Champs had not won two Cheltenham Gold Cups, his record at Punchestown would be deemed quite acceptable. Today he runs in the weakest chase he has ever run in at Punchestown, and quite possibly anywhere else. Spillane’s Tower may possess the potential to be a classy steeplechaser but, in my humble opinion, he is not a Gold Cup winner-in-waiting. Banbridge was a good winner of the King George but we must face up to the truth, there were no true Gold Cup horses in the race. Perhaps Monty’s Star has not lived-up to expectations and his trainer has been more out-of-form than in-form for the major part of the season and he might, just might, have it in him to put it up to Galopin Des Champs for a short while. But there is only one winner and that is Galopin Des Champs. He will win with his head in his chest. Stop complicating matters.

The Ascot Gold Cup will prove another royal romp for Kyprios. My only hope for the race is that the ground will be soft enough for Trueshan to finally get a go in a race where his untold stamina still gives him a chance of glory, Not that at the age of 9 he is going to win the race. It is just that a horse of his following and ability deserves to have at least run in the race.
The surprise entry, at least to me, is Constitution Hill. Again, it is beyond my imagination to form a case for him winning the race or even, if I am honest, being competitive, and the whole exercise is to bring to fruition a long-held dream of owner Michael Buckley. And why not have a go. You never know the ‘Golden Ace’ effect may come to pass. Stranger things have happened, even on the flat. The horse has had only one hard race all-season and since that comeback win at Kempton all he has done is doddled round Cheltenham and in the process gave us a hint of what was to come, followed by an early fall in the Champion Hurdle and another tumble two-out at Aintree. His appearance at Royal Ascot at least gives National Hunt fans something to look forward to this summer.

You can understand Willie Mullins considering sending Ballyburn back to hurdles next season. Given he has many other possible Gold Cup contenders lined-up for next year, he has no need of Ballyburn in that division. Trained by anyone else, and I mean any other trainer in Ireland, Britain or France, he would be the star of the yard and he would very much still be on course for the Gold Cup. Willie Mullins has no need of such dreams. Although he has not set the stage alight this season, I would like to see Ballyburn given one more go over fences before transferring to the 3-mile hurdles team.
Willie Mullins, like Nicky Henderson, has no love for the Betfair Chase, yet given Haydock’s propensity for providing soft ground it seems to me the perfect setting for Ballyburn to determine his future.

Marine Nationale is a high-class two-mile chaser but I would be surprised if he were to go on and win three Champion Chases as his owner/trainer, Barry Connell, predicted after his ‘horse of a lifetime’ firmly put Fact To File in his rightful place, and that is in the staying division. Although Marine Nationale is reliable jumper, the two-mile division is knife-edge stuff, where one mistake at the wrong time in a race can be curtains. I do not immediately see a real rival to Marine Nationale but at this point in his development I would have no confidence in him even defending his title next season, let alone putting together a very rare sequence of victories.

Somewhere in the season, perhaps as a late spring festival, before the good horses are packed-off for their summer break and the hunter chasers still have one run left in them, British racing should consider a Punchestown-type 3-day festival. It is the mixture of the quirkiness and the quality that makes Punchestown unique and we should try the same. There is only one Punchestown, obviously, and only Cheltenham over here has a cross-county course but that should not prevent something similar being achieved on a British racecourse. The largest racecourses in Britain have golf-courses in their centre, so perhaps if such a meeting as I propose is given the green light it will have to be staged at Cheltenham.
I am not suggesting more Grade 1’s need to be invented. But why not valuable handicaps, a few conditions races, mixed with hunter chases, cross-country races over varying distances, with one of them the feature race of the meeting. It is an idea and put out there for someone to take up the baton and run with it until someone is found to take the proposal seriously.

​Remember when a good few racing experts were calling out Fact To File as the next Cheltenham Gold Cup winner after he beat Galopin Des Champs in the John Durkin? And do you remember how quickly he became dubbed ‘disappointing’ once Galopin Des Champs had gained his revenge not once but twice? Now, after one spectacular win at Cheltenham, in a sub-standard Ryanair over 2-mile 4-furlongs, he has become a superstar, tipped to beat the current 2-mile Champion Chase winner (again, not the best 2-mile Champion Chase of recent years) at Punchestown this evening over 2-miles. He might win; he will certainly finish second. But can Willie Mullins have got this horse so wrong? He looked all-over a stayer as a novice, yet now he is a speed horse. Really.
Given how the Cheltenham Gold Cup played out this season, I am in the camp that believed Fact To File would have been right there in the mix. That said, Willie Mullins has got wrong Gaelic Warrior wrong this season. He is not a soft-ground 2-mile chaser but a sound surface 3-mile chaser. Who knows, if he got out of bed with a smile on his muzzle, he might put a hoof up to his trainer by winning the Gold Cup next season.
So, I am in the Marine Nationale camp today. It might even be the only Grade 1 at Punchestown that does not go to Closutton this week.

The dominance of Willie Mullins in Ireland really comes home, even when he often has more horses beaten in one race than another top trainer has horse running in all the races on the card, when you realise that in Ireland he has achieved a 25% strike rate. Think about it; he will often run 4, 5 or 6-horses in any one race, and yet his dominance is so profound that come the final meeting of the season he has a 1 in 4 strike rate.
Paul Townend has not only run away with the jockeys’ championship but he has achieved the trophy with less rides than many of his rivals. His strike rate is a whopping 37%. Patrick Mullins has a strike rate of 33%.
It would be interesting to know what Vincent O’Brien’s strike rate was when he was winning the Irish and British trainers’ championship.

When our racing journalists are critical of changes to the Cheltenham Festival, with some still wanting to return to 3-days (as I believe would make sense while the pool of available top-class horses is as low as it is at present, and then only for a limited number of years) or decry the out-dated National Hunt Chase becoming a handicap and not restricted to amateurs anymore, or any of the other moans and groans that come from the pages of the Racing Post, I always compare Cheltenham to Punchestown, the National Hunt Festival of Ireland.
The first race on the first day of the Punchestown Festival is a Cross-Country Chase over the banks for amateur riders. Later in the week there is a hunter chase restricted to horses owned by local farmers and Ireland’s longest race is the prestigious La Touche, a banks race that is such a speciality that a 13-year-old was able to win it last season. There are also innumerable bumper races amongst the Grade 1’s. Punchestown is an all-the-fun-of-the-fair sort of meeting, a genuine championing of all that is good about Irish racing, the reason why National Hunt retains its popularity in the country of jumping’s origins.
We need to stop being so sniffy and Grade 1-centric; all horse races are horse races and if you took away the labels and the importance we as humans build into some races and not others, we might just enjoy our sport for what is and not what we imply it is. There is great pride to be had in winning the Farmers race or the La Touche, every bit as much, perhaps more, even, than winning any of the Grade 1’s.
One thing is for sure, Willie Mullins will not be winning either the Farmers race, the La Touche or the opening race of the meeting. And that gives others the opportunity of a small moment of the limelight. Perhaps we should leave a few spaces at the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival that Willie and his rivals cannot occupy.

​If I seem overly negative at times, it is because I want this sport to succeed, to thrive, but mostly I want it to survive long after my death. Horse racing has been the central pivot of my life and what sanity I have is due almost entirely to the love and fascination I have for the sport. So, when I criticise the B.H.A. and the stupid governance structure that hide-bounds the sport to the whims of stakeholders with only their own interests at heart, I do so with the very best of intentions. The members of the B.H.A. board and all participating parties of the governance structure have other avenues of life to entertain them, I only have horse racing and because of that singularity I believe my love and concern is the greater.
The sport navel-gazes too much for my liking. In his e-mail to subscribers, the Racing Post’s editor Tom Ellis bemoans the lack of coverage the battle between Willie Mullins and Dan Skelton received in mainstream newspapers. At this moment in history, when so many want to rewrite history and twist society out of shape, to mock the Christian God by suggesting there are more than the two sexes he created (lower case h as I am an atheist and only use the Christian Creator when it suits my cause), we are better-off left in the sporting shadows. You can be certain that if a high-profile equine fatality should occur at Epsom, Royal Ascot or Goodwood the sport will be written about, just not in a way that would see us in a good light. Let sleeping dogs lie, Tom, and carry on doing the excellent work of the industry editor. The good human-beings that are Willie Mullins and Dan Skelton can remain our secret.

James Bowen schooled Constitution Hill over 8 (I think that is correct) small schooling fences yesterday and all went swimmingly. Of course, the headline in the Racing Post suggested this might be a clue as to where the future lies for Constitution Hill, though Nicky Henderson was keen to stress that the ground was too firm to school over hurdles. I took this to mean the baby fences were erected on an all-weather surface and was not a measure to have Constitution Hill pick up his feet and to respect the obstacles in front of him.
Whatever, I do hope that during the months ahead Nicky, Nico and ‘Buckers’, as Matt Chapman refers to Michael Buckley, have a sensible debate about schooling Constitution Hill over fences in the autumn with a view to novice chasing next season. As he gets older, it will become increasingly harder to repel the younger horses coming through, and with his reputation already tarnished, why not give fences a go as the slower pace of chasing might allow Constitution Hill to stay 3-miles and then the Gold Cup dream of Michael Buckley becomes a possible reality.

Funny how doors close for one person, while another opens for someone else. Emma Smith-Chaston plans to take-up media work as her second career, which begs the question how many ex-jockeys can be gainfully employed by either the racing channels or mainstream broadcasting. Once upon a time commentators, pundits, paddock experts and presenters were all working journalists, now those positions are being taken-up by ex-jockeys.
In today’s ‘Grapevine’ section of the Racing Post, attention is paid to a 19-year-old, who only rode her first winner recently, planning to go conditional for Nicky Richards next season. Ella McGarry spoke in the interview in the manner of someone with the right attitude, talking of wanting to be a ‘good jockey’, not simply a jockey.
The cohort of female jockeys in this country has curtailed quite steeply in recent years, especially in the north, with even the excellent Charlotte Jones seemingly slipping from the scene, so the addition of Ella McGarry to the professional ranks is helpful to the cause. 
I go on a lot about female jockeys but as I keep saying, 50% of the world are female and in the world in which we live it would do the sport no harm to have a greater percentage of female jockeys, especially at the top level, than we have at present. Rachael Blackmore, Bryony Frost and Lizzie Kelly have proved that given the class of horse required, females can compete in Grade 1 races. Given that one of the three mentioned has retired, one has had to relocate to France to try for greater opportunities and the former must be coming to the end of her career, the debate over whether female professionals should receive an allowance, as they do in certain races in France, should be reignited. 

​At this time of the year, with only flat racing to sustain me through the long days of summer, I stop fearing or thinking about death, which is as maudlin an opening sentence as you will ever find on the Internet.
Jack Leach famously said (I am paraphrasing) that it is hard to die during winter not knowing whether last season’s two-year-olds had trained on. I am similar to that come the autumn, in impatient wait of knowing which of the previous season’s good young horses are going chasing or will be campaigned as potential Champion Hurdle horses. But between now and the Autumn the Grim Reaper may take me at His will. But not once the new National Hunt season has begun. That is my pact Mr. Reaper.
Not once during the final meeting of the season did I think about Dan Skelton’s proposal to end the season at Aintree rather than Sandown. Yet no matter how enjoyable Sandown was yesterday, I remain committed to Dan’s proposal. Sean Bowen was the main actor yesterday and he rose to the occasion, taking centre stage by winning the feature race on a horse that could go on to better things next season. Resplendent Grey is well-named and looked to have enjoyed his day in the sun every bit as much as his never-say-die rider. Never Say Die won the Epsom Derby in the year of my birth, 1954. Not that I knew about it until a good ten to twelve-years later.

Once again, Nicky Henderson has teased us with the possibility of running Jonbon in the King George next season. It is an intriguing prospect, especially with Willie Mullins and Rich Ricci teasing us with the possibility of Gaelic Warrior also running at Kempton on Boxing Day. Have you noticed that through November and up to the declaration stage year after year the King George always looks like it is going to be best ever, with Willie Mullins suggesting he will run a good horse in it, last season’s top novices looking like they might run in it, and yet come the day the competition is at the same level as in all previous years?
Nicky Henderson is at a disadvantage, though. Whereas if Willie trained Jonbon, in Ireland he would be able to find a conditions chase at one of the smaller racecourses to try him over a distance beyond 2-mile 4-furlongs. Nicky though will be forced to discover if Jonbon stays the distance by throwing him into the King George. The B.H.A. must grasp the nettle and begin the process of helping our trainers by allowing a few condition chases over distances beyond 2-mile 4-furlongs so that Nicky and his fellow trainers can bring their nice young horses along at a similar pace to how Mullins trains his horses. At the moment, Henderson has the choice of the Betfair, a race he dislikes, at Haydock or the King George in order to discover whether Jonbon is a stayer or not, and if the distance proves beyond him, he will have a hard race which in all likelihood will bottom him for the rest of the season. Sod betting revenue turnover; our trainers need to be assisted not hampered by the system.

The manner in which Dan Skelton has conducted himself during his protracted battle with Willie Mullins is a credit to him and a credit to the sport. He deserves high praise for his conduct and greater luck from the racing gods next season.
But would it not be nice for us if his salute to Willie and Patrick Mullins yesterday ‘same place, same time, next year’ comes to fruition.
The one difference next season that would perhaps give him an edge would be for The New Lion to go through the season unbeaten, and that includes winning the Champion Hurdle. He also could do with finding a genuine Grand National horse.

The flat takes over from now until October and one jockey who I will be crossing my fingers for a successful season is Kieran Shoemark. For a man who defeated addiction to have to put up with the crap that was served-up by nasty individuals on social media was unfair, unjust and a smite on those who believe themselves to be fans of the sport. The ignorant we do without. Shoemark is a fine man, with good manners and great ability in the saddle. Let us hope he wins the 2,000 Guineas next week of Fields of Gold and carries all before him throughout the season.

​The flat season moves into a higher gear today with 2 minor Group races and a recognised Derby trial at Sandown – a Derby trial before the 2,000 Guineas is run! So now is a good time to begin to reflect on the 2024/25 National Hunt season.
Overall, my impression, aside from how quickly it has all flown by, is that it has been highly satisfactory even without the emergence of a new and genuine equine star. It is not a problem exactly but the National Hunt season does tend to be judged exclusively on what happens at the Cheltenham Festival and I did not see a single winner to set my heart on fire. My thoughts are that it was a satisfactory festival, though without any standout moments, except perhaps the mayhem and delight that was the Champion Hurdle.
Given my love of the underdog, Jeremy Scott training the winner of the Champion Hurdle was by far my favourite moment of the entire season. Golden Ace may not be in the top league of Champion Hurdle winners but it was a victory for a team that gave it a go and that would have been enough in itself to make the 2025 Champion Hurdle live long in the memory. Yet it also served up the first fall of a previously unblemished record of Constitution Hill and the remarkable and quite shocking tumble of State Man at the final hurdle. Hopefully come next season connections will follow Mr. Gosden’s example and just ‘give it a go’. It would make for more enthralling racing.
Despite all the whining by experts, with many different opinions on how to improve the racing side of the Cheltenham experience, I believe, with the possible exception of returning the festival to 3-days, that Cheltenham have the meeting about right, though with one glaring exception. The Mares Hurdle. Personally, I would remove the race entirely from the meeting and transfer it to the ‘Trials Day’ meeting in late January and rename the race the Champion Mares Hurdle. The race must not be lost, though, as it is too important for the encouragement to breeders and to owners to buy and race mares. But as it is at present, the Mares Hurdle is doing great harm to the integrity of one of the sport’s blue riband races and Cheltenham must acknowledge the fact. What sort of race could replace it I am not sure. A mares’ handicap, perhaps. Though I feel there are already enough races for mares at the festival.
I have come to accept that there will never again be a Grand National and that the race that has replaced it is here to stay. When it was first proposed to alter the fences, Ruby Walsh warned that by lowering the height of the fences to make the race less of a jumping test, the race would get faster and it is speed that kills. It is one thing for the authorities to pay no heed to his warning, it is another thing entirely to have Ruby now endorsing the emasculation of the fences and the race.
What we have, with the Aintree fences now resembling the old Mildmay course, for anyone who can remember what the fences used to look-like on the park course at Aintree before they too were altered, is a parody of the National when it was truly Grand. If proof was required for my argument, it came this year with Closutton’s near total domination of the race. It was notable when Henry de Bromhead had the first two back when Rachael Blackmore won the race. Before his achievement, can anyone remember a trainer even having two out of the first four, let alone five out of the first seven home. A remarkable feat, yes, yet proof positive that the National today bares little resemblance to the race Red Rum made his own. And it is not as if Aintree has made the race safe and effective. Although the death of Celebre de Allen this year was not attributed to taking part in the race, we are very fortunate that Broadway Boy survived his heart-stopping fall at Valentines.
Informed changes I can accept. I moaned little when the alterations began in earnest in 2013 and the alterations to the fences in 1960 was well overdue. But the changes now are for changes sake only, a woke attitude that merely emboldens our opponents to further their attacks on our sport. As a result of the changes, we are divided and that weakens our standpoint. The maximum field reduction from 40 to 34 was pointless when there is room for 60 horses on the run from the first fence down to Bechers. You could limit the number to 10 and still be faced with a fatality. All that was needed was for the jockeys to be instructed to race in a straight line from the start to the fourth-fence. Not that such a strategy would guarantee an injury-free race. But nothing will; it is the nature of sport and life, that fate holds all the aces when it comes to living and dying and by reducing the fear factor we are making the work of fate so much easier.
The sun will set another day and hopefully my ‘woe is me’ attitude will brighten when my other thoughts on the past season come to the forefront of my mind.

​As I predicted (if you are being kind) Mark Walsh has come in for the ride on Jonbon at Cheltenham tomorrow. In Nico de Boinville’s regrettable absence, Walsh is a sensible safe pair hands, especially as James Bowen failed to become friends with Jonbon at Cheltenham last season. Against my prediction, though a triumph for what I hoped-for, James Bowen is in line to get the leg-up on Constitution Hill at Punchestown next week. I suppose it might be termed under the heading ‘poison chalice’. If he wins, it will all be down to Constitution Hill being ‘the greatest hurdler of all-time’. He is not, by the way. And if he falls again - but let us not travel that path.

The Lossiemouth versus Lossiemouth clash at Sandown tomorrow is more embarrassment than it is a problem for the commentator or spectator. No two horses in training should have the same name and is easily avoided if a horse that comes to race in Britain has the same name as a horse already in training here has his or her name altered. The second Lossiemouth to come into this country could and should have had its name altered to ‘The Lossiemouth’ or ‘Another Lossiemouth.’ Or something along those lines.
On a similar subject. If a horse comes from abroad, usually France, with a name the same as a horse still revered on these shores, for example Brown Jack, the name must be altered to ‘The Brown Jack’ or ‘Another Brown Jack.’ Personally, I hate to see the names of famous horses replicated, especially when carried by inferior horses. It is as maddening as when Mr & Mrs Jones name their first-born Winston Churchill Jones or David Bowie Jones. And yes, I know that Bowie’s real name was David Jones. My barber grew-up in the same street as David Jones and has a signed copy of Bowie’s first ever record. Worth a small fortune, I should imagine. Not that he will sell. So no asking me to pass on your telephone number or e-mail address.

Due to pressure from the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association, Horse Racing Ireland has gone back on its plan to restrict 60-races per season to those trainers who the previous season failed to train 50-winners or more. Might overcoming basic human welfare due to the ‘big 4’ threatening to take the H.R.I. to court on the premise of ‘restriction of trade’ or some such rot. I believe everyone involved in racing should get a fair crack of earning a fair wage from the sport and given the overwhelming dominance of the ‘big 4’ in Irish racing, I saw these proposed 60-races as a helping hand for those not blessed with the level of wealth that underpins the big 4 stables.
The I.R.T.A have submitted alternative plans to achieve this helping hand incentive, though I doubt they will help half as much as the original proposal.

I.T.V. are brilliant for the sport and a godsend for the television viewer. As Ed Chamberlain recognised last Saturday, the race programme for Sandown this weekend would have meant they would have to go off air before it was known, perhaps, whether Skelton or Mullins had won the trainers’ championship and with the sort of diplomacy and cooperation unknown to peace negotiators, the whole running order was shifted around and I.T.V. bosses then allowed an extra 60-minutes of broadcasting. This would not have happened in the B.B.C.’s tenure of the contract, and neither would it have happened when Channel 4 held the reins. Ed, you are a wonder. Now let us hope Skelton can dig-in and still be shooting for the crown come the final race of the 2024/25 season.

Now, let me be clear: I am not suggesting that the cooling down of horses after the Aintree National is not a good idea. If vets advocate the procedure, then I am not one to argue against them. But.
Why is the provision of water not mandatory at the finish of every long-distance chase or every race when the temperature is above, say, 25-degrees? And why is it not mandatory for every racecourse, especially flat courses who race mainly during the summer months, to have misting machines installed.
At Aintree, I.T.V. stressed the importance of horse welfare. The same level of horse welfare should be in place at every racecourse. Because if it is not, we leave ourselves open to criticism, to be judged as having a two-tier attitude to welfare. One for when terrestrial cameras are present and one for when they are not.

​In the ‘Another View’ column of the Racing Post today, Catherine Macrae makes a good case for National Hunt jockeys to have a break from racing imposed on them after the end-of-season meeting at Sandown. I say ‘imposed’, my word, not Catherine’s, as jockeys all seem to suffer from the condition workaholicism, a compulsion that inherently lazy people like myself cannot get our heads around. At the moment this break from the treadmill comes around at high summer, so jockeys may not appreciate being thwarted in their need to earn a wage on more than one occasion. A break of two or three weeks from the end of one season and the start of the next may seem a better idea that in high summer but it would not come without problems as spring time is a good business opportunity for many of our more scenic racecourses.
There is a 6-day hiatus from Sandown this Saturday to Cheltenham the following Friday evening, the popular Hunter Chase meeting, with the professional jockeys getting back on the horse the following day at either Uttoxeter or Hexham.
Personally, I believe the problem of the top jockeys burning themselves out would be better alleviated if there were designated days and weeks throughout the year when meetings are restricted to riders who have ridden less than 30-winners in the previous 12-months. Or any number and any period that best fits. The top jockeys earn a good living from the sport, and deserve every penny; this cannot be said for the lower rank of jockeys and they deserve the opportunity of a boost to their income. The top jockeys can easily afford to have a few weeks in the year imposed on them when they must rest and recuperate. It will good for their bodies and good for their minds. Even workaholics of the Sean Bowen mindset.

I am saddened by the retirement of Emma Smith Chaston. She always looked a neat and tidy rider, proven by getting her claim down to 3Ibs. In an interview when announcing her retirement, which seemed a spur-of-the-moment decision, though perhaps not, she admitted to losing the heart for the game. I hope the sport does not lose her entirely as people with her ability and experience are in short supply and when the Emma Smith Chaston’s of this racing world find employment outside of the sport, the sport can only suffer.

Perth today have a cracker of a 3-mile listed novice hurdle. Perth should be applauded for boosting the prize-money for the race and are rewarded with 14-runners, all of which have the form to either win or run with merit. If only every racecourse would be as bold and generous. As I have said multiple times, if the B.H.A. were to have an aspiration for every racecard staging one race per-meeting worth £10,000 or more to the winner, the trickle-up effect would become the norm and the problem of poor prize-money would not be quite the problem it is.

At Plumpton on Monday, Nico de Boinville suffered neck and back injuries which means Jonbon will have to thwart the Mullin’s battalion with a different jockey on his back on Saturday. James Bowen would be the obvious stand-in but it was clear to a blind man that James and Jonbon did not get on when they partnered at Cheltenham last season and perhaps brother Sean might make a better fit. I also think that Harry Cobden might also be a good fit and he is everyones go to jockey at the moment. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that J.P. might insist on Mark Walsh getting the ride. 
All of which is to snub James Bowen, Henderson’s number two jockey and who is doubtless better acquainted with the Henderson stars than an outside jockey, even if he has only schooled alongside de Boinville and not actually schooled the big two himself. If Bowen, James that is, is the man in the wings to take over from de Boinville when he retires, then he should be given the opportunity to ride both Jonbon and Constitution Hill, and all the Seven Barrows horses over the next two weeks. I somehow doubt he will. I suspect Harry Cobden will be a very busy man over the next week or two.

​Did anyone observe, and perhaps marvel, at the neat and tidy build-up to the start of the Irish National? The almost military precision of the two opposing circles of horses before the parade in front of the stands, topped-off by a no messing about start, so quick and clean that the I.T.V. presenters were still mid-conversation when it was finally noticed the race had started. You see, in so many ways, Ireland do things better.

Although I still think as if I live in the past and abhor change for the sake of change, I admit that sometimes change is inevitable and necessary. It is my belief that what makes flat racing second-best to National Hunt is largely down to the fact that it is organised to benefit breeders before the sport itself. I will argue long into the night that the classics should be run later in the season in order to give three-year-olds time to mature, to take away the advantage the more precocious colts and fillies have over the later bloomers.
Also, as Julian Muscat explains in his piece in the Racing Post today, the concept of ante-post wagers seems to a dying art or gamble. Once upon a time a British-trained colt, the best of the previous year’s two-year-old generation, would obviously be aimed early season at the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket or be kept for the Epsom Derby. Nowadays, especially when the top studs may own three or four Guineas or Derby-types, the French, Irish or even the German classic can be involved in the equation of where any of them may run, adding confusion to the betting market until the 5-day declarations. Though Muscat’s main gripe seems to be that hacks like himself no longer get first dibs in the ante-post markets when the bookies are giving out odds for the following season’s classics after a colt has impressively won the Middle Park, Dewhurst or any of the newer Group 1 races for two-year-olds.
What really needs to happen, though, to bring flat racing into the modern world and out of traditions that began in the smoke-filled rooms of the Jockey Club during days even before Bentinck and Admiral Rous, is to end the first entry stage for classics when the blue-bloods are still only foals. Why not have the first entry stage for the first four classics on the day the new flat season begins? It would, I suggest, add a little sparkle to the occasion. At the end of the day, the classics are just races the same as every other race during the flat season. As Julian Muscat makes clear, the ante-post market is practically dead, so why not let it die a peaceful death?

David Carr, writing in the ‘Another View’ column of today’s Racing Post, makes a strong case for the B.H.A. to ignore Easter when drawing up the racing calendar for the year. I say a strong case, though it would be no case at all if Dan Skelton was successful with his proposal for moving Aintree and the National to the last meeting of the season. It is such a sensible idea I am deflated that it is not being widely debated in the Racing Post or on any of the Podcasts. Debate, go on debate. Write letters if you are in favour of the proposal. Dan might need cheering-up come Saturday night. It will be scant consolation to him to have the ‘Skelton Proposal’ come to fruition but it would be some consolation for the poor old soul.

Talking of Easter. Away from Plumpton, the most noteworthy meeting to be held over the Easter period – today is Easter Tuesday, is it not – is run today at Epsom. Surely this one-day meeting should be on Easter Monday? The first proper Derby trial is run today, the Blue Riband, along with two handicaps that back in the day were prestigious races, races the top jockeys were desperate to have on their c.v., the City and Suburban and the Great Metropolitan, once a 2-mile 2-furlong tour of the Epsom Downs.
Unlike David Carr, I believe Easter is an opportunity to showcase our sport, as Plumpton achieved over the weekend. Epsom should be the flag-bearer for an Easter uprising, not an Easter downsizing.

​As some people will be aware, I do not like to boast. Not that I have much to boast about. Yet I do occasionally surprise both myself and others by getting something right. Rarely winners but then again, I rarely try too hard to find winners as it is a hard occupation, as the Racing Post experts will gladly testify to. 
In his Monday column in the Racing Post – no holiday off for Lee Mottershead – Lee praised the on-going success story that is the master of Closutton and in equal measure Willie’s ding-dong battle with Dan Skelton for the British trainers’ title. He is right to do so, even if Willie’s one hand already on the trophy seems bit like when a marathon runner joins the local stamina test at 21st-mile post, have given precious little thought up till then about even taking part in the contest. 
Willie Mullins always impresses and not only by the sheer number of winners he achieves in any one season, a season that for Willie does not start in earnest until November and ends in June. It is not a marathon to Willie but an intermediate trip. A Ryanair not an Aintree National. The months in between are there for Willie to keep his hand in, projects mostly, no doubt put in place months and months in advance.
Dan Skelton is also impressive and the more he is front of the camera the more I have come to like him, a man who knows how to accept defeat and that is with sporting good grace. I hope come Sandown it is his hands that holds the trophy aloft.
Lee Mottershead also heaps praise on Shaun Hinds, chief executive at Newbury, for turning the fortunes of the course around when in comes to attendance. Large percentage increases on people through the gates at Newbury has been achieved by actively promoting the racecourse as a fun and entertaining venue to local people. This is where I have earned the right, I believe, to boast. Somewhere in the archive of this site – which year or month or title is beyond both my memory and my organisational skills – you will find, if you take-up the challenge, at least two articles where I implore racecourses not to neglect the local community when it comes to advertising meetings. Leaflets through the doors, I suggested, discounts for people living in local post-codes. Free buses from nearby cities or towns. Friendly faces welcoming racegoers, especially to first-timers. I boast no more. Until the next time.

It is Irish National Day and I give you Duffle Coat, either as a clothing suggestion if you are attending or as a sporting bet.
That is where the Irish National wins and the Aintree National now loses, that it is still possible for a rank outsider to win the race. You know the names, the odds. A rank outsider to me is a horse whose odds are 50/1 or larger. The Irish National is a proper race. Not fancy. Not pretentious, unlike the new and much-reduced English version. A horse race of the people, for the people.

There is a photograph in the Racing Post of Jake Cromwell being congratulated by his mother for winning a pony race at Fairyhouse yesterday. The lad is wearing the famous green and gold colours of J.P. McManus. Name me another sport where an eleven-year-old can play such a feature part in his father’s sporting success, having led in his father’s Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Inothewayurthinkin? I envy the lad; his future has solid foundations. He knows where he is heading in life at an age before he is even a teenager. Lucky lad. Great sport. A great sport for family involvement. What were you doing the same age as Jake Cromwell? What were your aspirations? Aimless, without direction? That was me, anyway. Still the same aged 71.

Yes, I moan far more often than I boast. Is one worse than the other? My moan today is unlike Ireland that provides Easter with the magic of the Irish National, in Britain we apply no magic to the day. It might as well be just another manic Monday. Perhaps it has always been thus, though in the past, when my love of the sport equally incorporated flat racing, was there not the Roseberry Handicap at Kempton as a feature race of the day? A feature handicap at Thirsk or Redcar? Or am I misremembering? Plumpton stage a valuable race today but it is the Mullins/Skelton ding-dong that is the attraction and both the race and the ding-dong may never happen again..
Is the sport so poor in financial terms that money cannot be found for every Easter Monday meeting to have a big-money feature to align with Plumpton’s efforts, if only to raise the status sporting status of the day to something akin to magical? Perhaps Shaun Hinds should be asked and tasked with directing Easter Monday racing, with a budget and the targeted aim at getting as many local people through the gates of their local racecourse as possible. Easter Monday is our great opportunity to promote the sport. Yet, as always, the B.H.A. sit on their hands. No chocolate eggs for them, I hope.

​As I have said before, Ireland do things better than we do. A good example is the rescheduling of the abandoned (postponed) first day of the Irish National meeting for this coming Tuesday. No waiting around for a decision, just run the meeting as soon as is practically possible.
Also, no bending the knee towards the ignorant few. 30-runners are slated to line-up for the Irish National tomorrow, on a course half the size of Aintree where 34 is the maximum number. In Britain, we have dug a hole for ourselves which will prove impossible to climb out of. In Ireland, they are yet to even pick-up a spade.

In the U.S. there is to be a Netflix series based around Frankie Dettori and some of the top U.S. jockeys, highlighting the Kentucky Derby. No real interest to me if it were not for yet another spotlight on racing focusing on the human element of the sport and not the human partnership with the horse in horse racing. 
This sport is about racing horses for the enrichment and enjoyment of humans. What must be delivered to the watching public is the love of the horse and the appreciation of all that comes from our close bond with this beautiful creature. It is where ‘Full Gallop’ failed for me, no matter how ‘Hollywood’ Harry Cobden came across.

In today’s letters column of the Racing Post, Mr. John Blance suggests the sport should not be so defensive and point out the hypocrisy of the ignorant few for making racing out to be cruel when the majority may well wear clothes and shoes made of leather and eat cow, pig and sheep. There are elements of this sport which I find hard to stomach, not least the stupid amounts of money people will spend on young, immature horses simply in the hope of achieving a winner at Cheltenham or Royal Ascot. Yet defence of what I believe to be my sport is the hill I would undoubtedly die on, along with one or two other issues.

Also, in the Racing Post letters column today there is a letter from Mr. Andrew Sissons of Nottingham who believes the trainers’ and jockeys’ championships should be determined by either prize-money won or total number of winners. This whole field requires tidying-up, with different time-lengths for the flat, with the jockeys’ title determined by a selected number of months in the season, whereas the trainer’s title is determined over the whole 12-months.
To answer Mr. Sissons proposal. Why not two titles for both trainer and jockey. The Champion National Hunt jockey would be determined on races won, with a prize-money title going to the jockey who won the most first prize-money throughout the season, with the trainers’ championship following the same path, races won and prize-money. This would create the additional interest of either a jockey or trainer doing ‘the double’.
The flat championships are basically stupid and need to be rectified as soon as possible, perhaps sooner. The champion jockey for the season should be based on the number of winners rode throughout that season, not a part of that season as it is now. The hard-working jockeys who ride all-year in Britain are disadvantaged by the present system, with the all-star jockeys who ride all around the world given the benefit of a short season in which to base himself in this country. I would not be against a David Power Cup type championship within a championship based on Group races won through the season but the overall champion jockey and trainer should account for every race staged throughout the season.
Also, as my thoughts on the National Hunt championships, I would not be averse to two titles for both trainer and jockey, with a trophy for most races won and prize-money won.
I also think all-weather races should not count towards the turf championships but be a class of its own, thus allowing those jockeys who do not normally achieve the limelight in their careers gain an opportunity to become a champion, even if the all-weather championship will always be deemed inferior to the flat championship. The all-weather championship could run Easter to Easter or January 1st to December 31st.

The problem I have with the David Power Cup, if it should continue next season, is that too much money goes to too few jockeys. £100,000 would be a perfectly acceptable reward for the winner. The other £900,000 (did someone say there is no money in bookmaking these days) spread amongst as many other jockeys as possible, though with only races televised by I.T.V. an inhibiting factor when it comes to jockeys based in the North of England, this will doubtless be difficult to achieve. 
The sport will thrive if the foundations of the sport are strong. It will not survive if the perspective of the public is that it is a sport where the rich get richer and the journeymen are left to chase crumbs that fall from the gold plate of the happy few who dine at the top table. It is wrong-headed to argue that in all sport the most successful gain the greatest rewards. We are not just a sport, we are an industry, a partnership between man and horse, and there is this undefined aspect called the ‘social licence’ that governs our existence. We cannot afford to be seen as elitist. We are very much a working-class sport underpinned by the wealthy few. Image is everything in this social-media-led world.