​Anyone who reads autobiographies of pre-1970’s flat jockeys, as I do, will be aware that in the list of their accomplishments are races that either no longer exist or are much reduced in prestige. Eph Smith, for example, brother of 5-times champion jockey Doug Smith and rider of the 1939 2,000 Guineas and Epsom Derby winner Blue Peter, considered winning the Bibury Cup in 1946 worthy of inclusion in the record of his big race successes. In the same year he won the Brown Jack Stakes at Ascot and in 1947 the Lanark Silver Bell. In 1964 he won the Great Yorkshire Handicap, in 1963 the Ripon St. Leger Trial and in 1962 the Great Metropolitan Handicap. He did not record these successes as his career had free-falled since his Epsom Derby victory and won none of the races that are now labelled Group races as in the year of his retirement in 1965 he won the Pretty Polly at Newmarket and in 1962 the Cheveley Park, the Royal Lodge and St.James’ Palace. As with the Brighton Autumn Cup, the aforementioned races were considered races of consequence and merit in their day.
The Bibury Cup is still raced for, it is just not considered today as anything more than just another race. The Doncaster St.Leger and Lincoln Handicap are two races that today no longer garner the anticipation and excitement as once they did. Sadly, Sandown’s Eclipse Stakes is another historic race that is becoming more and more diminished as the years pass by.
I am a tradionalist; a sentimentalist, if you care to think so. To set aside the history of the sport for no other reason than to implement change for the sake of change is always a mistake. Sometimes, as with Royal Ascot stretching out to 5-days, it brings benefits, as will be the case when the Cheltenham Festival goes in the same direction, though with Cheltenham it is the financial windfall where the benefit will be appreciated. And as much as I would like the Lincoln to be returned to its former glory when attached to the Grand National it formed one half of the Spring Double, in its present form it is going to drift further and further into the dusky realms of just another handicap.
The Eclipse is named after the horse that was the sport’s first great racehorse and a sire who has influenced the breeding industry for the past 250-years. His name is so hallowed that to allow the race his name honours to slip from its perch as one of the highlights of the flat season will be unforgivable. This season, and yes travel restrictions might be playing its part, though I doubt this reason is the answer as foreign invaders have become fewer for over a decade now, there might be as little as four runners, with Wonderful Tonight highly doubtful to participate unless a monsoon washes across Esher on Friday evening. Addeybb also requires soft underfoot conditions, so is equally unlikely to run and though Aidan O’Brien has three entries, will all three take part? Quite easily the field might only comprise Mishriff, St,Mark’s Basilica, Armory and El Drama and possibly Japan. Owners and trainers are voting with their entry money and finding alternative races in Ireland and France. Perhaps now is the moment to consider my radical, and many times put forward, idea to scrap the Eclipse as it presently stands and upgrade it to classic status.
Yes, classic status. Modern breeders are in want of stallions that have won over 10-furlongs. So, think of this for a moment: a classic triple crown comprising the 2,000 Guineas, Epsom Derby and Eclipse. 8-furlongs, 12-furlongs, 10-furlongs. The 5 classic races neatly raced-for by the middle of the summer and not drawn out to late autumn when the Arc, Champions Day and the Breeders Cup dominate the racing sphere.
Trainers do not need the Eclipse as they once did, the paltry entry for this year’s renewal proves the point, as they have races in Ireland, France and elsewhere to party at. And I am not suggesting we abandon the St.Leger to its fate. I would make it all-age; I would do everything possible to make it the most valuable flat race in Britain; I would keep it the same distance and at the same racecourse, and I would set its date for a month before the Arc.
An Eclipse upgraded to classic status, restricted, obviously, to 3-year-olds, could, and perhaps should, have the winners of multiple classic races taking part as 10-furlongs is easily within the compass of most 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas, Derby and Oaks winners.
It will never happen, of course. Perhaps it will never even be debated. And the B.H.A. is far too much plough-driven to recognise the potential in embracing radical change. And I would only countenance the change myself to classic status if the St.Leger is equally enhanced. 

​As I have always said; flat racing is biased toward breeders; it’s a class thing.
Maddy Playle in the Racing Post wrote a really good piece today on why geldings should be allowed to run in classics and all championship races. I agree with her, though there are no actual championship races on the flat, nothing that actually crowns a horse as a champion. The Champion Stakes does not produce the champion racehorse at 1 ¼-miles. In fact, the Champion Stakes is really only a consolation race for those horses either considered not up to Arc standards or horses unplaced in the Arc. ‘Champions Day, too, does not produce champions. But that is whole different can of worms.
It is argued that the Classics, Group 1’s and, the race that brought about this debate, the Commonwealth Cup, are important for producing stallions. Which may well be true. But it can also be said, these races do not always produce good, sound stallions and serve only to inflate the value of horses their owners wish to sell for breeding purposes. Yet surely the sport of horse racing should be about the racing of horses and if fillies are allowed to run in all the relevant races, why not geldings? The stallion and breeding side of the industry should be a matter for post-racing.
John Hislop, to his credit, even if truth were known, along with his wife, he was a pain-in-the-ass to Dick Hern, set out to expose the limitations of Brigadier Gerard, not to protect his reputation at all costs. It is why he won races from 6-furlongs to 1 ½ -miles; why he was determined to try him in the King George and Queen Elizabeth at Ascot. He was even thinking of keeping him in training as a 5-year-old when the Ascot Gold Cup might have been a temptation. Yet even with his brilliant race-career, because Brigadier Gerard was only by Queen’s Hussar, a disappointment at stud, and out of an undistinguished mare, he was not supported by breeders and was an only so-so success himself at stud.
As Frankel in the main sires stayers, it will remain a lasting regret that he was never tried at 1 ½ -miles.
As much as I argue horse racing is a working-class sport underpinned by the fabulously wealthy, there remains at its heart a prejudice towards the aristocracy of the world. Or the elite, if you will. Although the top breeders occasionally have a top-rated horse that is a gelding, in the main it is the lower rank of owner that has geldings and it wouldn’t do to allow the hoi polloi to pocket classics at the expense of owners considered suitable for membership of the Jockey Club, would it?
Of course, geldings, if they have achieved the right level of form, should be allowed to compete in the Commonwealth Cup, the Classics and Group 1’s. The best should always be allowed to compete against the best. No one raises an eyebrow that fillies are allowed to run in the Epsom Derby even though they have their own classic run over the same course and over the same distance. If it is acceptable for a filly to beat the colts, why not a gelding?
There is a major disparity in thinking when geldings can compete in both the King’s Stand and the Jubilee yet are exempt from running in the Commonwealth Cup, a juvenile in race terms compared to the long-standing sprints at the Royal meeting. I realise that as 3-year-old Battaash was a bit of a hooligan and not suitably mannered to appear before the reigning monarch but imagine if the Jubilee was a gelding-free zone; the best sprinter in a generation would have no race at the Royal meeting to strut his stuff.
Horse Racing was established by one man betting against another than his horse was the fastest or the best. Surely the raison-d’etre of the sport, the whole reason for its existence, is to establish the best horse in any given race and to arbitrarily decide to omit a horse on the grounds that should it win he will be of no value to breeders clashes with the principles that shape the sport?
As Ms Playle quite rightly pointed out, it is contrary that a horse is encouraged to run in races considered the main trials for a race, in this case the Commonwealth Cup, yet because it is deemed two balls short of a full sack is denied a shot at the race itself. Like so much of life at the moment, it is an illogical state of affairs and should be rectified as quickly as the slow-coach that is the B.H.A. can manage.

​The debate over whether it would be percipient and in all our best interests to extend the Cheltenham Festival to 5-days is once again being debated by the great and the good of racing. A case of here we go again. Why must it take so long for racing to resolve even the simplest of issues?
Amongst those in the ‘inevitable camp’ are Nicky Henderson and David Pipe, with amongst those in the ‘dissenting camp’ are Paul Nicholls and Alan King. Willie Mullins is of the opinion, I suspect, ‘yummy-yummy, good for my tummy. Bring it on!’ The majority of the Racing Post’s journalists are of a more sceptical mindset, being of the opinion that it would be stretching the elastic a mite bit too far. Julian Muscat, a bit of a fuddy-duddy, I suspect, continues to complain that Royal Ascot became a shadow of its former self when the fifth-day was sneaked into existence under the guise of a gift to the Queen in celebration of her Jubilee.
I suspect all those presently arguing that quality of racing will be sacrificed in an indecent haste to refill racing’s depleted coffers were using the same argument when it was decided to keep Royal Ascot to 5-days. Perhaps the thought of quaffing all that champagne five-days in a row and eating all that rich man’s food and having to do a day’s work, while all-the-while there are young whipper-snappers snapping at their heels and eyeing up their office space, is giving them sleepless nights.
They may well be right, of course, though in my opinion Royal Ascot is not in any way diminished by 5-days. Of course, there are two keys differences between Royal Ascot and the Cheltenham, and not the lack of fences and hurdles at the former. The Cheltenham Festival meeting has the word ‘Champion’ in the title of many of its headline races and even those condition chases and hurdles that omit the word ‘Champion’ are considered by all and sundry to be championship races. Royal Ascot, for all its glamour, prestige and huge purses, does not crown a single champion, not even the Gold Cup winner. And Royal Ascot is staged 3-months into the flat season, while the Cheltenham Festival is staged at the back-end of the jumps season, thereby Royal Ascot has a much larger pool of horses to draw upon and in a normal year (will we ever see normal again?) they can attract horses trained in all parts of the world. With the exception of the Cross-Country Chase, Cheltenham can only rely on horses trained in Britain and Ireland.
My take on the debate, as anyone who wishes to trawl the archive of this site can verify, is that I do not think, at this point in time, there needs to be a debate on 4-days or 5, though I am 100% in favour in the meeting being extended by a day.
Prior to the Queen’s Jubilee, Royal Ascot used to be a 4-day meeting, bookended by a fifth-day ‘Heath’ meeting of which the feature race was the Churchill Stakes. This is the way forward for Cheltenham, I believe.
The Midlands National should be moved to the weekend before The Festival, creating a big handicap double with Sandown’s Imperial Cup. The fifth-day could then become a Festival Heath Day which can be used to test the waters to see if there is an appetite amongst the public for an extended Festival. Also, and journalists are being short-sighted in their dismissal of the fifth-day proposal, the town of Cheltenham not only lost out financially when the 2021 Festival was run behind closed-doors but the year before the town’s economy was blitzed by having no literature, arts or music festivals, with the same no do doubt in store for them this summer. In helping our own finances, a fifth-day would help out the town’s finances; a kind gesture in times of trouble and one that can only cement the bond between racecourse and town.
The races, by the way, are there for this fifth/Heath Day. I would like the Cross-Country Chase switched to the Saturday and becoming the headline race. If it was possible to double or treble the prize-money this might entice the top cross-country horses from Europe and perhaps a better quality of horse from Britain and Ireland. Any type of race being considered for the Festival itself could be trialled on the Saturday and any race sacrificed from the Festival could find a home on this under-card.
This fifth/Heath Day would make the perfect home for the consolation races for the County Hurdle and one of the staying hurdles. The novice handicap chase could be reinstated and a novice handicap hurdle instigated. A Veterans Chase would be perfect for a fifth-day and a Mares Bumper would round-off a perfectly feasible day’s racing. And if you want a race from left-field, how about a female jockeys hurdle or chase?
Don’t know what the debate is about.

​Though it lacked a genuine ‘wow’ moment, I thought the 2021 Royal Ascot meeting set a high standard from Palace Pier to Stratum. It was a shame for Alan King that the rain did not come a day earlier as the Gold Cup was diminished without the presence of Trueshan and given the ground of Friday and Saturday he would have gone close to winning if his stamina held out. But that is a case what if and maybes. If the rain hadn’t come to the party perhaps every result on the Friday and Saturday might have been different.
The best performance of the week, to my mind, was Beautiful Tonight in the Hardwicke. She rather knocked my eye out with her performance and given similar ground conditions both the King George & Queen Elizabeth and the Arc are easily within her compass. If Beautiful Tonight and Love where at a similar fitness level, it was both horses first run of the season, the latter will have to improve quite a lot to out-stay the former over 12-furlongs.
In my estimation the best two-year-olds to run at the meeting were in the Chesham and I would back Her Majesty’s Reach for the Moon to gain revenge on Point Lonsdale if the two should meet again this season as the O’Brien horse had horses to race against while the Queen’s horse was out on a wing and in need of company.
The stewards got the Commonwealth Cup inquiry correct, though it was harsh to give Oisin Murphy 4-days suspension when Jim Crowley only got 6-days for a far more serious offence the day before. At no point did Murphy put Dettori and his mount in any danger whereas Ryan Moore had to snatch-up Roman Empire to avoid clipping heels. The main discussion point, though, and one the B.H.A. choose to ignore, is that there is no great deterrent, especially in important races, to put the emphasis on a jockey keeping his horse galloping in a straight line, allowing them to take the easier option of drifting into or across rivals. No jockey sets out to endanger his rivals or their horses but the imperative should be to put down the whip, take hold of both reins, in order to go in a straight line. I thought Crowley would get a 10-day suspension and was surprised at the leniency of the stewards but I was more surprised Murphy got 4-days as he made strenuous efforts to keep his horse straight.
Forget criticising Frankie for getting into a bit of bother on Stradivarius. If the horse was on his A-game, which I am convinced he wasn’t, the horse would have made up lengths on Subjectivist once in the clear. As it was, he couldn’t find the speed or energy to get past the runner-up or 3rd, let alone gain on the winner. I admit I wasn’t a fan of Subjectivist before Thursday but in my estimation, for what it is worth, he was better winner of the race than any of Stradivarius’ three wins. Joe Fanning’s hardest job during the race was pulling the horse up.
Royal Ascot is Royal Ascot. It is not flat racing’s Olympics. It is not flat racing’s Cheltenham Festival. It is Royal Ascot. It is about royalty, majestic racing, flowers and fashion and men dressed out-doors as if going-on after racing to a society wedding. Top-hats are stupid head-gear and t.v. presenters sporting them, especially at the start, looks less like a homage to Victoriana and more like a comedy sketch character who has wandered out of the wrong door at Ealing studios. 
The main reason Royal Ascot is a standalone event in the racing calendar is, and this really applies to the whole of the flat racing season, no horse is crowned champion at any distance or in any age group. The reason Royal Ascot is neither the Olympics nor flat racing’s equivalent to the Cheltenham Festival is that those two events produce champions. We know the horse that is the Champion hurdler or 2-mile chaser, we know who is the gold medal winner in the 100-metres or marathon. At Royal Ascot we get to admire good-class horses fighting out good-class races, yet every race, even the Group 1’s, are races on a pathway to somewhere else. Even ‘Champions Day’ does not produce equine champions. It is why the flat narrative is so confusing. The jumps season has a start, a middle and an ending, with the champions crowned at the back-end of the season. The B.H.A. should consider redefining the flat season so that the calendar produces something similar. Just a thought.
Though I am not as cock-a-hoop as Ed Chamberlain at the news I.T.V. will be televising all 14-races at the Breeders’ Cup this season, Ed and his team should be congratulated for their presentation of the sport last week. Yes, I find the fashion an intrusion and I don’t think its coverage engages outsiders to the point they will want to sample a day out at their local race-meeting and I would prefer to see more of the horses before and after the races, yet one and all should be congratulated for not once commenting on the disparity of racegoers not wearing masks and, especially jockeys, those in the paddock having to wear them. It is mere theatre and some point it has to be mentioned. If not, jockeys might still be wearing them come the next Royal Ascot.

​Royal Ascot is the only flat meeting, in my prejudiced opinion, that even comes close to pushing the Cheltenham Festival for the title of ‘best meeting in the world’. It is also the only flat meeting that I enjoy from race 1 on day 1 to the last race on the final day. It is a compendium of horse racing in this country, with races from 5-furlong to 2-miles 5-furlongs, with every distance in between catered for. Group 1’s, 2’s and 3’s plus some of the most competitive handicaps you could ever find in any part of the globe. In fact, I would go so far to say that the handicaps at Royal Ascot not only rival the Cheltenham Festival handicaps but out-do them, with the Royal Hunt Cup one of my favourite flat races of the whole season. If I live long enough I hope to one year actually tip the winner.
What bugs me about Royal Ascot, mistakenly referred to by some as ‘the Olympics of horse racing’, which is plainly a misleading comparison, is that no champions are crowned throughout the week, with the possible exception of the Ascot Gold Cup, though come the end of October, after the Goodwood and Doncaster Cups and Champions Day, the winner at Ascot may become usurped as champion stayer in the end-of-year official ratings. Though that may be true over the jumps as well.
Yet it is true to say that the two big Grade I sprints, as well as the Commonwealth Cup, are just stepping stones and not ends in themselves, with plenty of Grade 1 sprints throughout the rest of the season. In fact, all the Group 1’s at Royal Ascot, prizes in themselves prestigious and well worth winning, are also but stepping stones on a journey towards other Group 1’s later in the season.
But all gripes aside, Royal Ascot is a festival of brilliance, though I think, albeit that more normal people than myself take pride in dressing up in clothes completely at odds with an outdoor sporting event, the top-hat, tails and fancy frills are as archaic as gaslighting and the workhouse. I just wish Royal Ascot was solely about the horses and the racing. But then I have no pretensions to high society and the summer season. I am a man of mid-winter, early spring and rough workman’s clothes.
What I would dearly like to happen this year at Ascot is that Nicola Currie rides a winner. She’s as neat a rider as you will find, tidy and strong in a finish and with the sort of  sparky and sparkling personality that the wider public would take to. As I have always said, the difference between her beau Sam Twiston-Davies and Nicola is that Sam is not under-rated. Now she is free of being Jamie Osborne’s stable jockey, with daughter Saffie now getting the baulk of the rides from her father, Nicola has had to put herself about a bit and has come up trumps with George Boughey, Newmarket’s new man on the block. He has given her opportunities and she has taken them with both hands. I hope the association blossoms still further this week.
I also would like to see rain from mid-week onwards, or at least prior to the Gold Cup as otherwise Trueshan will not be running. Flat racing, though many will not either acknowledge or appreciate it, needs a female rider to win one of the major races that remains known to the sporting world and public at large. I’m not convinced Trueshan can lower the colours of Stradivarius and I believe Coolmore have thought all-the-while that Serpentine was a possible Gold Cup horse, so I am not full of expectation of Hollie Doyle winning the race but the Ascot Gold Cup is the only race at Royal Ascot that shines a light outside of the sport. She could win the Cork and Orrery or the Queen Mary and no one will bat an eyelid but to win the Ascot Gold Cup will get her and the sport on the front pages of the national papers, which is why I hope Trueshan can out-gallop the opposition. But he needs rain, and plenty of it, just to take part.
The other hope I have for Royal Ascot 2021 is that the Irish have a poor week. Not gracious, I know, but British trainers need a strong meeting, with all the top prizes staying in this country. Another drubbing and I can see owners de-camping to Ireland, convinced it is the only way to make money at the game. And I particularly do not want Willie Mullins going home with a bagful of pots to his name. He is already a National Hunt genius, that should be enough for him. Again, not gracious. But neither is coming to the home of National Hunt racing and winning the battle 23-5. That is neither cricket nor sporting, is it?
We need a genius trainer over here. Will someone please step up!

​Back in February horse racing was in the news for all the wrong reasons. A man I believed of great integrity, Gordon Elliott, later to be joined on a similar charge by the amateur jockey Rob James, was subject to what I believe was a sting operation. The photograph of him sitting astride a dead horse was one of the ugliest sights I have seen for many a long year. What made the photograph many times more vulgar and damning was that it involved one of the sport’s leading trainers, which gave the sport’s detractors an arsenal of invective to throw our way. For his stupidity, and it was stupidity not a snapshot of how Elliott cares for the horses in his charge, he was banned from the sport for 6-months. He also lost several high-profile, top-class horses to other trainers, horses that even Elliott and his wealthy clients will find difficult if not impossible to replace. The sentence, I believe, fitted the offence.
Roll forward 4-months and a far more serious offence has recently come before the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board and on this occasion the sentence goes nowhere near close enough to fitting the crime, and on this occasion a criminal act is involved.
How Stephen Mahon remains in the sport must be a mystery to all animal lovers. Back in 2008, he received the completely ludicrous punishment of a 4-month ban and a thousand-euro fine for a case of neglect and cruelty to a horse in his care that when brought to my attention by David Jennings in the Racing Post sickened me to my core. I am not by nature an emotional man; in many aspects of life, I may be said to have a heart of stone but when he described the depth of neglect and cruelty committed by Mahon, I had to skip ahead a paragraph to escape the image implanted in my mind’s eye. If you wish to research the topic, I suggest you look-up Pike Bridge along with Mahon and the I.H.R.B
Compare the sentence imposed on Gordon Elliott, 6-months for an act of stupidity with a horse that died of natural causes, and 4-months for cruelty to a living horse.
Yet here we are in 2021 and Mahon is up before the Regulatory Board on very similar charges, neglect and causing a horse unnecessary suffering. And yet again, unbelievably, he is treated leniently. He may be banned from having a trainers’ licence for 4-years but he is not warned-off, he can still work within the industry if anyone is foolish enough to trust him around their horses.
Richard Forrestal pointed out in his column in the Racing Post this week that Mahon has a wife and young family and that perhaps his sentence is a gesture of clemency with them in mind. Forrestal suggested that Mahon had no other means of supporting his family other than working with horses. I would suggest it is highly likely he can drive a horsebox, which would allow him to find employment as a lorry driver or some such similar occupation. If he so much a simpleton he cannot do any other work than with horses, it begs the question how he got a trainers’ licence in the first place.
But what Forrestal avoided in his column, and to their eternal shame the members of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board also avoided, was that Mahon, in their judgement, as they found him guilty as charged, committed a criminal act and as such the report on the case should be handed over to the Gardai for investigation. Animal cruelty is criminality, in not reporting this matter to the Gardai it is possible the I.H.R.B. are guilty themselves of not reporting a criminal act. Yet here we have Mahon appealing the verdict against him, when he should be answering questions in a police station. He should be staring down the barrel of a prison sentence, not plotting to overturn the verdict of the inquiry.
Does the motto ‘The Horse Comes First’ not apply to the Republic of Ireland? Because if it is the ambition in Irish horse racing for the horse to come first, it has come a long way last in this case.
If the Mahon case gets the social media coverage that Gordon Elliott received, this sport, or at least horse racing in Ireland, is going to face a mountain of criticism and on this occasion, and thanks to the leniency of Irish racing’s regulatory body, it will have brought the criticism upon itself. Mahon should have been banned from both horse racing and keeping horses for the entirety of his lifetime.
And remember this also: Charles Byrne was banned from the sport by the I.H.R.B. and it was not even proven that he was guilty of doping the horse involved. The justice handed-out by the I.H.R.B. beggars belief, it truly does.

​Occasionally I mistakenly buy a book believing it is something other than what I believe it to be. Sometimes I never regret the purchase, as with ‘Passport to Life’ by Harry Llewellyn, an autobiography that went unread for the best part of ten years and which upon finally reading turned out to be as interesting and informative as any book in my horse racing library.
I recently purchased from R.E. & G.B. Way of Newmarket, the new supplier of my burgeoning racing collection, ‘Are Your Horses Trying’ by Fred Rickaby, ex jockey and trainer. I had a few weeks earlier finished reading his brother Bill’s autobiography ‘First to Finish’ and thought Fred’s book would equally be an account of his life as a jockey. Not that Fred had a long career as a rider as by the end of his teenage years his weight had soared and not fancying life as a jump jockey and he was forced to turn his hand to training, becoming assistant to College Leader, one of the country’s leading trainers at the time.
When given the opportunity to go to South Africa to train Fred saw no disadvantage and set off with his wife to build a new career for himself. After an abortive beginning when the new culture and climate nearly defeated him, he moved to Durban and made a name for himself in the training ranks. ‘Are Your Horses Trying’, though, is not the story of training success. It is very much a horse management manual. Chapter 1 is titled ‘Primary Problems’. Chapter 2, ‘Selecting Yearlings’ and chapter 3, ‘Legs, Lameness and Lamentations’. You get the picture.
The book is dedicated to his wife, Molly, ‘without whose continuous interruptions this book would have been finished long long ago’. It is with such humour the narrative is laced.
Veterinary science has come on leaps and bounds since 1967, the year of publication. The book was successful enough to warrant a reprint in 1968, which tells you that within its pages there are gems of wisdom to be gleaned. Although I am certain a copy of this book would help any young man or woman starting out as a trainer, especially chapter 6, ‘Digestion and Feeding’, there has to be the caveat that scientific detection methods are today so precise that some of the treatments he prescribes may contain elements on the prohibited list, even if most, if not all, of his ‘germs of wisdom’ come from nature.
Over his lifetime Fred was to become fascinated by the physiology of the horse, especially the hoof and digestive tract and in his homespun, humorous and self-deprecating manner, he enlightens the reader with anecdotes of his time in South Africa. And it must be remembered that he is mainly writing about horse problems related solely to South Africa and his cures and advice may not translate to the colder climes of Britain and Ireland.
Fred, and he makes no bones about it, had little faith in the indigenous stable staff he had to employ. Not that he referred to them as stable staff; they were his ‘crew’ and of the lot he had in his employ at Merryvale only one member of staff had ever seen a racehorse before joining his stable. And trainers over here think they have staff problems!
Fred did, though, produce two star apprentices, both of whom should still be known by race-goers on these shores. John Gorton came over here to ride and won the Epsom Oaks on Sleeping Partner and Michael Roberts went one better and was champion jockey and rode Mtoto to many big race victories.
‘Are Your Horses Trying?’ is enhanced by a dozen or so hand-drawn diagrams that help the lay-reader understand the medical issues Fred writes about, such as ‘Ligaments of the off-knee’, ‘Teeth of mature horse’ and ‘Ground surface of Hoof’. It is my advice to any aspiring racehorse trainer, hobby rider or even point-to-point owner that this book should be acquired as at some point in life some element of knowledge contained within its 188 pages will be of great assistance in sorting out an equine issue.
Fred Rickaby died, aged 93, in Boston, Lincolnshire, in 2010.

​Yes, Adam Kirby got the ride on Adayar in the same manner Frankie Dettori took the ride on John Leeper off Adam Kirby and that Oisin Murphy has more to be aggrieved about than Kirby last Thursday when he was told he had lost the ride on Ed Dunlop’s colt but to me, this year’s result was a case of Justine Done. Having said that, Oisin Murphy’s gentlemanly conduct when told that Kirby had replaced him on Adayar was exemplary and the older and more mature he becomes the greater I hold him in esteem. A top jockey; a top man.
I must admit, as much as I like Kirby as a human being and as much as I admire his superb work ethic and dedication to his profession, he would not be my go-to jockey in all circumstances but hell was I pleased he won the Derby. Whether he will get to ride the horse again is immaterial, William Buick is stable jockey and doubtless will choose to ride Adayar next time it runs, on the day Kirby gave Adayar a first-class ride and though the result may suggest this year’s crop of three-year-old colts are far from vintage it is a result that will live long in the memory. And of course, in winning on Adayar Kirby may be the first jockey to have ridden to victory at Epsom on a colt he broke in as a yearling. I would be interested to learn if any other jockey can boast the same achievement.
I would suggest the 2021 Epsom Derby will also live long in the memory of Aidan O’Brien and the Coolmore boys as unusually their collective experience messed up big time, opting to run just one horse proved as bad a choice as they could have made, even if it made life a little easier for Ryan Moore. They must have been pretty confident Bolshoi Ballet was above par to choose not to run High Definition or even a lesser horse as a pacemaker. I doubt they take the same option come the Irish Derby.

The Oaks on the other hand was very much a case of getting it right for Coolmore, even if Ryan Moore choose wrong yet again. My initial reaction was that Snowfall must be something special but on reflection, though she is obviously top-drawer, I am drawn to the view that she might have been flattered somewhat by the sixteen-length margin of victory as the opposition may be less than top-class given none of them could find a way past Mystery Angel and soft ground has habit of throwing-up big margin winners. Aidan’s first thoughts are to take Snowfall to the Curragh for the Irish Oaks rather than to select the King George & Queen Elizabeth at Ascot as her next race, so perhaps he too would like to see her put up a similar performance before upping her into all-age championship races.
One small matter; am I the only one who thinks a horse called Snowfall should be a grey not a bay? Coolmore get praised for the naming of their horses, though mainly by journalists brown-nosing in order to remain on the approved list to visit Ballydoyle. Clementine was supposedly a good name for a sister to Churchill, even though Clementine was Winston’s wife not his sister. And Was is such a lazy way to name a horse. Is, That and How will surely come along at some stage. As for recycling the names of famous artists, buildings and monuments …..

Finally, I am amazed the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board handed-out a four-year ban to trainer Stephen Mahon. For his crimes, and they were crimes as opposed to merely breaking the rules of racing, should have demanded a lifetime ban from the sport and investigation by the police for animal cruelty. He should be facing a long prison sentence not preparing his case for appeal. One wonders what it takes in Ireland for anyone to be warned off for life. No doubt ‘the horse comes first’ motto is unused in Irish racing circles.

​Am I alone in thinking Coolmore/Aidan O’Brien have shown a lack of respect towards the Epsom Derby with their/his decision to run only Bolshoi Ballet out of their six 5-day entries for this Saturday’s race?
I am not one of those people who believe the Epsom Derby is the greatest horse race in the world. It barely cracks my top half-a-dozen, if I am honest. But that shouldn’t suggest I do not understand the prestige of the race or its importance to the world of thoroughbred breeding and its place in the history of the sport is undeniable. Once upon a time the British Parliament recessed on the day of the race to allow the Prime Minister, ministers and M.P.’s to travel to the meeting in good time for the start of the race. It was a race attended by all sections of society. If no transport was available, people would walk out of London to Epsom. Once upon a time, and it is by now a time far removed from the upcoming latest renewal of the race, the Epsom Derby had gravitas; it was the race every jockey, trainer, owner wanted to win and the best horses in Britain, Ireland and France were trained with Epsom specifically in mind.
I find Aidan O’Brien’s explanation for not running five of his horses disingenuous and cannot really except that it is the owner’s discretion what to run and what not to run. Their reasoning that keeping High Definition for the Irish Derby would allow him more time may be reasonable and in the best interest’s of the horse but they could have made that decision after the Dante or before last Monday when they choose to keep him in the Derby. Between York and today, Thursday, people may well have backed the horse ante-post, especially after Aidan’s positivity about the horse at the start of the week. And to say they were lucky to get a run into the horse at York and then they had a decision to make regards Epsom is rubbish as since the Dante they have spoken about High Definition and the Epsom Derby as if it were a done deal.
I wrote at the beginning of the week that one of the reasons the Epsom Derby is losing its appeal to the public, and I believe that is with the racing as well as the non-sporting public, is that it is never clear until days before the race what horses will run. The decision to run only Bolshoi Ballet could have been made on Monday, that would have been fairer to the public and of greater respect to the race itself. It is my belief that Coolmore have not presented themselves in a very sporting light in removing one of the favourites for the race, the horse that was favourite all through the winter, a day before declaration time for no other reason than self-interest. The Epsom Derby deserves better.
If Coolmore have annoyed me, the connections of John Leeper have enraged me. Now, I like Frankie Dettori as a jockey and have a hard time determining whether he or Ryan Moore is the greatest flat jockey of my lifetime. I also accept that an Epsom Derby without Frankie Dettori is a lesser spectacle. But for Ed Dunlop to present the jocking-off of Adam Kirby in favour of Frankie as if it a law of nature and something irresistible is utterly contemptible. 
When John Leeper’s owner, Christina Patino, made it known she wanted Ed Dunlop to engage Kirby for the Epsom Derby she was engaging in an oral contract. If Kirby had got off her horse to ride a better fancied runner she would have been justifiably angered by his disloyalty. Yet here she is putting self-interest before loyalty to an oral contract. To use the excuse that Kirby was only booked because Dettori was not available is lame. Dettori has no real history with the Dunlop yard, has not ridden John Leeper in a race and quite likely never on the gallops and has no sort of friendship or retainer with the owner. Did neither owner nor trainer read the article in the Racing Post this week with Kirby? Did they not know of his pride and excitement at finally achieving a fancied ride in the Epsom Derby? Kirby has been slighted and from hoping John Leeper would win, I now hope he does not. People should deserve to win the Derby, Ms Patino and Ed Dunlop, in my eyes, do not deserve such luck.
Come Saturday, I will only have eyes for Hurricane Lane and Gear Up.

​Nineteen horses are left in Epsom Derby at the final forfeit stage, so for modern times it will a large field of runners. Van Gogh is still in French Derby as well as Epsom and though ‘nothing is set in stone’ where Ballydoyle horses are concerned, Aiden sort of stated that he was more likely to go to France than England. But as I said, with Ballydoyle anything is possible, including their least fancied runner waltzing away with yet another Epsom Derby. If I could advise Ryan Moore, I would suggest it might be more profitable to him if he put the names of all Aidan’s runners in a hat and rode which ever name came out between his fingers. This method might have put him on Serpentine last season.
At the moment the weather forecast for Epsom is warm and dry and good or even good-to-firm ground can be expected, which means you can throw most of the form from this season out of the window. As things stand, I am torn between Hurricane Lane and John Leeper.
Yes, I know, only a green-hating mad idiot would select against any Irish-trained runner, especially the battalion turned-out by Aidan O’Brien. At the start of the season my thoughts were towards Mac Swiney but I think the Irish 2,000 Guineas form is suspect, especially as Polish Flare could not have been at his best having only run the previous Sunday and a horse coming back in trip does not convey confidence when he steps up half-a-mile.
Of the Ballydoyle horses I prefer High Definition as I think he will improve from his first run to a greater extent than Bolshoi Ballet. Perhaps Ryan Moore will agree with me. If I were to back a horse each-way at this moment in time, and if I did, I would be praying the course is watered to the point the word ‘Firm’ is not in the going description, it would be Gear Up, remembering that he beat the current Derby favourite at Saint-Cloud last year by around 2-lengths, albeit on heavy ground. It is as open a Derby as there has been over the past decade or two and anyone of twelve would not be viewed as a major shock.

Anyone who read Jonathan Harding’s comparison of funding models for horse racing from around the world in today’s Racing Post can only come to one conclusion: the British model is so close to useless others might think it the very definition of how not to fund a sport. France, Australia, Hong Kong and Japan are a country mile ahead of us in providing worthwhile prize money and ever-improving facilities for spectators and combatants alike that to even argue our funding model has anything going for it is akin to waving the white flag and embracing point-to-pointing as a look forward-to future. On-course bookmakers are no substitute for a sustainable future for the sport.
Having kicked bookmakers in the teeth in the above, I will now trample on their toes. It is unquestionably a grand gesture to donate all profits from the Britannia Stakes at Royal Ascot to charity and I have no axe to grind when it comes to their chosen charities but as the motto, almost, of this sport is the ‘horse comes first’, would it not be more appropriate to donate to equine charities, especially the rehoming and retraining charities whose funds must have nose-dived over the past 12-months or so due to government restrictions?

Finally, the likeable and soon to be best jockey riding on the flat Tom Marquand said after riding three-winners at Windsor yesterday that he would have liked it to have been five-winners. James Burn, writing-up Windsor races yesterday, missed the point of his quip as I believe Tom was referring to Hollie’s five-winners at Windsor last season, the day when the racing scribes finally recognised what a great and noteworthy talent she is.