​John Randall, the Racing Post’s go to racing historian, is very rarely wrong about anything related to the subject of horse racing and I can’t remember an occasion when I have taken issue with any of his views. Didn’t he anoint Night Nurse with the crown of greatest ever hurdler? Which was my view all along. 
And he is not short of the mark when trying to cool the hyperbole over Trueshan’s magnificent triumph in the Northumberland Plate. His point that Trueshan’s effort ‘was superficially superior’ to the achievements of past weight-carrying heroics is perhaps factually on the money. ‘Winning the race under 9st 10Ibs in Victorian times meant much more than winning it under 10st 8Ibs today, when the quality of the fields in the big handicaps has dropped considerably’. What he alludes to is that a century or more ago owners and trainers were forced to run Group I and classic horses in handicaps as conditions races were few and far between.
He quotes Isonomy winning the Ebor under 9st 8Ibs in 1879 and the Manchester Cup under 9st 12Ib, giving up to 59Ibs to his rivals. He also highlighted other great weight carrying performances of the same time period. But what he did not mention, and I cast no aspersions, merely state known fact, is that ‘tonics’ were routinely given to horses back then and astonishingly the giving of drugs and ‘milkshake’ type cocktails were not illegal. Please read ‘Men and Horses I Have Known’ by George Lambton for corroboration. Unsurprisingly, it was the influx of American trainers and jockeys into this country that began the epidemic of administering cocaine and other substances to horses prior to a race.
I only bring up this unsavoury subject to suggest that results prior to the 1920’s might be taken with a small dose of salt as we cannot be 100% certain that the winners were 100% clean.
The standout point of Trueshan’s sterling effort is Alan King daring to give it a go. Yes, he was amazed as everyone else by the result, yet before the race he cited Denman and Desert Orchid winning over fences giving away 2st or more, though the actual reason for running at Newcastle was ‘I had to get a run into him’. And, of course, in giving it a go, he elevated the race and the day from the quite ordinary to an awe-struck moment that can be recorded in modern times as ‘historic’. Trueshan was so heroic that it seems to be lost in the editing suite that Holly Doyle became the first female jockey to win the ‘Pitman’s Derby. Yet another ‘first’ for someone who is quickly becoming ‘the darling of the crowds’, as evidenced by ‘there’s only one Holly Doyle’.
One small note about the ever-upward curve of Holly’s career is that though there are other female jockeys winning races on a regular basis, with many very good female apprentices following in their wake, no other female jockey is being given even a fraction of the opportunities Holly has earned for herself. In fact, at Royal Ascot, admittedly Holly won a Group 2, she had few other rides in the Group races. It is even worse in Ireland. There are no female flat jockeys making an impression even in the big handicaps and over jumps there is no professional female jockey within many light years of Rachel Blackmore. Other females have to be given opportunities, otherwise the legacy of Doyle, Blackmore, Frost and Turner will be far from the changing point it seems to be now.
While displeased Rob Hornby was jocked off Westover in favour of Colin Keane, I was pleased to see my reading of the Epsom Derby vindicated. If you look back at the Derby, at the point where Westover and Hornby were mullered not once but twice, you will notice Desert Crown making his run at the very same moment. I am not convinced that Desert Crown would have beaten Westover at Epsom and doubt if he will beat him again in the future.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Frankie Dettori was the next jockey to sit on Westover. If you can justify Keane jocking-off Hornby on the basis he is the better jockey and his greater experience of the Curragh, the same argument can be used for Dettori taking over from Keane if Westover rocks up at Ascot next month.
Finally, as much as I would like to see Holly Doyle become the Gosdens’ stable jockey, my money would be on James Doyle becoming first jockey at Clarehaven, with Holly used, when available, on horses that James cannot do the weight on. To me, at this stage of her career, this arrangement would seem to be the perfect fit.

​A small detail overlooked by those commentating on the fall-out between John Gosden and Frankie Dettori is the opening show on who will replace Frankie at Clarehaven next season, if, as is speculated, Frankie is on his way out. Hollie Doyle is 4/11 to become the Gosdens’ stable jockey. Who would have thought such a possibility would come about eighteen-months ago. Ten-years ago anyone suggesting a female jockey would rise to such dizzying heights would have been taken frogmarched to the asylum wearing a straightjacket. The 7/1 about the other Doyle, James, to get the prized job is both better value and more likely, at least to my mind. He is too good to ply his trade as anyone’s second jockey and I believe John Gosden might see him as a safer pair of hands just at this moment in Holly’s career.
Of course, the main story is the seemingly likely event of Frankie Dettori having rode for Clarehaven for the last time. It is an almost inconceivable turn of events after the success the pair have had to together since Gosden picked Frankie figuratively out of the gutter and gave him a golden opportunity to redeem himself. And no one can say otherwise; Frankie was grateful for the opportunity to remind the racing world of his great prowess in the saddle and he has repaid Gosden in spades, silver spades not just ordinary garden spades.
Frankie’s business manager has told the press that the new situation was a bolt from the blue that only manifested when Frankie’s usual phone call about upcoming rides to the Clarehaven office was not returned. Of course, it is perfectly possible that this is not a red card but only a yellow, a shot across the Italian bows to let him know that John and Thady are quite serious in whatever threat or warning has been issued. It would also be interesting to know what part Gosden junior has played in the matter and was the hint that Gosden senior aired after Holly Doyle won the French Oaks for the team a message that Dettori did not heed? For the uninitiated, Gosden used the word ‘team’ and the combination of Holly and Thady in the same sentence that he tongue-in-cheek suggested he was now surplus to requirements at Clarehaven.
The damning evidence in what has happened since Royal Ascot was said directly after the Ascot Gold Cup when Bjorn Nielsen apparently said. ‘You can’t blame the horse here.’ I suspect John Gosden, as good a diplomat as you’ll find in horse racing, is having his hand forced by a movement within the ranks of Clarehaven’s owners. Again, and this just my uninformed take on things, that quote of Bjorn Nielsen’s is heavy with thoughts of replacing Frankie if Stradivarius is to have his final swansong in the Goodwood Cup. And if Bjorn Nielsen is thinking along those lines, then, perhaps, other prominent owners have also inquired about a change of jockey?
At his best, and quite honestly towards the end of last season and on many occasion this season Frankie has ridden some mediocre races, he is as good a jockey as I have witnessed, up there with Cauthen, Carson, Fallon and Moore, with only the latter his superior, though only because Ryan is more consistent, less prone to gaffs.
Does Frankie deserve to be given the boot halfway through the season? Well, Emily Upjohn at Epsom was a sporting disaster. Lord North at Royal Ascot was just plain embarrassing for a jockey of Dettori’s experience. Stradivarius was just an awful ride in the Gold Cup, dropping the best stayer in the race, perhaps the only one guaranteed to stay the distance and like the ground, three last when he had plenty of opportunity to move up behind the leaders. And, of course, John Gosden thought Frankie should have won on Her Majesty’s Saga and reading between the lines I doubt if he gave him many points out of ten for his ride on Reach For The Moon. Then there was his ride on Stradivarius in the last season’s Ascot Gold Cup and his ride on Palace Pier on Champions Day. And who knows how many other occasions the Gosdens have been less than happy with the riding of ‘their hero’? And we can only guess what has gone on in private to cause this rift between one of our greatest trainers and one of our greatest jockeys.
Frankie has made it clear on several occasions that he feels he has a few years left in the saddle, so no one should advise him to retire and there is a trainer or owner in Britain, Ireland or France who will snap up his services if he were to become available. I doubt if this is the last we will see of him in the saddle. I hope not, anyway.

​Richard Hoiles has stolen my thunder, the cad. In his ‘Greatest Ever Race’ selection in today’s Racing Post, he has nominated the 1973 Grand National. He has even dubbed the race ‘Crisp’s Grand National’, which I have always called it. In the same way that in the Stanley Matthews Cup Final (don’t ask me the date, I am hopeless at dates) Stan Mortensen scored three goals and he is all but forgotten about. Both horses were heroic, with Red Rum winning the race but Crisp hailed as the true hero on the day.
I will always remember 1973, the 31st of March. It was the day I ate humble pie for the first time.
I was back then, and still today to some degree, rather xenophobic when it comes to foreign invaders to these shores. Not with the Irish horses or jockeys, after all Arkle was of the Emerald Isle and he, even though Mill House was my first true love, was beyond envious thought. He was an equine God and it made no difference which country he represented. But horses from Europe, the U.S. and in Crisp’s case, Australia, really had to work hard to win my affection or approval. I always wanted English trainers and horses to win, Arkle excepted, of course. So up until March 31st, 1973, I was no admirer of the big and black Australian chaser, even if he had won the Champion 2-mile Chase at the National Hunt Festival. If anything, that was even more reason to not want him to win the Grand National.
I can’t remember what I backed in the race. As Spanish Steps was the great love of my life at the time, I must have backed him. It would have been gross disloyalty if I hadn’t. Of course, there wasn’t any moment during the race when I thought I would be collecting from the bookmaker and to be honest you would not have known he was in the race for much of the 4-mile 4-furlongs, though that can be said of the majority of the 38 starters.
We all know the race, so there is no point describing Crisp’s demolition of Aintree’s fearsome reputation. For the most part, I was a transfixed t.v. viewer. I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. He wouldn’t get home, obviously. A blind pundit could see that a 2-mile chaser could never jump with the exuberance he was displaying and keep galloping even as far as Becher’s second time round.
As Julian Wilson said ‘I have never seen a horse so far ahead at this stage of the race’. That was Becher’s second time round. By Valentines, only the backers of Red Rum were not wanting the Australian mega-hero to gain the due rewards for his wonderous slaughter of Aintree’s reputation.
I watch the race even now, only occasionally as I still half-believe Crisp holds on or Richard Pitman does not pick up his stick to give Crisp an encouraging smack, unbalancing the horse and sucking the last vestiges of energy from him. Pitman owns up to the error. He believes, perhaps rightly, that his action was the difference between victory and defeat. I doubt if Fred Winter believed that tap on the rump made any difference. As Crisp jumped the second last fence, he turned to Sir Chester Manifold, Crisp’s owner, and said, ‘I’m afraid, Sir Chester, we are going to be beaten.’
Let’s right the record. Richard Pitman is a modest man deserving, in my opinion, of a knighthood and though he believes he was the reason Crisp failed to hold on, in my opinion his riding that day was one of the greatest rides of my lifetime. To have the skill and courage to go the shortest route around Aintree, where back then the drops were the longest, and to allow Crisp to basically run his own race, took a magnitude of bravery very few jockeys would ever dare copy.
And remember, Crisp was beaten ¾-of-a-length, giving the mighty Red Rum 23Ibs. No horse at any time in racing history, not even Arkle, could give that sort of weight in the Grand National to the greatest Aintree horse of all-time. Yet Crisp so very nearly did. Red Rum knocked 19-seconds of the race record, with the first four home all beating Golden Miller’s then fastest time, with L’Escargot also carrying 12-st, with Spanish Steps 1Ib less.
And it is that, sometimes overlooked, fact, aided by 1973 being the first of Red Rum’s 3 Grand Nationals victories, which makes me absolutely certain that the 1973 Grand National was the greatest horse race ever run.

​Having written many pieces on female jockeys over the years, it is a subject I have steered clear of recently. Since the days of the Sporting Life, I have championed the need for horse racing to selectively boost the presence of female jockeys in the weighing room. The female makes up half of the world’s population, yet thirty-years ago the female professional jockey was still a novelty, with seasoned professionals explaining that a mixture of thoroughbred racehorses and thin young girls was a recipe for death and disaster, ignoring the stark reality of female riders either dominating of holding their own in other equally dangerous equestrian disciplines.
When Hayley Turner came on the scene, becoming the first female to become champion apprentice ( she shared the title with a male jockey whose names escapes me for the moment ) there seemed a real possibility a female would mix it with the men in the big races. Although she has carved a successful career for herself both holding reins and a microphone, albeit she has won two Group 1’s and a race of similar standing in the U.S., she was never given the opportunity in classic races or even the great handicaps like the Cambridgeshire or Ebor, despite being able to do the lowest of weights.
Hayley is a gem of this sport and as I have written before, when they come to write a new history of flat racing, there should be a whole chapter dedicated to her achievements in the saddle and the manner in which she has conducted herself over in what is becoming a long career. And, of course, if it wasn’t for Hayley, who can say how long the sport would have waited for what Hollie Doyle achieved last Sunday at Chantilly?
Winning the Prix de Diane on Nashwa has propelled Hollie Doyle to the heights of classic winning jockey. Equally important in the Marquand/Doyle household, I suspect, she has equalled Tom’s total number of classic winning rides, a single digit that by the end of his career should be in double figures if his talent is to be fairly rewarded.
Having watched a re-run of Sunday’s race, no one should be in any doubt how well she executed her race strategy, settling the filly in the first two, injecting pace at the mile pole and repelling the sustained challenge of Gerard Mosse’s mount, La Parisienne, winning by the odd French distance of a short neck, though it looked more to me.
John Gosden was full of praise for the ride. When asked a few years ago by Nashwa’s owner to run his eye over a list of potential retained riders, Gosden plumped instantly for Hollie Doyle and I doubt if either owner or trainer have any doubts on their choice. Interestingly, though apparently said tongue in cheek, and make a note of the word ‘team’ in the quote in today’s Racing Post, Gosden said. ‘I’m very proud, as Thady is, because it’s the youth team that are obviously taking over here. It’s quite obvious I’ll be surplus to requirements quite soon, and it’ll be the youth with Hollie and Thady.’
Was John Gosden hinting that he has plans to retire soon, handing the reins to his son, with Hollie in line to take over from Frankie as stable jockey? Intriguing possibility. And if it were to come to fruition, it would as much a game-changer for the sport as a female jockey winning an English classic. Yes, as John Randall wrote in today’s paper, other females have been winning ‘classic’ races since 1971, but they were not what you might term ‘proper’ classics, not in the international sense. Holland, Czecholaviakia, Argentina and Scandinavia, do not represent the crème de la crème of the racing world, and though Sibylle Vogt won the German 1,000 Guineas, it is only a Group 2. The French Oaks is very much a Group 1 and so Hollie has broken through yet another glass ceiling.
The rise of the professional female jockey in Europe is now only a few percentage points off complete. The next goal for Hollie, or any of the skilful female jockeys in this country, if they were given the same opportunities as Hollie, is to win an English classic, with the Derby the Holy Grail of flat racing. What Rachel Blackmore, and to a lesser extent, Briony Frost, has done for National Hunt, Hollie Doyle is now achieving on the flat, with the world her oyster.
And for all those good female apprentices that are coming through now, Hollie is the living example of the maxim ‘if you can’t see it, you can’t be it’. All they have to be is just as dedicated as Hollie, to work just as hard as Hollie, and be as personable as she is.

​The downside of buying off the internet is that when it comes to books you can’t pick them up, turn the pages and browse. At least I can’t do this buying from Ways of Newmarket. Not that I am complaining, just commentating. 
I enjoy ‘biographies’ of racecourses. Chris Pitt’s book on Worcester was excellent, as was his book on Birmingham racecourse. I have bought from Ways, and enjoyed, books on Salisbury racecourse, Market Rasen, Chepstow and a book on royal patronage of Newmarket. I also have in my collection histories of Ascot, Epsom, York, Colwick Park, or Nottingham to you or me, and Brighton. I assumed, wrongly as it turned out, that ‘The Story of Newbury Racecourse’ by Frank Osgood, would be in the same vein.
The title, I have to admit, is not misleading. Frank Osgood’s book is indeed a history of Newbury racecourse, from its inception in 1906 to the year of the book’s publication in 1993. What this book is not though is a true racing book. It is a history as if written by an accountant. Not one actual race is described, not even, though there is a photograph of the great horse, Arkle’s Hennessey Chases. There are, though, a lot of photographs of royal personages.
If you want to be acquainted with every single chairman of the racecourse company you will not be disappointed. If you want to know how much the renovation and refurbishment of the Royal Box in 1957 cost, you will again be rewarded. £3,149- 18-shillings, to be exact. Or the price of Club Subscriptions in 1950 – £12-12-6pence for Original Members, Gentlemen and Ladies. £25 Gentleman and Lady. £14 for Gentleman and Lady single. And so on. Luncheons for the same period were 7/6 and teas 3/- for Members Tattersalls.
The book is a veritable feast of such information. In 1949 wages for labour staff was increased by a penny per hour to 2-shillings and 3 pence. In 1963 a new borehole pumping plant was installed at a cost of £4,980. Davis Watson and Elliot were hired at a cost of £4,029-18-0 to tarmac the roads in the Members Car Park. On December 4th, 1964, Major Peter Beckwith-Smith resigned as assistant Clerk of the Course and Captain C.B. Toller was appointed in his place at a retaining fee of £250 per annum.
It is astonishing, though from the perspective of today unsurprising, the number of retired military men who were either accepted on to the board or employed as either clerks of the course or manager. It really was, I suspect, a case of not what you knew but whom you knew.
Frank Osgood, incidentally, became manager and joint secretary on the retirement of his uncle John in April 1956. Before that he was assistant manager. John Osgood had been Newbury’s first General Manager, taking the job in 1919. In all the Osgood family were associated with Newbury for 71-years. There should be a race named in their honour. Frank Osgood retired in March 1990 after 43-years of service to Newbury and its many directors and chairmen.
I believe Newbury racecourse is an under-rated gem of British racing. Yes, it has the Lockinge, some group 2-year-old races on the flat, as well as top chases and hurdle races but as the fairest of racecourses it deserves many more races of greater magnitude. As much as I despair of ‘Champions Day’, Newbury would have been a better choice of venue. To my mind, with its long straight, it is far better racecourse than Ascot, a racecourse already blessed with the Royal meetings and many big days. Newbury deserves a signature meeting both on the flat and over jumps. This is why I found Frank Osgood’s book, sadly, a stonking great disappointment. 
Racecourses are all about the core activity that goes on between the white rails, what goes on behind office doors and the boardroom is of far less interest than the horses, jockeys, trainers and owners. The author, who doubtless wrote the book he set out to write, might have dotted the I’s and crossed the t’s of every screw, bolt and nail used in the construction of the first and second grandstand.

​Many years ago, I went with a friend to an evening meeting at Worcester. As Chester is also known as the Roodeye, Worcester can be referred to as the Pitchcroft. It was a warm and pleasant evening, with, as always, superb visibility of the action. I enjoyed the evening so much that I wanted to record it in some manner of form and wrote a short-story based on the actual evening’s racing, abetted by fictional characters. The story was called ‘Pitchcroft Blues’ and can be found in my book of racing short-stories ‘Going To The Last’, which can be purchased as either hard copy or in digital form. You will find details close at hand.
Anyway, commercial over, the aforementioned evening was brought vividly back to me when reading the excellent Chris Pitt’s book ‘Pitchcroft. 300-Years of Racing in Worcester’.
Chris Pitt must be one of the country’s finest racing historians, as can easily be ascertained if you have a copy of ‘A Long Time Gone’, ‘Go Down To The Beaten’ or ‘When Birmingham Went Racing’ on your bookshelves. His latest book is both equally as interesting and worthy of anyone’s collection of horse racing books.
Chris Pitt’s research is thorough and he treats the subject matter with the same respect as if he was writing the history of Ascot, Newmarket or Cheltenham. Worcester may be humble compared to the aforementioned courses but it is a really top-notch course hiding in plain-sight and over the years the sport’s top trainers have sent their promising young hurdlers or chasers for their first spins over its hurdles and fences, with trainers and jockeys alike describing Worcester as ‘fair, ‘non-trappy’, ‘where the best horse normally wins’. From its early days to the present, good horses have won and lost around the course that lives in the shadow of the cathedral and along the banks of the Severn.
Of course, that old River Severn is not always Worcester racecourse’s best friend, with nature using the course as a flood-plane on a regular basis, causing many meetings to be abandoned not through heavy ground but flooding, flooding to the point where boats are the only appropriate transport. It was such an on-going dilemma that Worcester was the first course to apply for summer jumps meetings, a move that initiated the end of summer holidays for jump jockeys.
For most of its 300-year history Worcester raced both on the flat and over jumps, though the locals couldn’t seem to stir themselves for the flat, which made flat racing unprofitable and on August 20th 1966 the decision was taken to dedicate the racecourse to National Hunt only.
On September 3rd 1987, Worcester made the national newspapers, radio and television, when the Princess Anne won the 3-mile Droitwich Handicap Chase on her own horse Cnoc Na Cuille, trained by David Nicholson.
Great Horses have run at Worcester, including Tingle Creek who finished second to Tex giving him 40Ibs, Larbawn, Titus Oates, Galloway Braes, Gaye Chance, and the list goes on.
John Kempton was at Worcester, winning on Three Dons, when Foinavon, a horse he trained, won the Grand National on the day the voice of Michael O’Hehir became immortalised, ‘And Rutherfords has been hampered and so has Castle Falls, Rondetto has fallen, Norther has fallen ..’ You must know the rest by heart.
Sir Edward Elgar loved the course and spent many a happy day in competition with the local bookmakers. I suppose it is fanciful to speculate but he could have come up with a few bars of music that later could be heard at the Henry Woods Promenade Concerts.
Chris Pitt’s history of Worcester racecourse is jam-packed with historic and more recent photographs and is, in my humble opinion, one of the best books of its kind. It is worthy both as a racing book and as part of English history. Oh, and as I do not like to give away too much of a book’s contents, I have only filched a small amount of the facts contained in the book and a treasure trove of Worcester related stories and data await you.

​The B.H.A.’s decision to back-track on its proposal to cut 300-races from the race calendar for 2023 is not well-received by most people, it seems. Ralph Beckett, president of the National Trainers Federation is miffed to boiling point on the matter, and from what I’ve heard, when Mr. Beckett is miffed about something everyone gets to hear about it. I just wish that racing people would say what they really think and follow Mr. Beckett’s lead.
As Bill Barber wrote ‘British racing’s structure is not fit for purpose but this row raises more concerns.’
It seems there will no Trueshan in the Ascot Gold Cup next week as the weather forecast is favouring Stradivarius and not Alan King’s soft loving superstar.
The sequel to Lee Mottershead quite enchanting interview with Johnny Tolton, groom to the Derby winner Nimbus, is that with the sort of forethought lacking at the B.H.A., the Jockey Club surprised him with a silver plate and a set of glass tankards if lieu of receiving sweet F.A. back in 1949.
Chris Cook wrote a fine defence of Rob Hornby in his Friday Column. Cook will be chuffed to know that I am warming to him. Apparently, armchair jockeys have had the temerity to criticise Hornby for the way he rode Westover in the Derby. It was plain to see from I.T.V.’s overhead camera that Hornby got unlucky, whereas Richard Kingscott had a dream run from Tattenham Corner to the finishing line. Hornby will hopefully get compensation, and the last laugh, come the Irish Derby and Doncaster St.Leger.
Why is it that you can like someone even though you have not met them? For whatever reason I like Hughie Morrison, especially when he speaks his mind in an appeals panel hearing. He thought Ray Dawson’s riding was dangerous at York recently, as did Ed Walker, and sought to have the result of the Bronte Cup overturned. They failed to convince the panel who believed Dawson’s eight-day suspension was punishment enough. I doubt if the young rider will be employed by either Morrison and Walker in the near-future.
The story-line that should have been given greater prominence was the outbreak of equine herpes at the stable of Dr. Richard Newland. The trainer – is there any need for Racing Post journalists to keep reminding us that Dr. Newland is a Grand National winning trainer – was quite rightly praised by the B.H.A. for his promptness in informing them of the disease in one of his horses, allowing them to inform other trainers of this potentially major contagion so everyone can be on look-out for further cases.
Two horses with the same name, Sierra Nevada, could run in the same race at Gowran Park on Sunday. One was named in the U.S., the other in Ireland. Surely Horse Racing Ireland should have noticed the duplicity of names, even if one is a three-year-old and the other a four-year-old, and, whichever horse was the last to race, had its name altered, if only to Sierra’s Nevada. Don’t get me started on horse’s names as I have the potential to bore you to death on the subject. Heads up, I have an entire page dedicated to potential names for racehorses that owners can chose from if they are stuck for inspiration. No charge, just a small donation to a racehorse rehabilitation charity.
Two lady jockeys worthy of praise. I was really made-up for Josephine Gordon winning a £30,000 race at Newbury, and for my new favourite flat trainer, Hughie Morrison, too. It is too much to expect she will keep the ride on Stay Alert for the rest of the season, especially if the filly lines up in the Doncaster St. Leger, as the owners hope. But at least Josephine achieved a day in the sun after such a long barren period since her last good win back in 2019. It just goes to show that if you keep on going to the coal-face you will be rewarded for your pluck at some point in your career.
The only female jockey worthy of being lauded is Gina Andrews, sister of the presently injured Bridget, who is undoubtedly the best female point-to-point rider of her generation and who won the title this season with 48-winners from 120 rides, suffering only 1 fall and was neither unseated nor brought-down. Perversely, the horse that fell with her was Latenightpass, the horse she won the Aintree Foxhunters on. You couldn’t make it up, could you?
Oh, and if you are wondering where Holly Doyle has got to, she, being the international jockey she is, is in the U.S. to ride Outbox for her boss Archie Watson in the Belmont Gold Cup at Belmont Park. The race, a Grade 2, is worth a cool £162, 962 to the winner. Hubbie Tom Marquand used to be the international jockey in the relationship, now he is not quite so much.

​The number of runners on average in British racing is declining. You only have to look at the declared runners at Aintree tomorrow (Friday June 7th) to get the picture. To have the picture enhanced, you only have to look back to last weekend and this weekend’s race meetings. It is a simple equation to solve, with the answer either too many or far too many.
The B.H.A.’s plan to ditch 300-races from the annual race programme was the most sensible idea to come out of Portman Place for a decade or more. Someone at the B.H.A. woke up one morning full of beans and after a cold shower and a bowl porridge this bright-eyed student of form had an epiphany – not many runners + too many meetings = too many races. The number of races to drop may have been plucked out of the spring air, though 300 would be as good a starting point as any number higher or lower.
If two, three and four-runner fields could be eliminated, the self-serving argument made by the opposition to common-sense, that more races equal greater betting turnover, is made moot as average field sizes would increase into double-figures, increasing betting turnover, I would bet. Might not increase turnover by not very much, though not very much would, in these straightened times, be a boost.
Of course, as good an idea as it was, chopping 300-races at the pinch-points of the season was almost certainly going to prove unpopular to the selfish brigade, better known as the racecourse owners and the Thoroughbred Group (aka the Horsemans Group).
It would have been less convoluted to simply choose a period of the season chock-a-block with race meetings, high summer, for instant, and then extend that period before and after the chock-a-block season, and axe one race per day over 300-days. A little simplistic, perhaps, yet I would argue easier to implement and less obvious to those with observation impairment, like myself, to notice, because when the season is chock-a-block with race-meetings no one is going to notice if Catterick, Chelmsford or Chepstow has only six races when the season before the meeting comprised seven.
As someone pointed out, 300 could be just the starting point as some races might become over-subscribed and have to be divided, which would be of benefit to connections of horses that struggle to get into races.
That said, there is one great benefit with how things are at present. With three and four-runner races, owners with horses in training at the moment have a greater chance of winning prize money, if only for toiling home a well-beaten fourth. Yet money going into an owner’s Weatherby’s account can only be of assistance in paying his or her training bill, which improves the trainer’s cash-flow, which in turn improves the chances of the feed-bill being paid on time. Etc Etc.
And small field sizes are nothing new. People speak as if two-runner races were unheard-of back in the day. Of course, back in the 1970’s, usually after a long period of snow, frost or waterlogging, racecourses like Worcester or Hereford might divide novice chases and hurdles four-times to accommodate the backlog of horses in need of a run. And that is part of the problem in recent times. The weather is more clement, with far less race meetings cancelled. Since I.T.V. took over coverage of racing, how many times have they lost a scheduled meeting due to the weather? Not many, I suggest.
There is uproar from some quarters at the idea of elongating the National Hunt Festival to five-days, with the argument that the elastic band is being pulled too tight, making for uncompetitive racing, yet the same argument does not seem to apply to the whole of the race programme. The elastic band is too tight, causing uncompetitive racing to become the norm.
Instead of experimenting for twelve-months with a reduced number of races, so that data can be achieved so a more informed decision might be taken further down the line, two-parts of racing rulers throw the toys out of their baby carriages and sob ‘it’s not fair, you’re not being nice to me!’.
You have to understand, if horse racing in Britain goes under in the near future and racing here resembles Italy, Arc, for one, will not go under. They will easily sell all their racecourses as building or retail sites and treble their profits. It is why British racing needs to be governed by racing people taking decisions that are to racing’s benefit. The present arrangement is like asking the chimps to organise their own tea-parties. A recipe for farce.

​Look, my analysis of both the Oaks and Derby was rubbish. Nothing new there, then. I am not even sure if my prediction that Desert Crown would end the season the top three-year-old will prove to be correct. In fact, the part of my analysis where I predicted a 100/1 winner, even if I fell upon the wrong horse, was the closet I got to boasting about the part-reliability of my surety of intuition. Hoo Ya Mal, I remind you, was second at 150/1.
Whereas the Oaks was predictable, with Moore beating Dettori, with Doyle best of the rest, the Derby had a jockey outcome no one would have predicted. Richard Kingscote, followed David Probert and the unlucky Rob Hornby. Three jockeys without a classic winner between them and hardly household names even with their closest neighbours let alone the public. The result should remind owners and trainers that if the horse is good enough virtually any experienced jockey will get them home in front.
Let no dispute that Desert Crown was a good, deserving winner. He quickened like a top-class horse and has the sort of even temperament to allow him to continue to improve throughout the season. I was of the opinion the Epsom Derby would come too soon for him and that he would struggle in a big field and on possibly the most undulating course in the country. I was wrong. Again, nothing new there, then.
Desert Crown was far from a lucky winner. He won, relatively, with his head in his chest and though we cannot be certain he would have found more if confronted by a rival in the last half-furlong, we must assume he would have knuckled down and ran to the line. What can be said for certain is that Westover was definitely unlucky. I.T.V. chose not to replay back to the point where the winner and Westover were running upsides one another, both beginning their runs, both full of running. Desert Crown achieved an unimpeded challenge, whereas Westover was stopped twice and had to slalom his way to a position where he could challenge Hoo Ya Mal for second. Desert Crown was away and gone by the time Westover saw clear ground in front of him. Bot boy, did he quicken once he was in clear daylight!
I am sure the two will line-up at the Curragh for the Irish Derby and I wouldn’t want to predict which of the two might prevail. I believe Westover was far more luckless than the pundits and journalists give credit and the rematch will be fascinating.
The other talking point from Epsom was how unfortunate was Emily Upjohn in the Oaks? On a scale of 1 to 10, I would suggest her unorthodox getaway from the stalls warranted an 8. But if you watch a replay she was never that far behind Tuesday at any point in the race, though Ryan Moore always had his filly in a more favourable position than Frankie could ever achieve on his filly. Again, if they should meet in the Irish Oaks, I wouldn’t know which of the two will come out on top. As with Desert Crown, Tuesday has the potential to improve right throughout the season and come the Curragh she might have come on far more than Emily Upjohn, and it is conceivable that John Gosden’s filly may have now reached her peak. I certainly would not advise anyone to back her for the Arc at this moment in her career.
As anyone would know, I would dearly have loved Hollie Doyle to have won on Nashwa. It wasn’t to be, though. She rode the filly perfectly well and snuggled her into a winning position only for Tuesday and Emily Upjohn to quicken away from her. The combined opinion of her connections was that she did not fully stay the distance, yet I did not see her flag in the final furlong, did you? In fact, she pulled clear of those around her. Of course, she might be better over a slightly shorter trip, only time will tell. But to my eyes, she stayed the distance, only not as well as the first two. Again, she is young and inexperienced, with the potential to strengthen and mature as the season progresses. I would like to see her tried again over 1-mile 4, though I doubt that will be at the Curragh. The first two from Epsom, I believe, will always be her superior.
It is only a matter of time before Hollie breaks that final glass ceiling.

​I may be alone in my view but I wish the Epsom Derby could be moved back to the Wednesday. Can anyone say, hand on heart, that staging the race on a Saturday has produced any real and lasting benefits? On the Wednesday it was a day off work for people, an event, even if only for a day skiving off work, that was a date pencilled in on the calendar. Our ancestors watched the race on a Wednesday and Parliament in the good old days skipped off early to reconvene en masse at Epsom, if only to be seen in the company of people first removed from the Royal Court, with no liking or interest in the actual horses. There is no need to run the Ascot Gold Cup on a Saturday and I have heard no convincing argument that the Epsom Derby sparkles like diamonds on a Saturday whereas on a Wednesday the lustre is dimmed by the proximity of so many scalleywags.
That said, I look forward to the Derby meeting, far more than I do the razzmatazz and fashionistas of Royal Ascot. The Coronation Cup is a race worth £250,000 to the winner, so why is it not the target for many of the top Group 1 horses across Europe? Six contest the race this year, with Pyledriver the only genuine – he did after all win the race last season – Group 1 horse in the field. He might repeat his heroics and give Frankie Dettori another excuse for a flying leap. He’s getting on, you know, one day he’s going to snap an ankle or cruciate ligament and won’t he look a fool then. I suspect that Manobo will win for Charlie Appleby and Will Buick.
Eleven go to post for the Cazoo Oaks, with the winning owner pocketing a cool £311, 905. Of the eleven, four are trained by Aiden O’Brien and two by John and Thady Gosden. Slightly to my surprise Ryan Moore has opted for Tuesday. My money was on him riding Thoughts of June, now the mount of Wayne Lorden and though she is my pick for the race, I will be delighted if she is beaten by the Holy Doyle and Nashwa. For the sport, Nashwa will be infinitely the best result, allowing editors to sneak Hollie on to the front pages of their newspapers. And she might well win. She isn’t second favourite for no good sound reason. She is improving by the run and owner, trainer and jockey must be in accord with the decision to go up in trip or she would be kept back for the French equivalent. Husband Tom will be an emotional wreck if the missus were to break one of racing’s last glass ceilings. Fingers crossed.
Emily Upjohn has looked the most likely winner since she scooted up at York but in backing her you are taking a chance on her tendency to get a bit wound up in the early stages of a race, disobeying Frankie’s clear instruction to her to ‘calm down dear’. I wouldn’t be surprised to be proved wrong but for me it is Thoughts of June to win from Nashwa and With the Moonlight. I hope Rogue Millennium gives a good account of herself and if she were to prevail, I would almost be as happy as I will be if Nashwa wins.
The Cazoo Derby is a right old enigma, isn’t it? The race could be a straight shoot out between Aiden’s three and Charlie’s three. I don’t think there is a lot of ground between Aiden’s three, with my preference being Changingoftheguard. There is little doubt Ryan will ride Stone Age and will perhaps start favourite because of his influence. Of the Godolphin three, I have a hankering for Walk of Stars, though as with Emily Upjohn in the Oaks, Walk of Stars’ temperament may defeat him. I have little doubt Desert Crown will emerge by season’s end as the top rated of Saturday’s runners. I just have it in my head that he will lose his race on the run to Tattenham Corner. There was just something about the way he came off a straight line in the Dante that has unnerved me. Of the Dante form I prefer Royal Patronage, a horse that seems to be coming to hand at the right moment and it is about time Mark Johnson and son had another classic winner.
Though it should be the turn of one of the fancied runners to win, I believe we are in for another almighty turn-up, with Glory Daze my selection to provide the shock. His form in Ireland is pretty okay or as okay as Stone Age, with the latter being far shorter odds than the former. In fact, for the forecast I would go with Westover, with Changingoftheguard third and Royal Patronage fourth.