​It is a shame that Galway coincides with Glorious Goodwood every year. This past week has been quite dull in both Britain and Ireland and Galway would have changed all that. The oft said but know quite forgotten phrase ‘see Naples and die’ should be, if legend and myth is not too exaggerated, ‘see Galway and die’, such is the reputation for partying and gaiety of the 7-day festival.
Unfortunately, Galway in the summer is becoming a replication of winter racing in the whole of Ireland, a beanfest for the larger stables, especially those of Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott. Indeed, if Ireland were to follow Britain and introduce a harmonising tax that can only cause disharmony and heartbreak to everyone involved in the sport, Irish racing might end-up as a dual between its two leading stables, both of whom will have 300-horses at their disposal and every owner with the wealth, enthusiasm and dogged spirit, to struggle on.
There are 32 entries for the Galway Plate to be run next Wednesday, July 30Th, 17 of which are trained by either Willie Mullins or Gordon Elliott. Is this a good look for the sport? Is this a foreshadowing of the future of our sport?

Matt Rennie’s report on the day’s racing at Cartmel yesterday focused on the success of At Vimiero in the maiden hurdle due entirely to the fact that he had cost 650,000-Guineas at Newmarket’s Book 1 yearling sale, his value plummeting to 34,000-Guineas when acquired by his present connections. Why the great day enjoyed by local trainer Jimmy Moffatt was worth barely two-dozen words at the end of the report will no doubt baffle Moffatt and his owners as it has me. He had 3-winners and 4-seconds and 3 unplaced, worthy, I suggest, of taking the headlines in the sport’s newspaper, would you not agree? Local man makes good.
His stable jockey, and it is ridiculous that she is not used by other northern trainers, Charlotte Jones rode 2 of those winners, with Brian Hughes winning on Sea the Clouds. She was also runner-up 3-times, including on 25/1 shot Mojo Ego. Horses, as it seems to be with female jockeys, run and jump for Jones and having already surpassed 100-winners, it must be talent and skill and not luck that propels her career.
Moffatt, like his stable jockey, goes under the radar, a force to be reckoned with around Cartmel and yet, given he has trained a Cheltenham Festival winner, he is not patronised by the wealthier and more prominent owners. Given he trains in one of the most scenic areas of the country and is a proven trainer of winners, I would have thought a weekend in the Lake District visiting your horses would be a major attraction, even for southern-based owners.

Hamilton, surprisingly, was the first racecourse in Britain to stage an evening meeting, though historian John Fairfax-Blakeborough believes there was an evening meeting held at York in 1784, of which the fifth race was the fastest of the night, even though it was run in complete darkness.
Returning to Hamilton on July 18th, 1947, 18,000 people attended the meeting. Yes, we can only wish today for such popularity amongst the public. It is possible, though, the large attendance had more than a little to do with Glasgow Fair Holiday being in full swing. To blow my own trumpet, I have advocated in the past that racing should return to its roots in the summer months and stage1, 2 and 3-day meetings to coincide with local fairs and carnivals.

The first radio commentary on horse racing was as far back as 1927, with Geoffrey Gilbey and George Allison commentating on the Epsom Derby win of Call Boy (an appropriately named winner given it was the first ever race ‘called’ by a commentator) and ridden by Charlie Elliott.
The following year Gilbey commentated on the Grand National victory of Tipperary Tim who beat the only other finisher, the American horse Billy Barton.

​Chester is, as we all know, the oldest racecourse in Britain and should be granted privileges for being so. You would not put your revered granny out in the garden to make room for ingrates in the living room and Chester should not be shunted to the outfields of evening racing as happens so often since the imposition of ‘Premier Racing’. At one of its earliest meetings, Shrove Tuesday 1540, a race was run for a silver bell worth 111-Guineas to the winner, over £50,000 in today’s money. Chester forever, I say.

In the 1700’s most races were known as Plates, the conditions of which were much different to the races of today. The horses entered for these races carried weights subject to their age and height. For aged horses and mares (over 6-years of age, I believe) of 13-hands, 7-stone was the allotted weight, and every additional one-eighth-of-an inch 14-ounces were added. If a horse stood 14-hands it carried 9-stone and 15-hands 11-stone. 6-year-olds carried 4Ib less and 5-year-olds 12Ib less.

Match races were the vogue in the 18th century (we should study such races as if the Labour Government implement the ‘racing tax’ match races will be the only fare on offer to us). These races were arranged in the Jockey Club Rooms at Newmarket. After supper, and after the snuff-box went around the table, members would write the name of their horse they wished to ‘match’ on a slip of paper and hand their ‘entries’ to Admiral Rous. He would examine the names, consult with the members and then refer to his famed handicap book. He would then ask the gentleman present to put their hands in their pockets. ‘You shall run the last five-furlongs of the Abington Mile for 100-sovereigns, 50 forfeit. The Blank colt shall carry 8-stone 10Ibs and the other 8-stone 2Ibs.’ The owners were then invited to withdraw their hands from their pockets and if both held money the match was made.

Before 1946, unnamed horses were allowed to run. But that was nothing compared to the confusion caused by replicated names. In 1895, Racing Illustrated brought to light to their readers the confusion caused to bettors by this replication, and these were just a few of the replicated names to be found on race-cards in those days. 4-horses with the name Starlight, Spider, and Barmaid. Several Charlies, a profusion of Counts and Countesses, an unnamed number of Gamecocks (a horse of this name won the 1887 Grand National), 5 Nuns, 3 Shamrocks, 3 Stellas, 3 Squires, 3 Ballyhoolys, 3 Bankers, 3 Battleaxes, 3 Castaways, 3 Bobs, 3 Bills.
And I get mad when a famous name of the past is recycled nowadays!

A year later Racing Illustrated turned to Starting Machines for a moan. Races back then were started by a man with a white flag. We are not talking here about ‘starting gates’ but the barrier system, as invented and first used in Australia. The barrier or ‘starting machine’ was first seen in this country at Sandown, though in the paddock and not as a means for starting a race. To the modern man of 1896 starting machines were an unholy sight and they were pleased that the rules of racing were such as at the time they could not be used, even for a trial, on a British racecourse. In Australia, it was said, there were long delays at the start as it was difficult to get horses to line-up against the barrier. Yet, some who had seen the months of work to get a young horse educated and fit destroyed by the dithering of the starter with his white flag, thought the barrier start would prove a fairer method. 
When starting stalls were first spoken about in the 1960’s in this country, many thought the barrier start to be sacred to the sport, yet now if it were to be suggested, as I have done with my proposal for a 40-runner Lincoln started from a barrier (to give the flat an equivalent to the jeopardy of the Aintree National) every jockey would be averse to the suggestion, with many, I suggest, instructing their agents to have them busy at another meeting so as to avoid the ‘madness’.

It is good to look to the past both for inspiration and gratitude for how things are today. But it is only in looking back and using a money calculator to be reminded that a £200 first prize in the 1920’s for example was actually a good slab of money compared to £3,500 on offer in many races today. In some ways the sport has leapt forward, in others, as with prize-money, it becomes a clear example of the reduced circumstances in which the sport now finds itself.

My copy of Lord Oaksey and Bob Rodney’s ‘Racing Companion’ was of great use in compiling the above.

​It is the smaller aspects of life that grate most, I find. Whereas people who think it funny to spread misinformation are pot-holes in the road to a quiet and contented life, and while white lies are acceptable, dishonest and corrupt politicians, including Prime Ministers, are a stain on both society and democracy, I.T.V.’s constant use of the term ‘defending champion’, when the horse in question is merely attempting to win back-to-back renewals of a minor race, is just downright bloody annoying. Matt Chapman was the transgressor yesterday at Newbury when addressing Clifford Lee, rider of Elite Status before the Group 3, Hackwood Stakes.
There are very few flat races where a champion is crowned as in comparison to National Hunt a majority of flat races are restricted to 2 and 3-year-olds, and Derby winners can never return to defend their crown. In fact, I surmise, with the exception of the Champion Stakes on Champions Day, a misnomer if ever there was one, there is no flat race which crowns a champion. There is no Champion Sprint Stakes or the equivalent for milers or stayers. Perhaps this needs to be remedied so that the term ‘defending champion’ can be used without causing people like me to grind our teeth or, forgive me, seek out the culprit and pour a bucket of cold water over him, or her, even.
For the whole of his life now, Sprinter Sacre will be referred to as the ‘former 2-mile Champion Chaser’ and all this coming National Season, Marine Nationale will be referred to as the ‘Champion 2-mile Chaser’. No flat horse can be referred to in similar terms, rendering ‘the defending champion’ as just plain wrong.

The National Hunt season is sprinkled with regional and county ‘Nationals’, usually the feature race on an otherwise ordinary day’s racing. I have a great liking for these races as they invariably give owners, trainers and jockeys who rarely get into the limelight a chance to shine. Once upon a time there used to be a whole host of county, perhaps regional, and small National Derbies and Oaks. Why these races are gone by the wayside I have no idea and I suggest it is time they were revived.
There used to be a Welsh Derby at Chepstow and a Scottish Derby at Ayr. If my memory is correct there was even a Liverpool Derby at the Grand National meeting back in the days when it was a mixture of flat and jumps. Warwick used to have a Warwickshire Oaks and I believe there was even a Newmarket Derby or am I confusing that with the wartime Derbies run on the Rowley Mile?
I see no reason why regional and county classics should not be reinstated as long as they are staged over 12-furlongs. To be practical, given the smaller pool of horses these days, I would not be averse to them being open to 3-year-olds and upwards, though I would frown if they were to be banded handicaps.

The only disappointing aspect about the one and only Sir Mark Prescott is that he has no intention of writing an autobiography in his retirement, if that is he ever retires. As the greatest reconteur, local historian and eccentric presently walking amongst us, the fact that his voice will die with him must be pretty disconcerting to all his devoted fan-club members. Heath House and Sir Mark Prescott should have preservation orders placed on them so that every trainer in the future who is privileged to send out runners from the place must be custodians of the principles held dear by its present incumbent.
I am quite certain that if I were on friendly terms with Sir Mark there would be aspects of his beliefs that I could never agree with, as there would be vice-versa, but if I ever had the wherewithal to be able to afford to purchase a yearling from Newmarket’s Book 1 sale, a colt with a good staying pedigree, I would hope Sir Mark would train it for me. Just to step inside Heath House to touch the bricks and timber of the place would be a privilege, as would be basking in the shadow of his wit, wisdom and old-fashioned values.
If there is anyone with any influence over Sir Mark, which I fear there is not, please encourage him to write his life-story, even if he leaves out the juicier side of his private life. Mark my words, Sir Mark Prescott will be talked about long after his gravestone is erected, so we ought to have some of the truths of his life in print to check against the stories that doubtless will be invented to embellish the myth and legend of the last great master of Heath House.

​It is easily seen that David Jennings is a fine fellow. He is also a fine assembler of words relating to the sport of kings. He wants the best for his sport, as we all do. He is also forgiving of The Curragh and those now responsible for restoring its reputation as one of the world’s best racecourses and believe them short-changed in their efforts to get more people in attendance for race-meetings.
In today’s Racing Post, he advocates the need to get more actual race-fans on course, as well as the broad approach to have the stands heaving again, as they once did in the not-so-far-away past. At the Derby meeting a month ago he was particularly impressed by witnessing Aidan O’Brien being interview in the Champions Lounge fifteen-minutes before off-time and Jennings would like to see such a feature trialled by both the H.R.I. and the B.H.A., with trainers, jockeys and owners obligated to provide information that race-fans could dissimilate to their heart’s content.
In theory this a good, if simple solution to the problem of real race-fans staying at home and watching the racing from the comfort of their settees. I am not so sure it would have any effect on attendance, and I doubt if there would be many trainers who would want to sign-up to being interrogated for fifteen-minutes before off-time. Aidan O’Brien is an obliging chap but he can afford to be given he has a legion of minions capable of saddling his runners, talking with owners and able to deal with any incident that may befall any of his horses. Not all trainers have a similar support system behind them.
Jenning’s hope to persuade jockeys to cooperate with interviews inside of racecourse buildings is fairly remote, I would suggest, given the time-pressure they are under to change from one set of colours after a race to another, to weigh-out and then to talk with owners and receive riding instructions in the parade ring. 
And let us be honest, trainers, especially, never give great insight about their runners, do they? We know their horses must be in good order or they would not be at the races and when a trainer is asked how his horse will cope  with the ground conditions, be it unfamiliar firm or soft, their reply is speculative and will often underscore their positivity with ‘only time will tell’ or something as equally unhelpful.
Apart from suggesting free-entry to the lesser meetings at The Curragh and the construction of a National Hunt course, I am neither acquainted nor experienced enough of The Curragh and its history to put forward any more worthwhile suggestion on how to re-elevate the racecourse to its previous heights. I am sceptical, though, that a short interview with a trainer or jockey fifteen-minutes before a race can possibly persuade race-fans to get in their cars and drive to the racecourse when everything they might hear from Aidan, Ger or Joseph will already have appeared in the Racing Post.

In his column today, David Jennings also heaped high praise on Jim Goldie’s young apprentice Lauren Young for her ride on ‘the loveable nut-job’ (Jennings words, not mine) Classy Al when defeating Paul Mulrennan (I think) by a head at Ayr last week. For a 7Ib apprentice to be praised for giving a horse a ride that Ryan Moore would be proud of is unusual, as if Classy Al may have paid for a lot more than a round of drinks for Jennings. He even hinted that Young may be in receipt of a Lester for ride of the season. It would please me if Jennings himself was in receipt of an award come the trophy-giving season.

It was good to see a letter in the Racing Post praising a jockey whose career was long in the past. Angela Gill of Maplehurst was writing about Martin Molony, believing him to be the greatest National Hunt jockey of all-time, better even than McCoy and Walsh. Some accolade but then as a jockey who was as successful on the flat as he was over jumps, it is difficult to argue with her opinion.

​The dictionary definition of plethora is large, especially excessive. In medical terms it is a condition marked by ‘overfullness of blood’. In racing terms, I would suggest, it is a state of sameness. 
Today, June 18th, there are eight meetings in Britain and Ireland and tomorrow it is the same, though brightened by two jumps meetings at Cartmel and the main jumps card of the summer programme at Market Rasen, which I am greatly looking forward to.
Here is the thing, though, a plethora of race-meetings allows opportunities for the smaller owner, trainer, journeyman jockey and even those riders who might be a step on the ladder below journeyman. I moan about ‘Super Saturday’, though that is more about labelling the day ‘super’ when ‘Sameness Saturday’ might be more appropriate and given how I champion the proposition that everyone involved in the sport should be given the opportunity to earn an honest living, I need to rein in my cynicism and take notice of the trees that are central to the wonderful habitat that comprises the wood, nay forest, plantation or copse.
My argument for wanting everyone in the sport to be allowed to make a fair living is bound up with the issue of integrity and the prevention of corruption. The jockey or trainer who is struggling to keep financially afloat is far more open to corruption than the jockey or trainer whose bank balance is in the black. It is this that annoyed me when Tom Marquand moans to the press that it is ‘unfair that he is not allowed to ride at two meetings a day’. Yes, it might be a restraint on trade, but this perfectly sensible rule, perhaps the only a shaft of sensible thinking to come from the period of government restriction on our freedoms, has levelled the playing field to a degree amongst those lucky people with access to the weighing rooms of our racecourses. Tom, by dint of being one of our best, and perhaps most likeable, jockeys, can afford to buy himself a brand of car in the ‘super-car’ bracket, and those who can afford a high-powered Ferrari, Lotus or McClaren should remember that some of their colleagues do well to drive a second-hand Ford or Nissan and keep shoes on the feet of his or her children.
The plethora of class 5 and 6 handicaps that so many ‘experts’ seem to believe the sport could do without represent a real world fact – as with athletics, there are far fewer top-class or high-class ‘club’ runners than there are horses who will never be more than middle-of-the-road. And as I say quite frequently, it is ‘we’ who designate what an elite horse is and what constitutes a great race. I am quite sure everyday there are races up and down the country that will have as exciting a finish as anything that can be witnessed in a classic or Group 1.
If I were to be put in charge of this sport, to arrest the overall decline, I would go back to basics, to be in the ball-park of where we were when the sport was in its golden age. I would have less races, far fewer meetings and I would siphon prize-money away from the major races, perhaps capping all Grade 1’s at £100,000, and invest the surplus in the sort of races that will be run today and tomorrow. Invest in the foundations, as one would do when starting a new business. And I would grade jockeys and trainers, as we presently grade horses, and have class 5 and 6 handicaps ridden by jockeys with a similar grade and the same with trainers, thereby giving every jockey and small-time trainer every opportunity to make a fair living at the sport by levelling the playing field. 

​I get facts mixed-up these days. Doubtless it is age-generated laxity of thought but whatever the reason, when I fervently believe this sport to be my specialist subject, it is annoying and a little bit soul-destroying to be wrong, if only occasionally.
If you had asked me about Martin Molony before I read Richard Forristal’s article on him in today’s Racing Post, I would have answered that he had tragically died as the result of a race-fall. I believed that as fact and when Forristal suggested otherwise, I had the affrontery to think him to be wrong. Molony did suffer a bad fall at Thurles when aged only 26, which left him in a coma but it only brought about his retirement from the sport and he lived to be 91, dying eight-years-ago.
Forristal’s article was to assert, no doubt quite rightly, that Martin Molony remains the greatest dual-purpose jockey of all-time, with his record on the flat equalling his brilliance over jumps. If you want a record of his big-race wins, classics both on the flat and over jumps, you should buy a copy of today’s Racing Post. You will be as surprised as I was by the achievements of Molony.

The good news is that Classic Chianti has recovered from the hind leg injury he sustained at Ascot last season and is presently at Enda Bolger’s where he is doing light road-work. This does not necessarily mean he will return to full work, it does though allow me to boast that when it was being said that his career as a racehorse was over, I suggested that not need be the outcome as horses have returned to the racecourse after suffering the same injury. I doubt if Chianti Classico does return to full training with Kim Bailey that he will fulfil the promise of his youth and Bailey is not the sort of trainer who will labour the journey if the horse shows him nothing of the horse he used to be. But he is being ridden and if he can stand limited exercise at least he might make someone a hack or even a hunter.

My favourite owner, the equal to J.P. McManus, is the divine Philippa Cooper, her of Sweet William fame and her parade ring banter with Matt Chapman. If Cooper could lead our sport, if she were to step-in if Baron Allen should walk-away from the B.H.A. chairperson’s position, the sport would have the perfect anti-dote to combat the diatribe of our opponents. Philippa Cooper is the living embodiment of goodness of heart and puts the kibosh on the idea that the rich cannot be the nicest people on the planet.
Whether the idea she proposes in today’s feature in the Racing Post was her own or she cottoned-on to the proposal that 1% of all sales from the sales ring should go to the retirement and rehabilitation of racehorses, as I proposed in a letter to the Racing Post a few months ago, is immaterial. At the moment 3 of the biggest sales houses are donating £12 to the R.o.R. charity for each horse they sell at auction, comprising £6 from the seller and £6 from the auction house, and that is a good start. It may not be enough to ensure all horses live out their lives in reasonable comfort and if that proves to be the case Philippa will doubtless lead a campaign for 1% of all sales.
Philippa Cooper is a template for how all owners should be. When she sells a horse she has bred, as she did with Gregory and French Master, it is a part of the deal that the horses be returned to her when their racing careers are over. It is why she has more retired horses on her pay-roll than horses in training.
Horse racing needs to cherish Philippa Cooper and anyone who has a problem with her stance on horse welfare needs to either be shown the error of their ways or be drummed out of the sport.

​Question, is Jim Goldie the best flat trainer in the country? Now, you could argue that he is far from the best given he has never won a classic and until Royal Ascot this year Group 1’s had always eluded him. He is presently 17th in the trainers’ championship, millions of pounds in prize money behind Aidan O’Brien, the Gosdens, Andrew Balding and Charlie Appleby, with his star horse, American Affair on the sidelines with what is described as a minor injury. I dare say jarred-up due to the fast ground at Royal Ascot.
But we are dealing with oranges and pears here. Jim Goldie is, basically, a trainer of second-hand horses, horses that the aforementioned trainers would not have in their stables. Owners do not, and seemingly do not have to, provide him with silver bullets to fire, unlike the aforementioned who have nothing other than silver bullets to fire. Goldie will buy a horse from the sales for 3,000-guineas and win valuable handicaps with it. His horses are never swans, though a good number of them do a fine impression of being the whitest of swans.
It would be very interesting if a top owner/breeder instead of sending one of his or her lesser lights to the sales this autumn, sent it Jim Goldie to see if he could unlock the ability its pedigree suggests it should have. The man is in the veteran stage of his career. He has worked hard all his life, creating along the way his own stables and gallops. He is a self-made man who owes little to anyone for his success. He is, I boldly claim, the best trainer in the country and he deserves nothing less than to have one of the top owner/breeders sending him a nice, untried horse once in a while. I doubt if any of the sixteen trainers above him in the trainers’ championship could win a race with the majority of the horses Jim Goldie has at his disposal. 

The Gosdens were fined £3,000 by the B.H.A. yesterday after two horses from their stable were found to have minute traces of ketamine in their system. This is the second time the Gosdens have been guilty of this offence. Once upon a time the book would have been thrown at a trainer for having a horse fail a drug test, these days, thankfully, common-sense is applied to cases and in this instance, as in the previous incident, a former employee, who looked-after one of the horses to have failed the drug test, was found to be a recreational user of ketamine and was the source of the contamination.
My feeling on this is that I believe it serves no purpose for such cases to be made public. I am not suggesting the Gosdens’ should not have received a fine, though as ketamine is used by vets as a sedative and not a stimulant that might improve the performance of a horse, no harm was caused to either the horses concerned or the reputation of the sport, so why bring it into the public domain?

The half-million euros Irish Oaks this weekend will have fewer than 7-runners, 7 at the maximum and will quite possibly have the shortest priced favourite for a classic for many a long year. It will be a doddle for Minnie Hauk, with the possibility of Ballydoyle also banking the majority of the place money. Not a good look for the sport.

Several top trainers and at least one top jockey, Charlie Bishop, took on the Castle to Abbey Challenge last weekend, raising over £100,000 for Racing Welfare. The walk, for which the weather was a combination of hot sun and torrential rain, comprised an up and down travail of some of Yorkshire’s most scenic landscapes. And I congratulate myself for achieving my one day a week walk to the Atlantic Village shopping mall at the top end of the town. It is no longer called Atlantic Village but some silly name I neither like nor can remember. It is uphill nearly all the way and at 71 I surprise myself every time I finally reach my front door without having suffered cardiac arrest or a pulled muscle. Messrs Balding, Johnson-Houghton, Lavelle and others deserve a medal. I envy them and regret not having taken-on such a challenge at least once in my fitter years.

​The B.H.A. board will meet on July 28th to decide what to do about Baron Allen. It might prove to be a heated gathering, given that the Racehorse Owners Group and the Racecourse Association oppose Baron Allen becoming the new chairman (I so hate the use of the term ‘chair’, the chair sitting on a chair etc) of the B.H.A., while the National Trainers Federation, the Jockeys Association and the National Association of Stable Staff, are aligned in their support of Baron Allen. Without agreement by all the stakeholders, it is highly likely that the Baron will walk away, leaving the B.H.A. and the sport in limbo. It has to be asked, if Baron Allen believes the sport is impossible to lead with the present system of governance, who else would want the job?
All of this could be avoided if my suggestion of a democratic approach to the appointment was given a fair crack of the whip. If the B.H.A. were to select the three best qualified for the position of chairman/chairwoman, hopefully with at least one of the nominees having a coal-face association with the sport, and then in good old democratic fashion, after hearing the manifestoes of the electees, elect the new leader by a ballot of everyone with a vested interest in the sport. And that would include you and me. No ballot papers, but a vote on-line, using the B.H.B. website, with everyone eligible to vote given a registration number prior to D.Day or should that be V. Day.

Rather saddened that Bravemansgame has been removed from Paul Nicholl’s stable to that of Marine Pineda in Lamorlaye near Chantilly. The idea is that the change of scenery will ‘boost the morale’ of the horse and was recommended by James Reveley who rode the horse in the Aintree National last season. The move, I am sure, is with the best of intentions but as Bravemansgame is eleven rising twelve, he is as, Marine Pineda described him, an ‘old gentleman’ and as such retirement might have been the kindest option for the horse. The application of blinkers is a clear indication that the horse has tired of racing and his career wins should qualify him for an easier life than continuing to race against younger, more enthusiastic, horses.

When will people, and by people I hint at Racing Post employees, notice the connect between the policy of the Irish government to make horse racing in its country a harder steer than it is already, and the British Government’s seemingly support for the Gambling Commission’s determination to make betting as socially undesirable as smoking cigarettes in public places. The two governments are going about the destruction of the racing, breeding and gambling industries from differing positions. Yet it is as clear as a heatwave that their aims are the same.
When taken in the same light as the slow but methodical destruction of ordinary life, the establishment of a fourth industrial revolution, based around technology, not industry, as proposed by the World Economic Forum and the subverting of what might be termed the ‘established religious orthodoxy of the Catholic and Protestant Church’ by an influx of illegal immigrants of a different faith, and fifteen-minute cities and the rewilding of the countryside, and my belief that the ultimate goal, far down the road of the present strategies of the Irish and British governments, the natural extinction of our sport. To fight a rearguard action is to continually lose ground to our opposition/enemy. We need our pride in our sport to come to the fore and we need to step forward and use everything that can be found in the W.E.F.’s ‘Great Reset’ as our arsenal of attack.

​When a horse suffers a fall during a race, whether it be on the flat or over jumps, and Ed Chamberlain or someone else declares after the race that the ‘horse is fine,’ take that statement with a pinch of salt. Ed speaks with good intentions, wanting to put people at their ease, easing their fear that the horse might be injured, but he cannot know with any degree of certainty that ‘the horse is fine’, 100%. The trainer will not breathe a sigh of relief until the horse is trotted-up the next morning and even then they, the trainer and owner, will not be out-of-the-woods as it sometimes takes days or even weeks for deep-seated bruising to make itself visible. Or worse, the misalignment of the skeletal structure of the horse.
A horse weighs half-a-ton. You only truly appreciate the weight of a horse until it stands on your foot or you witness the damage they can do to a car if they should lean on one. When a horse falls during a steeplechase there is a fair bit of deceleration before the horse collides with the ground and that can make the impact like hitting a wall and which can be far worse when the ground is firm than when it is soft and the horse can slide on the grass, reducing the force of the impact. A horse may be half-a-ton of coiled and springy muscle but it is also soft-fleshed and with bones easily susceptible to injury from hair-line cracks to severe fracture.
Is it any wonder a horse can lose its form and go from promising novice to a horse seemingly unable to finish a race after a fall, even one that seems innocuous? Or the other way around, a horse that has shown no worthwhile form suddenly becoming a winner when transferred for whatever reason to a new yard. I would guess in the first instance the horse was assessed by the trainer, perhaps even the vet, to be sound when imperceptible it was not, and in the second instance the new trainer or owner had the horse looked-at by chiropractor who discovered skeletal misalignment and after a series of treatments the horse improves on the gallops and at the races with marked effect.
Think of those aches and pains we all suffer, especially as we get older. When they first occur how many of us seek treatment, either from a doctor (a waste of time, in my opinion) or chiropractor? Not many of us, I would suspect. Of course, you must receive treatment from a skilled and experienced practitioner. I have had a neck problem for more years that I care to remember. After suffering the intermittent pain for decades, I finally, on recommendation of someone who has used the man for years, to seek a solution. He said, it was not my neck that was the problem but my shoulder. I knew him to be wrong but went for treatment on two further occasions. The problem persisted. Eventually I went to my doctor you passed me on to a N.H.S. chiropractor who assessed my situation, offered a couple of exercises to carry out on a daily basis and lo and behold my neck is 90% improved. If it stiffens up, I revert to the exercises.
To return to horses. Equine chiropractors can be a further expense to be added to the horrendous monthly training fees but the owner who refuses the request to have a chiropractor treat his or her horse is misguided. I remember standing outside a stable while a renowned equine chiropractor from up north treated – he wanted to be alone with the horse – a horse that was stiff in his quarters. The man came out of the stable – I cannot remember his name – stated that ‘we would have no further problems with the horse’ and went on his way. I would like to say that the horse went on to win races but fate took away that development, though the horse was sound and free-moving in the days after his treatment.
I have also witness horses sigh with relief whilst being treated by a chiropractor.
In a fair and equitable world every horse would be assessed by a chiropractor on a regular basis, and certainly after suffering a fall. But the world is not a bowl of cherries, as they say. Also, there is an apparent shortage of trained equine chiropractors. All of this came to mind after reading a feature in today’s Racing Post on an Irish and greatly revered chiropractor by the name of Ted McLaughlin. I would hope that owners reading the article will engage his or her trainer on the subject in regard to a horse that may have shown no form or has lost its form. One visit from a trained chiropractor might change lives, and for a relatively small amount of money when compared to all the other expenses incurred by the ownership of a racehorse.

​It is good, nay brilliant, news that I.T.V. are close to signing a new contract to cover British racing till 2030. May I live that long. I.T.V.’s presentation may not be everyone’s cup of tea but to my mind they provide the best terrestrial coverage we have yet to enjoy. I wish they would scrap the parade ring interviews with trainers with more important matters on their minds and if Oli Bell asks a trainer, and especially Aidan O’Brien, ‘how is the horse’ I will implode with the sheer pointlessness of the question. ‘Well, actually, Oli, the horse is not pleasing us at all. We do not know what is wrong with him but the lads thought we would give it a go as he has no potential to be a stallion.’ A reply such as that would be informative, while ‘he’s well’ would be the expected answer from any trainer with a horse in any race. But I digress.
Apparently, I.T.V. have had a request to re-jig the Christmas fixtures so that Kempton stage a one-day bonanza whereby the King George, Christmas Hurdle, etc are all run on Boxing Day, followed by the Ascot meeting, usually staged before Christmas and then the Challow Hurdle meeting at Newbury, forming a 3-day Festival. A great idea scuppered by the racecourses. I.T.V. also proposed that the Welsh National would swap places with Ascot, which I believe made good sense, allowing our top jockeys to ride in both the King George and the big race at Chepstow. There we go, an example of what is wrong with the governance of British racing, a mouthwatering proposal killed at birth, not even put out there for the racing public to debate.

In athletics, which would be the closest sport to horse racing if athletes carried a sack of coal on their backs, sprints are run in lanes. Now, do you think times would be faster if the lanes were done away with and athletes were allowed to jostle for positions, some preferring ‘cover’ while others wishing to make the running? No. They run the 100-metres in straight lines as that is the quickest way to get from point A, the start, to point B, the finish. So why do jockeys deliberately take their mounts off a straight line? Yes, some horses relax when in the middle of the pack, while others do better when allowed their heads, and sometimes the draw bias makes the decision for a jockey to seek the faster ground, but as a generalisation would it not be better to run as straight a course as is practical? When running around a bend, it is considered a disadvantage to be three or four-wide as that adds distance compared to the horses hugging the rail. Isn’t deviating off a straight line the equivalent?

Very pleasant to see a trainer not in the top ten win a Group 1, and even though it was Neil Callan, not my favourite jockey by a long chalk, at least he is unused in recent years to winning Group 1’s. Richard Hughes has worked hard as a trainer to get where he is, keeping the boat afloat by placing his horses in races they have a chance of winning and not thinking his geese are swans. Whether the wealthiest owners will now look differently towards him only time will tell.

Mr. Gill of Gravesend writes in the Letters Column of the Racing Post of the frustration of spectators when hurdles and fences are taken out due to low sun. He said, as many do, that there appears no solution to the problem, yet if we look to cricket and the screens they use so that batsman can see the ball coming at them, there is a grain of an idea that requires debate. We are talking here not about the sun in general but the sun in particular when it is low on the horizon. Where the sun rises and falls is not random, so if there is no cloud cover it is predictable where it will lie. My idea is that some form of screen, movable up and across, should be erected – it may well need to be fifty-feet high, perhaps less – where the sun is positioned to affect the sight of jockeys and horses as they approach a fence. Science will be involved to perfect the system, I suspect.