​All sectors of the sport accept that something needs to be done quickly to stop the decline of British racing. Prize-money is slowly rising at the top end of the sport, though at the bottom end it remains an embarrassment. Jockeys do their bit, as proved at York last week and if asked would do more. But owners, too, have a part to play and some of them put their own interests before the general good of the sport. To cite one example: Big Evs being retired to stud as a 3-year-old, following the example set by the owners of Shaquille last year. Thoroughbreds mature from 5-years-of age. Big Evs is a baby by comparison. The good horses need to be kept in training as 4-year-olds and when possible, longer still. Such decisions should be called out for what they are – selfish and without thought to the overall health of the sport.

In a letter today in the Racing Post, the Thoroughbred Breeders Association have announced increased bonuses from January 1st next year for fillies and mares that win a T.B.A. race as a two-year-old over a mile or further and as 3-year-old over 10-furlongs or further. Also, they have introduced the bonus to some Class 2, 3 & 4 handicaps, plus a handful of listed races.
The T.B.A. recognise that something has to be done to encourage breeders to breed foals with the prospect of staying beyond 10-furlongs. The trend for breeding for speed is both slowly killing the staying division and is no good for the horses they breed when they go out of the sport as, in the main, sprinters are pretty useless when it comes to other equestrian sports and pastimes. Hooray to the T.B.A. for taking action. Let us hope breeders take up the baton.

I have never visited York racecourse and at my age I doubt I ever will. My loss, I know. It is regularly voted racecourse of the year and every racing journalist heaps praise on it. Not every racecourse, sadly, are in a position to emulate every little thing that York is famous for, though, perhaps, every other racecourse could help the sport by increasing prize-money by, say 10% a year for the next few years and ensure they welcome spectators with both a smile and pride in the facilities they provide. As Sir Stanley Clark once said when speaking about Uttoxeter. ‘You should never be ashamed of your toilets.’ My advice to the management of all racecourses is, start from the bottom up,’ if you forgive the pun – a puddle-free car park, clean surfaces in and out, good food that does not empty the wallet, etc.

Pleased to read that Bryony has won her first race in the double green of Isaac Souede & Simon Munir. It is her second win in France, her stint over there interrupted by a broken collarbone. Her claim – female jockeys in France receive a small weight allowance – may have been the deciding factor in appointing her as their retained jockey, though her record as a big race jockey would also have helped her get the job. I just hope we get to see her back here next season.

​City of Troy is very good. An obvious statement and his detractors now need to button it until after the Breeders Cup. But very good is all he is, at least at this stage of his career, even if I suspect he is nearly at the end of his career. Those people, and I include the hype machine that is the I.T.V. presenters, who insist on putting the laurel wreath of greatness around his shoulders should reflect on the true legends of the sport that have gone before him and overlay their achievements against what City of Troy has thus far accomplished.
He was, I admit, the dominant two-year-old of his generation, which set in motion grandiose plans for the future and dreams of Frankel incarnate. Of course, he went from hero to zero after the 2,000 Guineas, a display that Aidan blamed himself for and yet in comparison to his subsequent racecourse appearances might, in hindsight, have been the result of clever dopers or someone with a tranquilizer gun disguised as an umbrella or pair of binoculars. I jest but Aidan is not a bumbling idiot and makes so few public mistakes that it seems a stretch to believe he bungled City of Troy’s training to such devastating effect.
His Derby victory was impressive, albeit from what I believe was a substandard field, though most Derby fields these days are below what we perhaps enjoyed when Epsom staged their great race on a Wednesday and Derby Day was circled on many calendars hung at London addresses. His Eclipse victory was underwhelming, though I suspect Aidan had York in mind in the period post-Derby. Aidan blamed his workmanlike performance on the ground being on the soft-side, a poor excuse to my mind as he won like a steam-train on similar ground as a two-year-old, with Ryan Moore’s greatest difficulty being getting the horse to stop galloping after the finishing line.
The International proved to me, at long last, he is a genuinely good horse and not a horse talked-up by his trainer. He is not, though, a truly great horse, even if he is the best horse trained at Ballydoyle since Istabraq. It is a strange statement, given how Aidan strides colossus-like across the British and Irish racing scene, that he has waited all this time for a champion, and still waits in my opinion. He has trained champion milers and in Yeats, and perhaps Kyprios, he has trained two of the best stayers of all-time, with plenty of champion 2-year-olds thrown in as well, but no Frankel, in fact no middle-distance horse to get within hailing distance of the first or second-best flat horse of my lifetime, alongside Brigadier Gerard who the younger brigade of journalists are in danger of either overlooking or forgetting about entirely.
For City of Troy to claim the prestige of an all-time great, the Coolmore boys need to keep him in training as a four-year-old to prove himself better than the generation below him. He needs another Eclipse to his name, though more importantly to my mind, he needs a King George & Queen Elisabeth and an Arc on his c.v.. The Irish Champion Stakes now looks a formality for him, though from what I read the Breeders Cup at Del Mar will prove a more formidable obstacle to overcome as it is a tight, fast track which will not play to his strengths. Aidan has told us time and time again that City of Troy’s best attribute is his character, that alone is a good enough reason to keep him training as a four-year-old, that and the benefit it will bring to the sport. Frankel was kept in training at 4, as was Baaeed. Over to you, lads. If you want a Frankel, you must campaign him like Frankel.

The Doncaster St.Leger is not yet dead, it is though in a critical condition. If it were not for Coolmore and Aidan, the race would be in cardiac arrest. Something needs to be done about it. There are only fifteen-horses still in the race, though there is always the possibility of supplementary entries between now and the five-day declaration stage. Nine of those fifteen are trained by Aidan O’Brien. Jesse Harrington trains one of the other six, which makes the St.Leger booked for export.
The other problem for the St. Leger is that it no longer attracts or is won by great horses. I would argue you have to go back to 1987 for a top-notch three-year-old to win the race, Reference Point. Continuous might buck the trend as he might spring a surprise and win the Arc. But Eldar Eldarove, Galileo Chrome, Kew Gardens, Capri, Harbour Law, Simple Verse, Kingston Hill, Leading Light, Enke – the list of not-so-great classic winners goes on and on.
Something needs to be done about it and what is needed is something radical and in line with modern thinking. The Eclipse should be upgraded to classic status and, of course, confined to three-year-olds and the St.Leger should be opened-up to both geldings and older horses. Whether the St.Leger remains a classic, a sixth classic, I am open-minded about, though it should remain at 14-furlongs, with enough money on offer for it to act as both an alternative to the Arc and a race to attract the Ascot and Goodwood Cup type horses.

​After Royal Ascot I wrote in praise of Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum for his policy of keeping horses in training beyond their 3-year-old careers as I do not believe horses should retire to stud at that age with laurel wreaths of greatness around their name. Rosallion will race on next season, as will Inisherin. Bravo. In my eyes, though, he has blotted his copybook by removing all his horses from Roger Varian, dispersing them to who knows where. Karl Burke, perhaps.
It is, of course, an owner’s prerogative to have his horses trained by whom he likes and every owner has his or her own agenda. The sheikh is an owner who likes to captain his own ship, apparently, and doubtless he has issued an order to Varian that Varian profoundly disagreed with and has suffered the indignity of having 19-horses – I believe that is the number- removed from his stable. I admire a trainer who sticks to his guns and sucks up the consequences. I only wish both parties would offer the public the ins and outs of the spat that results in such parting of the waves
When it comes to Roger Varian, I never understood why he parted ways with Andrea Atzeni in favour of David Egan, a fine rider, though young and inexperienced. Atzeni seemed a good stable jockey, much admired by many other trainers. And, of course, Varian has lost Egan to Amo and has no number one jockey, which for a stable of his strength must be a slight weakness, given his preferred jockey, James Doyle, is retained by Wathnan and is increasingly unavailable to him. Egan may be back next season as no one jockey has yet been able to hold down the retained position to Amo and Egan’s record in his first season attached to Amo is no better than either of his predecessors, Rossa Ryan who has blossomed since going freelance and Kevin Stott who is working his butt off to get back to the top flight without as yet achieving the forward motion he would wish for his career.

Tomorrow in the City of York (place not race) we will be able to make a concise judgement on whether City of Troy still has the potential to become Ballydoyle’s best horse since Istabraq. Bigged-up by Aidan and the Coolmore ‘lads’ since before he set foot on a racecourse, time this season is running out for City of Troy to do a ‘Frankel’ to justify his lofty reputation. Of course, it might be worth crossing our collective fingers that he gets beat at York – beat, that is, without Aidan having a leg to stand-on when it comes to making an excuse for him – as that might persuade ‘the lads’ to keep him in training as a 4-year-old, which they have done with mixed results with Auguste Rodin.
I would be surprised if City of Troy trounced his rivals tomorrow but not surprised if he were to win. I would also not be surprised if he were to be beaten. By whom? Ghostwriter might be the one, following in the footsteps of Arabian Queen who also uptipped the apple-cart in a Juddmonte International.

Sad to see Ropey Guest has been retired by George Margarson after finishing ‘sore’ after his last run. Best known for being a gallant runner-up rather than for an impressive win-ratio, he was a horse with a following and I dare say when he leaves Newmarket for the last time there will be many a tear shed by members both of Margarson’s family and his staff. There will never be another ‘chubby’.

I was a little bewildered to see Bryony’s name next to her father’s runners at Newton Abbot at the 4-day declarations. I sort of hope she is riding for her father in preparation to returning to France to continue her association with the double green of Isaac Souede and Simon Munir and her appearance in the West Country is to prove his fitness after breaking her collar-bone. I am stretched between wanting her to succeed in France to the point she may not return to these shores to continue her career and desperately wanting her back here as she is a light upon which the sport could sell this sport to the public at large.
With her record of big race successes, she deserves greater opportunities both on a daily basis and on the biggest of stages. The ride she gave Il Ridoto at Cheltenham last season when nabbed at the finishing line was proof if it were needed that she remains a force as a National Hunt jockey. Also remember her winning at the Grand National meeting. On those two horses she achieved more than Harry Cobden who rode them more often she did, not that I am knocking ‘Hollywood Harry’, as he is a fine horseman and jockey.
At this moment in the sport’s history, we need to harvest every glimmer of hope possible and Bryony, adored, I would suggest, by the public, is an asset that is going to waste for one outrageous reason which has nothing to do with her ability in the saddle or her win-to-loss ration in the major races. The sport needs her, the sport needs Paul Nicholls to give her better opportunities and the sport needs other trainers to look to her when spare rides are available both a daily basis and in the important races where racing holds the sporting spotlight. Other female jockeys also need to be given greater opportunities. You only have to recall the Shergar Cup for proof of what I am saying – give them competitive rides and females can win just as often as their male counterparts.

​I have read that stable staff are required to go racing to such an extent these days that many either refuse or are reluctant to go. We all know that the people who bear the brunt of the bulging race programme are those who work at the cliff-face, the stable staff. Certainly, stable staff are better paid than they were in the past but the reluctance to go racing has nothing to do with pay. Staff get extra money for going racing and on occasion, if they are blessed to win ‘best turned out’, can win a cash reward. At this point in the flat season, staff are tired, in need of days off rather than extra money in their pocket.
An alternative to drastically reducing the race programme would be to have either more 2 and 3-day meetings or to regionalise the fixture list so that in a similar time-period racing is held at racecourses close to one another. For instance, Haydock, Chester and Aintree, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with Brighton, Goodwood and Lingfield on the same day, thus allowing trainers to take horses for all three meetings down together, saving on fuel and looking all-environmental to those who look in that direction. If this strategy was mixed-in with regional fixtures where only trainers within that region could have runners, a similar saving could be achieved. The problem with the latter, though, is whether there would be enough horses in any one region to fill each race.
One thing that is for certain, the fixture list must be trimmed by at least a quarter. And the easiest way to achieve this goal would be have far less all-weather racing during the summer.

I remain convinced that the idea of restricting 60-races per year to trainers who had less than fifty-winners the previous season is a credible solution to helping the lesser-off achieve a better standard of living. That said, Philip Rothwell who might be the top beneficiary of this proposal, having finished fifth in the trainers’ championship in Ireland last season with 40-odd winners, has suggested a very valid alternative solution, while at the same time aligning himself with the niggardly-nellies, Mullins, Elliott, Cromwell, De Bromhead and Meade, who wish to have all the cream and all the tart kept for themselves, believing those at the top have earned the right to every crumb by tint of having worked themselves up to having 200-horses at their disposal. Rothwell has at least made a positive contribution to the debate. He proposes there should be an increase in races for the poor and moderately rated horse, the sort more likely to be in the stables of those trainers who the restricted races are aimed at.
I think a combination of the H.R.I.’s proposal of restricted races, perhaps the allocation cut by half, and Rothwell’s proposal, say sixty extra races for lower rated horses, might be the answer.
Of course, Philip Rothwell might be expecting to top 50-winners this season, when the restriction will also affect him, and in advocating more lower grade races he will be achieving the similar achievement of facilitating the lowest at the expense of the highest.

St. Wilfrid, or should that be St. Wilfrith, died in 709, aged 75, a good age for the time. He was both bishop of Ripon and York, though only Ripon choose to honour his name. He was the first bishop to appeal to Rome, with the Pope siding with him over Archbishop Theodore – the argument is too complex and wordy to pursue – though King Ecgfrid took umbrage at the Pope’s decision and imprisoned the good St. Wilfred. Strangely he escaped to Sussex of all places, though the new king, Aldfrith, allowed him to return to ‘up north’.
You will not get that on I.T.V. this afternoon. Thank-you Chambers Biographical Dictionary, I knew you would come in useful eventually.
The Great St. Wilfred is run today at Ripon. It is the sort of race I would like to win; a race where the heritage of the horse race encompasses the history of both country, religion and the county of Yorkshire. I hope my favourite jockey Jo Mason wins the race this year.

​At a time when the sport should be collectively engaged in attracting more people to become involved in horse racing, one of the best and financially easiest ways for new people to come on board is being scuppered by the very organisation that should be leading the enterprise to recruit more owners. No doubt there is an underlying reason why the B.H.A. has brought in a regulation that requires members of a syndicate to disclose the source of their income but you would have thought someone would have noticed this would highly likely upset potential investors in the sport as the regulation looks like an in-bred brother to what punters are having to live with just to have a bet. I suggest the government is behind this latest kick-up-the-arse for the sport and the sooner the B.H.A. backtracks the better it will be for the sport.

Let us all be honest from the get-go – William Haggas was right and we should all bow-down and accept his greater wisdom and vow to never again challenge any of his decisions. Economics blitzed the opposition by all accounts in a Group 2 at Deauville yesterday and is now the latest superstar in waiting. I just hope after winning the Irish Champion Stakes and the equivalent at Newmarket the horse is not whisked off to stud.

For forty-years, the National Racing College at Doncaster has provided the sport with jockeys of the calibre of Hayley Turner and Holly Doyle, God bless them, as well hundreds and hundreds of stable-staff. Along with its sister venture at Newmarket it continues to prove itself an invaluable asset to the sport and as such it should never need for money. I have said this many times before and make no apologies for saying it again, instead of fancy race-days in support of national charities that are well-supported in all other areas of society, horse racing should have race-days dedicated to raising funds for in-house charities and irreplaceable institutions like the racing colleges. Charity begins at home.

Simon Munir has added his miserly four-pennies-worth to Ireland’s wholly laudable decision to restrict one race a week to trainers who had less than fifty-winners the season before. Sixty races a year will exclude the four top trainers in Ireland from entering a horse and boy are they moaning about it! It is easy for someone like Simon Munir to believe in the benefits of a meritocratic system when he dines off silver platters of the finest food. Yet in racing there has to be haves and have-nots, the problem being the haves would have nothing if the have-nots were not there as the sport’s very foundations. The wining of the Irish elite to the proposal of giving succour to the poor smacks similar to the French Queen suggesting the starving should eat cake if there were no bread for them to eat. Shame on everyone of them that wish to stand by and allow more and more hard-working men and women go to the wall by denying them a few crumbs of hope.

I cannot answer why as I have no association with her but I always rejoice when Eve Johnson-Houghton has a winner, especially the winner of a race that matters. I know I like her loyalty to her jockeys. Charles Bishop has risen from her 7Ib claimer to stable jockey and warrants the position, and Eve is always full of praise for Georgia Dobie and was as pleased as punch when she rode a listed winner for her on the home-bred Betty Clover this season and then kept her on the horse in a Group 2 at Ascot on King George day. I see her apprentice Mia Nichols gets her chance on the stable favourite Accidental Agent at Newbury this Saturday and though it is doubtful he can win off such a long lay-off, if he is in with a squeak at the furlong-pole I’ll be cheering him on.

​The top Irish jumps trainers are threatening to go to court over the proposal to have sixty-races next season restricted to trainers who trained less than fifty-winners during the past 12-months. Yes, these sixty-races may breach restraint of trade regulations but to every other trainer and owner in Ireland this threat must seem niggardly, miserly and a cheap trick by wealthy individuals determined to keep all the pie for their own little cohort.
Will senior jockeys follow suit and go to the courts to have amateur and conditional restricted races banned as they also may breach restraints on trade? All that is intended by this charitable restriction, which will go some small way to helping the sport survive, is to put butter on the breakfast table for the majority of Ireland’s licenced trainers. It is what J.P. McManus hopes to achieve by leaving horses he buys from small yards with the same trainer. I would hope J.P., who would have horses trained by all those who signed the intent to go to court, will offer his wise council and persuade them to back down and suck-up this minimal restriction placed upon them.

As Tom Kerr reminds his readership in the Racing Post today, the great and the good of racing who signed-up to deliver change for the sport have thus far achieved very little of what they promised. The conclusion can only be that they believe money spent on this venture will be money going down the drain or they have crossed-fingers in hope of a white knight appearing over the horizon with a cunning plan up his or her sleeve. And that would be a case of hope over experience. What is needed is a consortium of proper experienced racing people to get together one weekend and decide upon a strategy. Given less racing would be an obvious starting place, I suspect they could draft a plan by mid-morning on the Saturday, finalising the details on the golf-course during the afternoon. You see true racing people, those who work at the coal-face of the sport, who shed and blood and sweat on a daily basis, would have the will to get things done as they know the consequences of doing nothing at a speed that hardly moves the second-hand.

The segments of the ‘Full Gallop’ documentary series that I thought gave the outsider an insight into the true heart of the sport were those involving the families of Nico de Boinville and Dan Skelton. In fact, I thought Nico came out of the programme a more engaging and rounded personality than Harry Cobden, mainly as the viewer was only introduced to Cobden the jockey and were offered no glimpse into the non-racing human side of him.
On I.T.V. racing one Saturday, Nico was seen in his riding gear with one of his daughters in tow. He didn’t know the camera was on him but in that brief interlude he was seen as 100% the father and nil-per-cent the jockey. It was an ordinary moment, a father buttoning up the coat of his daughter, if I recall correctly, but at all times he was engaged with her, with eye-to-eye contact, his daughter as one with him. And then there was the scene where he was at the stable door, caressing the head of a nameless horse as if engaged in a mental update of his health, how he was feeling, if he could do something to help.
Dan’s daughter telling him she still loved him even if he did not become champion trainer was another ordinarily endearing moment, exampling the obvious yet often overlooked, that trainers, as with jockeys, are as human as everyone else and the driven part of their personalities can easily be put in its box when surrounded by family. If someone had the idea of buying a racehorse or joining a syndicate after watching ‘Full Gallop,’ don’t you think they would want that horse with a man who is obviously a good and loving father?
This sport is choc-a-block with good people; that, I know from experience, is not as widely known as you may believe if you rarely step away from the racing community. To my mind, the sport would be better off attempting to sell that aspect of the sport to the public than the winner-takes-all mentally and money to be won that was the main driving narrative of ‘Full Gallop.’

The runners for the Jonathan Sheppard Handicap Hurdle at Saratoga tonight, run on the Mellon course, no doubt named after Paul Mellon, owner of Mill Reef, gold cross on a black background, includes three horses that only a few months ago were trained by James Owen, Willie Mullins and Olly Murphy, Too Friendly, Zarak The Brave and Pickanumber. Three good quality horses lost to the U.S., lost to British racing, all of whom capable of winning a nice race on these shores, as they had already proved. Another sad indictment of the state of British racing.

​Inspiral pondering on her future while her rivals got straight to the point on Sunday proved the trolls wrong and must have bolstered the confidence of the much-maligned Keiran Shoemark. That is my take on things, anyway. I am not someone who supports jockeys being sidelined in favour of a bigger name as I believe loyalty is next to cleanliness, though on this occasion I saw the sense in Ryan Moore taking over on Inspiral. Cheveley Park wanted a second opinion and who better to turn to for an expert summary than the world’s best flat jockey. I would be optimistic after the race that Ryan used expressions on the line of ‘does she really want to race anymore’ and ‘you couldn’t blame Keiran for the mare’s poor form this season.’ I very much doubt he asked to keep the ride next time she ran.
Although, in the event, having given away so much ground at the start, Inspiral finished an encouraging 3rd, a good result given the circumstances, it would not be a run to inspire much confidence in me that she’ll be in the winners’ enclosure after the Sun Chariot at Newmarket. Though the opposition she beat last Sunday were high class, that class of form has not be seen on the racecourse this season. It would not do Kieran’s career any harm if Frankie Dettori was brought over to ride the mare at Newmarket as if he cannot rejuvenate her the trolls might save their ignorant vitriol for somebody who might deserve it.

It is not coincidence, at least to a cynic with an eye on world events, that long-term institutions such as religion, public houses and betting shops are being given a hard time through political intervention. All three of these places of worship or pseudo-worship involve people gathering together and intermingling with the main part of activities they will be indulging in gossip and information gleaned from the internet. Welcome to North Korea, folks; welcome to the democratic version of state control.
That aside, considering the amount of revenue generated down the decades from betting, does it not seem odd that government intervention will, and will do into the future, cost the country’s finances millions, perhaps billions, of pounds. You would think the Exchequer would be up in arms about at interference that was doing the opposite of what is needed to help balance the country’s fiscal books? The gambling commission seem intent on making gambling on horses as unattractive as possible, while at the same time completely ignoring the problem of addictive gambling on on-line casinos and bingo sites and the transport of bettors to the black markets of Asia and beyond. The loss of revenue must be huge. It only makes sense if there is something more than just gambling harm at the heart of it.

As well as Charlie Johnston is doing, he is tenth in the trainers’ championship, as I cogitate, I miss the blustering common-sense of his father. He is still around, of course, living a slightly easier life, though no doubt working equally as hard as when he held the licence. I admire Charlie; he could have just looked busy while waiting to be handed the keys to the castle but he did the opposite. I stand to be corrected, though I believe I am right; he trained to be a vet, like his dad, has a business degree and learned to fly a plane, like his dad. He has grafted both for his inheritance and his success and I hope in time he achieves the same level of success as his father.
If I possessed the influence, I would twist the arms of those looking for a replacement as Chief Executive at the B.H.A. to appoint Mark Johnston to the position for 12-months as I believe he would achieve more in 6-months than everyone who went before him achieved in the accumulative time-period of the rest of them put together.

​Given that we are 4-years into the health & safety sensible rule that only allows jockeys to ride at the one-meeting per day, which gives jockeys more spare time, the sport as a whole has been slow to initiate plans to use jockeys to help promote the sport. At the upcoming Ebor meeting at York a day is being set aside to help the public get to know jockeys a little better than is presently the case. Jockeys’ surnames, for example, will be displayed on their backsides, an initiative that, perhaps, female jockeys might not be so keen on supporting as in general it is not seen as gentlemanly for the male sex to give the female backside more than a passing glance. You never know, in time this initiate might lead to racing’s ‘rear of the year award.’
I dislike horse racing being thought about as in some way similar to Formula 1, where the driver of the cars are the star attractions, with headlines that will put the driver’s name before the make of vehicle as the winner, whereas in racing it is the name of the horse that comes first, followed by the jockey. I would hate to get to the point when, as with Frankie Dettori, the name of the jockey is given prominence over the name of the horse. The horse in horse racing is not the vehicle – it is a sentient being and that should never be lost in the promotional narrative.
The problem, as I see it, in promoting the jockey to star attraction is that the members of the public with little or no interest in the sport, tend to view horse racing as an elite sport, whereas the vast majority of its participants work working-class hours, even when they are wealthy, as it is with the leading jockeys. And that, for me, is the rub of the situation. For all that he is a really good bloke, Tom Marquand is extremely rich, as is William Buick, Oisin Murphy, James Doyle etc, and if too much light is shone upon their lives people will gain the wrong impression of the sport.
The sport must be careful when stepping out of the shadows. The sport must be promoted in all its shades. Formula 1 is not representative of the sport of motor racing. There are many grades of motor sport that are far removed from Formula 1 as a point-to-point is removed from Royal Ascot. Hamilton, Russell and Norris will not be seen in a race-car at Snetterton or Oulton Park, whereas Marquand, Buick, Murphy and co will regularly be seen riding at Brighton or Ffos Lass.

We are in for a wet Autumn according to Richard Hannon. It is the reason we will not be seeing Rosallion again this season. If trainers’ do not have enough on their plates, it seems they are weather forecasters, too.

As someone who has championed the inclusion of female jockeys in our sport for nearly 30-years, I should applaud the 50/50 split between the two genders at this weekend’s Shergar Cup. I do applaud, though one-handedly, if that is at all possible. On reflection, I would have preferred a female in each of the teams, though with three, obviously in the female team. The great selling-point of the Shergar Cup is cheering on the underdog, which has always been Hayley Turner’s team. Now there are two female teams which gives me the dilemma of which team do I support. Well, Hayley’s team, obviously. 

When I.T.V. began its ‘Home Schooling’ thread, I saw it as a peep-hole into an unrecognised side of the sport. Catching up with ex-racehorses in their new surroundings always warmed the heart. Latterly it has become a promotional opportunity for trainers to show videos of their horses on the gallops or sometimes an employee sending in footage of their favourite horse eating a carrot. All acceptable but not what ‘Home Schooling’ was about at its outset.
The sort of video I enjoy seeing, to give a recent example, was Frodon’s last day at Ditcheat and his arrival at his retirement quarters with Jimmy Frost. Racehorses at rest in their summer paddocks. Young kids on their ponies cantering on the gallops of a trainer. ‘Home Schooling’, as I know as fact, allows the racing fan in a household to say to his or her spouse or one of the kids, ‘quick, come see this’, a small window to engage someone with little interest in the sport to see something of interest they might not otherwise be acquainted with.

I realise I am an outlier, but as someone who does not drink alcohol, the price of drinks on a racecourse does not impact on me. Given that a day at the races is a day lived out-of-doors, racecourses should promote their venues as somewhere for families to come to enjoy a picnic. With perhaps a creche and a supervised play area for children, especially as children go free at all British racecourses. It should be family fun day at every race-meeting, if parents chose to attend along with their offspring. If we want to encourage younger people to go racing, start them young, make them welcome from any age, make the racecourse a fun and interesting environment for the

​Why does the B.H.A. need both a chief executive and a ‘chair,’ which I suppose to mean a ‘chairman’? Given that doubtless neither position requires a 5-day week, could one person do both jobs, if only to save on money?
I will now quote from the notice advertising for applicants for the position of chief executive: The appointee will therefore be a proven senior leader, with experience in leading complex stakeholder environments with the ability to influence external stakeholders, such as government, while representing the B.H.A. in a consumer-facing environment.
At no point does it ask for anyone applying for the position to have an interest in the sport the successful applicant will be required to lead for the foreseeable future. Yes, there is also no governmental requirement for the Archbishop of Canterbury to believe in God, even though his duties are doubtless every bit as complex due to God being Canterbury’s major stakeholder.
What is galling is that already people with an interest in the sport and who put their name forward for the post have been told they will not be considered, which is pretty maddening as amongst these people were former politicians who would know there way around the corridors of power at Westminster.
And is anyone within the racing industry advising the B.H.A. on suitable applicants? Of course not. They are paying a large sum of money to the MRS Group, an executive search firm.
To me, a man born optimistic though through experience is now a dedicated cynic, this is like appointing a vegetarian as agriculture minister or employing a plumber to rewire your house. Is it any wonder the sport is in the state it is? Thumps forehead with palm of the hand and moves on. 
The straight-talking Davy Russell, as guest columnist in today’s Racing Post, is calling for better prize-money in Ireland, citing the rising cost of everything as a very real threat to the sport’s survival. He is right, of course, and though he hints at drastic measures as potential for solving the crisis he just cannot say the obvious – every other country funds prize-money through a form of tote monopoly, and if not that old concept, then certainly through betting as a whole. 
What cannot be defended is the rise and rise of the cost of horses at auction and the cost of stallion fees. When winners of a 4-year-old maiden point-to-point constantly go through the ring for £400,000 it is always going to be an uphill struggle for anyone paying money that is somewhere between fancy and extortionate to make a profit out of ownership. This where the madness lies, where once upon a time an owner would kiss what was paid goodbye and hope for his horse to pay its way through the season. Thoroughbreds are now seen as an investment and not a sporting pursuit.
To continue with critical thinking. Setbacks, slight injury and ‘he’ll need a bit of time’ – what is being said here by trainers and owners and why keep the extent of an injury secret to only those with a need to know? Oh, I think punters and enthusiastic supporters of the sport should be included in that list of ‘need to know’, don’t you? If it is a bruised fetlock, tell us. Most of us know a fetlock from a cannon bone. Most of all, educate us, give us a true insight into one of the great setbacks in owning and training horses. I do not ask for the current weight of your horse or if it bolted on the gallop or knocked over its bucket of water. But you could at least put flesh to that annoying telling us nothing word – setback.
Good news is that my favourite jockey has just ridden her fiftieth winner of the year. With even greater support than she already receives, a golden run of form by uncle David’s horses and the luck of staying injury free through till the end of the year, she might even make 100-winners, which would represent a superb achievement for someone who only turned professional in 2021 when for reasons with no scientific basis amateurs were not allowed to ride during the nonsense of covid.
Jo Mason, if you had not worked-out her identity.

​You may not agree with the opinion of others but you should at least agree with me that everyone should be encouraged to air publicly their opinions. Personally, I loath and detest any form of censorship and believe a healthy society is gained from openness, honesty and truth. Naively, I realise, I believe that truth should be mandated by law, with barefaced lies made a criminal offence. But there you are, an honest opinion that the majority, no doubt, will ridicule. 
So, when Aidan O’Brien, for example, tells us the reason Auguste Rodin ran so poorly again at Ascot was the cut-up ground he raced-on and that contrary to the official ground description, the ground was good-to-soft, an opinion that ran contrary to the times of races recorded on the day and that no one else, seemingly, backed his opinion, we should, at least, listen to his honest assessment and applaud him for his honestly-held opinion.
Given his lofty position as the greatest of all-time, Aidan could give forth his opinions on every debate and dispute involving the sport. But that is not the man he his. He lives and breathes Ballymore and Coolmore and would doubtless go more than the extra mile to support the people who work for him and who employ him. Sometimes, of course, like the rest of us, mere mortals, he can be wrong in his opinion, as I believe he was in defending yet another blow-out by Auguste Rodin. Unlike you or me, Aidan has proved time and again when he is slagged-off by the media, he proves his doubters wrong, as he has done with Auguste Rodin on several occasions already. Come the Japan Cup, who would back against him?
One argument held against Auguste Rodin by the majority of the racing press I would also argue against is that the horse does not truly stay 12-furlongs. It boils my brain when a horse gets beat a short-head in a first try over 12-furlongs and the jockey, trainer and press jump to the conclusion that the horse did not quite stay and forever more is campaigned over 10-furlongs. If this theory carries any substance than we may suppose that every horse beaten over 12-furlongs does not stay, which would be nonsense, of course. Sometimes it is just a case of the better horse on the day that wins. Form is always subject to being turned-around. I dare say it happens every day in every grade of race.
Auguste Rodin, to carry on using him as an example, has won over the distance, beating a horse in the Epsom Derby who if he had the benefit of a previous run that season might have prevailed – and, yes, I think those who say King of Steel is a 10-furlong horse are being just plain silly, basing the assumption on one race – which is proof that he is as much a 12-furlong horse as he is 10-furlong horse. He has after all been beaten over both distances. That said, by the time he is retired he may have proved 10-furlongs was his best distance. That, though, does not prove he did not quite stay 12-furlongs.
Anyone reading this may disagree with my thoughts on the issue. I accept that. I also accept that time might prove me wrong. I will, not, though, accept that an arbitrarily applied rating for the horse over either distance proves anything other than a theoretical point.
There is a growing opinion by the ignorant public that discredits Kieran Shoemark. He is a wholly likeable young man who has overcome troubles and addictions to become John & Thady Gosden’s main jockey this season, taking over from someone who was irreplaceable, at a time when the stable has very few star horses, with the ones who are Group 1 performers ridden by jockeys retained by their owners. Kieran Shoemark will come good at the same time as the Gosden horses come good and who knows, there might be half-a-dozen star two-year-olds waiting to come out over the next few weeks. Shoemark deserves to be given the time to prove himself worthy of John and Thady Gosden’s support, as Frankie was given the time to prove he was good as he always was when John Gosden invited him back to be stable jockey after all his travails. That is my opinion, anyway. You might disagree. I just hope you will admit to being wrong when Shoemark makes his mark on the Group 1 races and most importantly the Classics.
The death of Istabraq last week was cutting. J.P. had given him such a long and lovely retirement, hosting a reception in May on the birthday of the great horse. There will be void at Martinstown that will never be filled no matter how many Grand Nationals and Gold Cups are won in the future sporting the iconic green and gold silks.
Remarkably, despite a hundred Group 1 winners and all the classics he has won, Istabraq remains the only true champion to be trained by Aidan O’Brien. And if you disagree with that opinion, you are in dispute with racing’s top historian John Randall. His opinion is based on statistics, an accreditation I somewhat despise as I believe true greatness is based on what the heart and the eyes tell you. And who will contest the opinion that if it were not for foot and mouth, Istabraq would have died as the only horse to have won four Champion Hurdles.
Rest in Peace, Istabraq. I doubt there will ever be another like you.