​As someone who has reached the age where the importance of bannister rails has become all too clear, I believe my opinions on many of the problems blighting the sport should be, if not valued, appreciated. I do not automatically believe the past was glorious and the present dire; I do, though, believe a review of racing in the decades gone by might prove beneficial to the implementation of new ideas or any radical reappraisal of the future. (Incidentally, I will write about the future of British horse racing in the coming week and my conclusions are far from rosy).
The B.H.A.’s 2-year trial of ‘Premierisation’, the golden 2-hours between 2.pm and 4pm every Saturday, when the top racecourses with the most valuable races will be given priority over racecourses the B.H.A. consider of less importance and unworthy of its protective arm, has both the potential to secure the sport’s future and the potential to destroy its core base. I actually suspect there are outside forces that have plans for Premierisation to achieve the latter without supporting the former. But that is a nut to be cracked another day.
That something needed to be done is without debate and it is one thing to criticise Premierisation, as I continue to do, it is another thing to come up with alternative solutions to problems that are either real and dynamic or are illusory and merely parroted due to a lack of study. 
Let me dwell a moment on attendance at racecourses and settee attendance. Pre-television, attendances at an F.A. Cup Final would be 100,000, whereas today it would 25,000 less, though the television audience would be in the millions. Pre-television, attendance at the Epsom Derby might be 250,000, today it is but a fraction of that number, though the television audience will number many millions. I do not believe racecourse attendance is a good vector to judge the appeal or support for horse racing, yet journalists bang-on about the falling numbers without making parallel comparisons with the audience I.T.V. or satellite broadcasters are achieving. Add all the figures together and I would suggest the situation is less dire than reported. 
That should not imply the sport should sit on its hands or that the golden 120-minutes of Saturday viewing is the golden egg. For Premierisation to work for the whole industry, I have come to believe it needs to encompass both Saturday and Sunday, with the smaller racecourses that will be made financially poorer by having to race either through a period of late morning and early afternoon or after 4pm, given the premier slots on the Sunday, along with terrestrial coverage. I do not believe the B.H.A. have given enough consideration for the potential long-term damage to the sport if its grassroot base is eroded by plans for gifting the top-end an easier ride than those racecourses that have s done sterling work improving prize-money, racecourse facilities and keeping the show on the road Monday through Friday.
Competitiveness in actual races is another matter in need of addressing. I am not a fan of every race being restricted to horses of a similar rating as in many instances this in itself will restrict the number of runners. The purists might say that a 3 or 4-runner Group I race is okay if all three runners are of a suitable quality, yet I have seen some very uncompetitive Group races at the top meetings this season, the Eclipse coming easily to mind.
Less Group 2 and 3 races would filter more horses into Group 1’s, though I would advocate a reduction throughout Europe in races at the highest level to reflect the smaller pool of Group class horses in training. Most listed races I would convert into limited handicaps. Flat racing in this country might be nowadays a nursery for countries with greater prize-money, yet I would argue it has always been a nursery for breeders to make fortunes. How much of that 2-million paid for the Frankel colt by Coolmore comes the way of British racing. Why isn’t there a levy or tax on the sale of racehorses at auction to go to bolstering prize-money in the country of the auction house. Don’t tell me the major auction houses are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. 1% might save our sport and yet do minor damage to the breeding industry.
I have long argued that the Lincoln Handicap should be returned to the race it was long ago, when it was considered as appealing as the Grand National, when it was one of the most sought-after races in the calendar. Now, it is reduced to being an ordinary handicap like so many others. It could be a Grand National for the flat, a 40-runner race, started from a barrier, as in its glory days. A reflection of the sport as it once was, as the Grand National is similarly. The Lincoln, these days, is a like a walk around the old Folkestone racecourse. It isn’t what it once was.
Less race meetings, no more than six or seven races per meeting until the future looks brighter, a reduction in Group races, more variation in race conditions, some form of regionalisation of race-meeting so that jockeys and trainers have less travelling, with the added saving on fuel costs, the Premierisation of both Saturday and Sunday, more non-flat and non-jumping days and a sales tax on the public auction of racehorses to go toward increasing prize-money throughout the racing calendar. Premierisation alone might butter the bread at Ascot, Newmarket, York, etc, but what is needed is a plan that will add jam to the butter whilst buttering the bread of all of our British racecourses.

​‘Nicky Henderson, My Life in 12-Horses’, with Kate Johnson, is, without any shade of doubt, as beautiful and concise as any book on the subject of horses or horse-racing ever published. It is a delight from Happy Warrior to Constitution Hill, though as the latter is only at the outset of his domination of the sport, he is only allowed an afterword. He is not yet one of the twelve. But that sums up the great man, doesn’t it? Always cautious, just in case it all goes horribly wrong.
The word ‘genius’ is over-used, these days. Einstein was a genius in the scientific world, I am sure no one would object to his classification as ‘extraordinary’. ‘Genius’ is a definition of intellectual power, high intelligence or out-of-the-ordinary creativity. I don’t believe the word can be applied to someone who is ’merely’ highly successful in terms of their chosen field of work, otherwise it might be applied to villains who escape justice or, God forbid! politicians. Nicky Henderson is, I believe, highly exceptional at training racehorses, perhaps the very best Britain has thus far produced. At least, the statistics suggest he sits top of the list.
One aspect of Nicky Henderson is beyond debate; he is a very nice person, with an innate understanding of the horses placed in his charge and the loyalty of his clients to him through thick, thick and the occasional thin, speaks untold volumes about the man. His compassion for his horses is borne out by being unable to forgive himself for running Altior on that very wet day at Ascot when his winning streak came to an end when defeated by Cyrname and the mud. Altior was not the same horse thereafter, while the same can be said for the victor. Nicky has not ‘moved-on’ from that public-spirited but wrong decision to allow Altior to participate and it is at the forefront of his decision-making when placed in similar dilemmas to this day.
Another thing; Nicky Henderson does not do crocodile tears. He is too genuine a man for any kind of false presentation.
He should have received a medal or some sort of industry award for his training of Sprinter Sacre. Not that the great horse received more individual attention than any other horse in his care but during the period of 2013 and 2016 his patience must have been stretched to breaking point. He never succumbed to the negativity of ‘experts’ and ‘fans’ who advised retirement for the horse, that he would never come back to anywhere close to the days of his imperious pomp, when, perhaps alone, I believe he was the best horse since Arkle. Yet Nicky was proved right. His belief never, at least publicly, wavered. Sprinter still had it in him to return to the top of 2-mile tree and on that glorious day at the 2016 Cheltenham Festival, Nicky achieved his crowning accolade. It was, I believe, the greatest individual example of training excellence of my lifetime. As I said, he should have received an award.
When hacked-off by world events or depressed, I return time and again to the 2016, 2-Mile Champion Chase to lift my spirits and I thank Nicky from the bottom of heart to be able to do so. I wonder how many other people are similarly like-minded?
Kate Johnson has done a wonderful job in bringing to the page not only great insight into the trainer’s character and beliefs but also the character and idiosyncrasies of the horses he trained to such rich success. In fact, the ‘my life through 12-horses’ might become a standard format for books featuring other top racehorse trainers. Though if Willie Mullins could whittle the great horses’ he has trained over the years down to 12, the word ‘genius’ might just be unarguably applied to him.
This book can be categorised as ‘unput-downable’ and would make an intriguing gift for someone only slightly interested in the sport as it clearly demonstrates that humans prize their time working and caring for horses as ‘beyond rubies’. A gift that keeps on giving. A good description of this book.

​Firstly, I have shingles. I make this announcement with some pride as it is the first time in my 69 and one-half-years I am suffering, though such a description might be over-egging the pudding a mite, with a ‘branded’ medical condition. When asked, ‘how you doing these days’, I can now reply ‘oh, I’m fine, apart from the shingles, that is.’ People will sympathise with me, offer anecdotes on the elderly members of their family who were also shingles sufferers and briefly I will become interesting and noteworthy. God bless the shingles!
In extreme cases, shingles can kill, did you know that? Like when you don’t get medical intervention and allow the shingles to colonize and take charge of your body. I’m usually very slow at seeking medical help, having all my faith in doctors eviscerated by their appalling allegiance to government dictates while all the while turning their back on the science that earned them their licence to practice their skills. Anyway, my death is avoidable if I pull my finger out and go seek medical advice. I shall speak to a pharmacist today.

Back on track.
We live in straighten times affecting all sectors of society. It is a covert, military style destruction of normal society, imposed by governments around the world to enable the undemocratic imposition of the evils of the World Economic Forum’s, guided and assisted by the Club of Rome, the Bilderberg Group, etc, ‘Great Reset’. Nevertheless, the impact of this societal readjustment is real and affects us all. It certainly is affecting racehorse trainers with a gathering storm of retirements from their ranks. I’m saddened to see any business forced to close because of outside forces, with no fault of their own to blame for the demise. I particularly find it sad to have trainers forced out of business for whatever reason.
I cannot provide any useful advice on the matter, other than to speculate as to why so many trainers stick to being just flat trainers or jumps trainers. Why the reluctance to avoid the diversity of having a go at the other code during their slow and less financially rewarding periods of the year?
Many do, of course. Tim Easterby, though primarily a flat trainer these days, still operates with a smaller string of jumpers. Brian Ellison, too, is successful under both codes. And, of course, Alan King, perhaps the most eminent dual-purpose trainer in the country.
Burke, Cox, Dascombe, Osborne, to name but four, made their name as jump jockeys, yet they are exclusively flat trainers, with hardly a runner in a hurdle race to their collective name. I realise the innovation of all-weather racing and summer jumping has lessened the need ‘for something to do in the off-season’ but there is good money to be won in the ‘other codes’. I dare say the aforementioned ‘four’ are all quite wealthy due to their achievements as flat trainers and have no need to dabble with jumpers, yet Willie Mullins outstrips them all in achievement and frequently plunders big-money races on the flat. Why isn’t the Closutton maestro a flagbearer for diversity in the training ranks?
It is on record that James Fanshawe actually took charge of the day-to-day training of Kribebsis, but when he won the Champion Hurdle, he was owned by Sheikh Mohammad and trained by Sir Michael Stoute and their involvement shone a fresh light on the National Hunt narrative. Perhaps a more adventurous way of thinking by flat trainers might keep a few of those high-rated horses in their stables and not sold abroad.
Archie Watson sees himself as a dual-purpose trainer and in a quiet way he is successful at both, as is Ian Williams and Micky Hammond. It must be a perk to stable staff who work primarily with flat horses to have runners over jumps through the winter and vice-versa National Hunt staff having pool-money coming in through the flat season.
When trainers of the stature of William Jarvis, the last, seemingly, of a heritage line of Jarvises to train in Newmarket, announce their retirement is due, in part, to the financial situation, I tend to ask why they didn’t think out of the box and suggested to their owners running horses over hurdles and then on to chasing. Or a jumps trainer and flat trainer combining to operate under both codes.
Anyway, it’s just a thought. Anything to turn the tide of so many racehorse trainers giving the game up and taking from the sport all their knowledge and expertise.

On this day in 1770: Eclipse ran his final race, a walkover as so many of his ‘races’ were. He went on to sire the winners of 862 races.
In 1970, Nijinsky suffered his first defeat, finishing a strong second to Sassafras in the Arc de Triomphe.
In 1989, Secretariat died aged 19 at Claiborne Farm, Kentucky.
Eclipse, Nijinsky, Secretariat, true legends of flat racing.

​Do you challenge yourself to tip as many winners as the I.T.V. team of experts on any single day? Tom Segal, they are not. Have you ever challenged yourself to better Tom Segal on any given day? My point is this, apart from studying form and weeding out horses with a preference for ground which on the day is the opposite and preferences for flat or hilly courses or going left or right, every other factor in lumping on to a horse is pretty much guesswork. It is why your grandmother or a friend who wouldn’t know Redcar from Cheltenham can find a 33/1 winner while you languish all day backing loser after odds/on loser. It is why horse racing is such an addictive and fascinating pursuit.
Astro King was hardly mentioned by the panel assembled at Newmarket by I.T.V. to point the viewer in the direction of the most likely winner of the Cambridgeshire Handicap, one of our best races of the year. I’m not saying I would have put him up as a likely winner as I thought he had too much weight in a race with so many horses holding perfectly good chance of winning. I went for Crack Shot at the other end of the handicap which ran okay as did a dozen others.
What Astro King did prove yesterday is when a good trainer gets a talented horse to train, the job can be done equally as well as, say, Sir Michael Stoute, the previous trainer of Astro King. The top owners would do well to think on this when deciding the fate of the lesser horses they have in training with the top end of the trainer’s list trainers. A move to someone like the Kublers’ might prove more profitable than simply shipping a disappointing yet well-bred horse to the sales or selling abroad.
I continue to be dismayed and annoyed by ‘t.v, experts’ and trainers pour cold water with immediate effect on any suggestion that a horse, and I make the example of Vandeek to make my case, shouldn’t be thought of as a Guineas horse as ‘he has so much speed that he would be better off going for the Commonwealth Cup’, a race spoken of these days as if it is a classic in itself. Frankel has ‘so much speed’, didn’t he? I rest my case.
In dismissing the Guineas, in September of a 2-year-olds life, for pities sake, as ‘not in our thoughts’ and then talking in glowing terms of the Commonwealth Cup as if it is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, people are kicking our classics down the road as if they no longer held the glitter of years gone by. The connections of Vandeek should be disappointed if the horse does not prove to be a classic winner, not exulted by the possibility of winning a non-classic race at Royal Ascot. In time, if not already, Royal Ascot is beginning to loom over flat racing as a ‘winning there is the be all and end of all of the sport’ as the Cheltenham Festival sucks in the glory from the rest of the season in National Hunt. If mega-rich owners can dismiss the opportunity of winning a classic with the nonchalance of a waving hand, preferring the lesser glory of lesser races, then it is no wonder the sport currently is travelling a long uphill road pushing a hand-cart.
The Arc? Lester and Nijinsky losing in 1970 to Yves Saint-Martin and Sassafras remains one of my biggest disappointments in life as well as horse racing. The ‘experts’, desperate to find an explanation for a defeat that on all-known form was as likely as The Maldives sinking beneath the waves, fell to criticising the jockey for leaving Nijinsky with too much to do, few of them complimenting Saint-Martin for his opportunistic riding that presented Lester with a mountain to climb. For those too young to remember Nijinsky, just think of how you would have felt if Frankel had suffered defeat.
Incidentally, anyone wishing to know all there is to know about the history of the race, the only source you will need is Malcolm Pannett’s book ‘A Century of the Prix de I’Arc de Triomphe’.
I think everyone would agree that this year’s renewal is not one of the most intriguing in the history of the Arc. Ace Impact may prove a great winner and go on to be the Nijinsky of the modern era and only a stunning victory for the French horse will elevate the race today to be on a par with the great races of the past. The ground has come in his favour, which should negate any negatives about his ability to stay 12-furlongs. Do I think, as if matters, as I am as poor a tipster as I am a surgeon, he’ll win? Perhaps. Instinct nods me in his direction. But!
If I were to totter across the bridge over the Torridge to one of our betting shops, which, undoubtedly, I will not be doing, I would go each-way on Bay Bridge as I suspect the horse, without any announcement along the way, has been trained specifically for the race and there is no one better at training a horse for one day in the calendar than Sir Michael Stoute. And what a weekend that would make for Richard Kingscote, having already won the Cambridgeshire and the Royal Lodge at Newmarket.