​I didn’t like it when Long Run won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, although down the line I appreciate the achievement of Sam Waley-Cohen winning the race as an amateur, albeit a Corinthian of huge ability in the saddle. Long Run’s younger legs, of course, got the better of the old ‘uns, the quite magnificent Denman and the immortal Kauto Star. Sam won the race fairly and squarely, with no hard-lucks stories assigned to either Denman or the second-best steeplechaser I have had the pleasure of witnessing. (I must put this in parentheses, repeating myself for the umpteenth time, no doubt, but if Denman had not suffered his heart problem the season after winning the Gold Cup, it would be his name lauded as second in the pantheon of steeplechasers, second only, though by quite a few digits, to Arkle).
I digress:
The Cheltenham Gold Cup does not always, to universal acclaim, provide golden days for us mere spectators to recall long into our dotage. So many times the gods insist on delivering to us the wrong result, as if we have wronged them in some way, forcing us to watch the wrong jubilant connections hugging and kissing in the winners’ enclosure, the wrong horse, as far as we are concerned, feted with praise and blessed as if he, it’s normally a he, is the second-coming. Not that lucky winners of the Cheltenham Gold Cup regularly turn up in the chronological history of the race.
Master Smudge was, though, a fortunate recipient of first place, a verdict no one would contest when he finished eight-lengths behind Tied Cottage, only for the great Irish horse to be disqualified months later due to traces of a prohibited substance being found in a post-race dope-test. Chinrullah, who finished fifth, was also disqualified for the same reason. From reading the bare result in the history book, the real hero of the 1980 Gold Cup was the horse that moved up to second, the fifteen-year-old Mac Vidi and not out-with-the-washing either, being beaten only 2½-lengths by Master Smudge, meaning he was only 2½-lengths short of actually being awarded the race. Now that would have warmed the cockles of the heart.
Outside of Desert Orchid winning in 1989 – one of the three fondest memories that will compete for my last dying thought – and the era of Denman and Kauto Star, my favourite years of the Gold Cup were between 1964, when horse racing was as fresh to me as summer fruit, and 1978, the year John Francome won the race on Midnight Court, not in traditional March but in April as the weather won the only winner the day of the Gold Cup that year.
Woodland Venture, Fort Leney, What A Myth, L’Escargot, Glencariag Lady, The Dikler, Captain Christy, Ten Up, Royal Frolic, Davy Lad and Midnight Court, legendary names of the sport, give or take one or two. And, of course, there was Spanish Steps and The Laird, Pendil, Bula, Lanzarote, a horse I can claim to have mucked-out occasionally, the quiet as a lamb Master H and back in Arkle’s time Stalbridge Colonist and the horse that should never be forgotten or overlooked, Mill House. And many, many more that should neither be forgotten nor overlooked.
I do not necessarily believe that experience improves the enjoyment of the sport you most enjoy. During the years between Arkle and Midnight Court I was pretty much wet-behind-the-ears, spectating from a sofa light-years away from the cut and thrust of the action, with little or no idea what was at the beating heart of steeplechasing. I doubt if I was even aware of the sweat and the tears of the sport. It was a spectacle beyond my understanding of its rules, its history and the people who dedicated their lives to it; every televised race an adventure of unpredictable consequences; as spellbinding today as it was when it was all a mystery of the imagination; Biddlecombe, Beasley, Carberry etc, not mere mortal men of bad habits and flawed characters but princes of the turf, worthy of god-like status.
It is perhaps why Jonathan Powell’s book, published in 1991, and in need of a volume taking the reader up to the present day, was such a pleasing read. ‘Golden Days’. Cheltenham Gold Cup winners from Arkle to Garrison Savannah. Never was a book more aptly titled. Rarely, I think, was a book more lovingly compiled. You know the quality of the writer, his credentials for compiling such a history, when it becomes known to you that Pendil lived in retirement at the his expense, his responsibility.
And that is another element of the book I found satisfying; he did not finish each chapter with the bare bones of the result, where possible he gave an account of the life the winners lived in retirement. For instance, that tearaway The Dikler, a horse who stretched the arms of everyone who rode him, was ridden by the owner’s step-daughter in retirement, hunting, hunter trialling and even performing elegant dressage tests. Arthritis in his back led to his demise aged twenty-one. A book worth hunting down is ‘The Dikler and his Circle’, by Mary Comyns Carr, published in 1979 when the great horse was still hale and hearty.

​Bristol de Mai is a fantastic horse and capable of carrying top weight with distinction in the Grand National and every criticism I have of the Betfair Chase will find no favour with his admirable connections. Nor with Paul Nicholls, no doubt.
After the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the King George, the Betfair is, so it is said, the third most important staying chase of the season, at least outside of the Grand National and this weekend’s Ladbroke Trophy. It is because of its ‘prestige’ it was for many years the opening salvo in the triple header that formed the £1-million challenge. Not that the prospect of winning a million-quid ever inspired owners to insist all the top horses gather together at Haydock in mid-November.
Yet the Betfair falls many furlongs behind the Cheltenham Gold Cup in true prestige and competitiveness and is in effect, if you take Bristol de Mai out of the equation, only a warm-up race for the King George on Boxing Day. Rarely is there a runner from Ireland, for instance – has Willie Mullins ever bothered with the race?; Nicky Henderson shuns the race as if there were a real threat of one of his horses catching trench foot if he were run in it; and most years the ground has more say in the outcome of the race, as it seems to do most seasons even with Haydock’s Sprint Cup, than the fences.
Haydock is a perfectly viable venue for a Grand National trial; the invariably heavy ground sorts out the true stayers from the wannabes. But for Cheltenham horses it is too much like an old-fashioned school cross-country run, wet, muddy and enjoyed only by the winner.
The Betfair Chase would benefit the sport to greater effect if the prize money was cut by 50 to 66% and restricted to last season’s novice chasers. We should seek to copy Ireland’s race programme for their top hurdlers and chasers, with conditions race at various venues, including at what I would term ‘country courses’ like Clonmel and Gowran Park.
The King George at Kempton should be the first major race for the Gold Cup type horses, with a splattering of condition chases from late October, as with the Charlie Hall at Wetherby, to early to mid-December, to allow trainers plenty of opportunities to get their stars cherry-ripe for Boxing Day. 
The Desert Orchid Chase at Wincanton is a prime candidate as a ‘trial’ or ‘warm-up’ race for the King George and the big prizes to come. These races need not be at the major racecourses but given to the ‘country tracks’ as happens in Ireland, to give them a boost in racegoer attendance and to allow them a moment in the spotlight.
Also, and this point should not be sniffed-at, with the Betfair as an alternative, why should Paul Nicholls or any trainer target the Ladbroke Trophy with one of their potential Gold Cup horses? Lostintranslation is a big powerful individual; wouldn’t he be better off carrying 11st 12lbs at Newbury on decent ground rather than 12-stone in Somme-like conditions at Haydock? It is arguable that Clan des Obeaux might have an easier time of things if he were to run in the Ladbroke than having to endure a slog around Haydock in pursuit of a Haydock and heavy-ground specialist.
Great jumpers won the Hennessey in the past, including my two all-time favourites, Denman and Spanish Steps, as well as Arkle and Mill House, oh, and Burrough Hill Lad, and many others. The race deserves great chasers competing in it, even in its Ladbrokes Trophy infancy. The existence in its present guise of the Betfair almost guarantees this is less and less likely to ever happen again. The Ladbroke Trophy is the 2nd most prodigious steeplechase in the calendar, and there remains the likelihood it could go the way of the old Whitbread Gold Cup, once a headliner and now very much a 2nd-rate handicap won by very ordinary horses.
And one other suggestion: it is a nonsense to run the Fighting Fifth Hurdle on the same day as the Ladbroke. Would it not make more sense for Haydock and Newcastle to swap slots in the calendar? Especially, as unlikely an outcome as it might be, if the Betfair was to become restricted to last season’s novices.

​To incentivise readers into going out into the rain to purchase the Sunday copy of the paper – I find it a bit of a spoiler, to be honest – there is always a heads-up in the Saturday paper on what is to be the headline act in the Sunday edition. Ted Walsh, as is it would be if any of the Walsh family were to be the subject to be interviewed, is always worth listening to. In fact, I wish Ted would write his autobiography; it would be some controversial read. I doubt if he would need to ask Ruby for any helpful suggestions on how to write it or how to get it published. Nevertheless, not even someone as knowledgeable and erudite as Ted Walsh can be right every time he opens his mouth or puts pen to paper. Not that I would have the strength of conviction to tell him straight to his face. He would make quick work of me and no mistake.
But he will be wrong in one respect, believe me, though I respect his right to express his opinion and his nerve for going so far out on a limb. Flyingbolt, a true legend of National Hunt racing, a horse who could match Arkle’s extraordinary ability to give away humungous amount of weight to good horses and still beat them with authority, was not superior to Arkle. And the reason I know that to be true is the man who knew both horses best said so. Pat Taaffe made his position clear in his wonderful autobiography ‘My Life and Arkle’s’. In giving his opinion on which of the two was the superior, he wrote. ‘Although I would have been reluctant to discuss it in my riding days, I never had any doubts at all about the winner of such a race … Arkle with a bit in hand. He would have broken Flyingbolt’s heart. Please don’t misunderstand me. I had great respect for Flyingbolt. He was the third best I ever rode, ranked behind (but only just) Mill House and in front of Royal Approach.’
And, Ted, if Ruby tells you Kauto Star was better than any of them, and given the long list of top races Kauto won Ruby would have a basis for his belief, he is wrong, too. Kauto was the best since those halcyon days of Arkle, Mill House and Flyingbolt. Though when at his best, Denman had the beating of Kauto. Denman was the second-coming, only for ill-health, as it was to be with Flyingbolt, to nip his elevation to the very summit of the sport in the bud.
In Saturday’s Post there was a poor headline regarding Tiger Roll. ‘Tiger Roll future looks uncertain after flop’. We all know what was meant, yet the truth is no horse has a better future than Tiger Roll. Say what you like about the O’Leary’s but Tiger Roll will be cared for and treasured for the rest of his days. It is possible he may not race again, and no horse deserves a quiet retirement more than the most remarkable racehorse of modern times, but his future, the gods willing, has nothing but green grass and a golden future ahead of him.
That said, I hope they do persevere with him a little while longer. His connections have become a little obsessed with the Cross-Country race and perhaps Tiger Roll has got a bit fed-up with it. Remember, this horse achieves what seemingly is out-of-reach of most horses. He was bred for the flat. He won the Triumph Hurdle as a 4-year-old. Disappeared off the radar for a while. Reappeared to win the 4-mile National Hunt Chase. No horse will do that particular double again, I assure you. Wins 2 Cross-Country races and 2 Grand Nationals. And another thing, as Bryony Frost says about Frodon, he loves to be noticed and appreciated. Cheltenham was soulless last Friday and he had a jockey on board who he had never seen before. Great horses, and make no mistake Tiger Roll is one of the great horses of our sport, are intelligent; he knew last Friday that something was amiss and he fretted about it. To him, I suggest, it was just a strange sort of exercise gallop. I dare say on the way home he gave the matter a good deal of thought. As Gordon Elliott would have done. If I were asked, I would suggest forgetting about the Glenfarclas and give Tiger Roll his warm-up for a third Grand National in the Gold Cup or even a handicap chase on home soil. Tiger Roll’s stature and public affection is built on his exploits at Aintree, not his affinity with the Glenfarclas. Tiger Roll should not on all known form win a Gold Cup. Thus far, though, the great horse has always achieved the seemingly implausible.
Finally, the excellent David Jennings in praise of the expert analysis of Ruby Walsh also made passing reference to the modern-day commentator. I think the most controversial opinion I have expressed is that though the voice of racing for many decades and still, quite rightly revered to this day, Peter O’Sullevan was far from being a great commentator. It is, though, because of him that we have such a mighty battalion of race commentators both here and in Ireland, everyone of which is the equal of O’Sullevan or his superior. Peter O’Sullevan was one of the great men of racing but his reputation must be constructed on his humanity, character and charity work and not on his competence as a commentator. For what it is worth, and this is just my personal bias and I find no complaint with any commentator of the modern era, but I rate Hoiles and Holt at the top of a wonderfully vibrant tree.

​If you like to have a tear in our eye, I suggest a visit to the website of ‘Retraining for Racehorses’, the best initiative to have come from the B.H.A. since – well, ever. Love of the racehorse can get lost amongst all the other elements of the sport; the personal stories of people who have taken an ex-racehorse under their wing to retrain in another sphere of equine competition are both heart-warming and inspiring, and displays our great sport in a light that requires to be transferred into other media outlets.
A sound, happy racehorse can, with patience and expert tuition, go on to lead a happy life in the show-ring, eventing, dressage, show-jumping, polo (I suspect size does matter in this particular discipline) endurance riding, horseball (I’ve seen pictures, it looks crazily hairy for the riders – hanging head-down from the saddle in mimicry of a Hollywood stunt-rider to pick up a ball while in motion!) hunting, trekking, hunter trials and a discipline new to me, polocross. 
I am aware that event riders are becoming more enamoured with the thoroughbred for its natural speed and athleticism during the cross-country phase of a three-day-event. I suspect the ex-racehorse may never become a big name in dressage but that does not mean it cannot be retrained to become proficient in the lower divisions of dressage, as son of Frankel and relation of Dubawi, UAE King, formerly trained by Roger Varian, is proving. Who would have thought it, a son of mighty Frankel turning up at a minor-league county show or affiliated event!
The retraining of racehorses is an organisation British racing can be proud of and I hope and pray that the stranglehold presently being affected on racing by government restrictions will not result in a drop in funding for the charity. In fact, the B.H.A. should consider a weekend of racing dedicated to raising extra funds for the charity, with a headline race-day at somewhere like York or Cheltenham and with fund-raising at every meeting over the designated week-end. Every equine retraining and rescue centre should be helped through horse-racing to raise funds in appreciation of the safety-net they provide. 
As a sport we may consider the owner to be priceless, the jockey indispensable, stable staff the lifeblood of the sport, the breeder the production heart, but in fact without the horse, the sacrifices and bravery of the horse, we, the human enthusiasts, are nothing. The sport is called HORSE RACING, after-all.
One aspect lacking, if that is the right word, in the racehorse retraining programme, and this is in no way meant as criticism as the idea I am about to put forward might be as tricky to overcome as the third last at Cheltenham used to be, is that once retired, apart from special occasions when they lead a parade or put in a personal appearance on a day when there is a race named in their honour, the racing public lose sight of former equine legends. Although what I propose is for all ex-racehorses, great or small in achievement. I also put forward this idea as an additional way to attract extra funding for the R.o.T. and all equine charities.
I have had it in my head for a long time for a team event for ex-racehorses that I have now termed ‘Optimum Trialling’. I’d imagine if someone has spent hundreds (or more) hours patiently coaxing the racehorse out of the ex-racehorse to a state of calm acceptance of a life less pacey, ‘Optimum Trialling’ will come as a big ‘Not on your Nelly’. It certainly will not be to the taste of all riders, nor will it be for all ex-racehorses. I shall take all criticism on the chin in the hope that someone of greater equine intelligence than myself will recognise the grain of an idea worth further exploration in my suggestion.
What I propose, as an hors d’oeuvre (an appropriate term given it translates as ‘outside the work’ and because of the sheer proliferation of French-bred horses with French language names) to a race-meeting, as pony racing is occasionally used, is a team relay event in which there are five elements each with an optimum time allotted for each – 3-furlong ‘race’ comprising one hurdle – remember the idea is not to be the fastest but to achieve the optimum time at the point of hand-over – this is a relay event. Similarly, a 3-furlong ‘race’ comprising one steeplechase fence, followed by a 2-furlong ‘crawl’, I suspect, comprising a show-jump of some description, followed by three-furlongs comprising a hunter trial jump or combination of some description, ending in a three-furlong dash to suit the retired ex-flat horse.
The above is simply a working plan to give an overview of my proposal. I have no doubt it requires much thought, tweaks and trial and error if it is every to come to fruition. As well as sponsorship, of course.
Many jockeys rehome horses close to their hearts and I would hope they, and ex-professional jockeys, would give this idea their support, even if they leg-up their aspiring-jockey children rather than ‘risk’ embarrassing themselves. 
Much of the work carried-out by the R.o.R. is out-of-sight of the racegoer. I suspect not every racegoer even knows of the existence and brilliant work of the R.o.R. ‘Optimum Trialling’ would be a way of connecting all the dots – a regular light shone on equine charities, reminding racegoers that racehorses do not fade away into far-flung fields (or into the dog-food chain) once their names no longer appear in race-cards; raising important funds, and on a more mercenary note, swelling racecourse attendance. I’m not suggesting this will ever happen but what if Sprinter Sacre were to pop-up in Optimum Trialling or any of our equine legends, wouldn’t that add a couple hundred people to a race-meeting?
As virtually no one reads these blogs on a regular basis – not complaining, it is a vanity website after-all, my own personal therapy – I will relay this ‘article’ to the R.o.R. in anticipation of it receiving a less than savage response.
On this site, again sheer vanity and point-scoring on my part, there is a page dedicated to possible horse-names owners can adopt as a name for a new horse in hope they will donate £25 to an equine charity. I mention this as a sort-of nod-wink-nod-wink-if-you-know-what-I mean (allusion to a Monty Python sketch, in case you are wondering) for anyone reading this to do likewise.

​Some people gain immortality in their chosen sport, even if the immortality they have earned is of the parochial kind, known forever by a minority, unlike Mohammed Ali or Pele who at their peak were familiar to everyone on the planet. Bruce Hobbs is one such sportsman, even if racehorse trainers do not fit the mould of either a sportsman or immortal hero.
As a racehorse trainer Bruce Hobbs had a successful, if not glittering, career, winning hundreds if not thousands of races. He was responsible for Stilvi, Tynavos, Catherine Wheel, Tachypous, Tromos and many other horses whose names are part and parcel of my early years as a devotee of this sport. The names of his top-class flat horses will though fade from memory, to live on only in the pedigrees of yearlings in sales catalogues and in the yellowing pages of old form books. The name that will never fade, will always be remembered for one day in racing history is the name of the great, though small, American stallion Battleship who crossed the ocean blue a horse in transit and returned to a ticker-tape welcoming home celebration.
36 horses lined-up at Aintree on 25th March 1938, most of whom were better fancied to win the race than Battleship and his seventeen-year-old rider Bruce Hobbs. Blue Shirt and Cooleen went off the 8/1 joint favourites, with both finishing the race to tell the tale. John Hislop, later to gain everlasting turf fame by breeding and owning Brigadier Gerard, one of flat’s greatest ever horses, was less fortunate riding the Duchess of Norfolk’s Hurdy Gurdy Man, falling when out of contention.
Hobbs believes that the one mistake Battleship made, when he was down on his nose at the third last, was responsible for him winning – in Reg Green’s wonderful history of the Grand National ‘A Race Apart’, it is described as a ‘shocking mistake’ - as he would have been in front too soon otherwise and which allowed or forced him to give Battleship a breather. Hobbs, displaying wisdom beyond his youth, slowly but surely clawed back the lost ground, passing the tiring Workman between the final two fences before edging past Royal Danieli on top of the finishing line.
Battleship was trained on behalf of Marion Scott, wife of Hollywood film star Randolph Scott, by Bruce’s father Reg, who did not believe for one moment that the diminutive Battleship would jump round Aintree and gave him little chance of winning, wanting to withdraw the horse in the lead-up to the race, as he had done the previous year. It was only the owner’s insistence that they ran that allowed him to earn the greatest achievement of his career.
At the time Battleship was the smallest horse to win the Grand National, the first horse to win sporting blinkers and Bruce Hobbs, as he remains to this day, the youngest jockey to win the world’s most famous horse race.
In 2020 the world is fighting something of a phoney war against a virus manipulated by politicians and others to rent a change to the very fabric of civilisation. The official world-wide death toll is considerable, of course, yet it is nothing when compared to the very real war men and women had to contend with only 18-months after Battleship’s epic victory over the black birch of Aintree. The 2nd World War enveloped everyone and everything. Bruce Hobbs, in 1938 was a sporting hero, a kid barely out-of-school, and by the end of 1939 he was a soldier, his destiny to be decided in the desert fighting to stem Rommel’s progress in North Africa.
There was a war to be won and Hobbs set out with the same grit, determination and youthful zeal as he had displayed at Aintree. He won the Military Cross and admitted in peacetime to have enjoyed his soldiering career. In ‘No Secret So Close’, a quote from Surtees, Tim Fitzgeorge-Parker, also holder of the Military Cross, by the way, does what I believe to be a remarkably poor job in telling the life story of Bruce Hobbs.
If this was an autobiography, Bruce Hobbs would be perfectly entitled to dedicate more than a single chapter on his war service, even if he might have been too modest to mention the action that led to the award of his Military Cross. But when such an eminent writer as Fitzgeorge-Parker takes on the task of writing the life story of a racehorse trainer, the market for such a book would overwhelmingly be racing enthusiasts, and it is a literary crime to spend so much time on the man’s war years and by comparison so little on what the subject matter is known for. I’m afraid the writer committed the same error with ‘Ever Loyal’, his biography of Neville Crump. 
Writers have their own style, of course, and all are valid. But if I were to point any budding writer in the direction of a writer and a book that is an exemplar of its kind, I will suggest the story of ‘Battleship’ as told by Dorothy Ours – one of the best books ever written about a racehorse. But then Battleship had a very quiet 2nd World War.

​Before I begin, before I forget: Rachael Blackmore rode 5 seconds from 6-rides at Navan on Sunday; is this a record? For a female jockey, undoubtedly and she led at the last in 3 of those races.

Recently, Ruby Walsh gave his approval to the idea of a 5-day Cheltenham Festival, suggesting it should run from Monday through to Friday. I am more swayed by his first point than I am his second.
I have written many times on this subject, both on this site and in letters to the Racing Post. In fact, I was expressing my favour for an extra day long before it actually became a subject for general discussion. My view has not altered over the years and taking into account the savaging of the sport’s finances through the needless banning of spectators on racecourses by government, any additional revenue by way of a fifth day should be grasped in both hands.
I have suggested that the Midlands National at Uttoxeter should be run a week earlier as along with the Imperial Cup at Sandown this would provide a great betting prelude to the Festival. I propose this change as I would extend the Festival to the Saturday, either, as Ruby Walsh advocates, to extend the meeting to a fifth Festival day or as I advocate to have what I term a ‘Heath Day’, as used to be the case for Royal Ascot before it was extended to five-days.
My argument for a fifth non-Festival day is this: this extra day would cost less in prize-money than if it were to be a bone fide Festival day; it would allow the Cheltenham executive to trial races before they were slotted into the Festival proper, as might have been the case with the new race this year, the mares chase; the additional day would be a safety-net in circumstances where a day’s racing is lost to the weather, as in the year of the great wind, if you remember, when a day’s racing had to be shoehorned into the final two-days; and it would ensure that races sacrificed from the main four-days to allow for the introduction of new races, as with the novice handicap chase this year, would not disappear but would be found a home on the Saturday.
I would quite like the Cross-Country Chase to be moved to the Saturday to be the feature race, with the prize-money increased to make it the most valuable race of its kind in Europe. The Glenfarclas is the one race at the Festival designed with the intention of attracting horses from across the English Channel and in the main it does not attract the very best cross-country horses from France and elsewhere and Cheltenham owe it to the race and its sponsors to go all out to get the very best cross-country racehorses in Europe to Prestbury Park in March. As it is, if it were not for the Irish and J.P.McManus in particular, the Cross-Country race would be a very sad event.
As for the races that would comprise my ‘Heath Day’ – the compensation races presently run at Kempton for horses balloted out of the big handicaps would make for good betting heats and in my design would be shoe-ins for acceptance. I would also include the sacrificed novice handicap chase, the return of the United Hunts 4-mile hunter chase and some kind of champion hurdle for mares, either over 2-miles or 3. 
Obviously, even though the sport would appreciate any extra revenue it can lay its hands on at present, it is too late to institute change for this season and we can only grasp at straws that the government will come to its senses in the next few weeks or months and allow spectators back into the sporting arena which would give Cheltenham a welcome opportunity to make a profit on this season’s Festival. The hole in the sport’s finances will remain for many years to come. It may lessen as time passes but I believe recovery to the point of what we consider now to be normalcy is many years into the future. Which is why, taking into account the profound difference in circumstance between last season and this, a fifth day should be brought to reality as quickly as possible, even if sponsors cannot be found to finance the extra races required. There is no danger of a fifth-day underwhelming fans; the fifth-day will be as packed as any of the preceding four-days and the town of Cheltenham and all the local hotels and hospitality venues would welcome a fifth day with open arms. Indeed, it might be racing’s duty to the locality to help build back local businesses. We need them every bit as much as they need the Festival. Are we not all in this together?

​On Monday, November 2nd, in an article opposite a rather pointless feature dubbed ‘The Monday Column’, John Cobb wrote in praise of Holly Doyle. Nothing wrong there, of course. Yet he messed up his argument (or article as sometimes journalists write what they are instructed to write) with this final sentence: Celebrate Doyle’s achievement but don’t mistake it for progress.
Let me be clear; for more years than I care to remember I have advocated, championed, almost, that female jockeys should be given greater opportunities to prove themselves because half the world consists of females and that is a large demographic that might be persuaded toward horse racing if they were to see female jockeys achieving at the top level of our sport. And the gist of John Cobb’s argument does suggest a decline over the past two seasons in the number of winners female riders have won. Back in 2010, to use his research, Hayley Turner rode 73 winners, whilst this year she languishes on a lesser total, though she now has two Royal Ascot trophies on the mantlepiece. Josephine Gordon has also slipped from the heady heights of 106 winners, and apprentice champion, in 2017 to 23 this season. Nicola Currie has also slipped from 81 two seasons ago to 23 this season.
But, and this is a pretty big BUT, Mr.Cobb, overall female jockeys have never had a bigger profile than in 2020. What Holly Doyle has achieved this season is remarkable, not only upping her own record of wins for a female, verging on 100 winners in this truncated season, winning a clutch of Group races, headed, of course, by her first Group 1, gaining a retainer for a Derby winning owner/breeder, her first Royal Ascot winner, added to which, as reported in Monday’s Racing Post, she will be riding at the Breeders Cup in a few weeks and will ride the Japanese mare Deirdre in the International Trophy in Bahrain. That in itself is progress for the female of our species.
Over jumps, Rachel Blackmore continues to top the riders table in Ireland and is first jockey to one of the biggest stables over there. She has also ridden winners at the Cheltenham Festival and is regularly used by both Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliot.
In Britain, our brightest star is Bryony Frost. Unlike Blackmore, Bryony is unlikely to be champion jockey but she holds the position of second jockey to the powerhouse stables of Paul Nicholls, as well as being stable jockey to Neil King and is riding most of Lucy Wadham’s horses at the moment.
For the female jockey these are unprecedented times; progress that will very soon lead to a female riding the winner of a Gold Cup or Grand National or if Hollie Doyle keeps up her trajectory a classic winner. In our fathers time such a prospect would have been unheard-of, perhaps even ridiculed.
Only last Saturday, unheralded because it was hardly unique anymore, three of the races at Ascot were won by female jockeys and not one of them goes by the name of Rachel or Bryony, which is also amazing progress. Page Fuller, Bridget Andrews (ride of the day, perhaps) and Lily Pinchin did not get much of a write-up in the Racing Post, yet two of them are rising stars and the third is one of the most improved riders of the past few seasons. Yes, Bridget Andrews has the advantage of riding very good horses trained by her brother-in-law and that is why she is getting noticed. Good horses make good jockeys, to quote Richard Pitman. 
Nicola Currie’s star has faded this season due to the emergence of Saffie Osborne, daughter of trainer Jamie. Given the same opportunities as Holly Doyle she too would hold her own, as Josephine Gordon has proved in past seasons. Both these jockeys are being wasted and Saffie Osborne could easily be champion apprentice next season, she is that good.
Both on the flat and over jumps there is an increasing number of female jockeys who are riding out their claim and many more who ride winners on a daily basis.
Hayley Turner is right when she says female jockeys do not need an extra allowance to boost their profile, as is the situation in France, but what they are desperately in need of is opportunities at a higher level of the sport. Holly Doyle and Rachel Blackmore have proved that given the arrows they can achieve the bullseye over and over again.
Though it is not magic bullet, I would like to see an international female jockeys race run at Goodwood or York, boasting a substantial 6-figure prize-fund, to push top trainers into putting female jockeys on Group-type horses, allowing them an opportunity to prove their worth in a race of importance. If the B.H.A. were initiators with an entrepreneurial spirit and not go-with-the-flow pen-pushers they might see such a concept as a method of achieving new sponsorship (perfumiers, cosmetic companies, fashion houses, might be interested in sponsoring a race of importance restricted to female jockeys at one of our summer festivals) and focusing the racing world’s eye in our direction.
No, as fine a fellow as you undoubtedly are, Mr.Cobb, you are wrong; progress is not only being made but the evidence from both codes of our sport suggests it is being maintained. 2021 might even witness Holly Doyle being champion jockey on the flat over here and Rachel Blackmore champion jockey over jumps in Ireland. Doesn’t that possible scenario qualify as progress?

​The according to the Penguin English Dictionary, the definition of peerless is ‘matchless or incomparable’. In racing terms, the word peerless might be defined as ‘how Cyrname won the Charlie Hall Chase’. Yes, there was none of the joie de vivre that defines his stable companion Frodon but at Wetherby there was a grown-upness about Cyrname that until Saturday we had not seen and perhaps never expected to see from him. It was a beautiful thing to witness, a fine racehorse coming to his prime, in total control of his environment. And yet another example of the horse knowledge and training expertise of his trainer and of a young jockey who is fast becoming a potential champion jockey, and, perhaps, in the sights of J.P.McManus.
Having said all that, Cyrname beat nothing at Wetherby that can be termed solid Cheltenham Gold Cup horses. Vinndication is a good yardstick, though a horse more likely to win one of the major handicaps than one of steeplechasing’s gold riband races. I could be mistaken, though, as lesser horses have won the Gold Cup. In fact. his profile reminds me a bit of Master Oats in that he never looked a potential Gold Cup winner until the rain fell in a deluge at Cheltenham to give him an advantage he did not look at any point conceding. 
I concede that a more tractable, more laid-back Cyrname gives him greater opportunity to win one of the major chases and I’m surprised Paul Nicholls did not mention the Betfair as a possible target, though he must be aiming Clan Des Obeaux at Haydock, though not Frodon, I hope. I wouldn’t be surprised, if, as we all pray will be the case, government restrictions both sides of the Irish Sea, are eased, that Cyrname might skip the King George in favour of Leopardstown, a race Nicholls won with Denman, if you remember, allowing Clan Des Obeaux at easier passage at Kempton.
I suspect, at the risk of annoying his trainer, that Cyrname may prove to be unbeatable around the flat courses, Kempton, Haydock, Ascot etc but not as adaptable and imperious around Cheltenham. I remain critical of his official rating; it is clearly inflated and races won on attritional going should either not be used to upgrade a horse or at least should have an asterisk placed against the figure. No one in their right mind would claim Altior to be inferior to any horse currently in training; Altior is the top National Hunt horse, as he has been for the past three-seasons and though he will not likely lock horns with Cyrname again it is hard to visualise on good ground Cyrname ever confirming the form over any distance below 2m 4-furlongs.
Although I would not be surprised if Paul Nicholls proves me way off the mark (not for the first time) I cannot see Cyrname winning a Cheltenham Gold Cup. In fact, if this season’s race was run identical to last year, which is unlikely as for a Gold Cup they almost dawdled for the most part, I remain convinced that Frodon is a perfectly plausible contender. He is constantly under-rated (trainer’s fault for running him over the wrong distance for a season and a half!), he loves Cheltenham and last year I believe his jumping would have sorted out much of the opposition, as it will do again come March 2021 (how many of wish it were March 2021 already? Get this nightmare of a year over with).
As for Down Royal’s Champion Chase: do not right off Delta Work, though I have the nagging feeling he’ll be a horse always fancied for the Gold Cup, will always run well, but when push comes to shove, he’ll always be found wanting. Presenting Percy is another who should be given another chance. To my eyes he’s more of a Grand National horse than a Gold Cup winner, after all he’s had two opportunities already and fluffed his lines for one reason or another and if he were mine, I would aim him at the Irish National this season and Aintree next. He is most definitely a better horse than his recent form figures suggest.
In fact, if Gordon Elliott had a potential Gold Cup winner running at Down Royal, I rather suspect it might be BattleoverDoyen. He put in a mature performance in beating Easygame and the equally not-to-be-forgotten Samcro, who I remain convinced will be better suited to a soft-ground 3-miles. If I was backing anything ante-post and on each-way terms, it would be Battleover Doyen.
Despite all the brilliant horses trained in Ireland at present, including a 2-time Gold Cup winner, I have my hopes that we might keep the blue riband races this side of the Irish Sea for a change. On decent ground I fancy Frodon for the Gold Cup and on softer ground Santini. Altior will obviously regain his 2-mile crown and Goshen will run away with the Champion Hurdle. I hope come the finish of the Elite Hurdle on Saturday I am not forced to eat my words but I really rate Goshen and if God has any mercy he’ll bestow it on the Moore family come March. If you think how impressive Aspire Tower was at Down Royal and then remember how far he was going to finish behind Goshen in the Triumph Hurdle, it is not much of a stretch of the imagination to believe Goshen to be a champion in waiting.