​The Racing Post might soon have to appoint one of its journalists to the new position of Court of Law correspondent, although the front page of today’s edition (November 30th) suggests the remit has already fallen to Chris Cook, senior reporter.
There are three cases in total featured, plus an interview with Milton Harris, a man whose past indiscretions has shaped his life, with dust-ups with the B.H.A. and Inland Revenue high on his list of ‘aspects of my life to put behind me.’ Horse racing needs characters like Milton Harris, a man of working-class origins, and I hope he remains doing what he loves for decades to come.
Case number one is taking place at the High Court and involves a week-long hearing to determine if former jockey Graham Gibbons was responsible for the fall at Kempton in 2016 that resulted in Freddy Tylicki suffering devastating life-altering injuries.
No matter the rights and wrongs of both the incident and the litigation resulting from it, our hearts must be with Tylicki as no amount of settlement will ever restore his ability to walk again, and I am sure that Gibbons too wishes on a daily basis that he could rewind the clock so that Tylicki finished that race by unsaddling his mount and not prone in the back of an ambulance.
As with the next case, the outcome of this High Court affair has more riding on it than who was ultimately to blame for the incident. If Gibbons is decided to be responsible and must compensate Tylicki financially, sports people all around the world, or at least in this country, will have to rethink how they play their sport. A finding against Gibbons will set a precedent. Every tackle in rugby or football which results in serious injury may end up argued over in a court of law. Every fast bowler may have to consider the effect of his actions. And so on and so on. There will be ramifications from whatever judgment is delivered; it is sad it has come to this.
I have no sense of which way I want the Tylicki/Gibbons dispute to go, though the second case, which, thankfully has thus far avoided the law of the land and is to be settled in the basement of B.H.A. headquarters in London, I am more invested in. Dunne V Frost also will have ramifications. Dunne may lose his licence and at his age, 35, it may spell the end of his career. For Frost, even if her allegations are considered founded, she might lose, if she hasn’t already, the respect and support of her work colleagues. 
I do not know Robbie Dunne and know little about him. Venetia Williams often uses him when Charlie Deutsch is elsewhere, so he must be a more than capable horseman. But he is not the asset to the sport than Frost undoubtedly is and for that aspect alone I hope and pray her reputation is enhanced rather than sullied by the result of this week’s hearing. It would be hard to accept if the conclusion of the disciplinary panel was that Frost had lied or made-up any part of her allegations of bullying. I like to think I have the second-sense to know whether a new acquaintance is sincere from first meeting and I must confess Bryony Frost won my distanced affection the day she won the Cheltenham Foxhunters. Nothing I have seen of her on screen has changed my opinion.
But more than that; Dunne’s initial defence of his actions, and defended, too, by senior members of the weighing room, was that ‘what goes on the weighing room, stays in the weighing room’. Such a defence is reprehensible and maligns every jockeys’ right to the law of the land. Where is the line in the sand in such a kangaroo court scenario? Everyone has a right to a safe working environment and that applies to the weighing room as it does to every factory floor and office. God knows, each and every jockey faces danger and injury enough already when they go out to race.
Whereas Tylicki/Gibbons might see a rush of similar legal cases, the Dunne/Frost dispute will, I hope, be the last to go this far, even if the B.H.A. are culpable in dragging the misery out for so long a time.
Thirdly, Dan Skelton has found himself the subject of yet another Sunday Times feature. It’s getting to the point where I am hoping David Walsh, the reporter in question, visits a racing stables, in hope of finding something ‘dirty’ to further discredit the sport, and is inadvertently savaged by a horse with big teeth and large hind feet.
Skelton has fallen out with a former owner who believes Skelton sold him a horse for far more than it was worth and has got the right hump about it. The B.H.A. has already cleared Skelton of any wrong-doing but have reopened the case. 
Here I am going to take sides. I like Dan Skelton. I like Harry Skelton, too, and Bridget and old man Nick. I like My Drogo, too. So, as with David Walsh, I hope Tony Holt, the former owner kicking up the fuss, a meeting on a dark and foggy night with a horse-drawn tram.

​Nicky Henderson is a master of his trade. He is the top-most winning British trainer at the Cheltenham Festival and with the singular exception of the Grand National he has won every major jumps race in the calendar, with several of flat racing’s big handicaps thrown in to just to demonstrate his versatility. He has earned the right not to have his decisions questioned by racing journalists and the public should respect his judgement as usually his ’controversial’ decisions turn-out to be ‘inspired’.
That said, he has a knack of finding reasons not to run his very best horses in races that are in the race programme for the sort of horses stabled at Seven Barrows.
If Shishkin isn’t going to be ready for the Tingle Creek in 10-days-time, Henderson has done everyone a favour by informing us well in advance and not withdrawing the horse on the day of the race. The weather, of course, is being partly blamed, as is a wind-op the horse had back in the summer, and though fit, apparently, the horse isn’t pleasing his trainer or Nick de Boinville, his jockey.
In my limited experience, not that I have been even in the near vicinity of a horse as classy as Shishkin, racehorses have a habit of turning a corner overnight and sparkling on the gallops the next day and it is conceivable Shishkin might do likewise. I suspect, though, that Henderson knows deep down in his marrow that whatever he does with the horse between now and Sandown in ten-days the horse will still need the run and with the class of opposition he will undoubtedly face, he’ll get beat, and worse still, he’ll have a hard race that will leave its effects come the Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day.
To my mind, Henderson tendency towards hesitancy, especially of late, is a direct consequence of running Altior against Cyrname at Ascot in very heavy ground, a decision on his part that he still has not forgiven himself for making. Getting Altior beat that day and taking away the horse’s air of invincibility has left a deep wound that is affecting his judgement calls.
I will defend Henderson a little, though. The 2-mile Championship races between the Schloer at Cheltenham and the 2-mile Champion Chase in March could do with some adjusting.
Firstly, apart from the Schloer, there is no condition chases over 2-miles, excepting the slightly longer Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter, and it is almost inevitable that a Henderson 2-miler will be having its first run of the season at Sandown, and this year, whichever of his 3 2-mile stars he decides to send over, the Mullins raider will also be having its first run of the season. Yet Paul Nicholls who has three seemingly lined-up for the Tingle Creek, Politologue, Greaneteen and the easier to spell Hitman, has found a pipe-opener for all of them, which gives him the upper hand, methinks. 
If I had a say in matters, I would downgrade the Tingle Creek to a Grade 2 and increase the value of the Desert Orchid at Kempton and make a Triple Crown, perhaps introducing a bonus for any horse that wins all three races, along with the Game Spirit at Newbury and the Champion Chase, of course, at the Festival. Without the last option, which most likely will be impossible to create and that the Game Spirit would be considered by some, Mr.Henderson for example, as too close to Cheltenham, I do believe a proper mid-season Festival could be achieved at Kempton if the Desert Orchid were elevated so that it has the same prestige as the King George. The same with the Christmas Hurdle.
But to return to Shishkin and his defection from the Tingle Creek. We are all in expectation of the clash between the Mullins’ superstars and Shishkin but if only Chacon Pour Soi turns up at Sandown and one of his other two 2-mile prospective 2-mile Champion Chasers suffers an injury (God forbid!) between now and the Festival, the clash of ages will never take place. And that is what races like the Tingle Creek are for. The clash will not be happening on Irish shores as Henderson only puts on his green tie for Punchestown in May and the Tingle Creek, I suspect, is the only 2-mile chase in Britain that Mullins has pencilled in for any of his horses.
The Tingle Creek will still be a fascinating context and don’t think for a moment it will be stroll in the park for Chacon Pour Soi, if he is the nominated runner from Closutton. But it has to be admitted, with Shishkin in the field it would have been elevated to a whole higher plain of expectation. So, let’s look on the bright side, there is an icy blast coming, apparently, so there is a rather large chance Sandown will be frozen off and Nicky Henderson may get an extra week to have Shishkin jumping out of his skin.

​We should always be grateful and appreciative when a sponsor comes in to take over one of the sport’s most historical races. Sponsors are hard to find these days, especially those who swim against the tide and do all they can to retain the prestige of former years. 
To go off topic for a moment. Oh, the topic being this Saturday’s Ladbroke Trophy at Newbury. I am curious to know how Newbury described their main National Hunt race of the season between the final Hennessey Gold Cup and when Ladbrokes signed the contract to sponsor a race titled the Ladbroke Trophy in its place? In effect, you see, as with so many of our chases and hurdles, and increasingly our flat races, the 3-mile 2-furlong chase at Newbury’s November meeting has no actual name. It only exists as an advertising tool of whichever company sponsors it. Luckily the race has thus far only had two sponsors or acquirees. In time the number will grow as sponsors do not stick around these days with the longevity of Hennessey, Whitbread, Badger Beers and John Smiths. Spot the connection?
Sadly, as with the Whitbread that was, the prestige of the Ladbroke Trophy is slipping to that of just another valuable handicap, due in no small part to the invention of the Betfair Chase at Haydock robbing Newbury of the sort of top-class chasers that frequented the race from its early days till 2009 when Denman put up one of great weight-carrying performances of recent history.
Let me stroll through the great horses to have won the Hennessey down the years and you will look at the 2021 renewal and realise the fall in prestige is not just my opinion but a statement based on fact.
1957 & 1961 the immortal Manderin won, carrying 11st and 11st 5Ibs
1959 the great mare Kerstin won carrying 11st 10Ibs
1963 another immortal, one of great chasers of any era, Mill House won carrying 12st.
Then came the greatest racehorse of all time Arkle in 1964 & 1965, carrying the welter burden of 12st 7Ib both times.
1966 saw Arkle fail by a small margin to give the best part of 3-stone to Cheltenham Gold Cup runner-up Stalbridge Colonist.
1969 saw Spanish Steps carry 11st 8Ibs to victory for his owner/permit trainer Edward Courage.
We had to wait until 1981 for the next Gold Cup standard horse to claim a Hennessey, Diamond Edge carrying 11st 10Ibs.
Bregawn won in 1982 carrying 11st 10Ibs. Brown Chamberlain the following year with 11st 5Ibs on his back.
1984 saw one of the great performances by a horse who with better luck with injury might have achieved legendary status, Borrough Hill Lad, carrying 12st to victory.
1994 saw one of the great enigmas of the sport One Man carry 10st to victory, the only horse to go on from Newbury, with a couple of King Georges’ in between, to win a Champion 2-mile chase.
In 1997 Suny Bay (11st 8Ibs) ran away with the race and the following season another horse dogged by injury Teeton Mill won off the lightweight of 10st 5Ibs.
Then there was Denman, of course, in 2007 and 2009.
In the years I have failed to mention the race was never anything but competitive, not something it was last year and in many years since Denman proved that, yes, great horses can give weight away to younger rivals seemingly thrown-in at the weights.
In yesteryear, the winner of the Hennessey immediately became a Gold Cup hopeful. Not that this is necessarily the case nowadays. Sadly, and perhaps this is the same with all handicaps of the modern era, it is too easy for trainers to by-pass the Ladbroke for easier options. I don’t know how massive the prize-money would have to be to tempt trainers to allow their best chasers to run in the race. First prize would certainly have to swamp the level of money to be won at Haydock in the Betfair. This year the race is worth £250,000 and yet it has still not attracted any horse that might be considered of Gold Cup standard. It is possible Eklat de Rire might be up to that class but common-sense tells you that Henry de Bromhead has so many Gold Cup horses it goes beyond reason that he might have another. It tells you all you need to know about the level of class of this year’s race that Chris’ s Dream, as admirable as he is and how well he was going in last season’s Grand National before tipping up late on, is top-weight. I also think it is quite damning that it is not beyond probability that last year’s runaway winner Cloth Cap could carry 18Ib more and still triumph.
For what its worth, and I did tip on this site Midnight Shadow at 9/1 in the Paddy Power at Cheltenham, so I am in form, I like Fiddlerontheroof and Remastered. I would be strong on the latter if Tom Scudamore was riding but I believe he is staying loyal to Cloth Cap. Personally I think he should stay loyal to David Pipe.
Hopefully Newbury will get a good dose of the showers forecast for the area on Friday and Saturday, which will at least stop trainers moaning about the lack of rain.

​I am not a fan of the B.H.A. and I make no apologies for my view. The B.H.A. is a reactive organisation, lacking dynamism and imagination. For a sport to thrive, indeed any business, it requires leadership that constantly thinks ahead, recognises the signs of trouble ahead and has plans A.B & C prepared to tackle whatever the crisis might be. I do not see such leadership at the B.H.A. 
That said, the proposal of the Racecourse Association and the Horseman’s Group to usurp the B.H.A.’s authority and strip from it all commercial and non-regulatory decisions will only weaken the sport long-term, even if short-term some good may come of it.
At the moment horse racing is effectively governed by what is referred to as a Tripartite Agreement comprising the Racecourse Association, the Horseman’s Group and the B.H.A. This agreement was ill-conceived from the outset, especially when all three have to agree before any decision can be taken. A tripartite arrangement can only be effective if a majority vote is required for any decision to be taken. This is why stalemate will always be the favourite when important matters are up for debate.
My fear is if this radical proposal is accepted it will in effect allow ARC, Arena Racing Company, to become not only the sport’s commercial arm of the sport but its voice and strategy maker, with their racecourses, possibly, getting preferential treatment. The sport badly needs a strong arm at the tiller but it has to be someone with no allegiance to any aspect of the sport except the health and future of the sport itself. What other major sport (and industry) is ruled over by three individual groups, two of which has definite bias toward the decision-making process. In time who is to say that the power the Racecourse Association and the Horseman’s Group will acquire by ousting the B.H.A. from racing’s commercial interests allows them to have greater influence, if not complete control, of racing’s rules and regulations.
My criticism of the B.H.A. is that it is weakened by having at its head people with little knowledge of the sport of racing or the industry that employs so many people. You cannot bring in an ex-head of another sport and expect them to grasp the intricacies of horse racing within the time-span of their contract. I am sure they are dedicated people, wishing to be seen to be doing a fine job. But they will not be staying in the sport much beyond their present contract. They just don’t.
This sport needs a leader, a supremo, someone who listens to all opinions on any given subject, researches further and using his or her knowledge of the sport makes a decision that best serves all divisions. The B.H.A., the Jockey Club before it, no doubt, and everyone who presently has clout within the sport, have allowed the sport to drift on to a sandbank of economic indifference. How long has the B.H.A. governed this sport, and the B.H.B. before it? 30-years, is it? And where is the sport today? To say it is no better off than when the Jockey Club lost control of the sport is to gild it with flattery.
It is agreed by virtually everyone that there is too much racing yet under pressure from the Racecourse Association the B.H.A. continues to expand the race programme. The Betting Industry criticises small fields as they fail to generate interest and revenue from punters and yet even though the B.H.A. relies on what little the bookmakers give to the sport it is given short shrift. If there was less racing, the good ground prominent at the moment would not be producing so many races with three, four or five-runners.
The Tripartite Agreement, if it was ever viable, should have produced a funding stream for the sport by now. But it hasn’t. Horse Racing’s biggest and most desperate problem remains unresolved.
Horse Racing needs a strong supremo with a deep understanding and love of the sport who will kick asses, poke the hornet’s nest and wrestle the sport’s funding problem until he or she has rendered the problem a long-dead chapter of its past.
What I will give the Racecourse Association and the Horseman’s Group credit for is that they have at least poked the hornet’s nest and displayed the dynamism sadly lacking from Portman Square. Their answer to the debate is not long-lasting answer desperately required but the debate that is now to ensue will, I hope, be conducted in broad daylight and in the public arena. 

​At some point before the decade is out, the B.H.A. will announce their latest plan of action regarding use of the whip. I suspect whatever rule change is imposed, jockeys will object, whilst others will declare the end of the racing world is nigh and no aspect of the sport will ever be the same.
I hope any rule change, whether it goes anywhere close to what I would to like to see happen or not, needs to be radical, long-lasting and viable for every type of racing the sport caters for. The B.H.A. have chased this contentious hare now for decades, usually tinkering around the edges of the problem, hoping to not offend too many people and wanting a round of applause for their nuanced effort to bring the debate to a conclusion.
And this is my worry as I, along with the sport’s front-line participants, I suspect, await the B.H.A.’s final solution to the on-going saga of what to do about the whip with a large degree of trepidation. As with many others, I filled out the B.H.A. survey, chucking my two pennyworth into the ring, though I suspect my voice will carry far less weight than that of the great and the good of the sport.
The aspect of my view that I did not emphasise on the survey and which I believe should be adopted before the whip rule is amended yet again is that the preferred proposal should be trialled for at least 12-months before it is signed into racing law. If, which I doubt, they adopt my suggestion of ‘one crack and no more’, there should be an escalating number of trial races for one complete flat season and one complete National Hunt season, incorporating every type of race, including Group races on the flat and Grade 1’s over jumps. Not only would this give the B.H.A. a huge amount of data and input from jockeys, trainers, owners etc, ensuring there is a proper scientific study, but it would allow jockeys time to adjust and perfect the new way of riding races so that when the time comes when it is enshrined as a rule of racing every jockey will be up to speed from day one.
There has never been any ‘hands and heels’ races for professional jockey thus far which suggests the B.H.A. has always run scared of upsetting jockeys. And, of course, though it is to be congratulated for seeking wisdom and guidance from all quarters of the sport, the B.H.A., who are conducting this survey in an attempt to give the sport a more wholesome image, should have employed an independent company to poll members of the public on their views of the sport and what aspects of it they dislike and would want changed before they considered horse racing as an acceptable entertainment to them.
I live outside of horse racing communities and I can assure you that the two aspects the public find hard to accept about the sport are fatalities, which the sport can do little to change, and use of the whip, which the sport does have the power to change.
This has to be got right this time, whether it is no whip, jockeys banned for taking a hand off the reins, or one crack or two, or something else. I believe the long-term future of the sport depends on the B.H.A. getting this latest alteration to the whip rule right.

On a similar subject. Why, when wishing and dreaming for more people to engage with horse racing, do people within the sport want to follow the example of Formula 1, a sport that is uncompetitive, to my eyes as thrilling as watching the a speeded-up M5 on a Saturday afternoon, that has a gender-bias of 100% and whose leading lights possess the sportsmanship of a snake entering a birds nest. 
The Netflix documentary on Formula 1 may have been successful but horse racing is a different kettle of fish altogether. They may swear and curse at Mercedes if Hamilton or Bottas wreck a car in qualifying or in a race but no one is going to mourn the destruction of that car. The reaction to a favourite horse losing its life on a racecourse will produce real tear-jerking emotion amongst those with a hands-on relationship to it but the reaction of the viewing public will not be sympathetic to the sport. There is a morbid fascination to watch a £1-million car being hoisted on to the back of a recovery truck but will the cameras linger over the removal from the racecourse of a dead horse? And the death of a human at the wheel of a racing car will be cause for little complaint by the viewers. No so the death of a horse. Nails in coffins comes to mind.
Our sport goes hand-in-glove with gambling; it is too much of a gamble for the sport to trust an outside body to play fair with the sport we all love and care for.

​Ireland, evermore both the nursery and hotbed of National Hunt racing, is presently having to overcome one crisis after another. Having come through, relatively unscathed, an interminable period of government restrictions on human life, the existence of both point-to-pointing and pony racing is threatened by the rising cost of insurance and all the necessary arrangements required to stage equine event.
You may think the threat to point-to-pointing in Ireland is the greater problem, after all it is more than just a sport but an industry all of its own, with the production of Maiden point-to-point winners big business for many horseman in Ireland. No, it is pony racing where the real concern must lie. 
Pony racing is the nursery-ground for practically the whole of Irish racing and it is a disgrace that the H.R.I. does not recognise and embrace it as a recognised sector of the sport. As Alan Sweetman - he sketches out his articles before he actually writes the article. That is professionalism. – wrote in the Racing Post on Thursday, the number of flat and National Hunt jockeys that started their careers in the saddle is long and distinguished, with Colin Keane and Oisin Murphy just two champions to have emerged from these locally-staged meetings.
It is time Horse Racing Ireland stopped treating pony racing as ‘illegal’, ‘flapping’ or ‘unrecognised’ and treated the ponies with the respect they deserve. An annual fund to support its future would be a good place to start, though perhaps it could embrace the sport to greater effect, and help with the insurance costs, if bone-fide racecourses could regularly stage pony racing either before or after a meeting? Yes, this would take away the atmosphere of ‘all the fun of the affair’ that I should think is part and parcel of pony racing staged in a farmer’s field generates. But a mix and match approach to pony racing would at least guarantee its future and having professional jockeys on hand to give advice to young riders can only be of benefit to the Irish jockeys of the future.

Today (Friday November 11th) there is, at least to me, a fascinating three-horse novice chase at Cheltenham. I have looked forward to My Drogo’s debut over fences as he just might be the real deal. Yet there is criticism that this race is being televised, especially by bookmakers who believe a twenty-runner handicap hurdle would generate more betting revenue, which it would. Occasionally, though, length is not better, as quality is always superior to quantity.
Let’s be frank here – My Drogo is no certainty. The Henry de Bromhead mare Gin On Lime is an above average opponent. Back in the summer, on the mare’s first try over fences, Rachel Blackmore had an armchair ride where she literally didn’t have to move a muscle. The mare jumped impeccably and won as easily as I have ever seen a novice chaser win.
As I write this in North Devon it is raining, with this precipitation, to give rain its meteorological due, spreading northwards through the morning. Gin On Lime has thus far only encountered top of the ground and may be less effective on a softened surface and it must always be born in mind that some horses do not take to Cheltenham’s undulations. That said, this three-horse affair is fascinating, with Gordon Elliott providing the other runner and I doubt if Fancy Foundations is coming over simply to run for third prize money.
This race, and others like it, are vital pieces in the jigsaw that comprises the sport’s future. I want to see My Drogo run his race as it happens. I can’t get to the racecourse and mere highlights of the race will not give me an overall picture of how he jumped, travelled or how he was ridden. It is important this race is televised by I.T.V.
Of course, the problem of small fields is self-inflicted. There is, sadly, for the general horse population, too many race meetings per year. There is an upside to the problem in that it is easier for owners to pick up prize-money when only there is only three or four runners, which helps them pay training costs and keep them in the sport. But the archaic method of funding the sport does rely on the revenue generated by big-field handicaps and if we want to reduce the number of three and four-runner races the answer is simple – reduce the number of race-meetings by, I would suggest 10%. After all, after a long period of abandonments, the only problem to present itself is the number of horses balloted out of races.

​Firstly, a little moan. On Friday of this week there is the first day of Cheltenham’s 3-day November meeting and just up the road there is a meeting at Worcester. How does that help either racecourse attain a full house of spectators? It is race-planning that suggests there is no plan.
The highlights on Friday, and of course I am not referencing Worcester, are the novice chase which hopefully will provide us with a first glimpse of My Drogo as a steeplechaser. I doubt if the race will be overly-subscribed as already Nicky Henderson has ducked out of the race and ran Galleyhill at Exeter yesterday, though if Henry de Bromhead brings over Gin on Lime I think the mare might give My Drogo a more severe test than the Skelton’s will appreciate. I watched Rachel Blackmore win a novice chase in the summer on Gin on Lime and I don’t think I have ever seen a better display by a novice over fences at the first time of asking or an easier winner.
The Cross-Country Chase may not have Tiger Roll this time around (he is entered in the 3-mile 3-furlong handicap on Sunday) but it does have, at the time of writing, the Grand National runner-up Balko Des Flos, the Irish Grand National winner Freewheelin Dylan, the Welsh Grand National winner Potters Corner and, if my unreliable memory comes good for once, the former Scottish Grand National winner Talkischeap in the declarations, though I may be confusing the horse with another of Alan King’s. Also in the field could be another Irish cross-country specialist in Singing Banjo. To my mind, without Tiger Roll, this year’s renewal is a better contest.
The interest for me on Saturday is the first appearances for Paul Nicholls of Simply the Betts and Lalor in the Paddy Power Gold Cup. Neither has the recent form to suggest they could win such a competitive race, yet either could conceivably win going away. Harry Cobden has chosen, I guess, to ride Lalor, which suggests he is the stable’s first choice, with Bryony Frost getting the leg up on Simply the Betts, a horse that is made for her freewheeling, brave style of riding. 11st 10Ibs should, though, anchor him, especially after such a long lay-off. Protektorat is the classy young horse in the race but again 11st 10Ibs is a lot of weight to carry in such a competitive chase. If I were to venture into my local bookie, I would be interested in Midnight Shadow and Farinet of Venetia Williams, though I suspect the latter needs a monsoon to hit Cheltenham to line up.
Given Gordon Elliott doesn’t have a runner in the 3-year-old hurdle there is a strong possibility that the first ante-post favourite for the Triumph Hurdle will be British-trained, especially if Magistrato wins for Paul Nicholls.
Sunday, though, looks the most significant of the 3-days, with the opening race on I.T.V. having, though one wants soft and the other good ground, Yala Enki and Tiger Roll in opposition. This might be one for Ireland as Jessie Harrington has a horse carrying only 10-stone in Port Stanley.
The Shloer Chase is a corker. Put The Kettle On puts her unbeaten Cheltenham record on the line. The opposition is almost 2-mile Champion Chase quality, without, of course, any of the Willie Mullins flyers, with Nube Negra, Politilogue, Sky Pirate and Rouge Vif to make it a really informative cracker of a race.
The Greatwood never throws up a genuine Champion Hurdle horse and won’t this year, even if Adagio wins carrying 11-st 12-Ibs. The race has Irish export written all over it, with at least 4 from over the sea with obvious chances. Straw Fan Jack might worth an each-way investment, though the main British hope will undoubtedly be Nicky Henderson’s No Ordinary Joe.
But as good as the racing will be at Cheltenham, the greatest interest of the weekend will take place half-an-hour before the first race at Prestbury on Saturday. The BetVictor Loyalty Club Beginners Chase is pencilled in, though bear in mind that Henry de Bromhead is notorious for last minute changes of plan, for the chase debut of Bob Olinger, the latest in a long line of horses to carry the cross of being the ‘next Arkle’. The horse will be totally prepared for his first public chase venture, though de Bromhead will have left plenty to work on fitness-wise. I hope he wins as I am getting older by the minute and it would be pretty special to have my life book-ended by Arkle and a horse that finally lives-up to the herald’s call of being his successor.

​Will there be a better horse-race this season than Down Royal’s Champion Chase? If the answer is yes, then we are in for one hell of a ride this winter.
What we must appreciate, and all true horse and racing enthusiasts can only appreciate what we witnessed on Saturday, is that when a horse of the tenacity and brilliance of Frodon comes along we must laud him as an equine legend. It doesn’t matter if Frodon is not a genuine Gold Cup contender or how his official rating compares to Minella Indo or Al Boum Photo. Dublin Flyer was never a Gold Cup contender yet people of my vintage still recall his exploits, with many, I suspect, having him in their top ten chasers of all-time.
Frodon is pretty near unique. I doubt if Paul Nicholls has seen his like at Ditcheat. I’m not suggesting he deserves to be ranked alongside the legends of Ditcheat – Kauto Star, Denman, Big Bucks etc -as obviously he is a good few pounds their inferior. But all of the Ditcheat legends down the decades came with solid reputations – they were expected from a young age to achieve all they went on to achieve.
Frodon was not bought with expectations of winning 18-races, of which, as of now, 3 are Grade 1’s. He was purchased with expectation of providing his owner, Paul Vogt, with a fun horse and with hopes of perhaps nicking a nice handicap somewhere. I suspect if someone had said to Paul Nicholls when Frodon was a 5-year-old that he would one-day win at the Cheltenham Festival he would have laughed and noted the teller of such stories as being someone living in cloud-cuckoo land. I doubt if even after the Ryanair Nicholls had any thought that Frodon would win him a King George. Even at halfway at Kempton Park last Boxing Day I doubt if he had any expectations of Frodon bringing home the second-most important chase of the season. Cyrname, yes, though more likely Clan des Obeaux. But not Frodon. He was only there as there was no other race for him. Placed money, at best, perhaps.
Now whether Frodon ran a personal best at Down Royal is a matter of conjecture. Because he has put the Gold Cup winner in his place his official rating will no doubt be extended a couple of notches, though I see no justification for any rise. I am not in any way downgrading the performance. He was, as always, box-office. But Nicholls had him cherry-ripe on the day, whereas Henry de Bromhead very rarely has his horses 100% on their first run of the season. Minella Indo will come on substantially for his effort on Saturday, as will Delta Work, though the latter, in my opinion, remains inferior to Frodon.
Galvin, on the other hand, deserves to have his rating increased by several notches. With Galvin finishing so close to Frodon, on first glance the form will look suspicious, especially as the ‘non-stayer’, Frodon, outstayed the dour stayer. Yet come next March we might see Galvin lining up for the Gold Cup with a healthy outsider’s chance of winning. I suspect Gordon Elliott’s National Hunt Chase winner is the coming horse for this season.
One thing is for sure, it is time the ‘experts’ stopped underestimating Frodon and started to give him due respect. Very few of the experts gave him any hope of beating the Gold Cup winner, as few who considered him a serious contender in last season’s King George. Frodon is a legend of the sport; undoubtedly the most popular horse in training.
Oh, and Bryony? Superb, as usual, during the race and in the post-race interview. She, too, is due respect. As brave and honest out of the saddle as she is in the saddle; she is quite possibly the most tactically aware jockey riding over jumps at the moment, and deserving of many more good horses to ride. Her big race wins ratio to rides in big races is, I suspect, the equal (or better) to Rachel Blackmore. And that is praise enough, isn’t it?