​If there is one aspect of horse racing in this country that maddens the mind, it is the way controversies and debates are never speedily put to bed. Yes, in the past, with so many sectors of the sport having a veto, it was hard job to achieve agreement on any one subject, and with the B.H.A. now having a casting vote dispute and debate should be brought to a conclusion with more alacrity than in the past.
Yet, after many, many decades, the whip remains a talking point. Although I would be happier if the number of permitted strikes were to be lowered to match the French standard, which would be fairer on jockeys from Europe riding here and vice-versa, the majority in this country seem to think the number is now about right. I would still like to see a number of races each season restricted to no strikes at all, if only for the data such races would provide. But if the majority are happy, let sleeping dogs lie, yes?
Now, of course, the debate is to disqualify or not to disqualify when a jockey breaks the permitted number of strikes in winning a race. In France, they disqualify if a jockeys goes over the permitted number by four, I believe. In Britain and Ireland jockeys receive a suspension but the horse is not disqualified. The problem the B.H.A. have given themselves is that if they unify with the French rules, a horse would not be disqualified on the day but up to a week later, if the race was run on a Tuesday as racecourse stewards must forward their findings to a disciplinary panel that sits on Tuesdays.
As someone who is an advocate of ‘one strike and that’s it’, I believe instead of a jockey being suspended for a long period, he or she should have their right to use a whip in earnest in a race removed for the same length of suspension they would receive at the moment. So, if a jockey at present would receive a ban of fourteen-days, for example, under my system they would be allowed to ride and receive an income during that period but would have to ride under a licence that does not permit them to strike a horse with their whip. I would also impose a fine of 10% of the value of the race in which the whip rules were infringed. I would also disqualify the horse and place it second, third or fourth, depending on how many horses were involved in the finish.
The whip debate, though, continues to be part of the conversation and it is time every effort was made to bring it to a conclusion that is acceptable to the public and helps to ring-fence the future of the sport.
The debate on small field sizes and lack of competitiveness has the potential to be as long-running a topic as the whip. The whip is by comparison a monster of a debate to resolve, with small field sizes a minnow that could be caught in tea strainer. While the sport languishes at the bottom of a curve, the number of race-meetings should be reduced. The strength of this strategy might well be proved over the coming days with frost forecast for much of the country, the result of which will be abandoned race-meetings and larger field sizes when winter eventually relents its grip on the sport. It’s a no brainer, isn’t it? So why is the B.H.A. meddling with the race program when the solution is so obvious. Yes, racecourse finances will be hit, yet is it not possible they could recoup short-term losses by better marketing of the meetings that remain?
Good ideas and good marketing are needed. Here’s one ‘good idea’. Carlisle’s most popular meeting, lost last season due to the weather, is the all-female jockeys meeting in the summer
. The Shergar Cup is also one of Ascot’s most popular days racing outside the Royal meeting and Champions Day. Though the ‘team’ idea shouldn’t be stretched to breaking point, with teams that people can associate with and support, not mythical and pointless as is tried every summer, a combined flat and jump jockey competition between British, Irish and perhaps European riders, with the flat races taking place at one track and the jump racing at another, might be popular with spectators.
I also believe a ‘no whip’ flat meeting would intrigue the public, even if it infuriated jockeys. We already have ‘hands and heels’ races for apprentices, so its not too much of a bridge too far.
The Racing Post these days is smattered with bad news stories. I realise it is not the thought or desire of the Racing Post to be doom-mongers and it is no doubt a long-term strategy of politicians and their overlords to wither the sport to the point of being unable to sustain itself, to use the land racecourses hold for purposes encased in the mantra within the World Economic Forum’s ‘Great Reset’. Now, more than ever in its history, it is imperative the sport provides for itself good news stories, a mantra for survival, to solve its nagging internal problems and allow the sun to shine brighter over our sport, to protect its heritage and to provide a future history.
 

At mid-day on Saturday November 25th, the chances of a British-trained winner of the 2024 Cheltenham Gold Cup were pretty limited. By 4 pm, hope of home glory was all but gone.
The I.T.V. pundits, all of whom thought Shishkin a good thing to beat Pic d’orly, if that’s the correct spelling of his name, were of the joint opinion after the race that Shishkin’s refusal to race was ‘always on the cards’. I admit, I did not anticipate that particular card being dealt, though it would not have disappointed me greatly if he had finished second to the Paul Nicholls’ horse as I believe Shishkin to be an out and out stayer and his successes over 2-miles were only proof of his classiness. 
Nicky Henderson was shell-shocked, as evidenced by the ambush interview performed by an arm-twisted (by his producer, I suspect) Luke Harvey. He didn’t want to comment on what he had just witnessed and when pushed couldn’t form a coherent sentence either in support of his horse or how he intended to proceed. Henderson is a man who wears his heart on his sleeve and he was deeply embarrassed by Shishkin’s appalling behaviour. 
I must admit, I didn’t see why Shishkin needed sheepskins. He may think he has performed to the letter of his contract once he has got his head in front but at Aintree at the end of last season, though he may not have inspired praise for his class, he out-battled a good horse in Ahoy Senor and proved beyond all doubt that he needed every yard of 3-miles. Nicky Henderson does not need any advice from me or anyone other than Nico de Boinville, though I would whisper in his ear, if the unlikely opportunity were to arise, that a trip up to Newcastle along with Constitution Hill next Saturday would be a better idea than supplementing him for the Tingle Creek. The Rehearsal Chase is over 3-miles, Nico will be there, it will be new territory for him and I would suspect the opposition will not be of the highest class. Shishkin may not be in need of a confidence booster but Nicky Henderson sure is.
I thought Shiskin our best chance of bringing down G. D. C. come March. I thought the Cheltenham hill would bring his stamina to the fore. Sadly, I cannot see that happening now due to the egg all over my face.
In some ways, Bravemansgame was an even bigger disappointment than naughty boy Shishkin. He ran his race, displaying an immaculate jumping technique, perhaps one disagreement with Daryl Jacobs, and for the majority of the race looked the only likely winner. On form, Royale Pigaille should not have finished within ten-lengths of Bravemansgame, yet he was beaten fair and square, with the winner forging clear after the last fence. If the Betfair were run at Cheltenham, it would be easy imagine even Corach Rambler running past Bravemansgame up the hill.
Horses can improve for no discernible reason, as they can also go backwards in form. Training racehorses is not a science, neither is study of form. Paul Nicholls makes few mistakes, as proven by his decision to keep Harry Cobden at Ascot where he rode 4-winners, greatly improving his chances of reeling in Sean Bowen. Remember, people wrote-off Kauto Star several times and yet he came back to win a second Gold Cup and more remarkably a fourth Betfair. Bravemansgame will be back, though it would take a brave man at the top of his game to back him for the Cheltenham Gold Cup and it may take a prayer to He upon high to back him to beat Allaho in the King George.
Personally, I would give Bravemansgame a rest and go to Leopardstown and take on G.D.C. on his home turf at the Dublin Spring Festival before deciding whether to have another crack at the Gold Cup. It might be, and for all our sakes I hope it is not so, but the Ryanair might be the race for him, as Matt Chapman continues to suggest.
Though he was only third, the horse that impressed me on Saturday was Crambo. It looked to me that Haydock is the wrong type of course for a horse who seemed to need every yard of 3-miles, staying on stoutly to suggest that in another furlong he would gone past Slate Lane, the winner of the race. Crambo has Cheltenham written all over him and the Stayers Hurdle would not be a case of tilting at windmills by his connections.
Now it is the turn of G.D.C. to tighten the screw on British hopes of claiming back the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Let’s hope he doesn’t mess things up as both Bravemansgame and Shiskin achieved yesterday.
​

​B.H.A. we have a problem. Any chance you can get it sorted?
Staging the Ascot Chase and the Betfair Chase on the same day, when both races attract a similar type of horse, is worse than ridiculous, it is stupidly ridiculous. And don’t say, with premierisation this will not happen in the future, because it will as the B.H.A., racing’s governing body, cannot see the wood for the trees.
Shishkin and Bravemansgame are the two top 3-mile chasers in beleaguered Britain at this moment in time, each trained by our top two National Hunt trainers. It should be a clash to savour, though we cannot be sure it will happen until 24-hours before either the Ascot Chase or the Betfair is due to be run. Shishkin is entered in both races. If the ground is heavy at Haydock, he will be re-routed to Ascot, even if the ground is similar in Berkshire. Haydock heavy can resemble ground conditions at the Battle of the Somme and Nicky Henderson will not subject Shishkin to that sort of test, not first time out, if ever. In conjunction with my own thoughts, Henderson is not a fan of the Betfair. With the King George on the horizon, neither will Paul Nicholls want to run Bravemansgame under such stamina-sapping conditions. The fact that Nicholls has instructed Harry Cobden to ride at Ascot, leaving Daryl Jacob to pick up the potentially spare ride on Bravemansgame, tells you all you need to know about the lack of certainty of his horse setting-out for Lancashire pre-dawn on Saturday morning.
For the sake of competitive racing, one of these two races should either be staged later in the season or one of them should have its conditions altered so that it becomes a race for second-season chasers.
As anyone with any interest in my thoughts on the subject, will know it is pretty easy to guess which of the two I would ditch in a heartbeat. The Betfair Chase was inaugurated to establish a 3-mile Triple Crown, with a huge bonus for the owner of any horse to win all three races. The bonus is long gone and the use of the term ‘the first leg of the Triple Crown’ has long past into history. It is has become an unnecessary race. The Irish virtually boycott the race, with even Henry de Bromhead, who it could be argued has three top-class 3-mile chasers in his stable, giving it no thought this season.
The Ascot Chase, on the other hand, can attract middle-distance horses as well as 3-mile chasers and does not subtract from the quality of horse in the upcoming Coral Gold Cup at Newbury. Protektorat, you see, might be aimed at that race if there were no Betfair Chase to gobble-up.
The Betfair might have a place in the calendar if the conditions were restricted to second-season chasers, horses that had not won a chase prior to the previous season. It might even tempt Willie Mullins to enter a horse as he starts every season with half-a-dozen potentially top-class, second-season 3-mile chasers. Wishful thinking, I know, as it’s the maestro’s policy not to bring any of his good horse to Britain before the New Year, finding it easy to forego even the King George on St. Stephen’s Day. There is also a place in the calendar, I believe, for a top-class 2-mile handicap chase as a supporting race at Haydock. 2-mile handicap chasers are woefully neglected in this country, I suggest. I would prefer one of the two early big Cheltenham middle-distance chases to be changed to 2-miles.
It’s a good bet that if the ground is heavy at Haydock, neither Shishkin nor Bravemansgame will run, though we might see the former at Ascot. I hope we do, as I am looking forward to Shishkin setting out on a season which will lead him to Gold Cup glory.

​Harry Cobden for champion jockey is beginning to seem a better bet than it appeared back in the summer when he announced ‘he was going for it’. Inch by inch he is clawing back the huge advantage Sean Bowen won for himself during the summer and though 30 behind looks a large deficit, especially when all jockeys are just one ride away from injury, with the backing of Paul Nicholls and the network of support he has achieved through his hard work early in the season, Cobden could yet defeat my prophesy that he is the Adrian Maguire of the present band of jockeys – the best jockey never to be champion.
Stage Star was very impressive, I thought, in the Paddy Power Gold Cup, jumping for fun and running straight and true, the last fence blunder apart, to the line. Paul Nicholls’ problem this season, if the weather intervenes significantly, will be keeping his Grade 1 chasers apart. Keeping Stage Star to the intermediate distance is a sensible plan with the Ryanair as the target at the Festival, but what if something, God forbid, goes awry with Bravemansgame? Wouldn’t it be good policy to see if Stage Star might possibly be a good understudy for the Gold Cup? It is the only mistake Nicky Henderson makes, in my opinion, sticking blindly to Plan A, without giving himself immediate other options. Find out if a horse stays further earlier rather later, then you have data to go beside experience of the eye and natural equine instinct. But who am I to give advice to trainers who forever more will be regarded as legends of our sport!
The horse that really took my eye – Stage Star merely confirmed himself as the top-class horse we already knew he was – was Burdett Road, who found plenty up the Cheltenham hill and won going away from, if not proven graded juvenile hurdlers, a field of winners already this season. At last, I would suggest, Messrs Mullins & Elliott have a British-trained juvenile hurdler to fear.
The aspect of I.T.V.’s coverage yesterday that took my eye was the professionalism of Ruby Walsh. Seeing his friend and colleague, the so-called hard man A.P.McCoy, about to emotionally break-down during his reflection on his visit in the week to Graham Lee in his capacity as friend and President of the Jockeys Association, he stepped-in, took up the reins of the interview/conversation, allowing A.P. a moment to compose himself. Despite his attempts to appear cold and stoic in front of the cameras, A.P. is a wonderful human-being, a model for all of us on how to conduct ourselves in times of trouble and dire consequence. Ruby, too, is a brilliant man. We should be proud of them both.
As an aside from the present Cheltenham meeting and looking towards the Festival in March, I keep hearing jockeys and trainers say that a certain horse is better suited to the old course at Cheltenham rather than the new course and vice-versa. If the Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle or any of the championship races were run at Newbury, Ascot or Sandown, for instance, my point would be invalid as they have only one National Hunt course. Cheltenham, though, has two, not including the cross-country course. Since the construction of the new course, how many top-class chasers and hurdlers have had their chances of winning the big races compromised because the Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle are run on the same course every year? Why is their no debate on the idea of starting the meeting on the new course one year and the old course the following year. Alternating so as to spread the advantage and disadvantages.
The old course may be to Galopin Du Champs advantage, the new course to Bravemansgame’s advantage. Or vice-versa. Or, at least when it comes to last year’s one-two, the result would stay the same whichever of the two courses were used. I like fairness and believe, though I accept that a horse with a predilection for one or other of the courses might be injured the year his or her preference is used, we would achieve a better understanding of the merits of horses if the big races swapped courses every other year.
Just a thought to inspire debate.

​Back in the day when health & safety was just a namby-pamby notion – incidentally, the word ‘namby-pamby’ came from the mind of a ‘hack writer’ Henry Carey as a derogatory nick-name for the poet Ambrose Philips, noted for writing ‘adulatory odds addressed to the young children of wealthy parents’. He also used the term ‘pilly-piss’ to insult Philips. Thankfully the latter did not root itself in the language. I digress. – in wait of its moment in history, when racing people wanted to be entertained, the weather had to be more than a few degrees below freezing to curtail their sport.
I remember reading in a racing book (cannot locate the source) that in around the 1920’s, if I recall, Catterick races looked in jeopardy due to frost until someone with a propensity for lateral thinking asked a local farmer to herd his flock of sheep around the course several times. The warmth of the sheep and the action of their hooves on the grass and soil took out the frost and allowed racing to commence. I dare say the ground was gluey and slimy but heigh-ho, they raced and a good time was had by all.
Not a viable option in this day and age, of course. But when racing is in jeopardy due to frost in only some parts of the course and the general temperature in above freezing, I am always left frustrated when the meeting is cancelled. Surely it is not beyond the wit and wisdom of an agricultural machinery company to invent a mobile directed heating device to remove frost in a similar manner as can be achieved by pouring warm water on frozen ground. During the season, meetings will be cancelled due to parts of a racecourse in the line of shadow being still frozen while the rest of the course is raceable. It is maddening to clerks-of-courses and everyone else: surely a solution is only a lateral thought away.
Low sun is more of a baffler as it does fall into the clutches of health & safety officers or jockeys to give them their correct job title. I am not mocking jockeys for wanting fences taken out due to low sun. As drivers, we all know what it is like when the sun lies low in a cloudless sky. There is one particular lane around where I live which I have learned to avoid when the sun is low in the sky as it removes visibility by 100% in places and it is a nightmare of real possibility to run-down dog-walkers or a child who daily walked that lane to catch the school bus.
Low sun holds the very real threat to the well-being of horse and rider.
I have two possible solutions, both costly, I suspect, and perhaps unworkable. Here goes.
In an age of transportable or mobile fences, is it possible to reconfigure racecourses to race the opposite way to normal when low sun has command of the situation. If Aintree, for example, were subject to a weather forecast that had a 60% or more chance of low sun the following day, if they could race right-handed instead of left-handed, would that prove a solution? Starts would have to be flexible, the winning post, too, not to mention the problem of patrol cameras and the photo-finish camera. Not an easy-fix but worth debate, I suggest. Obviously, the problem may be transferred to the back-stretch, rather than the home-straight, but the configuration of the course may make the problem less of a problem. It is a suggestion and it might work for some courses but not others.
My second suggestion is more feasible, though more expensive to implement, I fear. In cricket, side-screens are used so that batsman can see the flight of the ball. I propose something similar for racecourses. What is needed to be known is the exact angle between the eyes of horse and jockey and the position of the sun on the horizon. We are talking low sun, so perhaps no more than 30% of angle. If a number of upright slotted posts were erected in the line of sight, black screens could be pulled into position, either electronically or by brute strength, to the exact position to block out the glare of the sun. My idea is basic and naïve, though I am certain an engineer using sensors and modern gadgetry could perfect the principle and make it easily workable. Man has walked on the moon and sent craft to Mars and beyond. Surely, we can block out the sun once in a while!

​If asked to put forward one aspect of the racing industry the sport can be justly proud of, and there are many candidates, I would suggest the Injured Jockeys Fund. There really should be one-day in the racing calendar dedicated to the charity, with race-meetings staged mainly for the purpose of raising awareness to the casual racegoer of the services and support the I.J.F. provides to our leading human players and to raise funds so the charity will always be there.
The terrible injury sustained by Graham Lee at Newcastle last week, an unstable fracture to the neck, brought home, at least to me, that the I.J.F. is the most vital cog in the ever-turning wheel of the sport. ‘The Injured Jockeys Fund will look after his needs to assist him in his recovery and predicament for as long as it takes. Whatever help he and his family needs, we will be there to provide it.’
Read that statement. No ifs, buts, maybes, we will do what we can. Not even a promise. But a declaration of intent. The Injured Jockeys Fund cannot wave a magic wand and repair Graham to the man prior to his fall but they will move heaven and earth to give him as good a life as humanly possible now and when he finally leaves hospitable and must learn to live a life that will doubtless be the opposite to the life he has lived his whole adult life.
Graham is a jockey. His first response will be ‘when can I get out of bed’. ‘When will I be riding again.’ If ever in the same position, I would wither and wish death as my saviour. I am weak. Jockeys are strong.
The Injured Jockeys Fund’s mission statement is to care-for the general wellbeing of their members, to provide medical support, help with financial needs and mental wellbeing and to help and assist not only current jockeys but former jockeys as well. They now have 3 full-time rehabilitation centres, Jack Berry House that serves norther-based jockeys, Oaksey House in Lambourn and Peter O’Sullevan House in Newmarket. They have also just opened a Taunton South-West Hub to lessen journey times for injured jockeys based in that part of the country.
The Injured Jockeys Fund do not sit on their hands, satisfied the job is well-done. ‘The I.J.F. provides robust, science-based, data-informed approach to rehabilitation assessment of injuries and recovery, standardised across all I.J.F. sites. An evidence-informed, criteria-based approach to the rehabilitation and return to racing of jockey-athletes and the wider racing community’. No jockey is allowed to return to racing after injury unless he or she can pass muster in muscular capacity, maximal force expression, muscular power and energy system fitness. If the injury came with concussion, there is a mandatory period of suspension, if unconscious for more than 3-seconds after a fall, the are suspended for 21-days and then must pass a concussion test. Compare that with football, rugby or any contact sport, where players return to the pitch heavily bandaged after undergoing an examination no more exhausting than ‘can you count to ten’ and ‘what is your mother’s name’, or something along those lines. In racing, jockeys are not treated as a commodity, a pawn on the battlefield. 
All sports could learn a great deal from the Injured Jockeys Fund. Just recently there was a conference where all the equestrian disciplines came together to ‘learn best-practice and how to discharge their duty of care’ from the I.J.F.
The sport needs to stop organising charity days for cancer research and other good causes and look to supporting in every way possible the I.J.F. and equine charities.
To learn more about the work of the I.J.F. I suggest visiting their website and advise you to buy a copy of Sean Magee’s excellent book celebrating fifty-years of the charity. The Book was published in 2013. Every contribution to the fund’s coffers helps. A little of the £20 purchase price will help Graham Lee in his recovery and future life.

​Frodon will attempt to win Wincanton’s Badger Beer Chase for the second time tomorrow. He is not only my favourite horse in training, and has been for the best part of 5-years – when did he win that handicap chase at Cheltenham, when Ruby Walsh paid Bryony the ultimate compliment – he is my second favourite horse of my lifetime, with only Spanish Steps above him in my heart, though I may have to reassess my order of affection if Frodon should defy all that is against him tomorrow.
He has to carry 12-stone tomorrow, on soft ground, giving weight to a better-class field that he faced 12-months ago. He will give 100% as always and we can be certain that Bryony will look after him when chance of victory slips away. I love him dearly but I cannot see him winning as there are at least 7 horses in the race superior to those that took part last year.
Though I would never tip or bet against Frodon as I could never be disloyal to him, I think Ashtown Lad is well-treated at the weights for a horse who won the Becher Chase last season, stays well, likes soft-ground and is young enough to have improved from last season.
Also, Paul Nicholl’s runs Threeunderthrufive, the favourite at the moment, though it can be expected that Frodon’s loyal West-Country fans will bet him into favouritism, and is a horse the trainer continues to believe has a big race in him in.
The Big Breakaway was considered a Gold Cup horse by the Tizzards until his form proved otherwise and I had enough faith in his ability to back him each-way in the Grand National last season. He is too good a horse to be receiving so much weight from Frodon.
Blackjack Magic, Certainly Red, Ballygriffin Cottage and Sam Brown are others in the race, I fear.
Why do I admire Frodon so much? It is not because I believe he is the best chaser I have had the pleasure of watching during my life. Even when he was in his pomp, he was not the best chaser in training. He is not a Denman and certainly not a Kauto Star. He is though the equal of Spanish Steps, not that ability has anything to do with how the heart feels about a horse, friend, family member or woman.
Anyone reading this who believes horse racing should be banned or who believes horses run and jump only because ‘we’ force them to do so, should go argue the point with Frodon. They should spend a day shadowing him. In fact, ‘Animal Rising’ activists and those who sympathise with their cause would learn a great deal by spending a day with Frodon.
As Paul Nicholls stated only recently, now aged 11 rising 12, Frodon has the same level of enthusiasm for the life he leads as he had when he was a young horse. He is described by his down-to-earth trainer as ‘naughty and mischievous’ and I have read that when the string is being boring and quiet, Frodon has the habit of throwing in a buck and a squeal just to liven-up proceedings, receiving loving rebukes by the riders of the other horses sent sideways and upwards, and he continues to bowl up that famous Ditcheat hill and school with the flamboyance that is his trademark.
I will not mind if Frodon does not win tomorrow. I expect him to run a good, honest race and that win or lose the crowd will show their appreciation for the joy he has given us over the years. What I want more than anything is that he finishes the race sound and happy and sooner rather than later he will be retired and has the good fortune to enjoy a happy retirement. How he will be amused without steeplechase fences, though, is a problem in need of a thoughtful answer.
One final wish I have. If anyone knows Bryony – in fact I may pen a letter to her via Ditcheat –ask her to consider writing a book about her association with Frodon, along the lines of Pat Taaffe’s ‘My Life and Arkle’s’. She is an intelligent girl, so she’ll be up to the task, and who would be better positioned to tell his story?

​I have ideas all the time. I am, if nothing else, an ideas man. How to proceed with my ideas, though, is another matter. I have no influence in the sport and I am without the connections required to be taken seriously. Yet an idea, however inspired or inventive, is a dead duck if it remains unaired, unconsidered by those who might be give it wings.
My idea is this: a challenge to the leading flat trainers to buy a yearling for under 5,000 guineas with all prize-money split between an equine charity and the Injured Jockeys Fund, the horse to be sold at public auction at the end-of-the-season, with the sell-price split between the trainer (his or her training fees for the period of the challenge) and the surplus split between the two charities.
My reasoning is thus: the top flat trainers, and I would hope the likes of Coolmore, Godolphin, the Gosdens, William Haggas and similar top-ten trainers would embrace the challenge, only train blue-blooded home-breds or horses sold for six-figures or more at auction. It would be interesting to see how they would cope with a cheaply-bought yearling that would almost certainly have issues be overcome for it to be successful on the racecourse and whether being trained alongside classic and Group horses could substantially improve its prospects.
Also, if a good number of trainers would embrace the challenge, it would generate interest and provide a sideline narrative throughout the season. Trainers are by nature a competitive breed and they all will want to earn the greatest amount of prize-money with their cheap buy. Would it not be intriguing if Aidan O’Brien and Godolphin were locked in battle not at Royal Ascot, Goodwood or a classic but in trying to win more low-grade handicaps so they can ‘get one over’ their friendly if closest rivals?
Also, the challenge would be about raising funds for important charities to the sport, linking the horse and jockey in charitable endeavour. A dull Monday might be given a more intriguing narrative if one or more of the trainers’ taking part had runners in a low-grade handicap at Redcar, Chepstow or Southwell.
The top-end of the sport can be too serious at times, the intensity of trying to win the major races masking the friendliness of the rivalry, with the value of their horses and the ‘investment’ of fabulously wealthy foreign owners presenting an image to outsiders of the sport being a bean-feast for the few. This challenge would add an air of difference and because of the charities at its sporting core, mainstream media might be tempted or persuaded to switch its cameras in the sport’s direction.
I had it in mind to approach the Racing Channel with the idea but if I decide to take it further, I think the Racing Post might be the direction to go in. Not as a contribution to the letters’ column, which is my usual method of trying to have my opinions aired publicly, but as an e-mail to Tom Kerr, the editor. I’ll doubtless be ignored. Tom Kerr is yet to respond to any of the e-mails addressed to him personally. But all I can do is try and if my first approach gets a big fat zero, I’ll pen a letter to the writers’ column. Failing that I’ll try the Racing Channel. There is the grain of a good idea here; I just hope someone of influence recognises its potential.

​I shall start my review of Paul Donnelley’s latest book ‘Firsts, Lasts & Onlys’ by addressing a mistake he made on page 209. I admit, I make too many mistakes and I beat myself up for it. The difference, though, between my glaring faux pas and that of, in this instance, Paul Donnelley, is he is a professional, sales from his books pay his mortgage and as more people will read his work, he will be far more scrutinised than I shall ever achieve. I do not receive revenue for my contributions to the subject matter and I do not have the guidance and help of an editor or proof reader. The error committed by Donnelley is, I believe, both minor and yet worthy to be confronted. 
In discussing Harry Ormesher, ‘the only Page 3 photographer to breed a Derby winner’, he mistakenly claims that Blakeney, the Epsom Derby winner in 1969, sire of the dam of Sir Percy (bred by Ormesher) was named after Sir Percy Blakeney, the hero of Baroness Orczy’s 1905 novel ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’. Perhaps the author was displaying his literary knowledge – I could not have named the author of ‘the Scarlet Pimpernel’ or its central character – but Blakeney, as was Morston, Arthur Budgett’s other home-bred Derby winner, named after a village in Norfolk.
Having got that off my chest, I can praise this very useful reference book. Firstly, and all important for sales, it has a pleasant appearance and is tactile to handle. It is also pocket-sized, not that I would carry it around in a pocket as I wouldn’t want to curl the edges of the cover page. It is perhaps more a book to be gift-wrapped and presented to a friend or family member with a casual interest in horse racing, rather than it is a book to be read by someone with an intimate knowledge of the sport, as it is page-to-page filled with interesting facts, which you would expect from the title. ‘A truly wonderful collection of Horse Racing Trivia’, as is claimed on the front cover.
Paul Donnelley, I suggest, is not himself a racing man as he has an almost O.C.D. fascination with the times horses achieved in winning races, a topic that is not given too much coverage in the aftermath of a race unless a course record was achieved. He also repeatedly made reference to how many horses died in Grand Nationals, which grated on me more than a little bit. I wouldn’t expect the author to champion the race but as the remit of the book was firsts, lasts and onlys, surely only the first horse to die in a Grand National should have been worthy of mention.
Paul Donnelley did recognise that Mary Francis was more responsible for her husband’s Dick Francis thrillers than the ex-jockey whose fame as an author far exceeded his fame as the rider of Devon Loch and that Dick wanted his wife’s name to be on the front cover beside his own. Kudos.
He also states that Moifaa, the New Zealand-bred winner of the 1904 Grand National did not survive a shipwreck. Buy the book for explanation.
And finally, some of the racing phraseology used by Donnelley – ‘awarded champion jockey’, rather than won the title, got on my wick - is that of someone with only a passing knowledge of the sport and he might have done well to have had someone with horse racing in their veins to proof-read the manuscript before publication. Though, on reflection, perhaps it was more honest of the author to allow his readers to know the limit of his racing knowledge, after all, authors who write about murder do not necessarily need to have committed murder to pen a good read.  
On This Day:
In 1877, the dynasty of the Aga Khan’s stud and racing organisation was created by the birth of Sir Aga Sultan Muham Shah, the 3rd Aga Khan.
In 1895, Pebbles won her final race, the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Aqueduct. She liked a pint of Guiness in her feed every day, apparently.
In 1989, former Royal trainer, Dick Hern was voted Man of the Year by the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation. 
In 1991 Arazi claimed everlasting fame by winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile by 4-lengths, with ease, a most unlikely outcome at every other stage of the race bar the final furlong.