as you know, duffle coat, what other sport & no easter magic anymore.

​As some people will be aware, I do not like to boast. Not that I have much to boast about. Yet I do occasionally surprise both myself and others by getting something right. Rarely winners but then again, I rarely try too hard to find winners as it is a hard occupation, as the Racing Post experts will gladly testify to. 
In his Monday column in the Racing Post – no holiday off for Lee Mottershead – Lee praised the on-going success story that is the master of Closutton and in equal measure Willie’s ding-dong battle with Dan Skelton for the British trainers’ title. He is right to do so, even if Willie’s one hand already on the trophy seems bit like when a marathon runner joins the local stamina test at 21st-mile post, have given precious little thought up till then about even taking part in the contest. 
Willie Mullins always impresses and not only by the sheer number of winners he achieves in any one season, a season that for Willie does not start in earnest until November and ends in June. It is not a marathon to Willie but an intermediate trip. A Ryanair not an Aintree National. The months in between are there for Willie to keep his hand in, projects mostly, no doubt put in place months and months in advance.
Dan Skelton is also impressive and the more he is front of the camera the more I have come to like him, a man who knows how to accept defeat and that is with sporting good grace. I hope come Sandown it is his hands that holds the trophy aloft.
Lee Mottershead also heaps praise on Shaun Hinds, chief executive at Newbury, for turning the fortunes of the course around when in comes to attendance. Large percentage increases on people through the gates at Newbury has been achieved by actively promoting the racecourse as a fun and entertaining venue to local people. This is where I have earned the right, I believe, to boast. Somewhere in the archive of this site – which year or month or title is beyond both my memory and my organisational skills – you will find, if you take-up the challenge, at least two articles where I implore racecourses not to neglect the local community when it comes to advertising meetings. Leaflets through the doors, I suggested, discounts for people living in local post-codes. Free buses from nearby cities or towns. Friendly faces welcoming racegoers, especially to first-timers. I boast no more. Until the next time.

It is Irish National Day and I give you Duffle Coat, either as a clothing suggestion if you are attending or as a sporting bet.
That is where the Irish National wins and the Aintree National now loses, that it is still possible for a rank outsider to win the race. You know the names, the odds. A rank outsider to me is a horse whose odds are 50/1 or larger. The Irish National is a proper race. Not fancy. Not pretentious, unlike the new and much-reduced English version. A horse race of the people, for the people.

There is a photograph in the Racing Post of Jake Cromwell being congratulated by his mother for winning a pony race at Fairyhouse yesterday. The lad is wearing the famous green and gold colours of J.P. McManus. Name me another sport where an eleven-year-old can play such a feature part in his father’s sporting success, having led in his father’s Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Inothewayurthinkin? I envy the lad; his future has solid foundations. He knows where he is heading in life at an age before he is even a teenager. Lucky lad. Great sport. A great sport for family involvement. What were you doing the same age as Jake Cromwell? What were your aspirations? Aimless, without direction? That was me, anyway. Still the same aged 71.

Yes, I moan far more often than I boast. Is one worse than the other? My moan today is unlike Ireland that provides Easter with the magic of the Irish National, in Britain we apply no magic to the day. It might as well be just another manic Monday. Perhaps it has always been thus, though in the past, when my love of the sport equally incorporated flat racing, was there not the Roseberry Handicap at Kempton as a feature race of the day? A feature handicap at Thirsk or Redcar? Or am I misremembering? Plumpton stage a valuable race today but it is the Mullins/Skelton ding-dong that is the attraction and both the race and the ding-dong may never happen again..
Is the sport so poor in financial terms that money cannot be found for every Easter Monday meeting to have a big-money feature to align with Plumpton’s efforts, if only to raise the status sporting status of the day to something akin to magical? Perhaps Shaun Hinds should be asked and tasked with directing Easter Monday racing, with a budget and the targeted aim at getting as many local people through the gates of their local racecourse as possible. Easter Monday is our great opportunity to promote the sport. Yet, as always, the B.H.A. sit on their hands. No chocolate eggs for them, I hope.