brighterdaysahead, Mr.Bradley of North Yorkshire, White & Blackmore is back amongst the Winners.

​Sensational. 
Boo! Boo! Stop taking the piss, Gordon.
The mare was brilliant. Brighterdaysahead was the most impressive hurdler of the entire Festive period. More impressive than Constitution Hill, more impressive than The New Lion. Indeed, on bare form, beating State Man by over 30-lengths must rate higher than Constitution Hill beating Lossiemouth 3-lengths. And to think she will receive 7Ib from Constitution Hill if the Gordon and the O’Leary brothers have the balls, and the welfare of the sport, to reject the spoilsport pursuit of pot-hunting and go for the inconsequential Mares Hurdle.
Look, you will never find me criticising Gordon Elliott. Even in the dark days of his ban from the sport, I was steadfast in my opinion that he was harshly treated. But if he does not champion the pursuit of the Champion Hurdle with Brighterdaysahead when in discussion with the O’Leary brothers, I will be very disappointed with him. There should be no teasing, no having a laugh with the racing public. No last-minute decisions to go one way of the other. We need to know how good Constitution Hill really is. He needs opposition; he needs to be in a race that is not run to suit him. He needs to beat Brighterdaysahead far more than he needs to defeat either State Man or Lossiemouth again.
If the mare does end-up in the Mares Hurdle, the blame should be put squarely at the feet of the Cheltenham executive for allowing it to happen. Grade 1 winners should have to shoulder a 10Ib penalty in the Mares Hurdle. The best must be kettled towards the best races at the Festival. The principle of the Turners Novice Chase should be applied to every race at the Festival. The 2m- 4-furlong novice chase was dispensed with as it reduced the quality and competitiveness of the other two novice championship races. The same principle must be applied to supporting the Champion Hurdle, the 2-mile Champion Chase and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Shame on you Gordon, shame on you Michael O’Leary. You took a lesser option last year and got stuffed. If you do so again, I hope you get stuffed again. The honour is going for the Champion Hurdle, win or lose.

In today’s letters column of the Racing Post, Mr. Bradley of North Yorkshire offers his opinion that Constitution Hill won on the bridle at Kempton. Did he not see Nico working hard in the saddle; did he not see Nico pick up his whip? It was a glorious win and I cheered him home the same as anyone else. But it was his least impressive victory of his short, glorious career, especially as Lossiemouth ran with the same lack of spirit as a good too many of the Closutton horses did over the Christmas holiday period.
For a first run for 12-months and after having suffered from colic in the interim, it was a perfectly reasonable effort and if he should run again before the Champion Hurdle, it would be perfectly reasonable to expect him to win with his usual pomp. He did not win at Kempton in the style The New Lion won at Newbury or in glorious isolation as Brighterdaysahead achieved at Leopardstown. It was satisfactory. No more.

The B.H.A. Director of Equine Regulation, Safety and Welfare, James Given, writes in today’s Racing Post that 38% of fatalities on British racecourses are due to falls, and that the introduction of the new padded hurdles has reduced the risk of a fatality by 11%. I am of the opinion that the change from orange to white on the woodwork of steeplechase fences has greatly reduced falls. I was disappointed Mr. Givens did not include any data to prove or disprove my thinking on the matter.

Finally, on the last day of the Leopardstown Christmas meeting, Rachael Blackmore finally got her first winner back since suffering a neck injury from a pretty benign-looking fall at Downpatrick. You see jockeys get buried amongst hooves and yet run back to the weighing room in order to do it all again. Rachael’s fall was somewhat slow-motion, even if the weight of her body was taken by her neck. Obviously, being the warrior she is, she got up that day and walked away, if somewhat gingerly, her many fans sighing with relief that was likely to be fit to ride again the following day. But no, she was on the injured list from September to early December. And it took July Flower to get her back in the winners’ enclosure. She was top of the jockey’s championship at the time of her fall with 23-winners. Her 24th was a long time coming and she now languishes a long way behind Darragh O’Keeffe, who leads the championship at present and who was the main beneficiary of her absence.