​Although I believe trainers are behaving like spoilt brats in wanting to be paid for t.v. interviews, I also believe the sport should provide as much help as is necessary in order to give the owners who employ them as much enjoyment and interest as can be allowed.
Writing in the Racing Post today, Sandy Thompson makes a plea for racecourses to put on schooling days so that trainers can give young horses experience of the racecourse without the stress and exertion of an actual race. I do not think this is too big an ask.
The tired cliché ‘we must do it for the children’ could be applied in this instance. The future of our sport lies with the quality of the young horses coming through the ranks; it is why we have bumpers, of course. In Ireland, a country we should aspire to be equal to, they go further than just having a bumper at the majority of their National Hunt fixtures, they also have a regular supply of ‘schooling days’, where trainers can pay for the privilege of running horses in non-competitive races, a boon, I should imagine, when their gallops are under water.
Though I would not advocate ‘schooling races’ as it would take horses away from actual races and further limit numbers and competitiveness, I do think racecourse clerks might think about staging schooling sessions before or after racing. Or if, for example, a trainer was keen to work one of the equine stars, for example Sir Gino or Constitution Hill, a session might be organised mid-meeting, a highlight for what might otherwise be a very ordinary day’s racing.
Of course, clerks cry, ‘we cannot allow the course to be poached on a day when we are racing’. Good point, yet my answer is simple. A six-race card with five hurdle races and a bumper, would allow trainers to school over fences. Or a six-race card featuring five chases and a bumper, would allow trainers to school over hurdles. Or when a racecourse has wide fences, a portion of the fences could be dolled-off to prevent the racing line being galloped on.
Schooling sessions before racing would allow owners to see far more of their horses than when they attend a stable to see their horses school or gallop, and such days would be a fillip of interest to racegoers. Extra bang for their buck, as it were. Also, trainers would pay the racecourse for using their facilities. And, as Nicky Henderson has reiterated, taking Jonbon to Newbury for a trip in the lorry and a walk around the paddock is always beneficial to his mental well-being. If it works for Jonbon, it should also be beneficial for the mentality of any young horse.
Ireland is bettering us in most departments at the moment. We just need to be a bit more savvy about admitting doing things differently is not aiding our revival.

How anyone could get excited about Anzadam as a threat to Constitution Hill on the back of two wins in races a leap year away from being competitive is beyond me and I was pleased to hear Willie Mullins having second thoughts about taking the horse to the Champion Hurdle. He is undoubtedly a nice prospect and Willie, being the clever man he is, is considering the future for the horse, with novice chasing next season more likely than staying over hurdles.
Dancing City, on the other hand, is a horse to look forward to. Never flashy, just does enough to win and no more. You would never know if he has more ability and stamina than Ballyburn. Indeed, a would not be a bit surprised if Willie persuades the owners of Ballyburn to stay their hand this year and skip Cheltenham for races over a lesser distance at Aintree and Punchestown.

Also pleased to see that Dan Skelton has seen the light and backed away from running Grey Dawning in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The horse is not Gold Cup class, though he might beat Gold Cup horses after they have run in a Gold Cup and when Grey Dawning is fresher through having a quiet March. That means we are down to 4 British trained entries, though Grey Dawning will be left in the Gold Cup for now – just in case, I should imagine, Galopin Des Champs suffers a setback prior to Cheltenham. If only Paul Nicholls would consider supplementing Stage Star as he certainly was not stopping up the hill at Cheltenham last weekend and anywhere L’Homme Presse finishes in the Gold Cup, Stage Star should be close on his tail.

​Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson and Dan Skelton, to give but three examples, are all successful in their chosen careers and with that success comes a certain level of wealth that goes far beyond what any of their staff could hope to achieve. I am not suggesting that Nicholls, Henderson and Skelton are anything other than admirable assets to the sport but to take the attitude ‘it’s not fair jockeys get paid for interviews yet we do not’, sob sob, does them no favours with the racing public, I suggest.
T.V. interviews with trainers represent opportunity for the trainer, especially the young and up-and-coming trainer, to market their business to a large audience. Companies would pay big bucks for the opportunity to appear live on television to advertise their wares or services. When a trainer wins a race valued at six-figures to the winning owner, he or she receives a little under 10%, that is £10,000. Are you telling me they need an extra bung just for a two-minute interview that rarely informs the viewer of anything that is not already in the public domain?
The simple solution to this dispute is for both the racing channels and I.T.V. to stop asking trainers for interviews. To block-off this avenue of self-promotion.

It should be remembered that even the mighty Arkle fluffed his lines occasionally. In his first major test in the 1963 Hennessey Gold Cup, he ploughed through the 3rd-last, which led to him losing his unbeaten record over fences and giving me and everyone in the Mill House camp the false impression the greatest steeplechaser since Golden Miller lived in Lambourn. Kauto Star also had a thing early in his career about bashing the final fence in order to get the attention of everyone present. So, the disagreement between Constitution Hill and Nico de Boinville is of no real concern for his Champion Hurdle bid in March. Nico thought it his fault and apologised to everyone afterwards. I suspect Constitution Hill thought it Nico’s fault as well, not that he had a bother on him when he pulled up. Apparently, Nico suggested the trainer, instead of giving him an easy day today, get Constitution Hill back on the gallops as in his opinion the horse was too fresh. 
At the top of the hill, the horse was travelling so easily I thought he would win a furlong, so three-lengths, with such modest opposition, was a bit of an anti-climax. In chasing down Brighterdaysahead in March, he will not have the luxury of fluffing the last if he is to regain the Champion Hurdle crown.

On yesterday’s showing, with Gentlemansgame 16-lengths in arrears, I believe L’Homme Presse’s form is a few pounds better than last year. Charlie Deutsch was not hard on the horse from the last, winning cosily from a good horse in Stage Star, a horse who obviously benefitted from stepping up in distance. It was mentioned after the race that Paul Nicholls might skip the Festival with Stage Star and head to Aintree, whereas my initial thought was to consider supplementing for the Gold Cup, especially if it looks like only eight or nine going to post. After Galopin Des Champs, the race for second could involve any one of half-a-dozen horses, and if Galopin falls or fails to fire, the race becomes wide open. Would Stage Star get the Gold Cup distance? No one knows; only running him will answer the question.

East India Dock will win the Triumph. I was more impressed with him than with Lulamba last week. Today, Willie Mullins takes the wraps off Charlus. Being a Closutton inmate, if he were to win doing handstands, he might be favourite for the Triumph by nightfall. But as of now, East India Dock would be my pick.

​For a long long time, I felt the paperback edition of Ivor Herbert’s biography of Arkle was letting down the memory of our greatest-ever racehorse, especially as Herbert’s biography or Red Rum, Basil Briscoe’s book on Golden Miller, as well as all the other books on great racehorses are all hardbook editions, some on them close to pristine, including the books on Flying Ace and Baulking Green. A few weeks ago, I decided something had to be done as this unworthy paperback was bringing shame on my small racing library. This is how I bought a first edition of ‘The Full Story of the Champion. Arkle’ by Ivor Herbert from ‘Ways of Newmarket’. It is a book that purports to bring the story of Arkle to completeness, though how it differs from its first manifestation I cannot say. It does though restore respectability to my racing library.
The story ends, of course, with the death of the great horse after only a few years of happy retirement. The vets who tended to Arkle both when in training with Tom Dreaper and at Bryanstown, one of the homes of the Duchess of Westminster, are unsure exactly what took away his mobility, with brucellosis suspected but never confirmed. Whatever the cause, reading the final pages of the book – his end came on Sunday 31st May 1970 – still evokes deep sadness in me, with tears not far from surfacing. Gosh, was it nearly 35-years ago?
The legend of Arkle will live on as long as horse racing continues to exist in Britain and Ireland, though no one born now or in the future will see his like again. Those who were adults at the time of Arkle’s supremacy were indeed fortunate to be able to witness him first-hand in the flesh and appreciate him for the super equine hero he was. For someone like me, only 9-years of age when he won his first Gold Cup, the conqueror of Mill House, he was the anti-hero at the time, and it was only when I began to understand the sport that I appreciated his achievements. Kauto Star was magnificent but wss he still rated 3-stone superior to every other horse in training when he retired as Arkle was?
Arkle remains the one true equine god of our sport, far ahead of Frankel, with only Desert Orchid and Red Rum able to hold a candle to him. The Irish racing authorities should consider instigating an ‘Arkle Day’, perhaps on the 31st of May each year, to celebrate the achievements of its greatest racehorse, his human connections, the Duchess, Tom Dreaper, Pat Taaffe and Johnney Lumley, his groom while in training. Lest we forget!

To more humdrum matters. Peter Savill who does much good for the sport has created the Professional Racing Association, the membership of which includes racehorse trainers who believe they are being taken advantage of by racing broadcasters. Jockeys are paid for interviews through payments to their riders’ insurance scheme. Trainers are not paid for interviews.
What irks me about this brooding dispute is that many of our trainers are wealthy individuals and cannot claim to be in need of new income streams. That said, the likes of Henderson and Nicholls have to be complimented on being open and honest with the public through interviews with not only racing t.v. broadcasters but with the many podcasters that exist these days. So why muddy the waters at a time when the sport is on its uppers and is damn fortunate to have the limelight of satellite and terrestrial coverage.
Interviews are an opportunity for trainers, large and small, to promote their businesses, for prospective owners to get to know a trainer from afar, which is especially true for the younger trainer setting-up or the smaller trainer experiencing perhaps a first major victory. Surely the 10% of prize-money that goes to a winning trainer is reward enough without going cap-in-hand for a few crumbs more? Refusing to do interviews will not be a good look for trainers dressed in Harris Tweed, with a big Mercedes parked in the car park!
This has the potential to be a ‘please, sir, can I have more’ sort of scrap, especially coming up to the Cheltenham Festival, the sport could do without.

Cheltenham Trials Day today. Constitution Hill will be on exhibition duty today as his four rivals have not a cat-in-hells-chance of laying a glove on him. Lossiemouth, as I suspected, is a non-runner due to travel issues. While it is always a joy to see Constitution Hill, the focus of my eye today will be on L’Homme Presse, our only hope, vain as it might be, of being in the shake-up in the Gold Cup this season. I hope he wins and wins snugly. Gentlemansgame ran a solid race on St. Stephen’s Day behind Galopin Des Champs and is good form line as to whether L’Homme Presse has improved a few pounds since last season. Crossed-fingers that the in and out form of Venetia’s stable just recently proves more in than out and L’Homme Presse wins stylishly enough for his odds for March to shorten a point or two.

​Palladium duly won on his debut over hurdles yesterday. It was not a comprehensive demonstration of his ability, with the runner-up looking equally likely to go on to better things, but by all accounts he enjoyed the experience and being an entire in need of more graft than a gelding, Nicky Henderson believes a harder work schedule will bring him on enormously. He certainly provided a narrative for a sleepy racing day in Britain. Ireland, of course, had the Thyestes Chase, one of their most prestigious handicap chases of the season won, inevitably, by a Willie Mullins trained horse, Nick Rocket under a great ride by Paul Townend.
The Racing Post dragged-up the names of four horses who sold for mega-money in their time and who all failed to live up to their purchase price, though in the course of time including the name of Caldwell Potter might prove misplaced as I am of the opinion that the horse is yet to run over a distance of ground to see him at his best. To me, and who I am to go against the opinions of Cobden and Nicholls, Caldwell Potter is a 3-mile horse as all he does is gallop. His time, I predict, will come when Nicholls and co come to their senses.
Royal Rosa and Interconnected were duds, as it turned out. But Garde Champetre went on, once he was sent to Enda Bolger, who quickly realised the horse wanted a distance of ground, to win numerous times at the Cheltenham Festival and when J.P. McManus was confronted by a journalist on the huge price-tag that came with the horse, replied succinctly. ‘A Cheltenham Festival winner is always cheaply bought.’
Jonbon also cost J.P. a King’s ransom but, unlike every other overly-expensive bought National Hunt horse, he has gone on to win back every penny of the £670,000 it took J.P. to acquire him, with his present total of prize-money won over a million-quid.
What I do not get about the 1.4-million smackaroos paid for Palladium is what, if it is only intended to be a short hurdling career, with the Hardwick at Royal Ascot being his main target, followed by a stallion career, is the point of risking him over hurdles? If he were to add the Adonis at Kempton and the Triumph Hurdle to his c.v., he would be repaying only a small percentage of that whopping sum he cost Lady Bamford.
Are they preparing for failure? If he cannot win the Hardwick or a similar race, he might stand at stud as a National Hunt stallion, his victories over hurdles a dance card few other National Hunt stallions can boast? Let us say that he wins the Triumph Hurdle with his head in his chest, will they be tempted to keep him training with Nicky Henderson for a crack at the Champion Hurdle in 2026?
To me, no matter how good over hurdles he might turn out to be, Palladium is not a boost to the sport. At best, if they keep to Plan A, he is going to be a shooting star, here one day, lost to us the next. Although I have a great liking for Lady Bamford, in many ways I hope, if the Triumph is to return to Seven Barrows this season, that Lulamba is the winner, as at least he will still be in training next season.

On Wednesdaylast  I had a dentist appointment at 9 a m. The previous day, having taken notice of an advertisement in the Racing Post of an interview in the Weekender with Holly Doyle by former jockey Georgia Cox, the thought came into my head that while over town I might buy a copy of the Weekender to have something to read while waiting to be relieved of what turned out to be a portion of my meagre wealth that continues to sting even as I now think of it. The dental work was painless, thank-you for asking.
It was only when seated in my new and very comfortable armchair, a cup of tea at my elbow, thinking how pleasant it was to be actually reading a paper paper, if you get my meaning, when the dawning realisation dashed across my brain, scattering what brain cells I have remaining, that I could have read the Weekender for free as it is part of my Ultimate Members package alongside ‘Racing and Football Outlook’ and the Irish version of the Racing Post, which by the way, is identical to the British version.
Yes, against the £178 lifted from my bank account for what turned out to a session of nothing more than two x-rays and a descaling and polish, the £5.90 is not much to sniff at. But it was a kick in the guts to realise I am getting dumber by the day.
From next Wednesday, you can be sure, I will become a regular reader of the Weekender, though on-line, of course. 

​Last year’s German Derby winner, Palladium, runs over hurdles at Huntingdon today for prize-money that is perhaps the equivalent of what it cost Lady Bamford to transport him from his homeland to Lambourn. The short jaunt to Huntingdon is intended to be a baby-step on a journey that will take the horse to Royal Ascot and the Hardwick Stakes. Some journey; some jeopardy.
Buying a thoroughbred racehorse, albeit one with stallion potential, for 1.4 smackeroos would have a parallel with an art investor spending 1.4-million on a work by a Dutch master and hanging it not in a museum but in a bus shelter. Both Lady Bamford and the fictional art investor are trusting to luck their prize possession survives the trial by fate.
Of course, 1.4-million bucks comes with no guarantees of success and I dare say Palladium is yet to be considered one of the top ten inmates presently lodging at Seven Barrows. Indeed, he is no certainty to win at Huntingdon today. He might win with his head in his chest, on the other hand he might run ingloriously and never see a hurdle again. 1.4-million only guarantees intrigue and the possibility of someone getting their nose burnt. Someone recommended Palladium to Lady Bamford; someone’s reputation is on the line.
I hope he wins as it will further add to the intrigue to the run-up to the Cheltenham Festival, another British-trained hope, the majority of which are with Nicky Henderson, in our decade-long desire to overpower the Irish at the only meeting where it seems to matter. What is in his favour at Huntingdon today and perhaps Cheltenham come March, is that Nico de-Boinville will ride him without fear, without thought to his ridiculous price-tag. It will just be another ride in another novice hurdle for a man who is without doubt one of the top jockeys of his era.

Alan Sweetman’s piece in the ‘All Things Ireland’ strand got me thinking about what I wrote yesterday inspired by his mental walk down memory lane brought-about by a very ordinary handicap chase run at Navan.
‘Ordinary’ handicaps, the sort run every day of the week in Britain and every other day in Ireland, do not usually have runners from the major stables in either Britain or Ireland, and given a need to help those who must live on scraps left by the big-players in the training ranks, would it not be a debatable idea to have a small number of ‘festival meetings’ specifically for horses with a low to lowish rating.
What many journalists choose to overlook when championing the culling of meetings in order to gain surplice prize-money for the mega-wealthy owners to scoop-up, is that the bedrock of our sport, as it has been for a century or more, are the loyal one-horse owners and small-time breeders who are in the sport for the love of it. To my mind, they also have a right to, if not to make the sport pay, at least break-even on their expenditure. For them, the option of transferring their horses to another country is not tenable. For them, it is the love of the horse that trumps all else, the opportunity to see it on a weekly basis, to make a fuss of it, to be in its life for more than the few minutes in either the parade ring or, if lucky, the enclosures for winners or near-but-yet-so-far 2nd, 3rd or 4th.
So why not give consideration to celebrating those horses who will never be good enough to run at a Cheltenham Festival and who are owned and trained by people who do not necessarily seek the limelight of the t.v. cameras. No race, if this proposal came to fruition, need have more than £20,000 to the winner and would not cost a whole lot of money for any company that chooses to sponsor such a meeting.
What would be assured is that every race would have maximum fields and every race would be competitive and would create more than one ‘headline story’. To survive, this sport needs to actively support everyone who works in the industry and a few festivals as I have described would go a little way to buttering a lot of bread. Yes, the big trainers would sneak a well-weighted young horse into one of the races but I could live with that as long as the majority of the prize-money goes to deserving causes.

​In today’s Racing Post (Ultimate Members Only) ‘All Things Ireland’, which arrives as part of an e-mail extolling the virtues of the Racing Post, of which it has many, Alan Sweetman makes good his view that even the most modest of handicaps can be swimming with intrigue and with strands that can take the initiated back through the decades. It is a lovely bit of writing that extolls Alan Sweetman’s love of his job and I recommend you become an Ultimate Member – if for no other reason than it will half your yearly expenditure if you still buy the paper version, not that I do not miss having the paper copy to hand, being at loggerheads as I am with my Tablet which was meant to be a safety-net come convenience and is nothing short of a pain-in-the-ass – as some of the stuff written exclusively for the e-mail is worthy of inclusion in the actual paper.

The sadness doubles manifold times whenever an owner associated with the jumping side of the sport makes the announcement that he or she is either quitting the sport entirely or has decided to switch to having horses trained in Ireland or France or both. Bryan Drew is the latest high-profile trainer to abandon both British racing and worst of all British trainers. I fully understand the reason he and they give for their decision, which I dare say was not easy to make. Poor prize-money is always sited, yet on that front there are fresh shoots appearing on a regular basis, and you can be damn sure Mr. Drew and other deserters of British racing will not turn down the opportunity of scooping up British prize-money if their Irish or French trainers wish to have runners in this country.
There is too much racing in this country, that is unarguable, yet those races that people like Mr.Drew would object to, as I object to so much all-weather racing, is there to provide opportunity for those owners who can only afford to patronise this sport at that lowly level. There is too much of it, though on the other hand evening all-weather fare from Wolverhampton and Newcastle, for example, puts bread and butter on the table for a whole host of trainers, jockeys and staff that otherwise might be forced out of the industry.
Bryan Drew is correct, compared to France our prize money is derisible, even if it is on a par with Ireland, and no one, especially the B.H.A., whose only contribution to the problem is to steal from Paul to pay Peter, is coming up with ideas to turn the tide. And if someone tells me the ship has sailed on the notion of a Tote Monopoly, I’ll get very rude indeed! Get out your binoculars, that ship is anchored just over the horizon; it is not scuppered.
Horse racing is Britain needed Bryan Drew’s patronage, as it does every single owner and syndicate member. His departure to pastures foreign is another nail in a coffin destined for the cemetery of natural extinctions.
To add to the list of dissatisfied owners, I noticed Oli Harris sold four-horses at Doncaster yesterday, including the potentially useful Peaky Boy and Break My Soul.

The ditching of the intermediate novice chase at the Cheltenham Festival has not boosted the number of entries for either the Arkle or Brown Advisory. Some think this disappointing, where others, I should think, including me, see it as a reflection on the smaller pool horses in training at the moment. Sadly 20-runner fields for races outside of the handicaps at the Festival seems to be as aspect of the past, not that should add-up to a lack of either expectation or excitement as Sir Gino versus Majborough looks tasty enough on its own, added to which Jukebox Man versus Ballyburn and others should be worthy of the entrance fee. We cannot compare today with ten-years ago and certainly not 20-years ago. It is what it is and we must enjoy it for what it is, as you never know how many more there will be for us to enjoy.

​The ‘Another View’ column in the Racing Post is becoming a veritable treasure trove of illuminating ideas. Today it was David Carr’s turn to propose what on paper seems an idea worth pursuing. 
Ratings, to my mind, are at best educated opinion and at worst a load of old bollards. Ratings are pseudo-science; flawed pseudo-science at that. Too many horses are ruined because of one above-ability run which the handicapper takes as gospel and the poor horse is lumbered for several seasons with a rating it has little hope of ascending to. Horses need to be accessed on no more than five previous runs, though I would prefer three-runs, with the average rating for the previous five (or three) runs prevailing.
But I digress. David Carr was writing about the Longines World’s Best Ratings, to be published any day soon, with racing journalists agog with excitement to see who is judged the best of the best. He believes, and he will be pleased and relieved to know I agree with him, that one win in one major race is sometimes all that is needed to be awarded top marks for the year, which leads to very few flat horses dancing all the right dances during the previous season.
He proposes, in order to encourage owners and trainers to run their best horses more often, to award owner of the ‘bestest horse in the world’ more than just a trophy. £1-million-quid should be given as the magnet for achieving top marks, to give the Longines World’s Best award a more meaningful reason for existing. More runs in the qualifying races, the more points gained, the better the chance of scooping the bonus.

In an age of raising costs everywhere you look, high inflation and governments around the world, though not now the U.S. (we all need a Trump in our lives) determined to do nothing to halt the devaluing of the pound (or euro or whatever) in our pockets, horse racing in this country seems awash with real or proposed £1-million-quid bonuses. The latest splurge comes from the uniting of Ascot, Goodwood and York, who have come up with the bonus in an attempt to attract foreign owners and trainers to the idea of supporting the King George & Queen Elisabeth, the Sussex and Juddmonte International Stakes.
I am lukewarm about this initiative as I prefer the big British prizes to stay with British trainers. But if it increases field sizes and competitiveness, perhaps it should be applauded. (I even get bored and cross when Aidan O’Brien snaps up all the juicy prize-money, though not his genius son, Joseph or the more mortal Donnacha).

Fingers crossed for weather less dramatic this weekend. Friday is forecast to be blighted by high winds, cold temperatures, rain, with snow on hills. It is ‘Trials Day’ at Cheltenham this Saturday and though it is a meeting that often proves of no impact on the Festival itself, and wish it could be elevated into a Gloucestershire version of the Dublin Racing Festival, this year we are tantalised by another clash between Constitution Hill and Lossiemouth. The mare, remember, must travel by boat and high winds might temper Willie Mullin’s enthusiasm for the trip, and heavy ground, it is presently good-to-soft, might temper Nicky Henderson’s enthusiasm for running Constitution Hill. So, as I said earlier, crossed-fingers is the order of the day and the following few days.

Greyhound racing is none of my business and not part of the remit of this website. But one cannot but feel saddened by decline in a sport that shows no sign of coming to a halt.
I only glance at the headlines in the greyhound section of the Racing Post and have never attended a greyhound meeting. But I do wonder if the sport is too attached to its past and whether the sport needs an entrepreneurial spirit to improve its chances of survival. 
I do wonder if it is a country sport locked-in by tradition to an urban arena. Perhaps the demise might be a sign to look at a redevelopment of the sport. I understand that in the main greyhound racing is a sport for betting purposes and that perhaps it is time, as horse racing is beginning to do, to put the emphasis on the greyhound itself, to show the outside world that its greyhounds are not throw-away items but that they are loved and respected.
Why not take the sport to the racecourse and stage races up the long straights, following the lead of pony racing. Greyhounds jump hurdles and this too might spark the interest of race-goers. Carlisle holds a trail-hound race every year and is very popular.
The rot I suspect will not stop until those charged with leadership of the sport step out of the shadows and display some entrepreneurial zeal.

​The success of the Berkshire Millions weekend is a win for me as I have long advocated that regionalised ‘festival’ meetings is the way forward. Summer festival race-meetings form a comprehensive narrative to Irish racing, with many of them tied to local and historic fares. Horse racing gained its popularity in its formative years through local fares, with horse races central to the fun and entertainment. Why is it not possible, for example, for Worcester, Stratford and Hereford to get together to put on a similar, if lower grade, festival. The area abounds in local tradition, with the Three Choirs Festival just one that comes to this tired mind of mine.
The Berkshire Millions three-days is proof-positive that people can come together in this sport for the good of the sport.

Another win for me is the success I.T.V. are making of their terrestrial coverage of horse-racing. I made the bold claim that the sport was in safe hands after watching the first episode of ‘The Morning Show’. I write this in light of the feature in Sunday’s edition of the Racing Post documenting how Channel 4 ‘stole’ the Cheltenham contract from the B.B.C. At the time I was on the mortified side of bemusement that the grand old B.B.C. was being sidelined by the sport. On that occasion I was wrong to be concerned as Channel 4, minus MrCririck who I never warmed to, proved to be a cut above the B.B.C. on all fronts. Simon Holt proved to me that though he was the ‘voice of racing’, Sir Peter could not hold a candle to Holt’s professionalism. That was a sad revelation for me.

Gordon Elliott is aiming Three Card Brag at the Aintree National. What is wrong with that? He is a novice chaser who won for the first time over fences yesterday at Thurles and come Aintree will be having only his sixth run in a steeplechase. Yes. Both Noble Yates and Rule the World won the race in recent years as novices, with the latter having never won a chase, yet to my mind this is a dangerous precedent that might well come home to bite us if a novice of limited experience over fences should suffer a fatality during the race. This is yet another example of how emasculated the new Aintree National is compared to what it used to be.

The reason field-sizes in Grade 1 races over recent years have shrunk is because, as is recognised by all and sundry, there are fewer horses of that calibre around. To provide corrective change to the competitiveness of Grade I’s, action needs to take place. While the decline in Grade 1’s is apparent, there should be less Grade 1 races in all divisions of the sport, especially in the lead-up to Cheltenham, with only a single Grade 1 novice chase over 2-miles and 3 and only one novice hurdle over 2-miles and the intermediate distance between New Year and March to ensure Grade 1’s have true meaning. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. Sometimes drastic problems need drastic solutions.

When field-sizes are debated by racing journalists, where they trot-out statistics to either prove the obvious or disprove a myth, what is regularly failed to be included in the debate is the impact of all-weather racecourses. Now cannot be compared to the time before all-weather. Before the advent of all-weather racing, stoutly-bred flat horses would often be tried over hurdles through the winter. Take Night Nurse and Attivo as two prime examples. Yet owners are no longer forced to pay training expenses while their horses stand idle between November and March as the all-weather allows them to pay training expenses for horses that can be in active service throughout the winter.
Also, a horse like Sea Pigeon who failed on the flat, became available for jumps trainers to purchase him, whereas nowadays his type would be snapped-up to race in Hong Kong, Australia or the Far East. It is just a different ball-game to how things used to be.

It fills my heart with pride to see the horse racing industry joining the battle against inheritance tax, a ploy to allow elites to buy-up our countryside, by uniting with landowners and farmers in their legitimate struggle with the progenitors of evil emanating from the corridors of power at Westminster. Yesterday’s line-up of 57-tractors at Fakenham racecourse should be the start of a concerted campaign to bring the dispute to the cameras of I.T.V. and satellite broadcasts. The future of farming coincides with the future of horse racing in this country, mark my words.

​In the ‘Another View’ column in the Racing Post on Friday, or was it Saturday? Anyway, Craig Thrake presented a half-hearted argument against the proliferation of regional Nationals. In his list of 19 such races, he included the Aintree National and the Scottish and Welsh Nationals, so he was having a moan about 16-Nationals, all of which have a right to exist, to my way of thinking.
If we were honest, even those of us who love the thoroughbred racehorse just for its beauty and comportment, the majority of the species are either very fast over a short distance of ground or very slow over a long distance of ground. If these horses are not catered for both flat racing and jumping would be much the poorer and would begin to  look very samey indeed.
With Aintree having robbed us of what a true National should be, the regional nationals now fill a void. I would argue that every race over 4-miles should be designated a national of one sort or another, and no race with the word ‘national’ in its title should be run over less than 3-mile 4-furlongs. The word ‘national’ in racing parlance should have a clear definition – a steeplechase of extreme distance.

As I have said time and again, the B.H.A. fails as it is not populated and directed by people with coal-face experience of the sport and all its facets. In today’s letter column in the Racing Post, Ged Shields, owner and friend of the sport, is critical of the B.H.A.’s latest marketing initiative, a subject Ged Shields feels they are less than efficient in. The new committee, (Ged has little faith in committees) will report into the ‘all-powerful’ commercial committee which in turn will report to the B.H.A. Board. I have no insight into business matters, though my instincts tell me that committees reporting to committees that report to a further committee seems a long-winded and perhaps overly expensive way of going about things. Ged Shields quotes David Ogilvy, a paragon in the world of marketing, apparently – ‘Search the parks and your cities. You’ll find no statues to committees’.
Why can’t the B.H.A. consult people who put their hard-earned money into our sport, either by owning horses or racecourses, people who have made their wealth from, in this instance, marketing and big business, and pay them a consultation fee for their expert advice. Why employ a committee, when one wise head already has the answers required?

A great record doth not make a great horse. That is not a quote but opinion. Mine. Jonbon is a wonderful racehorse and deserving of winning a Champion Chase. Not that a single Champion Chase will put him on a par with Sprinter Sacre who, I admit, is a grade up from being referred to as a ‘great’ and is now and for all-time will be referred to as a legend. Energumene has won two Champion Chases and overall has as good a record as Jonbon. Is he not already a great?
Accolades like ‘great’ and ‘legend’ should only be attributed at the end of a career, not before. On this day, at this time of his career, Jonbon is undoubtedly the best 2-mile chaser around. His record of 16 wins from 19-starts (or is 17 from 20-starts now) is testament to his excellence, and if I could be bothered to go search of Energumene’s career record, I suspect he has won more chases than he has lost.
Yes, they are two great horses. But what then Banbridge, is he a great horse for winning a King George? I could list a good few more but that would be labouring a contentious point that would only confirm me as a grouch. We need to enjoy these horses for the enjoyment they bring and leave their place in the pantheon to when they are retired. Jonbon, and Energumene, have great records and both are a joy to watch; let us leave it at that for now.
My opinion of yesterday’s Clarence House was that the best horse on the day won. Come March and the possibility of mud, the result might prove very different.

To return to slow horses. My top delight yesterday was Mr.Vango winning the Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock. The Bradstocks have always punched above their weight and it is a great tribute to Sara and her daughter Lily that in compliance with Mark’s wishes, they are keeping the flag flying. It is was his jumping, I believe, that won the race for Mr. Vango, as much as his unlimited supply of stamina. The dream is the Grand National and, contrary to Sara Bradstock’s comments to the press, I would not put Mr. Vango’s presence in the line-up at Aintree down to the ground being heavy as his jumping is such an asset that soft-ground and 4-miles plus could be enough for him to be competitive.

​Yesterday, 30-minutes before the scheduled start of the meeting, Ludlow held yet another inspection and on the advice of jockeys abandoned the meeting due to parts of the course still being frozen. Clerks of the Course are damned if they do and damned if they do not and no one should be under any illusions as to the intricacies and difficulties that come with the job. This meeting was called-off, no so much for the patches of frost, but due to health and safety concerns for man and beast. And that was, for all I can know, a fair judgement call.
Although the temperature had risen to only 3-degrees above freezing, while the forecast suggested it would be 6-degrees, the majority of the racecourse must have been fit to race given the stewards were giving racing every chance of taking place. What might be done in these circumstances, other than abandon, you might ask? Well, it might be a large financial investment, even if such a tool or machine exists, and if not, it is in need of invention, but in non-freezing conditions would not some form of hot-air blower be the answer?
Most diesel-powered machines create at least a limited amount of heat, so an engineer with knowledge of the problem should be able to design a tool for the job. After all, if you pour warm water on frozen ground, it soon becomes thawed and as long as the temperature remains above zero the ground will not return to its frozen state.  
Given the limited necessity for such a machine, perhaps racecourses, or racecourse owners, could band together, if such machines already exist, and purchase three or four to be dispensed around the country, with clerks able to hire one for the day a day in advance if it looks even-money their fixture falling foul to frost.
Other than that, perhaps, as would have been tried back in the day – Catterick succeeded using this method a long time ago – herding sheep around the racecourse might prove beneficial, their tiny hoofs taking the frost from the ground.

I am an advocate of ‘copying the Irish’ and following Ollie Murphy’s complaint that there are not enough Bumpers confined to conditional jockeys, I again think we should, in amended form, ‘copy the Irish.’
In Ireland, as we all know, Bumpers are confined to amateur jockeys and in modern times are organised as a benefit to Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott who between them gobble-up most of these races much like locusts denying poor African farmers healthy living. The system as it is works nicely in Ireland and they would not appreciate anyone, especially a Brit, challenging the quid pro quo. 
Yet Ollie Murphy provides a cogent argument. Bumpers would provide excellent schooling grounds for young conditional jockeys and perhaps all Bumpers, outside of Graded Bumpers, and should be off-limits to professional jockeys. Young riders are in many ways the back-bone of most stables, even if their employers might find it difficult to get them rides on the racecourse. It seems a bit mad that a teenage conditional can have his or her first experience of a horse race over hurdles or even fences but has limited opportunity in National Hunt flat races.

The more I get to know about Godolphin, the more I am impressed by their sincerity. In the U.S., Godolphin have not one but two retirement studs for their broodmares, and I assume their former stallions. In today’s breeding column in the Racing Post, we are informed that Hatoof, winner of the Newmarket 1,000-Guineas 33-years ago, is alive and well at Gainsbrough Stud, Kentucky. At 36-years of age, she might well be the oldest thoroughbred in the world. It is reported that she has wonderful feet, even though she has not had shoes on since she retired, as 5-year-old, from racing. She prefers to live outside, even in bad weather, though ice-storms forced her to sleep in a barn for two-nights recently.
Three cheers for Godolphin and their commitment to caring for their elderly bloodstock. Perhaps our government should take a leaf from their book when it comes to caring for its elderly human bloodstock?