​The French are never slow to publicly demonstrate their opposition to laws or the intentions of their government they believe to be unfair. I only wish the British would replicate their noble actions. The French government, as with our despicable Labour governing party, have defended pushing-up tax levied on horse racing by claiming there is a big hole in public finances. Given the shed-loads of money wasted on the covid experiment, should we be surprised that governments around the world are having to save pennies with draconian measures against the vulnerable while continuing to spend mega-bucks on projects influential elites might consider of greater importance than giving benefit to uneconomical eaters?
What is impressive is that it seems the whole of the racing industry in France rallied shoulder-to-shoulder in opposing this attack on the industry, including the trotting side of racing in France. Jobs will be lost if the French government do not concede entirely on this matter. Already the French parliament has voted down the bill to increase taxation on racing, though, although making assertions that they want to protect the sport, the minister at the forefront of raising taxation has said he intends to find an alternative way to squeeze more money out of the sport.
If only the sport in this country had come together to voice its anger on the streets of London about the Gambling Commission’s missionary zeal to have government and bookmakers prying into the private financial matters of ordinary punters in order to save the souls of those afflicted by their addiction to on-line betting, namely bingo and poker sites.

Michael Stoute has his final runner as a trainer today at Nottingham. Firstly, I hope the horse, Wanderlust, wins, and secondly, I hope the sport in general gives Sir Michael the sort of send-off heroes of the sport deserves. Usually, as with Sir Henry Cecil, our heroes from the training ranks die suddenly and our appreciation can only be posthumous. Sir Michael is alive and, though perhaps not 100% hale and hearty – he is 79 when all said and done – he deserves to be honoured for both the success Freemason Lodge has been associated with during his long tenure but also for being well-liked by his peers and respected by the public for all the time he has held a trainers’ licence. He is one of those legendary trainers who in fifty and hundred-years-time whose name will resonate as John Porter, Fred Darling, Capt. Boyd-Rochfort and the Jarvis and Waugh family, do today.
Back in the day, when a jockey retired, for instance, his colleagues would organise a dinner, with every jockey who had ridden against him invited to speak in eulogy about him. I hope Sir Michael is similarly feted. A bottle of champagne and a framed photograph will not be nearly suitable given all he has achieved in the sport.

While I verge from sceptical to critical about the Bleeders’ Cup, I have to admit that the Melbourne Cup is one of the races that can vie for being ‘the greatest horse race in the world’, as the winning jockey described the race last Tuesday. Although the veterinary pantomime that preceded this season’s St. Leger winner, Jan Brueghel, from taking part detracts somewhat from the lead-up to the race, the race itself is everything the racing fan can expect from a race. A lot of runners, foreign invaders to give intrigue, the high possibility that a complete outsider might prevail, thereby encouraging the world and his wife to have a bet and the host racecourse seemingly as fair and attractive as any in the world. I would have liked a British or Irish-trained winner but that was not to be, especially as Joseph O’Brien did not have a runner this year, though he did formally train the third home, but it was nice to have the winner trained by one of the less dominant Australian trainers, which allows romance to bloom once-in-a-while. A note there for Aintree to take on board.

Surprise, surprise, Luke Comer jnr has won his appeal against his suspension from the sport. It seemed to me at the time of the enquiry into the discovery of equine bones found on a forested part of his land that there was no direct evidence to suggest the remains were anything to do with him. No DNA to trace to horses formally trained by him or even the age of the remains. To me, of course, firstly, he should not have been found guilty of the claim against him, and secondly, the same leniency should have been applied to Shark Hanlon. But that is Irish racing justice for you. Selective. One might say that as Comer jnr’s father, also subject to a banning order, is a major sponsor of Irish racing, that a deal might have been struck. I am not saying it has. I hope not. But it was my prevailing thought after reading about the success of Luke Comer’s appeal.

​Out of the blue, as was the announcement of his passing, he rang me one evening and I could hardly believe it was him. He was responding to a letter published in the Racing Post on the subject of one of my many hobby-horses, owners being allowed to register the name of a famous horse on to a lesser kind of racehorse. Why he chose to take time out of his life to speak to a total stranger, I cannot say? I had no idea then and all these years later I remain mystified why I was so honoured. Perhaps he was bored. Perhaps he hoped I say something illuminating that he could hang an article around. I suspect I disappointed him.
Thinking about it now, in the letter I may have been questioning the 18-character rule of naming racehorses and veered off-course by also referencing the lack of respect afforded to horses who had strained every sinew when alive to entertain and enthral us only to have their name re-used a few years after their retirement. The names of racehorses are pathways to memory, remember.
He was, broadly speaking, in support of my position and I hoped our short conversation might provoke him into writing an article on the subject; his weight of reputation might have spurred the B.H.A. to introduce a cherished list of names that would have protected the names of our famous equine heroes and heroines long into the future, alongside the names of classic winners, Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup winners, etc, that are debarred from ever being used again.
I remember saying to him, mainly, I believe, to prolong the honour of speaking with him, that the name Rondetto might yet reappear on a racecard. He seemed to be hurt or possibly offended by the possibility and I reminded him that though Rondetto won many races at the top level, he had not achieved success in one of the races that would allow his name to die with him. Rondetto, I know, was Alastair’s favourite racehorse.
Apart from owning a copy of ‘The Best of Alastair Down’, a Racing Post publication, a celebration of his life’s work up 2015 and a horse racing book of the year award winner, this brief telephone conversation is the only personal association I had with the great man and I envy those who knew him as either a friend or a colleague.
John Francome once said of Alastair Down, that it was wrong that he (John) had many books published, while Alastair had not bothered himself to write any, a fact he put down to laziness. Or words to that effect. And that is the one blot on Alastair’s professional life; he has left us with so few books with his name on the spine to adorn our book-shelves. ‘The Best Of …’ will be the next book I reread. 
May he rest in peace on the windswept Cleeve Hill where he has requested his ashes to be spread and the spirits of all the great horses of National Hunt he wrote about pass-by to pay their respects to the greatest writer on racing there has ever been, and doubtless always will be.

David Jennings, a fair writer of quality prose himself, interrupted his preamble to the Breeders’ Cup to pay his respects to the great man. A nice touch.
Jennings suggested that people either love the Breeders’ Cup or loathe it. He is wrong in his assessment. The third position is the one I take. I am indifferent to it. It moves me not one iota. In America, cheating was considered okay as long as you got away with it. It is only now, where the ‘social licence’ has become a stick to beat the sport, that the U.S. is caring more for the horses on the track and going against the tide in an effort to catch the cheats. Also, dirt is a crap surface to race horses on. The Breeders’ Cup is an American invention, a beanfeast for the multi-millionaires. All tinsel and razzmatazz. It is not for me. That said, I hope City of Troy is successful in his bid to give Coolmore all that it desires and I would like Bradsell to win for Holly.

It is inappropriate that Alastair Down should pass from us at the time of year when expectation and suspense is about to become a reality of surprise and attribution. November, the best time of year. We will see State Man, Constitution Hill, Galopin Des Champs, all the young talent at Closutton and Cullentra and many many more, during this month. And it begins today with Gerri Colombe and Hewick at Down Royal and Bravemansgame at Wetherby. Let me live at least until after the Little Grand National and a little beyond. It is all I ask. After all, I have outlived Alastiar, and that too is wrong!

​When the recipient for Ireland’s ‘Ride of the Year’ in 2023 was named as Amy-Jo Hayes, my reaction was a mixture of what! and how! Given Colin Keane and Billy Lee ride in Ireland, along with a dozen other top-notch jockeys, it came as a surprise that the winner of the award was someone I had barely heard-of. I knew her name, though only through seeing it on race-cards in the Racing Post, on the few occasions she was granted the opportunity to display her riding ability.
I was so surprised that she had impressed enough of the right people to be even nominated for the award, let alone take home the trophy, that I penned a letter to the Racing Post suggesting it might be time for Irish racing to stage a number of races restricted to female professional. I was aware that there is already a fair few ‘Ladies’ only races in Ireland, though these races are usually dominated by female amateurs, with the apprentices – all professional female flat jockeys in Ireland are apprentices – overshadowed. I exclude Rachel Blackmore as though she holds a flat licence, she is predominately a jumps jockey.
In Britain, flat racing is brightened by having so many talented female professional jockeys, with Holly Doyle and Hayley Turner as popular with spectators as Murphy, Moore or Buick. And plenty of females have ridden out their claim and continue to ride winners. In Jo Mason we have a hidden gem, I believe, who will finally be noticed by the trainers who matter and Amy Waugh is as strong a female as any of her male colleagues. Irish racing is not so blessed and the sport is missing out on the good publicity that natural diversity provides.
On reviewing the letters I have had published in the Racing Post, I wondered what has happened to Amy-Jo Hayes since winning her award at the end of last season. I expected her career would blossom on the back of her high-profile success, awarded to her for ‘a perfect ride from the front’, and on Googling her name, I have discovered she is currently riding in Australia.
I cannot know whether she is in Australia for the experience or if she is now continuing her career out there with the ambition to make it her home, as Bryony Frost has chosen to do in France. Both, I suspect, have chosen to travel for the same reason. If I am correct, this is a sad indictment on the sport in both Britain and Ireland. 
You may say the sport will not suffer unduly for these two women choosing to go overseas for the sake of their careers. And you would be right, of course. And jockeys down through the decades have left the land of their birth to seek their fortune elsewhere in the world. But then and now are two different worlds. Back then, racing stables in Britain and Ireland had no problem finding staff. Now there is a grave shortage of native people willing or wanting to work the long hours required of them in racing stables, albeit the life has so many benefits than working in a factory does not.
There is a short video on-line where Amy-Jo Hayes details her work schedule, it included a 6 am start, riding work on up to eight-horses at the stables where she was employed, riding out for another trainer during what others would look upon as their lunch-break, dealing with her own horses in the afternoon, before heading back for evening stable at, if I remember correctly, 3-30 pm.
That is what the trainer who employed her would need to replace when Amy-Jo Hayes went to Australia.
Irish racing needs help from its governing bodies in order to maintain all levels of people who work in the racing industry, and this should include ensuring everyone is allowed the opportunity to be successful in which ever aspect of the sport they are employed in. I commend Ireland for the jockey restricted meetings they stage, as that allows jockeys below the top level the opportunity to earn some extra cash and gives an incentive for jockeys to continue their careers in Ireland. It must be remembered, jockeys are jockeys from dawn to dusk and many small-time, and even the very top trainers, rely on jockeys to ride-out in a morning before they go off to the races. One Amy-Jo Hayes will not cause a ripple, in general, through her absence, 10 Amy-Jo Hayes’ will be noticeable. 100 A-J H’s and there is a hole to be filled. All any jockey hopes for, I suggest, is the opportunity to impress and I feel Ireland could do more to help and promote the female professional jockey to, if not break, crack the glass ceiling that in Britain no longer exists as Doyle, Turner and Osborne have been given the opportunity to display their skill in the saddle at the highest level.

​In March 2023, for purely financial reasons, I started to read the Racing Post on-line. I prefer, still, a paper copy, though I am getting used to reading from my laptop. When I finally listened to my body and gave-up working for a living, my first consideration was how to afford the horrendously expensive Racing Post when my only income was the state pension. I considered only buying at weekends or alternate days, filling in the gaps by reading a national daily, if I could fine one that continued to publish race-cards. But I could not see me living even remotely happily without the Post to read every morning. Hence, the subscription.
I believe my first cutting from the paper in this era was my admission that though I believed Lester Piggott to be a legend of the sport, I was not appreciative of his style of riding and remain embarrassed to this day of his ride on The Minstrel in the Epsom Derby. To my mind, then and now, the best two flat jockeys of my lifetime are Frankie Dettori and Ryan Moore, with the latter getting my vote as the greatest due to his overall consistency.
Over the past eighteen-months my disquiet on what has been done to the Grand National is reflected in the four letters I have had published on the subject. The race is now a haven for has-beens. There should be ‘win and you are in races’ through the season to ensure the right horses get to run in the race. The death by a thousand cuts policy of Aintree was rendering traditional Grand National trial races, including Aintree’s own Becher Chase, obsolete. Neptune Collonge was the last real Grand National. Corach Rambler won the last substitute Grand National, with I Am Maximus the first winner of the Little National.
To ensure horse racing’s crown jewel races are afforded the greatest amount of publicity, they should be scheduled so as not to conflict with other major sporting occasions –World and European football tournaments, Wimbledon, cricket, rugby and so on. It only takes a little forward thinking.
The Irish Derby should not be reduced in distance, not before bonuses for any horse winning or placed horses at Epsom achieving the same at Leopardstown or changing its place in the calendar, perhaps running the race on the same day as the Irish Oaks or even waiting until Irish Champions Day, with similar bonuses for horses placed in the French Derby.
The coups of Barney Curley were just as embarrassing for the sport as the Gay Future coup, I reminded Chris Cook, who was particularly irked by the Cartmel incident.
There is no comparison between Formula 1 and horse racing and I wish people would stop informing us that the two are compatible. 20-drivers, around 20-races a season against a sport with hundreds of jockeys, thousands of horses and thousands of races! ‘Full Gallop’ could only ever give viewers a sniff of what makes the sport tick.
Amateurs are well-cared for at Cheltenham. Professionals allowed to ride in the National Hunt Chase was long overdue. Amateurs, unlike professionals, can ride in every race at the Festival with the exception of the Martin Pipe. In fact, as there is only one race restricted to conditionals, perhaps there should only be one for amateurs at the Festival?
A.C. Hopkins was wrong. The sport desperately needs 0-50 races, otherwise the sport would lose a clutch of much-needed owners and no doubt several racecourses.
A levy of 2% on the purchase price paid at public auction would fund the aftercare of racehorses through retraining and rehabilitation. Breeders should take some responsibility for the aftercare of horses they alone bring into the world.
The final word is yet to be said on this season’s Cesarewitch with an appeal still to be heard on behalf of the connections of the disqualified horse. My view is the disqualification should have happened on the day of the race, with the appeal on the Tuesday if connections believed they had a case to argue.
Spanish Steps, my all-time favourite, my first love. My guilt for not voting for Frodon, my last love, probably.
I proposed two Festivals. A spring festival to replace Cheltenham’s ‘Trials Day’, similar to Ireland’s Dublin Racing Festival, with races taken from the March meeting, including the now defunct Turners and a new Champion Mares Hurdle, to make a 2-day Festival in late January and to revert to tradition by reducing the March meeting to 3-days.
I quoted Fred Archer from a book by John Fairfax-Blakeborough – ‘I have lost more races through use of the whip than the whip has ever helped me.’ 
Bookmakers were fined a combined total of £76-million by the Gambling Commission. I wondered where this money went and how the sport could do with it.
I argued, as always, against shooting stars like Sea The Stars given legendary status after 9-months of dominance, when others labour to success over 2 or 3 seasons.
I quoted John Francome who credits Harry Cobden, Rachel Blackmore and Bryony Frost as being best at presenting a horse over a fence. 
To give equal opportunities to horses who prefer the old course over the new and vice-versa, Cheltenham should consider opening the meeting on the old course one year and the new course the following year. 
I continued to argue that mares who win a championship race should have their allowance cut in subsequent years. 7lbs to 5lb to 3lbs if they have won 2 championship races.
I go one way and then the other on Premier racing. In this instance I thought the B.H.A. were on the right track. Now I am not so sure.
To stem the dominance of the few, I suggested a cap on the number of horses any one trainer can train in a season should be considered. I believe this might encourage owners to spread their horses over several trainers.
Red Rum is considered to have helped save Aintree and the Grand National. I suggested that in 1973, the greatest race ever run, Richard Pitman and Crisp set-up the race that started the legend of Red Rum and their combined contribution should not be overlooked.
I thought it odd that Amy-Jo-Hayes, a female apprentice jockey in Ireland should win ‘Ride of the Year’ yet receive so few rides, with her name presently absent from race-cards. I suggested it was time Ireland considered restricting a few races to professional female riders to encourage trainers to give them a fair shot of establishing a professional riding career as is happening in Britain..

​Mr. Robert Coppini of Worcestershire started a thread with another letter in the Racing Post exulting Sea The Stars as one of, if not the, greatest horses of all-time. I countered with my usual argument that shooting stars and gilded lilies should never be rated above horses who won at the top level for 2, 3 or 4-seasons. Since the publication of his latest letter on this topic, Mr.Coppini has found one fellow Sea The Stars fan and I’ve had one reader supporting my argument.
The problem here is that I am not denigrating Sea The Stars. For nine-months he was undoubtedly the best 10 to 12-furlong horse in Europe and I would not argue against him being possibly the best in the world. Also, he has proved a brilliant sire. I am critical, not of the horse but his owner and trainer for confounding logic by suggesting the horse had nothing else to prove on the racecourse. Of course he had plenty to prove. We will never know if he would have physically or mentally stood another year in training; we will never know if he was able to give weight and a beating to the following generation of 3-year-olds.
No matter the standard of horses Frankel had behind him in all his races, the fact is he withstood racing for 3-seasons, won in a canter on the occasions the ground was not heavy, won a classy Juddmonte International at his only attempt at 10-furlongs, and on the bridle, suggesting to me that dear old Henry had campaigned the legendary horse over the wrong distance for most of his life, and emphatically defeated the previous season’s generation of 3-year-olds.
I have no grudge against Sea The Stars, nor Dancing Brave, the other horse I put forward as a shooting star or gilded lily. I speak in defence of the sport and the need for owners of top racehorses to keep them in training for as long as possible as a gift to the sport and to do all that can be done to help this sport survive. We do not need more stallions; we do though need the very best 4-year-olds in competition with the following season’s top 3-year-olds.

Still people, racing journalists amongst them, put forward the idea that to save the Irish Derby from falling off the pattern charts, the heritage of the race should be kicked in the teeth by reducing its distance to a distance that has nothing to do with ‘Derbies’. Derbies are run over 12-furlongs; to reduce the Irish Derby to 10-furlongs, to copy the French, and to hope for the best is wrong-headed and as a strategy, if it should be implemented, it deserves to fail. The problem is not the race but the modern breeder who has forgotten about stamina and the good of the breed and has gone all out for speed and throwaway two-year-olds. 
I would suggest Leopardstown and its sponsors resort to a bonus scheme to induce the connections of any horse placed in the Epsom Derby to travel to Leopardstown, with double the prize-money for any horse that either wins or is placed in the Irish Derby. Give owners and trainers a reason for targeting Leopardstown. 
Instead of having the Irish Derby as an island in the sun, reschedule the race for later in the season, perhaps on the Irish Oaks card or go off-the-wall and stage it on Irish Champions Day. But please, for the sake of the breed, to give breeders no further reason to produce milers and sprinters, stick with 12-furlongs. If you do not, the rumbling you hear might be Vincent O’ Brien and Paddy Prendergast tossing and turning in their graves.

When Michael Dickenson ruled the National Hunt waves, other trainers were keen to know his ‘secret’ training method; it was the same when Martin Pipe was the perennial champion trainer. When their ‘secrets’ were revealed, other trainers changed their tried and tested method of training and accepted that Dickenson and Pipe were one or two steps ahead of them and if they wanted to catch-up, they had to get in step pretty lively.
The things with our present ‘kings of the turf’, one king of summer, the other king of winter, is that with the exception of Willie Mullins’ deep Wexford sand gallops, no one, it seems, is trying to replicate their methods. Of course, no one, with the possible exception of Gordon Elliott, has anywhere like the same number of equine A-listers in their stable. Yet does any trainer follow Willie’s example and run their very best horses in January and February, rather than wrapping them up in cotton wool until March? Does any flat trainer copy the bold strategies of Aidan? This weekend at Saint Cloud he won a Group 1 with a two-year-old who had only made his debut on a racecourse only 8-days before. Gosden would not dream of such a turnaround, or any other British trainer, even with an older horse, let alone a two-year-old.

​I do not always send my thoughts and ideas to the Racing Post expecting publication. I will often a pen a letter simply for a Post journalist to read the letter in the hope he or she will either make his colleagues aware of my ‘latest’ thought or idea or perhaps pen a piece himself (or herself), as even the most junior member of the Racing Post team would do greater justice to a topic than I will ever be able to achieve.
I moved to North Devon in 2001 and happily continued to read the Racing Post as I have done since its very first edition. I am pleased to say that I mooted the idea of jockeys only being allowed to ride at one meeting a day during the early years of the new century. My concern was that jockeys were at risk of burning themselves out rushing from one racecourse to another on top of their riding-out duties early in the morning. I also believed it would allow more jockeys to earn a better standard of living if the top jockeys were restricted to one meeting per day. Of course this did come about, albeit only because the B.H.A. were mad keen to demonstrate to our oppressors that they were fully in-line with restrictions that the more informed of us knew to be pointless as far as controlling a virus was concerned and more about the control of people.
As today, I did not like the idea of Champions Day and proposed if it had to exist it should become the last day of the season – I proposed then, as I would now, an all-year championship – with the new season starting a day or two after the Ascot beanfeast for the wealthy.
I am delighted to be reminded by this trip down cuttings avenue that back then that there should be an all-female team at the Shergar Cup meeting. I also wrote in praise of Hayley Turner and that to encourage trainers to give females a greater opportunity of expressing their skills in the saddle that Britain should play host to the most valuable race in the world restricted to female jockeys and also, flying in the face of pattern rules, no doubt, that females should receive an allowance of 3 or 5lbs in listed races in order that occasionally they might get on horses of greater ability than is normally the case. You may say the success of Holly Doyle has driven a bulldozer through my argument for greater opportunities for females but no, not enough females are breaking through the ceiling Holly and Hayley smashed and more needs to be done in the 2025-season to open-up this one-way street.
I admonished the great Alistair Downs for using the term ‘rubbish horses’ and proposed a lower grade of racing should be established for the lowest grade of horse, a sort of point-to-point for the flat.
Back then I was in favour of a 5-day Cheltenham Festival.
In 2012, I wrote an impassioned letter supporting the Grand National, pointing out that neither According to Pete nor Synchronised had a jockey on their backs when they met their deaths in the race won by Neptune Collonge.
I was surprised when the Racing Post published a letter criticising covid restrictions at open-air spaces like racecourses and suggest the B.H.B. should partner with the F.A. and take the government to court over the matter.
It was around this time that John Francome won me over to his view that no smacks was the way forward when it came to the whip and wrote supporting his opinion.
Unsurprisingly, as the Racing Post published the book, my letter praising David Ashforth’s book ‘Fifty Shades of Hay’ gained a place in the letters’ column.
On a similar theme, I continued to criticise the naming of racehorses, especially the duplicating of names of famous racehorses. Coolmore naming a horse Spanish Steps mortified me and I gained a lot of support on the matter, though it still happens to this day.
I also wrote suggesting people should find a copy of Tim Fitzgeorge-Parker;s 1968 book ‘Spoilsports’: What’s Wrong With British Racing’. I quoted the first paragraph which, chilling, was a mirror image of all the sport’s problems today, except for the government meddling with the betting industry and draconian measures to ensure punters are not addicts.
I suggested methods of recruiting a different cohort of staff to racing stables, suggesting that many of the tasks in a modern stable, excluding riding, could easily be taught to anyone of any age.
In one of many letters on the whip issue, I suggested that when a jockey transgressed the whip rules, instead of the jockey receiving a ban and the horse disqualified, both the jockey and the owner should forfeit any prize-money won.
I suggested Britain needed the equal of the Dublin Racing Festival and suggested Cheltenham’s ‘Trials Day’ could evolve into a 2-day mini-festival with races taken from the March meeting, reducing the main fare to 3-days, there by satisfying those who believe the Festival should not have been extended in the first place.
As someone who used to love the St.Leger, it pained me to suggest that British racing should move with the times and restrict the Eclipse to 3-year-olds and upgrade it to the final classic of the season. It makes perfect sense to me, anyway. I used to think the St.Leger could gain new life by becoming the most valuable race over 14-furlongs in Europe but now I think it could remain as the sixth classic. Who said there can be only five-classics?
I continued to propose a 40-runner Lincoln Handicap run at Newmarket started from a barrier.
I argued that English-style hurdles were unsafe and proposed adopting French-style mini-fences. Thankfully, the English-style hurdles are now being discarded with a far-safer padded hurdle now becoming more used.
I continued to argue that no horse retired to stud at the end of its 3-year-old career should be regarded as ‘all-time great’ as truly great horses proved their ability to defeat the following season’s generation of 3-year-olds. Sea The Stars and Dancing Brave fall into the category, in my opinion, of gilded lilies.
I argued that in winter, Friday/Saturday meetings should be Saturday/Sunday as in opening-up the ground on the Friday allowed frost or rain to get into the ground and put the Saturday, and the major races scheduled for that day, in jeopardy. It would also improve the standard of Sunday racing.
I bemoaned the retirement of Hayley Turner. I made plain that though I opposed blood-sports, I reminded people how important hunting was for the education of both young riders and young horses. I wanted people to realise that racing is not a sport for high society and the mega-wealthy but a working-class sport that extends through all ranks of society. Henry de Bromhead proved me wrong about his decision not to run Honeysuckle against Constitution Hill. I pointed out that the B.H.B. resorted to science in changing the colour of the trim around fences and hurdles, yet omitted the input of science and relied on ‘opinions’ when instigating yet more new whip rules. I wanted Shadwell to give racing the gift of keeping Baaeed in training as a 5-year-old. And returning to Honeysuckle, I suggested once a mare won a championship race, the sex allowance should be reduced to 5lbs, to 3lbs if she should win a second championship race, then no allowance at all. It is wrong that a top-class mare should receive 7lb from a gelding with a much lower official rating.

​Firstly, a correction. The total of letters the Racing Post has kindly published is 103, one less than I stated, as one cutting, for reasons I do not remember, was duplicated.
Due to the amount of yellowing, the cutting I assume to represent the first letter to be published was my wish to see The Jockey Club overthrown due to their policy of public relation exercises, rather than positive reform and my belief they were selling the sport to bookmakers and putting the punter before animal welfare issues.
I am pleased to discover that even back then, the 1990’s, I was campaigning (through the letters column) on the issue of horse welfare, pointing out that it was hard to defend the sport on welfare grounds when a jockey only received suspensions of 4 or 6-days for transgression of the whip rules, yet for the offence of giving a horse a school round or dropping their hands in the shadow of the winning post and losing a place because of it, a jockey would receive a ban of 21 or 28-days. Give a horse a hard time and receive 4-days suspension; give a horse an easy time and receive a punishment of 21-days. I was even an advocate back then of an independent inquiry into the use of the whip and trials of races where the whip was only carried for safety purposes.
I was particularly riled by handicappers wanting to see all horses ridden out to the finishing line, even those with no chance of reaching the first 4-places. This was tantamount to animal cruelty in my opinion and thankfully the Jockey Club decided to apply commonsense and go no further with the proposal.
I was also belligerent in my defence of Tony McCoy’s ride on Pridwell in the Aintree Hurdle when he beat Istabraq in very soft ground. The Jockey Club took a dim view and suspended him and made him attend the British Racing School in order to improve his whip action. As I said, the public thought it a masterly ride – the ride of the season – the Jockey Club, for reasons of a public relations exercise – took the opposite view. I also suggested as McCoy and Timmy Murphy were due to attend the B.R.S. at the same time, that it might be an idea for the Jockey Club to mandate all jockeys go to the B.R.S. for annual refresher courses on how to use the whip so as not to offend the Jockey Club.
I put forward the idea that the quality of the Triumph Hurdle field should be protected by a 4-year-old handicap hurdle being added to the Cheltenham Festival. I am not saying this was my idea but it did come to pass. I should extend my apologies to (Sir) Alaistair Down, a literary hero of mine, as he hates the 4-year-old handicap and if he had his way he would get ride of it.
I was also banging on about the lot of the journeyman jockey, suggesting a few races a week could be restricted to jockeys who not ridden a certain number of winners in the previous 6 or 12-months. It has come to pass, though not significantly enough to stop me sending the Racing Post letters on the subject in the future.
At Leicester during this period, Norman Williamson dropped his hands close to the finishing post and was nabbed on the line. Of course, he suffered a suspension. Of course, some of the masters of punditry were up in arms about it, some of them wanting Williamson hung, drawn and quartered over the incident. I pointed out that not all punters lost out, as many would have backed the horse that was first past the post and that Williamson was human and like all humans could be expected to err once or twice during his career. I also drew readers’ attention to the number of jockeys injured at the time, some of them seriously, just as contrast to the welling of crocodile tears.
I often bemoan my letters rarely either cause debate or effect anyone’s thinking. When summer jumping was implemented, I made the point that while racecourses had to provide ground no worse than good-to-firm in June and July, there was nothing to stop them racing on hard or firm the rest of the year. My view prevailed.
At this time, The Jockey Club were beginning to consider changes to the Grand National, a topic I rage against even to this day. They wanted a better class of horse running in the race, even though the 1973 Grand National was perhaps the classiest Grand National since the days of Golden Miller. I suggested they should first ensure a 4-week period between the Cheltenham Festival and the Grand National meeting would be a good place to start. I also suggested the Midlands Grand National should be run either in February or as the major race during the summer jumping period. I also proposed, as I would today, that the Whitbread, as it was, should be reduced in distance to 2-miles or half-a-mile further to mirror the start of the National Hunt season.
I was no advocate of rolling over and allowing sponsors to tickle the racing belly. Sponsors are vital to our sport. I thought that then and, sadly, believe it today. But they should not be allowed to steal the title of a race and replace it with the name of the sponsor. Why we could not have the Epsom Derby brought to you by Betfred, for instance. Or the Aintree Grand National brought to you by Randox Health. The Newbury Handicap Hurdle sponsored by Ladbrokes or whoever now sponsors the big hurdle in February.
I proposed it would put a quick end to the whip debate – it is disheartening that the whip was an issue in the 1990’s and here we are 30-odd years later and it remains a point of contention – would be not to suspend the jockey but withdraw prize-money from the owner. No jockey would knowingly break the rules if it meant the owner employing him would receive no prize-money for winning the race.
Finally, even then, as now, I was calling on owners to keep horses in training as 4-year-olds. Coolmore took no notice of my plea and retired Giant’s Causeway as the end of his 3-year-old season. Perhaps, he too, was a special horse, with special genes.

​Although I had a few letters published in the old Sporting Life, none of which I have any proof of – the cuttings will be somewhere in the house – it is the Racing Post that has indulged my need of expression of thought, concern and idea.
I am over-privileged by editors of the Racing Post in that I have had over 104-letters published during the paper’s existence. I say ‘over 104 as on occasion I have forgotten to take a cutting from the paper as proof of publication. I am not a diligent or tidy man when it comes to either my writing or the keeping of ‘important’ documents, a fact proven to me when I realise the titles in my document file is now approaching 1,400. I excuse my lack of ability to have different ‘envelopes’ for different categories of files by assuming I make life difficult for hackers if I should ever be considered worth hacking, which I am not as I do not bank on line or keep any personal information within the documents.
Yesterday – I do not know why as I had not planned to do so – I went through my clippings box and sorted the cuttings into three divisions. Those I had published when I lived in Gloucestershire, those published from where I currently live, though before I read on-line, and those published since I took out a subscription back in March 2023.
The numbers are, Gloucestershire 36, Devon 41, subscription 27. Total 104.
I do not know if this is any sort of record or if it worth boasting about. But it is good for my mental health. You see, this sport is my wealth, even though I am a poor pensioner; I care about it as someone cares for a loved-one. It pains me to hear it wrongly criticised by people who know little about the sport, who cry crocodile tears when our horses suffer fatality and offer no sympathy to those whose lives are shattered by the death of that horse. It annoys me that the sport has been allowed to drift so far backwards that in any world league table of racing prosperity, prize-money, attendance or prestige, we would be behind countries that once worshipped at our feet in every category bar, perhaps, prestige.
Although I have this website, I have no audience or readership of note. This is very much a vanity website. I refuse all entreaties for commercial sponsorship or for others to have a voice on my platform or chase a greater number of hits. If people fall upon the site, I am pleased. If they communicate, I try to respond, though you will be amazed at the gobbledygook I sometime receive. The site, though, allows me get things off my chest and into print and off my mind, that otherwise would nag away at me. The site is an outlet; the Racing Post letters column a voice to the world.
Although flattered that the Racing Post indulge me to a far greater extent than they refuse me, what disappoints me is only very occasionally do I elicit a response from fellow Racing Post readers. To me, a letters column should invoke debate, an exchange of ideas, with, perhaps, Post journalists taking up the cudgels and putting a more professional spin on the exchanges. I am firmly of the opinion that no one sector of the sport has ownership rights to the sport and that it is ‘our’ sport too. By that I mean the spectators, the enthusiasts, the readership of the racing media. Often, I read letters by other readers that give a clear insight into a problem, especially by people of my age who feel disenfranchised by the way the sport’s promotors deem fit to market the sport at people who at present are non-racegoers. Racecourses with a policy of card-only transactions are actively driving away custom in times of declining attendance, for instance. This subject should be debated as often as the Gambling Commission and the Government twin assault on our betting shops and punters. 
Letters columns are a mirror that all heads of racing’s stakeholders should stare at on a daily basis, to reflect on their policies, their preferred way of operating and if they are in conflict with their masters, the public.
Not all of those 104 published letters do me justice, though many of the topics I commented upon in the past have played out in my favour. Recently, I have come to realise that I should refrain from making comments on topics that are beyond my level of understanding, as with the finances of racing, though I still contend a monopoly of one sort or another is our only chance of righting the ship, and the meddling of the Gambling Commission.
Tomorrow, or the day after if I cannot get round to the research required today, (going though all 1,400 of those files, I will give a flavour of the topics that have irked me to send off a letter to the Racing Post, and the ideas for the betterment of the sport I have put forward. This will be solely for my benefit, you understand, as this website has such a very short reach.

​In Kyprios we are quite possibly witnessing the best stayer in flat history. Bold statement, especially as horses are no longer bred with Ascot Gold Cups in mind and Yeats won 4 Ascot Gold Cups. Yet he just seems unbeatable over any distance from 14-furlongs upwards, and he wins without any undue effort. Two weeks after winning over 20-furlongs on soft ground at Longchamp, he won with such imperious ease at Ascot, he was practically unmanageable in the winners’ enclosure and even Aidan had to admit to defeat when it came to the group photograph. How good he is we will never know as I doubt if a horse will appear on the scene next year to even make him exert himself. They will decline the offer, of course, but it would make interesting viewing if they were to chance their arm and run Kyprios over 12-furlongs in something like the King George & Queen Elisabeth Stakes, which perhaps now requires its name shortened to just the Queen Elisabeth Stakes in honour of our greatest monarch.
But do not get the impression my view of Champions’ Day has changed. It rankled me all day to have the meeting described as ‘the conclusion of the flat season’. It is not, as flat racing on turf continues until November and the appropriately titled November Handicap at Doncaster, with the final Group 1 of the season next weekend also at Doncaster. How can we educate people to our sport when we make claims that cannot be justified by common-sense alone?
It continues to rankle with me that Joe Leavy, for instance, come November, might have ridden more winners than Sean Bowen and yet because jockey championships are decided between two arbitrary dates and not the whole of the season, Leavy would not go down in history as the leading apprentice for 2024. I would hold the same opinion if Sean Bowen was denied the title by this short-changing of the season.
Also, given the sport is in decline, with nowhere near enough money in the sport to provide prize-money on a daily basis that, when compared to countries with far less of a heritage than Britain and Ireland, is embarrassing, how can £2-million in prize-money for one six-race card be justified? As with the equally fatuous Bleeders’ Cup, Champions’ Day is a bun-feast for the mega-wealthy, with the same coterie of owners, trainers and jockeys taking home all the buns.
And the meeting is invariably run on atrocious ground.

Here’s a thing, and I squeeze this in without titling it, if only to spare Richard Forristal’s blushes, but the 1st, 2nd & 4th in yesterday’s Champion Stakes were geldings, all of whom would have graced any Arc de Triomphe.

Here is another thing of annoyance. Charyn is a dude. He only comes alive on the racecourse, doing so little on the gallops at home, that already having run six-times this season, including only a few-weeks ago, he had to be given a stern work-out last week to ensure he was at his peak for the Queen Elisabeth Stakes, which he won eventually in facile fashion. According to his trainer, Roger Varian, Charyn ‘loves his racing’. He is only 4, yet to reach full maturity. Yet he will be off to the stallion sheds after one more run. In troubling times for the sport, it would be helpful if owners did all they could to keep the top horses in training longer than their 4-year-old days.

The furious cries last jumps season over the embarrassing domination of Willie Mullins are not heard in response to similar domination of the sport by Aidan O’Brien. In Ireland, he has trained, as of 20/10, 126-winners for £6,437,000 (0r Euros). In Britain he has trained only 31-winners for £8,283,000. Then of course there is the haul of prize-money won in France. Compared to Aidan’s achievements, Willie Mullins needs to pull his soaks up and concentrate harder. Yesterday, not only did Aidan have a winner at Ascot, but as a side-dish he had 4-winners at Leopardstown and a 1,2, 3, in a race. Today domination of Ireland and Britain, tomorrow the world, if the ‘lads’ want it, of course.

​There is a universal answer to the stupidest question and if I hear Oli Bell ask the stupidest question again, I will send a letter of complaint, using language that would upset Archbishop Welby, to his boss, Ed Chamberlain. Oli’s boss, obviously. Ed Chamberlain is not, or ever could be, boss of Archbishop Welby, even if God is no longer keen on the job, either. The universal answer is ‘of course he/she is. I wouldn’t be running if he/she is wasn’t, you nincompoop!’ The question, of course, goes along the lines of ‘he/she is okay at home, no problems?’ As if Aidan O’Brien is going to answer. ‘Ah now, Oli, were not happy at all with her. Billy, who rides her every day is unhappy. Juan, who looks after her, is pulling his hair out because of the condition of her and the ‘lads’ have been huddled in the chapel saying prayers to the almighty. But, you know, Oli, I think she’ll be alright, especially on this ground.’ A trainer should really use such a reply as that would stupefy the interviewer and might put a stop to the stupidest question.

Sylvester De Sousa is right. As is Richard Forristal. As is everyone who questions the fairness and point of the totting-up process. Personally, I would hit jockeys who exceed the regulated number of strikes with harsher penalties in the first instance and do away with the totting-up nonsense. For example, for a first offence keep the penalties as they are 2-day, 4-day, whatever. Second offence in a six-month period, double the length of suspensions and so on. Persistent offenders will soon reach the number of days of suspension that squeeze their pips to the extent that they will soon be mending either their whip action of their ability to count up to six. And instead of doubling the length of suspension when jockeys fall foul of the whip rules in major races, a fine of 25% of the value of the race should be imposed. I would also like to see a small percentage of all fines imposed on jockeys, trainers and owners go to R.o.R.

This is the time of year when I moan about Champions Day’, the one race-meeting I would ditch in the blinking of an eye. Originally, if my ailing memory is not fooling me again, is that Champions’ Day would morph into a European equivalent of the Bleeders’ Cup. Obviously that aspiration proved a hill too high to climb.
It is absurd to have such a high-profile meeting at the end of the season, two-weeks after the Arc and a similar number of weeks before the Bleeders’ Cup. Kyprios is the only equine champion due to take part and only one human champion will be there. The ground will be dire, as it almost always is at Ascot in October and the finishes as unedifying as a 4-mile chase in the mud at Hexham. Scatter the five big races to other meetings, such as York’s final meeting of the season, return the Champion Stakes to Newmarket, etc.
As always with the B.H.B., if it is not enough, it is always too much. Champions’ Day falls into the latter category.

As if J.P. McManus has not achieved immortality in the sport already, he now, possibly sensibly, has instructed Willie Mullins to train I Am Maximus for the Little Grand National and not the Cheltenham Gold Cup, as he has ambitions for his horse to win two or possibly three Little Grand Nationals. The horse could easily achieve the double this season because, as Willie Mullins pointed out in excusing the death blows perpetrated on the formerly great race, the race is more for the high-class horse these days, with the lesser owner and lesser trainer with the ordinary handicapper unlikely to get a sniff of a run from now on.
But let us be clear, if I Am Maximus were to win four Little Grand Nationals, he would not go near to equalling the achievements of Red Rum as he won 3 proper Grand Nationals, when no fence resembled an upturned dandy-brush and the race was a fair reproduction of the race as it was during the 1930’s to the 1960’s. If I Am Maximus were to win multiple Little Grand National, in my opinion, it would not make him the equal of Tiger Roll and he only won two Substitute Grand Nationals.
The days of Aintree legends are over.

Newton Abbot has suffered its sixth abandonment due to waterlogging since the end of last season, on the day racing at Wincanton is held on ground described as good, good-to-firm. Are the weather manipulators targeting Newton Abbot for practice purposes?