from today's racing post.

​Today’s mental state is rated poor, having purchased McAfee antivirus software and being incapable of installing it, thinking, stupidly, though consistent with my lack of knowledge of the subject, it would automatically be installed. Instinctively I wanted to run away and play at the river’s edge but have forced myself to write. Truly, if it were not for my reliance on the website and the Racing Post I would get rid of my laptop and have nothing whatsoever to do with the internet and all that comes with it. I have already rid myself of mobile phones.

Paul Kealy, apparently, was not as impressed with Ryan Moore’s ride in the Eclipse aboard Delacroix as the rest of us. Quite rightly, as Ryan Moore himself said in an interview, Kealy suggests it was the horse who was the hero, not Moore. Horse racing, though, is a partnership on so many levels, but especially between horse and jockey. There is no doubt that Moore had a willing partner and even when having to ditch plan A and all other plans that came to mind during the race, Moore remained calm when so many other jockeys would have panicked and started pushing buttons too early to be successful at the pointy end of the race.
Of all the ‘experts’ at the Racing Post, I judge Kealy to be the better when expressing his views. He is highly readable and we need not pay heed to his selections to enjoy his thought-process. Tom Segal gets all the praise, yet Kealy, to me, is more valuable to the Racing Post and should be consigned more opinion pieces. If David Jennings can play tipster, surely Paul Kealy can step outside of the tipping columns and stand in occasionally when Lee Mottershead is away on holiday or on an overseas consignment. 
Ryan Moore, though, was at his very best on Delacroix, despite Paul Kealy’s view.

Also in today’s Racing Post, Alan Sweetman makes a very good point about t.v., and perhaps satellite coverage of our sport. As he observes, horse racing is very much about victory and defeat, and as I have said before, the beaten can be just as imperative in the outcome of a race as the winner, offering the viewer an insight where their races were lost, and why the choices of punters went down the swanee.
Flat jockeys do not seem so cooperative after a race towards I.T.V., with perhaps their loyalty to the owners who employ them preventing them from giving the public nuggets of truth as to why they were not winners. It seems to me I.T.V. (I do not know about the dedicated satellite channels as I do not subscribe) lose valuable time in talking with the beaten while they wait for the winning horse to return from pulling-up, giving us every angle of a finish, often when there is no need for any sort of clarification. Rather like coverage of football that seems we want to see a goal twenty-times over, even if it means missing the restart of the match. 
I would like to also add that the Racing Post really need to give some thought to interviewing, if not highlighting, jockeys and trainers who work their socks off, have small successes, yet rarely take part in the big races. If we want our sport to resonate with the public, we need to get it out there that jockeys and trainers are human like you and me and it is only the top dozen or so who do not have to worry about getting the monthly bills paid on time. Frankie Dettori was often featured in the Racing Post, yet we rarely learned anything new about him. It is the same with Will Buick and James Doyle, two obviously great people but have we not heard all about them by know. It is the same with any of the top jockeys you choose to name, even if the National Hunt boys tend to be a bit more entertaining. Give me a feature on, for example, someone like Faye McManaman (I have spelt her name wrong – a professional would look it up. Which I have done but cannot locate her name) or Richie McLernon, or Kevin Stott or, well, you get my drift. And do not, if this should ever happen, stick with the obvious. Do as the excellent Adam Macnamara does on his Jockeys Podcast, probe a little, ask dainty personal questions. Adam, for instance, always asks about his interviewees (he talks to his guests rather than interviews them. So refreshing) love-life, which often makes them blush. Saffie Osborne went from pink to red when she was asked about her love-life.