Held over from Yesterday 19-03-25 due to techincal issues.

​As I suspected, there will be no Gold Cup/Aintree National challenge from Inothewayurthinkin this season. It will be Punchestown or an early holiday for the J.P. home-bred as he has been scratched from the big race, even though he would have been a stone well-in due to his new rating. There was nothing to be gained from running the 7-year-old in the Aintree National and a whole lot to lose, as happened with Synchronised, J.P.’s previous home-bred Gold Cup winner. It is the right decision, especially when J.P. already has 3 of the top 4 in the betting.
A good few have come out of the National, allowing Hyland to get into the race if one of those above him becomes a non-runner. My other two fancies, Intense Raffles and Bravemansgame – I hope Harry Cobden chooses him over Kandoo Kid – also remain in the races, as does L’Homme Presse.

The highly informative Mark Holder, who I have come to admire after first being sceptical of him, is the latest ‘expert’ to side with the Mullins/Richi decision to abandon the Champion Hurdle in favour of easier pickings. It is Mark’s opinion; he is wrong, though. Everyone in racing from owner downwards has a duty to do everything they can to support and promote the sport. When the ship is sinking, it is the duty of every crew member to put their shoulder to the wheel, to bail water with all their strength. Rich Richi is a golden goose for this sport and I admire everything about him, including his flashy suits but I do not buy the reasoning for opting out of the Champion Hurdle. If they could not run her in the Champion Hurdle due to her fall at Leopardstown, then that same reason should have stood for running in the Mares Hurdle. For this sport to survive so that it can go on to thrive every man, woman and child must all row in the same direction.

In today’s Racing Post there is an article by Lee Mottershead that is as illuminating and informative as anything I have ever read in the paper since its inception on Tuesday April 15th (my birthday) 1986. The theme is the cost of keeping a horse in training, based on figures provided by Ben Pauling, fast becoming one of my favourite trainers, and the financial benefits his success provides for the local economy. I will not steal any of Lee’s research, though I encourage everyone to search out the article and show it to any friends or relatives who may be sceptical about the sport and as a reminder of how the people of racing help both the national and local economy. A brilliant piece of writing from a truly wonderful journalist.

Lulamba will run again this season, so says Nicky Henderson. Now, I deeply admire the master of Seven Barrows and as he nearly always is proved right whenever I or my betters challenge the decisions he makes on behalf of his owners, I am always nervous when putting into the public domain thoughts that are negative towards the great man. But here goes: Lulamba has run twice since joining Nicky and once, I believe, in his native France. Nicky is always one to remind hacks that this horse or that horse is inexperienced, usually followed by the question ‘where are the races for them?’ And, in general, he is correct. The race programme in this country almost looks as if it is designed to make the life of our top trainers as difficult as possible. Yet there is opportunity between now and the last meeting of the season at Sandown to run Lulamba twice, let alone the once at Punchestown. If the horse goes into next season lacking experience that will be due to not taking advantage of gaining that experience this season. If only every trainer were followers of the flat guru Mark Johnston who believed ‘horses are there to run’.

We might, just might, be at the beginning of a new golden era for Champion Hurdle type horses. Constitution Hill, though I would go chasing with him in order to get him concentrating a bit more on his jumping, State Man, Willie Mullins’ Supreme winner (name escapes me, something beginning with K des Bordes) The New Lion, Lulamba, Palladium, East India Dock, and I would include in this list Golden Ace and the Triumph winner, again the name escapes me. I am old. I often try to open the front door with my car key and I am sure goblins get in my car and move things around as I can never remember where the position on the right stalk (or is it the left) is for the windscreen wipers back and front. And there is no cure, except the one provided free by the Grim Reaper. Or by the name you are more familiar with, Sir Keir Starmer, who has it in for all us ‘uneconomic eaters’.

Kopek des Bordes, winner of the Supreme. Well done me! Thankfully I-Page went down, giving my brain time to boot-up.