if only john francome was in charge of the sport for 12-months.

​I would like to recommend the Racing Post YouTube Channel and especially a series titled ‘Maddy Meets’. In the latest episode the ‘meet’ was John Francome, arguably the greatest jump jockey and if he wasn’t the best there would not be many better than him. Not that he would claim or accept the honour.
Francome is the sort of man who I suspect can turn his hand to any task and succeed in any quest. He is, of course, too independent of thought and opinion to go down well at the B.H.A., though I believe if he were put in charge of the sport for 12-months conflicts would be resolved, problems would find solutions and by the end of his tenure he would have a 10-year plan in place and the sport would be healthier and happier.
When Richard Pitman was stable jockey to Fred Winter, Francome was a conditional jockey. One day Fred and Pitman were kept waiting to school horses because Francome was late in joining them. Pitman asked Fred why he tolerated lateness from Francome but not anyone else? ‘Because he is best rider I have ever seen,’ was the reply and as Pitman said in his autobiography ‘Good Horses Make Good Jockeys’, as self-deprecating as ever, he was after all first jockey to the top trainer in the country, ‘it was at that moment I knew my time at Uplands was limited’.
Francome was not born with a silver spoon to hand; he did not have wealthy parents willing to buy him good horses to learn on. His background is the council housing estate; everything he owns is self-made. Patrick Mullins in an interview with Jack Kennedy in the Racing Post recently said of his subject ‘Jack is the type to only open his mouth when he thinks he can improve upon silence’. Francome never fails to improve upon silence. When he speaks, he should be listened to. In fact, the B.H.A. should invite him to lunch some day so he can point out their inadequacies.
He would sort out the whip debate in ten-minutes. He would ban it. Problem solved. Jockeys wouldn’t like it but they would get on with it and make it work. After all, the imposition was not brought about by people with no experience of the racecourse but by one of their own, one of the very best of their own.
In the interview with Maddy Playle, which for some reason was conducted behind a hedge – perhaps Francome was not wearing trousers – he generally slated most of the jockeys riding today, was critical of the jockeys who have graduated from pony racing, which is very off-trend, though typical of his independence of thought, and said the best two jockeys over a fence are Rachael Blackmore and Briony Frost, two people who came from the hunting field and not the pony circuit. Read this and weep some more Robbie Dunne and friends.
The most shocking fact about the great man is that he is 70, still as slim and fit-looking as when he was in his pomp, still riding out for his tenant Clive Cox and on a horse which he owns and his mind is still working on how to improve living conditions for stabled horses. In the comments section – I doubt if he would bother looking for reactions to the interview as he doesn’t really do vanity – I suggested he pay a visit to Henry De Bromhead’s stables as Henry has a range of stables with backyards so that the horses can wander in and out of their stable day or night, no matter the weather conditions. Great men (and women, of course), I think you’ll find, cannot bear standing still. There is always a better way and it becomes an ambition to find that way.
I hope Francome outlives me, there is only 2-years between us, though I would like to live long enough for the sport’s hierarchy to find a way to persuade him to help them get this sport out of a mire their incompetence and lack of foresight in placing the sport in. I have no doubt John Francome is the greatest individual of this sport during my lifetime. He should be honoured to better effect than having a race named after him. At the very least someone at the B.H.A. should put his name forward for a knighthood. No one presently unhonoured in the sport better deserves to be tapped on the shoulder with a sword by Her Majesty. I have no doubt the Queen would approve of his investiture.