'no fan of schooling', there is only one sean bowen, looks like trouble & big and raw.

​Sometimes in life you hear or read something that drops your jaw. For many a long year I have believed that for a horse to be a proficient jumper it must jump a lot of obstacles at home. It is all about building strength into the jumping muscles, yet according to Willie Mullins that is a load of old cobblers. My words not the great man’s.
Between his Cheltenham fall and Aintree, where he fell again, remember, Nicky Henderson told us that Constitution Hill had jumped a hundred obstacles of different kinds, including a session of loose schooling. Compare that to the number of hurdles Lossiemouth jumped between falling at Leopardstown and winning at the Cheltenham Festival. That would be none. Willie Mullins is not a fan of too much schooling as he believes it makes a horse complacent about jumping and is a risk too far.
Two of the most successful trainers either side of the water taking a fundamental different approach to what we, as outsiders, might think is an important aspect of the sport. Who can say which is the correct approach? And just because Constitution Hill fell consecutive races does not prove the Mullins approach correct and the Henderson way wrong. It might simply mean that while Lossiemouth was going at it hammer and tongs at Leopardstown with State Man, the pace of the Mares Hurdle at Cheltenham was more sedate and hence put less pressure on her jumping.
It remains though the most intriguing thought ever spoken by Willie Mullins and one that will make all other trainers sit up and take notice.

To my mind, there are only two rides this season worthy of being voted ‘ride of the season’. It is either Booster Bob winning at Newbury or Shared winning at Plumpton. Both were ridden by champion jockey elect Sean Bowen. Both the title of champion jockey and the award for best ride of the season should be foregone conclusions. Bowen has been McCoy-esque this season, lifting horses over the line in front when by all odds they should have found one or two good for him. The ride on Booster Bob I will never forget. He was stone-cold last for the majority of the race. He was last entering the straight. He did not look like winning as he past beaten horses between the last two fences, yet without any undue recourse to the whip he eventually won ‘quite handily’. And Shared did not want to put his best foot forward at any stage of the 3-mile hurdle at Plumpton, the horse seemed to be actively considering whether to jump-off, let alone break into a gallop. And again, after looking the least likely winner at every stage of the race except where it really mattered, and again without resorting to undue pressure of the whip, Bowen yet again pulled the race out of the fire.
All Bowen needs now is to get on some Grade 1 horses and win the races his talent deserves.

Former Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Looks Like Trouble has died aged 33. Firstly, huge praise must be awarded to Richard Johnson for looking after the horse so well for over 20-years that he should live to such a grand old age. Poorly named as by all accounts he was absolutely no trouble to anyone, he gave the young Richard Johnson the boost his career needed for him to become 18-times runner-up to A.P. McCoy, as well as champion jockey a good few times as well.
Johnson only became associated with Looks Like Trouble as his then regular jockey Norman Williamson fell out with the owner and because of that dispute, Johnson found a wife, the daughter of trainer Noel Chance, and Looks Like Trouble found a long and happy retirement. Fate can be kind when it is not in the mood to be malevolent.

We are about to swap from National Hunt to the more mundane restrains of flat racing. Two aspects of the flat that I dislike are two-year-olds being asked to race so early in their mental and physical development and big raw three-year-old colts being readied for Derby trials and then asked to deal with the rigours and contours of the Epsom Derby. How many two-year-olds are mentally scared by racing so soon after first having a saddle on their backs, especially when the whip is not spared in dog-eat-dog finishes? How much potential is fritted away by connections wanting to train hard a three-year-old in the remote chance it might get placed at Epsom?
If I had my way there would be neither be two-year-old races until after Royal Ascot at the earliest and nor any Group 1’s or 2’s until late autumn. And I would have the Derby for four-year-olds, thereby allowing colts to mentally and physically develop in their own time and by having the classics restricted to four-year-olds more quality horses will be kept in training and less would be sold abroad.