on this day & other thoughts.

​On this day – 27th of August 2023 – in 1771, racing was held at Hereford for the first time; Isomony won the Ebor Handicap in 1879; racing was held at Leopardstown for the first time in 1888; in 1921 Charlie Smirke had his first ride in public at Gatwick, he was fourteen; in 1990 at Chepstow, an up and coming jockey called Lanfranco Dettori became the youngest jockey since Lester Piggott in 1955 to ride 100-winners in a season. And today is the birthday of Jamie Osborne, once known as a stylish National Hunt jockey and successful flat trainer trainer but now better recognised as the father of the rather wonderful Saffie Osborne. Jamie is 56. More significantly on this day in 1967, Red Rum won a nursery handicap at Warwick.

Frankie Dettori, more than at any other time throughout this season, showed us at York exactly what we will be missing from next season onwards. He was tactically sublime in the Juddmonte International, outwitting, I suspect, the equally sublime Ryan Moore, and then in the Ebor his supreme jockeyship was the difference between winning and losing. Even the genius that is Willie Mullins couldn’t sing Frankie’s praises high enough. And then to emphasise what will be missing from our racing lives in the very near future, he displayed his panache and beautiful and kind riding skills on his ‘cash machine’ Kinross. Ralph Beckett gave a hint that his stable superstar might also be out of our lives next season when suggesting he must name a barn at his stable in honour of a horse ‘the likes of which he will never see again’. Hope not. I’m really warming to Kinross, at last.

Referencing Ralph Beckett. One aspect of the Racing Post I remain critical about is the abbreviated manner in which they report on the previous day’s racing. Doubtless the paper no longer sends reporters to any race-meeting other than the main events, relying on the coverage by the satellite racing channels for their reports. I find this lazy method of journalism wholly inadequate and disrespectful to readers who pay them hundreds of pounds each year for the privilege of reading their newspaper.
Last week Ralph Beckett had three winners – too lazy (hypocrite, yes) to delve into the R.P.’s data-base as substitute for my ever-failing memory – all of which were ridden by Laura Pearson. It is a great achievement for any jockey to ride a hat-trick of winners in a day, especially for a female jockey just out of her claim. I am sure her close family would have liked to have seen in the trade newspaper a glowing report on the achievement of their family star, cutting out or cut and pasting the report for both posterity and to proud display to visitors and friends. The Racing Post needs to be reminded that it exists not for its own self-importance but for the documenting and neutral reportage of the sport as a whole and has a duty to its readers to supply as comprehensive as is possible coverage of racing at all levels on all days of the week. Every racing day matters.
Another example of the R.P. missing a story line was at Chepstow last week when Holly Doyle and Georgia Dobie rode 5 of the winners on a six-race card. Not as jaw-dropping as it might have been a few years, though still worth a paragraph, don’t you think?
That moan over, I have to add that without the Racing Post my life would be poorer by the length of the straight at Newcastle.

The public polls that the Racing Post conduct are doubtless popular, even though their readers don’t always come up with the right result. The poll before the present poll to find Britain’s favourite racehorse, actually came up with Dancing Brave’s Arc win as the greatest race ever run! I shake my head still to this day. Why wasn’t there a stewards’ inquiry?
The problem I have with the present poll is that it asks readers to choose between favourite sons and daughters. It reminds me of Ricky Gervais’s best joke, his answer to what would you risk your life to save if you came home to find your house on fire? ‘The fridge, the t.v. and one of the twins’. 
And that’s what this poll reminds me of. If you came home and found the stables on fire which one of the great horses would you save from the flames? It was agony for me to chose Spanish Steps over Frodon, Sprinter Sacre, Desert Orchid and many others. I never expected Spanish Steps to win or indeed Frodon and as Red Rum, Arkle and Desert Orchid will win the posthumous award, it will not rankle with me as other ‘winners’ of R.P. polls did. I just wish they had divided the poll into eras or decades so the likes of Brown Jack at least received a mention. How can anyone under the age of fifty appreciate the achievements of Arkle or anyone under the age of 100 appreciate the impact Golden Miller had with the racing public? 
It is like me trumpeting Ryan Moore and Frankie Dettori as the greatest flat jockeys of all-time when Steve Donoghue, to give but one example, had long gone prior to my birth? 
A bit of fun, yes. Fills a few column inches, yes. Yet unlike other Racing Post polls I just want this one over and done with. The great horses should always be celebrated for the excitement and debate they brought into our lives. We could dissect their achievements and decide which, speculatively, was the best of all-time but how can it be determined which horse was our collective favourite?
Ricky Gervais, by the way, is not father to any children. That is why his 
‘twin gag’ is funny, and appropriate for referencing for this article.