one of the joys of horse racing.

​I must admit it is rather taxing trying to find real, unalloyed joy in horse racing at the moment. The mask wearing and the anti-social distancing remains as alien to me today as when it was first thrust upon us, and knowing our sport is only allowed as a means of government propaganda displeases me to the point of apoplexy and every aspect of a day’s racing dictated and governed by politicians sworn by oath to an agenda, as if we are suddenly living by North Korean rules, and it makes my heart yearn for the days of liberty and free speech.
If you are fed-up with me going on and on about the plandemic, it is nothing to having no option but to continually comment on it. I just wish it would go away. Back to China, whence it came.
Thank all that is holy for the horses.
What must owners who have splurged £3-million on a yearling, or in the case of the Great Voltigeur two owners, and you are put unceremoniously in your place by an ill-bred horse that should have no pretensions of being a middle-distance horse, let alone a Group 1 or 2 horse? Do you arrange to meet your bloodstock advisors in a dark alley to make plain your misgivings with a well-aimed kick to the groin on ever listening to them? To me, it was an absolute joy to witness Pyledriver winning in the manner of a top-class 3-year-old. By a sprinter out of a not-so-very-good hurdler. If Pyledriver was the central equine character in a Dick Francis novel you would hardly give it any credit.
I am a hopeless romantic. There is very little of the cold-hearted realist in me and my advice to William Muir would be this: if you want to be known as a classic winning trainer when you retire, you have to roll the dice and go for the St.Leger. He may not stay. Coolmore may run three pacemakers to run the stamina out of Pyledriver. But it is doubtless given the size of pond that is your day-to-day bread and butter that you will get a better chance of winning a classic. If he wins, and let’s hope he does, the Arc, the King George and Queen Elisabeth and the Coronation Cup will be waiting for you next season.
And if you go for the Arc, you would be the party-pooper if you beat Enable. Win the St.Leger and you are the popular hero.
A question: if Mogul, Darian and Pyledriver were to go the sales this week, which of them would make the most money. Mogul or Darian because of their top-of-the-range breeding or the humble yet more talented Pyledriver? My money would be on Mogul. Though nowhere near the 3-million Guineas he cost as a yearling.
Another joy of the sport is when a new owner comes into a stable and with his first horse comes up with a cracker, as is the case with Happy Romance. I don’t know her purchase price but she has won two 80-grand races in a row and I would be surprised if she doesn’t win a couple more before the season is out. I will be very surprised if today’s Gimcrack winner impresses me more than Happy Romance. Possibly the best two-year-old I have seen all-season, filly or colt.
How good is Love? After she won the 1,000 Guineas, I predicted in a few words she would win the Oaks. So far, she has won three major races without being challenged, so even if you take the view that neither the two classics nor the Yorkshire Oaks were of the highest quality, you cannot but be impressed by Love.
Do not get carried away by Aidan O’Brien’s ebullience after the race. Although he is not one for hyperbole, it is hard to think that he already rates Love above Found or Magical, to name but two. And we will not know Love’s true mark until she is in a race with horses of a similar or better calibre than her. Do I think she will win the Arc? If the ground came up heavy, which it can do at Longchamp, no, though I doubt if she would run on ground any worse than soft.
And then there is the wonder that is Ghaiyyath. On good ground, would any horse get close to him? Even Enable? Of course, I want Enable to win. Don’t we all? I don’t want to see Frankie in tears. Tears of joy, yes. But not unhappy tears. And for Stradivarius to win he would need a strong gallop, perhaps even stronger than Ghaiyyath will go. How will Love deal with having good horses in front of her going a strong gallop? Even with the 3-year-old fillies allowance I am not convinced she can beat such strong staying older horses and I have yet to mention Mishriff, the French Derby winner, who might prove the fly in the ointment.
Has any jockey in the history of the Arc had three such brilliant horses to choose from, Enable, Stradivarius and Mishriff. Yes, Frankie already knows who his ride will be but in theory he could yet choose one of the other two.
At the moment I am torn between Ghaiyyath and Enable. My head says one, my heart the other. That is another joy of racing. We are always right in our choices until we are proven wrong.