opportunity, 20% french reduction & bigging-up French racing & Kyprios.

​Tom Marquand, to give him his due, is taking the struggle to achieve decent facilities for jockeys at racecourses in this country straight to those who might be doing more to takeaway Tom’s need to take photographs of the conditions he and his colleagues must endure. Redcar is the latest racecourse to deserve his wrath. It must be galling to arrive back in Britain after a 14-hour flight from Hong Kong, where racecourse facilities are of a standard that would do justice to a five-star hotel, drive straight from London to Redcar and then find unsanitary conditions to warm-up, with a mat squeezed between two rows of benches and the exercise bike in the laundry room.
There is an opportunity here for an enterprising jockey with a need for a second income. While it is the responsibility of the racecourse to provide changing areas, showers, perhaps saunas and ice-baths, and space for the valets to undertake their work, perhaps the warm-up areas could be out-sourced. Warm-up areas could be achieved with pop-up arenas housed in a moderately sized marquee. 
I realise there is considerable expense in setting-up a business supplying exercise bikes, perhaps weights and other gym equipment, as well as the marquee and lorry to transport everything to the racecourse, and there would be a question-mark over how much a racecourse would pay to hire the marquee and equipment per day, with perhaps, just a suggestion, you understand, the jockeys themselves putting a few quid in the kitty to defray cost of transportation. Yet I am surprised no one has thought this might be a ready-made solution to the rumbling problem.
Perhaps Tom might be persuaded to loan someone the money to set-up the business.

French Galop’s 20% reduction in prize-money, though chastening, is an idea that should spread. It is my understanding that Group I’s, classics and the workaday racing would be protected from the cuts, with Group 2’ and 3’s suffering the most.
Although I agree classic races and the more important and historic Group 1’s should be worth high six-figure purses, chucking an added £100,000 at these races never makes them a better race or entices a better quality of horse. If a sponsor decides to, or is persuaded to, increase their donation to the prize-money fund, that money would achieve greater all-round benefit to the sport, if it were diverted to bolster prize-money at the lowest levels of the sport, with the sponsor given in return ‘free publicity at the lesser racecourses to benefit from the ‘enforced’ revenue stream.
In this vein, I suggest 20% be diverted from the lesser Group 1’s and all Group 2 and 3 races, and listed races, to ensure there is one race per card with £10,000 going to the winning owner. Even if only 10% were diverted in this manner it would help where help is most needed.
It makes my blood boil to read that a race with a high six-figure prize pot to the winner is to have its value increased by another £50,000 or some such amount, especially when there is racing on the same day where no race is worth more than £5,000 to the winner. It is no wonder we cannot attract owners from Ireland and France when there is absolutely no hope of them even breaking even on their training fees.

Not so sure I approve of the Racing Post featuring all week the unholy goodness of French racing. There are already too many British-based owners with horses trained in France and Ireland and here is the industry newspaper giving Scott Burton free rein to big-up French racing, French-based English and Irish trainers and the huge prize-pots just waiting to be hoovered-up by any British-based owner pissed-off with the disparity between prize-money won and training fees paid out.

Sad to read the announcement of the retirement of Kyprios, perhaps the best, though not the most popular, stayer of recent times. I was of the opinion that Yeat’s record of 4 Ascot Gold Cups was there for the taking. But it is not to be. The injury he picked-up recently is not severe but as always Coolmore is putting the welfare and future happiness of the horse first, and doubtless there is a covering shed waiting for him in the Coolmore organisation. I dare say Ryan Moore is going to miss him as it could be guessed that he is one of Ryan’s favourites.
Incidentally, my favourites stayers of all-time are: Trelawney, Persian Punch Stradivarious and Trueshan. Let us all pray for a wet Royal Ascot to give the old horse at least one chance of running in the Gold Cup.