​Frodon will attempt to win Wincanton’s Badger Beer Chase for the second time tomorrow. He is not only my favourite horse in training, and has been for the best part of 5-years – when did he win that handicap chase at Cheltenham, when Ruby Walsh paid Bryony the ultimate compliment – he is my second favourite horse of my lifetime, with only Spanish Steps above him in my heart, though I may have to reassess my order of affection if Frodon should defy all that is against him tomorrow.
He has to carry 12-stone tomorrow, on soft ground, giving weight to a better-class field that he faced 12-months ago. He will give 100% as always and we can be certain that Bryony will look after him when chance of victory slips away. I love him dearly but I cannot see him winning as there are at least 7 horses in the race superior to those that took part last year.
Though I would never tip or bet against Frodon as I could never be disloyal to him, I think Ashtown Lad is well-treated at the weights for a horse who won the Becher Chase last season, stays well, likes soft-ground and is young enough to have improved from last season.
Also, Paul Nicholl’s runs Threeunderthrufive, the favourite at the moment, though it can be expected that Frodon’s loyal West-Country fans will bet him into favouritism, and is a horse the trainer continues to believe has a big race in him in.
The Big Breakaway was considered a Gold Cup horse by the Tizzards until his form proved otherwise and I had enough faith in his ability to back him each-way in the Grand National last season. He is too good a horse to be receiving so much weight from Frodon.
Blackjack Magic, Certainly Red, Ballygriffin Cottage and Sam Brown are others in the race, I fear.
Why do I admire Frodon so much? It is not because I believe he is the best chaser I have had the pleasure of watching during my life. Even when he was in his pomp, he was not the best chaser in training. He is not a Denman and certainly not a Kauto Star. He is though the equal of Spanish Steps, not that ability has anything to do with how the heart feels about a horse, friend, family member or woman.
Anyone reading this who believes horse racing should be banned or who believes horses run and jump only because ‘we’ force them to do so, should go argue the point with Frodon. They should spend a day shadowing him. In fact, ‘Animal Rising’ activists and those who sympathise with their cause would learn a great deal by spending a day with Frodon.
As Paul Nicholls stated only recently, now aged 11 rising 12, Frodon has the same level of enthusiasm for the life he leads as he had when he was a young horse. He is described by his down-to-earth trainer as ‘naughty and mischievous’ and I have read that when the string is being boring and quiet, Frodon has the habit of throwing in a buck and a squeal just to liven-up proceedings, receiving loving rebukes by the riders of the other horses sent sideways and upwards, and he continues to bowl up that famous Ditcheat hill and school with the flamboyance that is his trademark.
I will not mind if Frodon does not win tomorrow. I expect him to run a good, honest race and that win or lose the crowd will show their appreciation for the joy he has given us over the years. What I want more than anything is that he finishes the race sound and happy and sooner rather than later he will be retired and has the good fortune to enjoy a happy retirement. How he will be amused without steeplechase fences, though, is a problem in need of a thoughtful answer.
One final wish I have. If anyone knows Bryony – in fact I may pen a letter to her via Ditcheat –ask her to consider writing a book about her association with Frodon, along the lines of Pat Taaffe’s ‘My Life and Arkle’s’. She is an intelligent girl, so she’ll be up to the task, and who would be better positioned to tell his story?

​I have ideas all the time. I am, if nothing else, an ideas man. How to proceed with my ideas, though, is another matter. I have no influence in the sport and I am without the connections required to be taken seriously. Yet an idea, however inspired or inventive, is a dead duck if it remains unaired, unconsidered by those who might be give it wings.
My idea is this: a challenge to the leading flat trainers to buy a yearling for under 5,000 guineas with all prize-money split between an equine charity and the Injured Jockeys Fund, the horse to be sold at public auction at the end-of-the-season, with the sell-price split between the trainer (his or her training fees for the period of the challenge) and the surplus split between the two charities.
My reasoning is thus: the top flat trainers, and I would hope the likes of Coolmore, Godolphin, the Gosdens, William Haggas and similar top-ten trainers would embrace the challenge, only train blue-blooded home-breds or horses sold for six-figures or more at auction. It would be interesting to see how they would cope with a cheaply-bought yearling that would almost certainly have issues be overcome for it to be successful on the racecourse and whether being trained alongside classic and Group horses could substantially improve its prospects.
Also, if a good number of trainers would embrace the challenge, it would generate interest and provide a sideline narrative throughout the season. Trainers are by nature a competitive breed and they all will want to earn the greatest amount of prize-money with their cheap buy. Would it not be intriguing if Aidan O’Brien and Godolphin were locked in battle not at Royal Ascot, Goodwood or a classic but in trying to win more low-grade handicaps so they can ‘get one over’ their friendly if closest rivals?
Also, the challenge would be about raising funds for important charities to the sport, linking the horse and jockey in charitable endeavour. A dull Monday might be given a more intriguing narrative if one or more of the trainers’ taking part had runners in a low-grade handicap at Redcar, Chepstow or Southwell.
The top-end of the sport can be too serious at times, the intensity of trying to win the major races masking the friendliness of the rivalry, with the value of their horses and the ‘investment’ of fabulously wealthy foreign owners presenting an image to outsiders of the sport being a bean-feast for the few. This challenge would add an air of difference and because of the charities at its sporting core, mainstream media might be tempted or persuaded to switch its cameras in the sport’s direction.
I had it in mind to approach the Racing Channel with the idea but if I decide to take it further, I think the Racing Post might be the direction to go in. Not as a contribution to the letters’ column, which is my usual method of trying to have my opinions aired publicly, but as an e-mail to Tom Kerr, the editor. I’ll doubtless be ignored. Tom Kerr is yet to respond to any of the e-mails addressed to him personally. But all I can do is try and if my first approach gets a big fat zero, I’ll pen a letter to the writers’ column. Failing that I’ll try the Racing Channel. There is the grain of a good idea here; I just hope someone of influence recognises its potential.

​I shall start my review of Paul Donnelley’s latest book ‘Firsts, Lasts & Onlys’ by addressing a mistake he made on page 209. I admit, I make too many mistakes and I beat myself up for it. The difference, though, between my glaring faux pas and that of, in this instance, Paul Donnelley, is he is a professional, sales from his books pay his mortgage and as more people will read his work, he will be far more scrutinised than I shall ever achieve. I do not receive revenue for my contributions to the subject matter and I do not have the guidance and help of an editor or proof reader. The error committed by Donnelley is, I believe, both minor and yet worthy to be confronted. 
In discussing Harry Ormesher, ‘the only Page 3 photographer to breed a Derby winner’, he mistakenly claims that Blakeney, the Epsom Derby winner in 1969, sire of the dam of Sir Percy (bred by Ormesher) was named after Sir Percy Blakeney, the hero of Baroness Orczy’s 1905 novel ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’. Perhaps the author was displaying his literary knowledge – I could not have named the author of ‘the Scarlet Pimpernel’ or its central character – but Blakeney, as was Morston, Arthur Budgett’s other home-bred Derby winner, named after a village in Norfolk.
Having got that off my chest, I can praise this very useful reference book. Firstly, and all important for sales, it has a pleasant appearance and is tactile to handle. It is also pocket-sized, not that I would carry it around in a pocket as I wouldn’t want to curl the edges of the cover page. It is perhaps more a book to be gift-wrapped and presented to a friend or family member with a casual interest in horse racing, rather than it is a book to be read by someone with an intimate knowledge of the sport, as it is page-to-page filled with interesting facts, which you would expect from the title. ‘A truly wonderful collection of Horse Racing Trivia’, as is claimed on the front cover.
Paul Donnelley, I suggest, is not himself a racing man as he has an almost O.C.D. fascination with the times horses achieved in winning races, a topic that is not given too much coverage in the aftermath of a race unless a course record was achieved. He also repeatedly made reference to how many horses died in Grand Nationals, which grated on me more than a little bit. I wouldn’t expect the author to champion the race but as the remit of the book was firsts, lasts and onlys, surely only the first horse to die in a Grand National should have been worthy of mention.
Paul Donnelley did recognise that Mary Francis was more responsible for her husband’s Dick Francis thrillers than the ex-jockey whose fame as an author far exceeded his fame as the rider of Devon Loch and that Dick wanted his wife’s name to be on the front cover beside his own. Kudos.
He also states that Moifaa, the New Zealand-bred winner of the 1904 Grand National did not survive a shipwreck. Buy the book for explanation.
And finally, some of the racing phraseology used by Donnelley – ‘awarded champion jockey’, rather than won the title, got on my wick - is that of someone with only a passing knowledge of the sport and he might have done well to have had someone with horse racing in their veins to proof-read the manuscript before publication. Though, on reflection, perhaps it was more honest of the author to allow his readers to know the limit of his racing knowledge, after all, authors who write about murder do not necessarily need to have committed murder to pen a good read.  
On This Day:
In 1877, the dynasty of the Aga Khan’s stud and racing organisation was created by the birth of Sir Aga Sultan Muham Shah, the 3rd Aga Khan.
In 1895, Pebbles won her final race, the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Aqueduct. She liked a pint of Guiness in her feed every day, apparently.
In 1989, former Royal trainer, Dick Hern was voted Man of the Year by the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation. 
In 1991 Arazi claimed everlasting fame by winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile by 4-lengths, with ease, a most unlikely outcome at every other stage of the race bar the final furlong.

​The flat season in Britain resembles, figuratively speaking, an expensive dress shirt when it first comes out of the washing machine. You can feel the quality of the fabric, even when it is crinkled, if not a mite deformed. But once dried and ironed it returns to its neat, showy best.
There is so much quality in the British racing calendar that it is done no justice by the almost apologetic way it opens each spring and by the ragged manner of its conclusion. Tomorrow is the beginning of November, the traditional start of the core National Hunt season, yet we still have flat fixtures mingling with both jump racing and the all-weather, with abandonments to flat meetings a common occurrence through the latter days of October and the early knockings of November.
Why couldn’t the flat season have ended last Saturday with the final Group 1 of the season, the Futurity at Doncaster? Why not run the November Handicap – yes, it was still October but what is in a name these days – alongside the Futurity to make it a more interesting card? Why must the flat season be dragged out to the point when it seems flat fixtures are just a road block put in place to deny National Hunt the limelight of television exposure?
It is the same with the all-weather. Though a traditionalist at heart, I have come to accept that all-weather fixtures play a significant part in the structure and financing of British racing. I dislike the slow creep towards giving all-weather more and more listed and minor Group races as all-weather tracks were instigated to prop-up betting revenue during those months of the year when National Hunt fixtures in particular were most likely to succumb to the weather. I see no point to the Winter Derby and believe all-weather finals day is a waste of precious resources and takes focus away from National Hunt at a time when the season is building to its glorious climax.
If I held any influence in the sport, I would make the all-weather a season within itself, separate from the flat season, with its own jockeys’ and trainers’ championship, with wins and prize-money not included in the various turf championships. I would have no problem with one all-weather fixture a day but only rarely more than one. And I would have a month in the summer without any all-weather fixtures to give the all-weather season a beginning and an end, with perhaps one valuable fixture on the last day for presentation of all the various championship trophies.
Neat, clean and defined edges to the seasons. Not messy as the flat turf season has become and removing the obscurity of beginnings and ends.
I would like to see the Grand National run earlier in the calendar, not as late as April 15th as it was last season, with Doncaster’s Lincoln meeting (see what I mean about what’s in a name? Lincoln is in Lincolnshire, not Yorkshire.) opening up with a bang, not as a whimper as has become the situation since the Lincoln lost all its prestige when it was inexorably linked with the Grand National as part of the Spring Double.
The Grand National should be staged on the Saturday before the start of the flat season, with the National season ending at Aintree. It’s all about peaks and valleys and at the moment both the flat and National Hunt seasons end either at the bottom of the valley or a distance from the peak. The F.A. Cup culminates at Wembley, not at Watford. The Wimbledon finals culminates on the Centre Court, not on Court 14. 
I have laid out my ideas for the Lincoln meeting many times before. In essence I propose the Lincoln would regain its notoriety in the sport, plus attract outside attention, if it were to be as it used to be, a 40-runner race started behind a barrier, to mimic the way the Grand National still holds elements of its history and to give flat jockeys a taste of what it was like for their forebears when there were no starting stalls. I would also have 5 or 6 other valuable handicaps on the card and design an I.T.V. 7 type bet around the day with a guaranteed first-prize of half-a-million quid in an attempt to focus the eye of the public on our sport for at least a day.
To wrap-up: the National Hunt season should start a week after the Grand National, with a month’s break in June or July, and should end on the day the Grand National is run. The flat should begin one-week after the Grand National and start with a bang and not a whimper and finish with the Futurity and the November Handicap run on the same day. The all-weather should be an 11-month season with a break in May or June, culminating with presentation of the various championship trophies, with no winners achieved during the season included in the actual jockeys’ and trainers’ championships.
Neat, clean and precise, with no messy edges. I rest my case.

​Be honest; do you think the Grand National is suffering death by a thousand cuts? Sadly, that is my opinion and I am beginning to believe it would be grace-saving if Aintree and the B.H.A. simply announced the date when the last-ever Grand National will be run as it would be more dignified if the sport itself buried its jewel in the crown in the annals of sporting history rather than allow its ignorant detractors achieve its ghastly ambitions. 
What Aintree, Suleka Varma, the Jockey Club and the B.H.A. do not comprehend due to their impulsive need to protect not a race but its cash-cow, is that every change to the race they implement, every time the distance is altered, the number of runners reduced, the threshold rating raised or the fences lowered or moved, they are empowering protestors to protest longer, harder, to up the ante and cry crocodile tears down more lenses of more cameras. And after the Jockey Club’s success in the courts to ensure the Epsom Derby was run without incident, it will annually cost the Jockey Club a similar amount of money to achieve an uneventful running of the Grand National.
When you have both the moral right and the law of the land on your side, you stand firm and link arms, you do not run for cover, hold long meetings in order come up with a plan that on the surface does not look like a white flag or a white feather.
What is much more to be feared, now that Aintree intend to respond year-on-year to any of the many eventualities that might occur during the race, is that come the next equine death, the next pile-up caused by a loose horse or a horse refusing, they will be obligated to make more changes, if only cosmetic and unlikely to put right what was the latest thing to go wrong and look bad in front of the camera. It is death by a thousand cuts. It is the sport kicking itself in the ball-sacks yet again. Ginger McCain and Red Rum must be turning somersaults in their graves at the adulteration of the race they lived-for!

The current whip rule is yet another example of the sport’s administrators slapping themselves on the back for a ‘job well-done’ while ignoring the obvious criticism that banning jockeys wholesale after a big meeting only achieves the populace idea that jockeys must be carpet-beaters and animal abusers. The problem now, as I see it, is the topping-up procedure. It doesn’t matter what went before Ascot’s Champions Day, the trivial violations of the whip rules perpetrated by Frankie Dettori, his sixteen-day ban is evidence to our distractors that the sport turns a blind eye to their perceived view that horse racing’s only use of the horse is for monetary gain and jockeys are allowed to get away with ‘animal abuse’ to achieve the greatest profit.
If Group 1 races are to be treated differently to all other races, jockeys who exceed the maximum number strokes of the whip or if they use the whip incorrectly, bans imposed should apply only to Group 1 races, including the classics. If jockeys were to be banned from riding in the next six Group 1’s or ten or sixteen, the loss of earnings and kudos would be more keenly felt. The only other option is to disqualify the horse so that the owner and trainer also feel the pain. The issue of the whip, as with the Grand National, is causing death by a thousand cuts. I remain convinced the only solution to the problem of public perception is to reduce the whip to ‘one hit and that’s it’ or to remove its use altogether. At present, all we are achieving is nothing at all, just as it was before the whip was seen as any sort of a problem.
And to circle back to the Grand National, one change Aintree could have implemented that would have gained approval from our distractors, would be to stop jockeys using their whip after the last fence. Very few horses run on strongly after the last fence, with most running on empty. The unedifying sight of a jockey using the whip to urge on a very tired horse is grist to the mill of those with the ambition to see evil where is evil is not present and does little inspire the rational observer to fall in love with the sport.

One final comment: in time, given he continues to smile and stays away from alcohol, drugs, the wrong food and naughty women, the jockey the public will next adore, if not in the same ebullient way as Frankie, is Billy Loughnane. One of the leading trainers, perhaps John and Thady Gosden or Michael Stoute, should snap him up as in the next two or three-years he is going to take William Buick’s championship title away from him. Perhaps next year! He is of that calibre.

​In this pathetically woke world created for us by who knows whom or for what devilish purpose, I might be guilty of hate speech for what I am about to point out. One short aside, the word ‘hate’ has now been redefined to mean anything your enemies want it to mean. Soon ‘I hate sugar in my tea’ will be considered ‘hate speech’ against those who prefer to take their tea sugared. Rant over.
I promise you, I am not xenophobic in any way and I am not envious of those who have greater wealth than I have. I pity those who have less but have no beef with those who have made a better stab at life than I have achieved. Yet a quick look at the leading owners on the flat in the Racing Post yesterday told a stark narrative of the sport in this country. What success British racing achieves both here and overseas is due in no small part to foreign owners and their blue-blooded studs.
Godolphin, Shadwell, Amo, Juddmonte, Coolmore, Sheikh Mohammed Obaid, Coolmore, King Power, Coolmore, Coolmore, Wathnam, Marc Chan, Yeguada Centurion, KHK Racing, Qatar Racing, Sheikh Juma Dalnook and the HRH the Aga Khan all appear in the owners table top twenty. The only owners left out of that table are Cheveley Park, Fitri Hay and the Hughes/Rawlings/Shaunessey partnership that own Shaquille.
Coolmore, the real largest earners in Britian this season, appear in the list three-times as their horses are registered in different combinations of Tabor, Smith, Magnier, Westerburg and Brant. All the above, of course, employ British people, with many of their studs located in this country and they should be both thanked and congratulated for racing their bloodstock in this country and for the success they achieve. Without them, British flat racing would be in far more perilous state than it finds itself at the present moment.
I cannot claim that it was never like this in the past. Flat racing in Great Britain has always relied on overseas investment in the sport. At present, and for a good few years, that investment is coming form the Arab States, in times gone by it was U.S. patrons and before that members of the Indian royal families and its aristocracy. British racing still holds great prestige and influence around the world, its history, perhaps, envied by the countries who can provide greater prize-money but who cannot trace their history back beyond the 1900’s at best.
We no longer have the likes of Lord Derby or Lord Roseberry playing pivotal roles in the sport now occupied by the ruling dynasties of the Desert kingdoms. That is neither bad nor wonderful but it is a trend that seemingly will not be reversed in my lifetime. Is there anyone born and bred in this country planting the seeds that in time may fruit and establish a British owner at the top of the owners’ tree or least competing with owners born and bred overseas?
I am not xenophobic. It would just be nice to witness a British-bred, Brirish-owned Epsom Derby winner once in a while. The days of Morston and Blakeney seem so long ago their Derbies might have been filmed in Black and White.

On this day, October 25th:
In 1881 the U.S. bred Foxhall completed the Autumn double, the Cambridgeshire and Cesarewitch, ridden on each occasion by Jack Watts.
In 1949, the man who invented the Totalisator, died in a plane crash in Maryland.
In 1967 the last race-meeting look place at Le Tremblay. It is now an airport.
In 1992, a celebration of the life of Prince Monolulu took place at the pub bearing his name in Maple Street, London. He was Abysssinian by birth and was best known for his cry ‘I gotta horse’ at the Epsom Derby. 

​When I suggested in a letter published by the Racing Post that Frankie Dettori and Ryan Moore were the best flat jockeys of my lifetime, I got pretty-well rounded on by several diehard Lester Piggott supporters who could not countenance any debate on the matter. It is a subjective opinion, of course. They believe one thing; I believe something different. I was not in any way knocking the legend that is Lester. Only a fool would criticise the talent of a man with a career record like his and who dedicated his life to be able to ride at the weight flat racing demanded. How much more would Lester have achieved riding today, with top-weights in handicaps and the weights in Group races being so much higher than in his day? He might have afforded himself two-slices of unbuttered bread first thing in the morning rather than the one legend tells of him.
The difference between Lester, Frankie and Ryan, is about style and grace, for me. Although Lester could sit as quiet as a mouse on a horse, especially when riding the classy horses of Vincent O’Brien, think Nijinsky or Sir Ivor, compared to Frankie and Ryan he was a steam train, all-action and forceful persuasion, his whole body galvanised to extract the 100% effort needed from his mount to change certain defeat into barely believable victory. Frankie, in particular, is grace in the saddle personified. His body barely moving as he gains lengths on his opponents by keeping his mount balanced, gently persuading rather than demanding 100% effort, use of the whip kept to a minimum.
As with Frankie, Ryan Moore has no need to get in the car and attend the races seven-days a week, an advantage most of his colleagues would like to possess. It is my opinion that Ryan edges Frankie in the ‘greatest-ever’ category only because I detect fewer riding errors, not that Frankie can be accused of that oversight this season.
What cannot be denied by anyone, even if the Frankie farewell circus has become an overpowering narrative this season, is that no one will ever be able to fill the void in the coming flat seasons that the great man’s departure for California will leave. He is irreplaceable and that is no exaggeration. 
The boy coming through who will, I predict in time, become the next ‘best-loved jockey by the public’ will by Billy Loughnane. If he keeps his nose clean and maintains his weight at where it is now, he will be champion jockey in the next few seasons, perhaps even as early as next season. Though next season may be too early in his development as a jockey and adult, by the end of next season he will riding as stable jockey to one of the big stables, though I hope if Amo come calling his advisors will guide him in a different directions as it obvious along with a fat retainer comes mighty pressure. And if capable young jockeys like Rossa Ryan and Kevin Stott couldn’t stand the heat, it would be folly to throw a wide-eyed, smiley Billy Loughnane into the cauldron.
Remember, when the pressure heated up for Frankie last season, he, too, exposed himself as only human.
Returning to Frankie. Would anyone be surprised if Amo offers Frankie a retainer to come over to Europe next season to ride King of Steel in all the big races he will be running in? I doubt if any jockey outside of Dettori, Moore or Buick – neither of them have any pressure on them as they have no need to prove their big-race ability – would have won on King of Steel at Ascot. I have been an admirer of King of Steel since the Epsom Derby and predicted that as a 4-year-old he would rule the roost, but I think he was flattered in the Champion Stakes by running past very tired horses, rather than winning by superior speed.
The genius of Frankie was better demonstrated by his ride on Trawlerman. It is a given that on very soft ground it is rare for a horse to be able to make up the sort of ground, for example, Trueshan was given to do. I am not being critical of Hollie Doyle as I suspect the horse was never travelling particularly well and Alan King did say he would be held up, rather than make the pace as he did in France last time. I also believe Trueshan needs a trip in excess of 2-miles these days to seen at his best. But as with everyone else, she was a long way off the pace on a horse with stamina to burn.
I see no reason why Trueshan should not be campaigned over hurdles this season. If he jumps okay, there are plenty of races to be won with him, even if they decide to skip the Stayers Hurdle at the Festival to preserve him for the early staying races on the flat. If he has lost his sparkle, he is going to be a long-time retired if they do not give him a chance at a second career over hurdles.

​Yesterday afternoon, while the rain prevented me from taking my daily constitutional, I exercised my mind in some off-the-cuff research into the Grand National from 2008 to 2023. I wanted to gain a dispassionate insight into whether the alterations to the Grand National since 2012 has made the race safer for horse and rider and if jockeys were riding from the start to Bechers any differently, to prove my belief that there is more scrimmaging at the first three fences than in the past.
My conclusions are not based on science and others might take a different point of view as the approach of jockeys seems to remain fairly similar to post-2012. What I can say with assurance is that not one of the alterations instigated to ensure a safer race have proved effective and in fact the ‘easier’ Aintree try to make the race, the faster has become the speed of the race, a danger to life and limb in itself.
The one change to this year’s race that will perhaps might prove beneficial is starting the race mid-afternoon rather than at 5-15 pm to appease the national media. It was always a pointless exercise to water the course during the night when the sun had all-day to dry it out. Slow ground makes the race safer, even if fewer horses finish the race, than fast ground. Also, as Ruby Walsh pointed out in 2012 when the Aintree fences had the sting taken out of them, to make the race run at a slower pace the fences need to be higher rather lower. I was saddened to read, now that Ruby is employed in television, that he has retreated to the other side and congratulated Aintree for nullifying the appeal and history of the race even further.
I chose 2008 at random. I thought if I went back to the days when the B.B.C. televised the race and when there were fewer cameras used, I wouldn’t get a fair reflection and if I went back to pre-1960, when the fences were upright and black, it would be looking at a completely different race.
The years 2008, 2009, the whole width of the course was used, though in 2009 after the second fence the field became compressed between middle and inner. In 2010 the field were still spread right across the course at Bechers. In 2011 the field came together in middle-to-inner after the third fence, and again in 2012, though by Bechers they had again fanned out to use almost the whole width of the course. In 2013 the whole width of the course was used until going to the fifth fence. In 2014, two-years after changes were made in light of the accidents that caused two equine deaths in 2012, the field raced middle-to-inner from the second fence.
In 2015 the field were pretty well spread to Bechers, though at the fourth the jockeys on the outer had come towards the middle of the course. 2016 saw the field occupying the middle-to-inner from the second fence to Bechers. In 2017, for whatever reason, the field were spread right across the course until Bechers when they were middle-to-inner which resulted in several fallers.
In 2018, the outer was unused, with the whole field going to the second fence in the middle-or-inner of the course. In 2019, the width of the course was used all the way to Bechers which resulted in no fallers. In 2021, we were back to the middle-to-inner all the way to Bechers and again in 2022. In 2023, they were again largely on the ground between middle-to-inner, though a few did stay wide.
I did not want to concentrate on fallers or why they fell. In steeplechasing, there will always be fallers; it is inevitable and if horses and jockeys parting company were to be eliminated, like it or not, a good deal of the excitement would be lost, as well as 99% of the jeopardy. Some horses were either brought-down or baulked by jockeys lying on the ground after being unseated, a circumstance that is pure happenstance. 
I wanted to discover substantive prove that fallers, and fatalities, if I am honest, at the first three-fences, are as a result of scrimmaging due to jockeys starting on the outside drifting towards the middle and compressing the field. I did not find overwhelming evidence to support my theory that a draw be made to ensure 20-jockeys line up on the inside-to-middle and the other 20 (I remain committed to 40-runners, though this season 17 and 17 would be equally appropriate) from middle-to-outer, with all jockeys instructed to keep a straight line until after the third-fence.
In fact, the evidence provided by the race in 2019 has emboldened me to think jockeys should remain on a straight line until after Bechers, which with Bechers now so neutered there is no advantage or disadvantage for it to be jumped inner, middle or outer, might be the best and perhaps only method of making the race safer and a better exhibition of equine athleticism and jockey skill.
If Aintree are to make alterations on a regular basis due to outside criticism and inner nervousness, the race in ten-years will be as different to what it was in 1960 as 1960 was different in comparison to 1860. I do not want to see stone walls and plough but I do want to have a Grand National that is representative of the history of the Grand National. Once the sense of awe has gone, when jockeys approach the race as just another long-distance chase, the magic too will disappear and Aintree’s present custodian, Suleka Varma, will have left a legacy of despair and treachery in her wake. Personally, I do not believe she understands what the Grand National is all about. It is not simply a cash-cow for the industry and Aintree, it is a precious jewel in the crown of British racing.

​Let me begin by congratulating all of those who voted for Frankel to top the Racing Post’s poll to find Britain’s favourite racehorse of all-time. I have no sour grapes to eat as I had no personal connection to the four beaten contestants and I never believed Denman would finish any higher than fourth. My all-time favourite, Spanish Steps didn’t get past the first round, which was to be expected given how long ago he graced the racecourse with his indomitable presence.
No sour grapes, even if I was knocked sideways by Frankel topping the poll. On reflection, though, it was inevitable and though I don’t recall the price he was chalked-up at to win, I suspect it was very good value as he had the most recent form. He is also still alive, which was another advantage in taking home the prize to Juddmonte.
Make no mistake, this was a win for recency over long experience or nostalgia. I believe if Racing Post journalists were to go on to the streets of their home towns or cities and ask members of the public to name a racehorse from the past, the greatest majority would name Red Rum or Desert Orchid. I doubt if many would come up with Frankel or indeed Kauto Star and Denman.
I am not bitter at the result of the poll and nowhere near as baffled or appalled as the result of ‘The Greatest Race of All-Time’ poll when voters somehow thought, if only by the narrowest of margins, that Dancing Brave’s Arc victory surpassed the 1973 Grand National won by Red Rum from Crisp, where the first four to finish broke the existing course record! With Spanish Steps in fourth.
Frankel edged the poll and in no way do I intend to distract from his brilliance as a racehorse and stallion. But more than a part of his allure with the public was affection for his charismatic trainer Sir Henry Cecil, who would be odds-on favourite to win any poll to determine Britain’s favourite all-time racehorse trainer. The other advantage Frankel had was that voters in their mid and late twenties could remember all his races, most likely accompanied their parents to the racecourse to watch him race, some might have had the privilege to have touched the great horse.
Frankel is, and will remain, great, a legend of the sport. But I have lived through not only his career but the careers of the four great, and sadly now deceased, racehorses he defeated in the poll and believe me young people, Red Rum and Desert Orchid were by far more popular with the racing public than Frankel. Even now the names of the two chasers remain part of the nation’s vocabulary. Desert Orchid was even the first animal to feature on Radio 4’s obituary programme. He was genuinely a celebrity, as was Red Rum, and I know this is unfair as Frankel being a colt when he raced and a now a stallion worth many millions and could never be risked in an uncontrolled environment, but Dessie and Red Rum were so well-known outside of the sport they were invited to open supermarkets, fetes and High Street betting shops. 
The fault-line in this perfectly worthwhile poll was the edge recency had with voters. I doubt if there is anyone alive who saw Brown Jack back in the period between 1927 and 1934 but he was the Desert Orchid of his age and was revered by everyone from champion jockey Steve Donoghue to the shilling each-way punter.
Subjectivity should have been factored into the poll. Perhaps handicapping in some way, so that the most recently raced horses needed a greater percentage of the votes to win. Yes, this was a poll conducted as much to support and promote National Racehorse Week as it was an attempt to determine the racing public’s favourite racehorse and shouldn’t be taken too seriously or on face value. Yet, the result of this poll is now in the public domain; other media outlets may take it up as a two-minute filler and Frankel will forever be cited as the greatest horse – you know how the media twists facts these days to fit official narratives – ever to have lived, which will remain the legend even if City of Troy or any other horse proves on the racehorse to be his superior, however unlikely that might be. Horse racing exists on hard fact and, in my heart, I doubt the result of this poll is representative of hard fact.
My head and heart believe Red Rum and Desert Orchid to be slighted by this poll, their contribution, gallantry and charisma lost in the mists of time, the will of the young overcoming the experience and memory of the old.

​“It’s what I.T.V. racing has been doing all these years.” Matt Chapman said yesterday. He is correct. On a Saturday, I.T.V. highlights all that’s best in the day’s racing. In effect I.T.V. has been running a 4-year experiment to understand if highlighting the days’ best racing in a 2-hour golden slot will improve audience or racecourse attendance and though not a failure as sofa-attendance has increased to a degree, racecourse attendance remains in the doldrums and betting turnover, the main vector the B.H.A. wishes to see expand, is only going south due to outside forces.
When Kevin Blake quite rightly suggests it is the race programme that next requires attention, he is pointing the finger at the lower end of the sport. And Matt Chapman is right yet again when he says what is the point of shedding fixtures if racecourses then stage eight, nine or ten races per meeting. Reducing the fixture list and not allowing anymore than seven-races per meeting is the quickest route to improving competitiveness on a daily basis.
What no one seems all that bothered about is the increasing number of Group and listed races that only attract three and four-runner fields. Six were due to take part in the Group 2 at Newmarket yesterday and with two withdrawn due to the ground, only four fairly ordinary horses went to post. Non-competitive Group races should be excised and converted into limited handicaps.
There seems a belief that good quality horse racing is solely limited to Group races. Yet isn’t a blanket finish to a Grade 5 handicap exciting to watch for punters and viewers? Experts may get over-excited by a wide-margin win by a two-year-old at Newmarket, for example, but was it as eye-grabbing for the first-time viewer as a blanket-finish to a Grade 5 handicap? Which is more likely to attract viewers back to Formula 1, Max Verstappen starting on pole, lapping most of his opponents and winning by 30-seconds or a lap after lap tussle between two or three drivers with the final result unpredictable till the chequered flag is reached?
Group races have to be competitive as well as Monday-fare. The European Pattern Committee may have a hissy-fit at the suggestion but the number of Group 2’s and 3’s around the continent must be reduced to increase both competitiveness and prize-money.
I am beginning to believe that the sport could do worse than to invite Matt Chapman to run British horse-racing for a limited amount of time.

City of Troy looked special in the Dewhurst but please do not get carried away with the superlatives until he has won a classic. Remember all the other ‘jet-engined’ superstars from Ballydoyle, and elsewhere, that were given markedly high ratings going into winter and then bombed-out as three-year-olds? Also, do we really know the strength of the opposition in the Dewhurst or if they will improve ten-lengths when raced again on firmer conditions? Frankel was not an expression of greatness until he won the 2,000 Guineas – against poor-quality opposition – and beyond. City of Troy looks exceptional but he also might have reached his peak and that others, perhaps stabled at Ballydoyle, might improve with racing next season. Keep the superlatives bottled until next spring or summer.

On This Day: and to prove the validity of my argument above.
In 1982 Gorytus trailed home last of 4 at 1-2 favourite in the Dewhurst. He, too, was touted to be the next superstar of the sport.
In 1990 Lester Piggott had his first comeback ride since his retirement 5-years earlier, finishing second in a photo-finish. At the same meeting, Walter Swinburn rode 5-winners.