​There is something wrong when a trainer withdraws a horse from a race for no other reason than it is drawn wide, as happens so often at Chester. Firstly, trainers should be fined no matter the reason given if they withdraw a horse that is drawn wide at Chester, other than when a vet on duty at the course issues a certificate confirming the horse is lame or unwell.
Secondly, something should be done to undo the unfairness in the draw at Chester and other racecourses where horses are routinely withdrawn because of an unfavourable stall position. What if horses drawn widest, say the three outside stalls, receive a 2Ib allowance, and those in the next two stalls a 1Ib allowance. Would this incentivise trainers to take their chances?

The Osbornes go big pot hunting at Pimlico next Saturday and I for one will have my fingers crossed that they come home with the laurels. Heart of Honour had a good time of it out in the desert regions of the racing world throughout our winter, finishing 2nd in the U.A.E. Derby. The Preakness Stakes, I suggest, is a whole different kettle of fish and Heart of Honour must raise his game a notch or two to be in the mix, yet I dare say we were all saying the same when Jamie sent Toast of New York to the Breeders Cup Classic, finishing an honourable and perhaps unlucky runner-up. I dare say having a female jockey riding in one of America’s classic races will attract a lot of media attention and I hope that Saffie is interviewed as much after the race as in the preliminaries. 

Rather like a government that can plead poverty when cutting benefits from the elderly and yet can muster twice the amount of money for a pet project, British racing is about to spend £3,600,000 on a marketing campaign to boost the image of horse racing to an apathetic public. In being critical of this initiative, ‘The Going Is Good’, I am not suggesting that all is rosy in the racing sector, only that less money spent more wisely might produce better results. Also, £3-million of the Levy Board funding for this project would be better spent propping-up prize-money or to speed-up the building of separate changing facilities at racecourses for male and female jockeys.
As I have proposed down the years, free entry to people living in the postcode for respective racecourses would be good start. Free bus travel from train stations to the racecourse. Free tickets won on local radio. Family fun days to emphasise that under sixteens get in free. Remind people that there is only one Royal Ascot and the sort of clothes mandated for that meeting do not apply on any other day’s racing. In fact, no restrictions on what clothes are allowed.
I have no more expectations for this marketing campaign as I did for the previous one. Or any that went before it. This is a prime example of the B.H.A. pushing a proposal for the sake of making it look like they are doing something, that they are on the ball.

When I come across a facet of racing history new to me, I like to share it. In reading a large tome entitled ‘Royal Newmarket’, written by R.C. Lyle, the man who wrote the story of the great Brown Jack, and illustrated by Lionel Edwards, R.I., I came across the name of the jockey who took on the mantle of retained jockey to King George VI when Joe Childs retired. John Crouch. He was obviously destined for great success, sadly, though, in 1939 he died in an air crash on his way to Newcastle to ride a horse for the King.
I cannot recall the name of John Crouch before the reference in this book and felt I should pass his name on to people in case his name is the answer to a question in a pub quiz or similar. My next query, of course, is whether Hector Crouch is related to him. Or even Peter Crouch, though that seems less likely.

​Whether the B.H.A.’s ‘Race Deletion Policy’ is good, bad or indifferent, to me, is not the point. I understand the frustration of trainers when a race is abandoned due to only 3-horses being declared as it must be maddening for owners to have good prize-money dangled before their eyes, especially if the horse has failed to earn prize-money all season, only to have the race scuppered by the B.H.A. due to the uncompetitive make-up of the race. Yet in the case of Stratford, the feature of the story in the Racing Post today, to ensure a six-race card a competitive 12-runner handicap hurdle has been divided into two-divisions, neither of which are particularly competitive.
I do not believe the ‘Race Deletion Policy’ is the problem. The problem in need of a solution is too much racing in a month of the year when good-to-firm ground can be expected across the whole of the country. Today there is racing at Huntingdon and Stratford, both of which could be described as Midland racecourses. Yesterday they raced at Newton Abbot, Kelso and Fontwell. Friday there is racing at Hereford and Market Rasen and on Saturday racing is scheduled for Hexham, Warwick and partially at Haydock. Stratford, Warwick and Hereford are within walking distance of a fit and healthy man and their proximity to one another must allow local trainers to pick and choose where to run their horses, whereas if only one of those courses raced this week field sizes would be substantially larger.
At this time of year, jumps meetings need to be scarcer. It is the only method at our disposal to ensure competitive racing. The B.H.A., instead of a ‘Race Deletion Policy’, should have a ‘race planning policy’ to ensure the races scheduled fit the type of horse in training during the next few months of the year. The ‘Race Deletion Policy’ is an acceptance of defeat in many ways and is certainly not pro-active but reactive, a knee-jerk approach to a problem easily solved if racecourses did not have the persuasive power over all other stakeholders that form the governance of our sport.

I believe, and I stand corrected if I am wrong, but I do not believe Racing Post journalists who write-up the in-running reports and analysis of the day’s racing attend racecourses but watch from their London offices on t.v. screens. I often wonder how accurate their summaries are. For instance, the Cheshire Oaks yesterday – Kate O’Riley, ridden by Saffie Osborne, was said to have ‘weakened final furlong’. Yet she was headed by the first three to finish between the 3-furlong and 2-furlong pole and then stayed on like a horse in need of 2-miles. She did not weaken, not to my eyes and I would imagine her connections were far from disappointed by her run.
I often read highly negative comments when in fact a horse has run well for a long way into a race, only to be beaten by superior horses. These reports should not involve flattery, of course, but the words written by journalists enter the form-book and remain racing gospel for ever more. I am quite sure some owners are quite pained by what is written about their horses and at a time when everyone within the sport should be encouraging owners to stick with the sport.

Kieran Shoemark being demoted by the Gosdens’ is not a good look for the sport. From ‘having Shoemark’s back’ only a few weeks ago, John Gosden has humiliated a good young man and hung him out for further ridicule by the losers who frequent social media solely to stick knives into the reputations of people who do the best they can every day of every week at the coalface of life.
Will Mikhail Barzelona get the heave-ho by Godolphin, too. He admitted he should have waited longer on Shadow of Light and might have won if he had done so. Shoemark was defeated in the 2,000 Guineas by circumstance. If Buick had to alter course from the dip, if a horse came across him, if Shadow of Light had been asked to quicken closer to the winning post, Field of Gold might have won the way he was ridden. Beaten jockeys are always wrong, so it is said. But that does not imply they should be persecuted for it. I am quite sure Ryan Moore and Frankie Dettori also make similar decisions in races such as Shoemark made last Saturday. I am sure every beaten jockey comes in after a race wishing they had made different decisions during the race. Shoemark has been hard done by. I hope he has the last laugh at some point this season.

So far underwhelmed by the classic trials. It is a no from me about either Minnie Hauk and Lambourn and will be following the careers of Lazy Grift and Caspi Star with interest. But not in the classics.

​I like quirky. For instance, I use a chamber pot as a fruit bowl and I keep what at some point down the years were important documents in an ammunition case I found on the shore-line of our local river. Which is why Chester is my favourite non-National Hunt racecourse. A few years ago, an enterprising clerk-of-the-course staged trails to see if Chester was suitable for holding hurdle races, which, as that has not yet transpired, suggests the overwhelming answer from the jockeys’ taking part was a unanimous ‘hell no!’
Chester is, as we all know, Britain’s oldest racecourse, with the Romans having held racing back in the days when the sons of Jesus could have attended. Or his grandchildren. The fog of long ago is so dense that no one can know who attended, who backed all the winners and whether racing was as poorly governed as the B.H.A. of today. As a devotee of Time Time, I can report that the Romans did not so much govern the people as govern local people who governed on behalf of Rome. So, the set-up back then for racing thriving or surviving was as unlikely to succeed as racing’s modern-day governance set-up.
To return to topic. Chester is considered a good testing ground for Derby and Oaks types and many an Epsom classic winner has begun their rise to stardom in the Dee Stakes, Vase or Cheshire Oaks. The main race of the 3-days is, of course, the Chester Cup, which for all the world can look like a sprint for stayers, with position, position, position, a mantra equally as persuasive as location, location, location. Usually, the ground is on the soft side for Chester week, though this year it is likely to be on the fast side of good. Strangely, returning to the classic trials, if Chester is such a good place to judge whether a horse is a likely Derby or Oaks type, would anyone be in favour of running the two classics at Chester if Epsom were to be unfit for racing for any reason? I would say no, with Sandown perhaps favourite to step in.
But that is what I like about Chester, along with its history and Roman walls, hand-in-hand quirkiness and hospitality.

Shocked to read that Evan Williams, one of my favourite trainers, was in court yesterday to plead not guilty on a ‘grievous bodily harm’ charge. If he were not of the ‘Christian faith’, if you get my meaning, I would have no cause to worry on his behalf as all he would get is a slap on the wrist and advice by the judge to stop being a naughty boy. My hope for Evan and his loved-ones is that he is found innocent and can continue to head-up his family-run business.
And, of course, this latest shock follows on from the news that a jockey was involved in a serious car accident a week or so ago in which his passenger suffered a ‘life altering injury’ and he (I am supposing it is a male jockey) was subsequently arrested and released on bail. If I was on-the-ball, with a fully functioning brain and with a liking for detective work, through a process of elimination, I might come up with the name of a likely suspect. But I cannot, as they say down here in Devon, ‘be arsed to bother myself’. So, as with anyone who was ‘arsed’ to read this, I will have to wait until the Racing Post next covers this story.

I remain wedded to the proposal that female jockeys, especially female N.H. jockeys, should continue to receive a 3Ib allowance in all handicaps until fifty-winners after they have lost their conditional riders’ claim. I also now believe that they should receive an extra 2Ib added to their usual claim until they have ridden 50-winners. Discriminatory, yes. Unfair on male claimers, yes. But somehow the male/female divide in the jockey ranks must be bridged.
I will give two woolly examples of why I think the sport needs to take a similar path to the French racing authorities that already gives female professionals an allowance, though not in major races. Elizabeth Gale rode a 66/1 winner at Ffos Las yesterday, The Wire Flyer and at Fakenham Tabitha Worsley won on a well-backed favourite. Both these women rarely ride a horse with an obvious winning opportunity, which, at the moment is something, with the exception of Lilly Pinchin, applies to all female National Hunt jockeys. As a collective, females are not getting the rub of the green and all the budding young female riders now and in the future will see the situation and receive the impression that the tide, no matter how hard they try, will always be against them. Rachael Blackmore is an outlier and should not be taken as proof positive that the game is fair to both sexes. She remains the only Irish female professional National Hunt jockey apart from a handful of girls who struggle between them to get more than an occasional single ride per week. When Blackmore is gone from the scene there is no one in either Britain and Ireland likely to replace her. Her success actually muddies the picture for other female riders. Her spectacular success does not inspire owners and trainers to give other females more than fleeting opportunities.
Females must prove their worth the same as their male counterparts, yet it is obvious that owners and some trainers have a bias in favour of the male gender and they must be given an incentive to give female riders the opportunity to prove themselves on better quality horses and at a higher level than the lowest-rated horses in minor races which is their collective lot at the present time.

​There is always the call for the sport to better sell itself, yet Bank Holidays are not seen as prime dates in the calendar to do exactly that. The Bank Holiday just gone was a tame affair, though one would hope the smaller courses that comprised the day’s activity attracted good sized attendance. But why was it not considered to move the Guineas meeting into the Bank Holiday slot, even if the two classics remained on the Saturday and Sunday? Why open the meeting on the Friday when they might conclude the first major meeting of the flat season on Bank Holiday Monday?
When a Bank Holiday coincides with wet weather people will be more likely to stay at home and with terrestrial television offering the same old, same old, these days, here is a great opportunity for I.T.V. to promote the sport. By the same token, why must the Swinton Hurdle be on the Saturday following the Bank Holiday rather than on Bank Holiday Monday, which would make both a great double feature with Newmarket but also would show-off the two divisions of the sport to the couch-bound public.

In his Editor’s Choice feature which comes as an e-mail to subscribers, Tom Ellis bemoaned, quite rightly, the real possibility of betting tax rising to the same level as tax yielded on casinos and alike. He suggested that strong and influential leadership is required to stave-off this latest assault on our sport. Some hope there, Tom, given that the sport does not have the benefit of any form active leadership.
I sent a quick e-mail off in response, suggesting that Tom research the World Economic Forum’s ‘Great Reset’ proposal for reforming and reframing the world and the people in it, of which it only takes a quick glance to realise there will be little room in this new ‘Utopia’ for sporting activities that involve horses as all animals would be looked upon in a similar manner to old age pensioners – uneconomic eaters using up the Earth’s finite resources.

A Global League Challenge has bean announced involving a dozen of the world’s leading jockeys. Unlike other similar ideas, this one does seem to have been well-considered, though the aspiration that the dozen races around the world would not coincide or do damage to the Pattern race programme seems optimistic.
It is hard to imagine this series of races involving horses below classic and Group class can be anything other than valuable handicaps, which seems to be similar to Formula 1 drivers being asked to drive road cars to determine the World Champion. Also, how can they arrange a programme of a dozen races staged on different continents and for one or some of the jockeys not being compromised. Will Buick, for instance, is the retained jockey for Godolphin in Britain – what if he is required by his retained stable to ride in an important classic or Arc trial on the same day as a Global League race is being staged? Given through the summer there are major races, if not every week, on weekends either in Britain, Ireland or France, jockeys like Buick and Moore will have to honour their commitments to their retained stable over races that are, in all truth, all about themselves.
It is an intriguing idea, though I doubt it will succeed easily as ‘commitments’ might prove obstacles that cannot be overcome unless substitutes are worked into the proposal.
Also, though lip-service is paid to including female jockeys sometime in the future in this proposal, why could they not stage a parallel Global League for the top female professional jockeys around the world?

It is good that there is an attempt to draw attention to the Epsom Derby this year, though I suspect a 72-hour declaration stage and a draw for stall position taking place in a cinema will cut the ice and get peoples eyes popping with anticipation. The Epsom Derby may be high on every jockey and trainers wish-list but as a sporting event it has slipped a long way down the ladder as far as the public is concerned. To my way of thinking, the demise was accelerated when the race was moved from the tradition of the first Wednesday in June to a Saturday. So, move it back, give people an excuse to take a Wednesday off work. Also, field sizes are on a gradual descent to single digits and that removes fascination, intrigue and interest, especially if Aidan O’Brien has half the field running for him. Look back to the fifties, sixties and seventies when two-dozen runners were the norm. Yes, many of them were no-hopers but at least it gave the opportunity for office sweepstakes and each-way betting.
The product is not the same as it was in its heyday and that must be admitted before half-baked ideas are put forward as solutions to a race that once was looked-upon as a national institution but is now seen by the majority as an anachronism, a pageant for the top-hat brigade, a parade of unfamiliar and often foreign sounding names.
In the face of wokism and the whims of the ignorant, the sport is slowly but surely destroying its jewels. It has happened to the now less than grand Aintree National, and without malice but with the false belief that the Epsom Derby remains ‘the greatest race in the world’, it too is sliding towards sporting and national irrelevance. 

​The decision by France Galop to continue refusing to allow geldings to run in the Arc is ante-racing and a gift to the breeding industry.
Surely, the whole premise of horse racing as a sport is to discover the best horse at all the varying distances and divisions. Why ban geldings and yet allow fillies and mares to take on and possibly diminish the stud prospects of the best colts? And that is the nub of this ban; protecting the interests of the top studs. If Goliath (pronounced goalie-ath) were to beat the winners of the English and French Derbies, for instance, Goliath’s value would remain zero to the breeding industry but also the value of the three-year-old colts that finish behind him would also drop. Worse still for top breeders, what if a gelding were to win the Arc multiple times, year after year, stallion-owners would all take a financial hit. That is what the ban is in place for. The status quo. 
That to have a champion kept in training on the flat kept in training year after year would be popular with spectators and racing enthusiasts is not even a consideration. It is self-interest before the interest of all.

British trainers go home with 8-winners from Punchestown last week, including a Grade 1 courtesy of Lubamba and numerous placed horses. And the winners were spread around different trainers, which is also something to shout about. It was also good to have both Nicky Henderson coming home with a couple of winners and his stand-in jockey James Bowen. The emergence of green shoots, albeit in a foreign field, should not be dismissed as too little too late as all the wealthiest owners have their horses based in Ireland, so for British trainers to go there and record 8-winners demonstrates that horses can be trained equally successfully on our side of the Irish Sea.
The other point of interest to come from Punchestown was that Willie Mullins was winning handicaps as well as Grade 1’s, which might be a sign of things to come.

The main feature in today’s Racing Post is a reflection on the ‘Stable Servants’ (yes, that was the term for grooms fifty-years ago) Strike that saw unprecedented scenes on the Rowley Mile, with demonstrations, Willie Carson pulled from his horse and whipped (his own whip, apparently), the 2,000 Guineas started by flag and a J.C.B. used to gouge large holes in the precious turf.
The past is a different country, as someone once said. In 1974 the Trade Union Congress began a campaign for the minimum wage to rise to £30 a week. Stable Servants, because that is what they were back then, were supposed to be paid £28 a week, though it was widely known that some trainers refused to pay even that amount.
Trainers refused to even negotiate, not wanting to pay for the increase as it would entail asking their owners to pay them more for training their horses. Even the affable Henry Cecil was indignant about the strike, eventually sacking the lad that should have led-up his 2,000 Guineas winner of that year, Bolkonski.
I remember at the time thinking it a bad look for the sport, stable staff preventing racing from going ahead, walking away from the horses they were supposed to love and cherish. Yet from the perspective of now, I realise their cause was just and eventually, and this is again a bad look for the sport, only eventually, stable staff are now better-valued and seen as a team and not simply a work-force. I doubt if we are where we are now because of the infamous strike but it demonstrated to the world outside of our sport, that ‘the them and us’ stance taken by trainers was unenlightened and flawed. The industry lost a good many top-class staff due to the strike, with trainers reneging on the agreement to take back those lads who chose to enforce their civil right to a fair wage. The strike was a dirty business, yet it began a cleansing process. But it is a reminder of what can happen when the sport’s rank and file is taken for granted. Stable staff are the equal of both owners and trainers. Though the horse is king and that too should be remembered by all.

​Remember Sprinter Sacre. We must all, today of all days, remember Sprinter Sacre and his rise from the ashes of imminent retirement to providing us with, especially me, one of the greatest comebacks in racing history. Nicky Henderson worked the oracle in 2016 and we must all hope he can resurrect Constitution Hill in a similar manner in 2025/26.
Yesterday evening, Constitution Hill jumped the first flight of hurdles as if he has been running over fences all his life. Of course, he has not seen birch hurdles for a very long time and that first hurdle must have come as a surprise to him and that was doubtless the reason for his extravagance. It is possible he is fed-up with hearing his critics criticise his jumping technique and that first leap was his way of saying ‘suck on this, suckers.’ I doubt it, though. He is by all accounts too nice ‘a person’ for either rude gestures or to frighten his connections unnecessarily. 
I had expected James Bowen to allow Constitution Hill to bowl along, yet he seemed prepared to have Paul Townend boss the race in the way he bosses all the races in Ireland when minded to take command of the pace. For most of the race I was content with how Constitution Hill was jumping. He was perfectly placed to move-up to challenge State Man, yet it all fizzled out after a minor error at the third last (?) and it was a sad sight to see him finish fifth of six, though once victory was gone James Bowen dropped his hands and allowed his mount to saunter home in his own time.
I admit, I was shocked by the result. Even more shocked by the hapless performance by the former champion hurdler. And we must remind ourselves he is a former champion, and only once a champion. He dominated the hurdle scene for one season, with State Man now the present-day king of the hurdling division.
Strangely, after the shock of the race, my thoughts turned not to Henderson, Buckley, Bowen or de Boinville but to Matt Chapman. Matt has tied his colours to the white mast of the ‘unbeatable Constitution Hill’, ‘the greatest of all-time’, and now must take the flack for being so wrong and on so many occasions. Whether Paddy Brennan will receive an apology, I doubt. Though even I feel pity for Matt.
I somehow doubt anything will be found amiss with Constitution Hill and I hope they abandon the idea of going for the Ascot Gold Cup. The Queen Alexandra, possibly, though I would prefer the horse to have the summer off, though with an hour or so on a horse walker to prevent him arriving back at Seven Barrows in early autumn too chubby, as is, I believe, normally the case.
I remain steadfast in my belief that Constitution Hill should be schooled over fences in preparation for an early season novice chase campaign. Two runs over fences would demonstrate if he has a future as a chaser and jumping obstacles that require his full attention might rejuvenate his enthusiasm. Also, they could still run him in the Christmas Hurdle to gain an understanding of his position as a Champion Hurdle prospect.
What must be remembered is that Constitution Hill was bought as a Cheltenham Gold Cup possible and everything he has won thus far can be considered a bonus. It is quite natural for a horse to lose his speed as he gets older and acquire stamina in its place. I would not suggest that he has the stamina for a Cheltenham Gold Cup but he would surely fit the profile of a King George or Ryanair winner.
Yesterday was too bad to be true. Though it might be a true representation of where they are now with Constitution Hill as a Champion Hurdle contender. Yet Sprinter Sacre fell further down to earth than is so far the situation with Constitution Hill and yet in 2016 he rose from the ashes to win a competitive Champion Chase, his reputation enhanced. If Nicky could achieve magic on that day, he can do the same this time around. I just hope Nicky tears up his personal rule book and takes the brave root to repatriating Constitution Hill to superstardom.

​If someone had predicted at the start of the season that neither Nicky Henderson nor Willie Mullins would win the Champion Hurdle, we would have all scoffed at the lunacy of anyone who might believe in prophesy. Well, it is good no one did make such a prediction as it is helped my 50-50 belief in the occult remain in the sea-saw position of Schrodinger’s cat. 
Yet here we are at the final meeting of the Irish season with Constitution Hill and State Man looking for redemption for their antics at Cheltenham, Constitution Hill doubly so given he played the same falling-over trick at Aintree, and with the current Champion Hurdler, Golden Ace, with nothing to prove, given the fortune the racing gods rained down on her back in March.
Obviously, I would love Golden Ace to prevail again, though this time with the big two staying on the hooves. But how likely is it that Jeremy Scott will be wearing that bemused smile this time around? So, who will win this showdown at the finest racecourse in the world. Yes, I have decided Punchestown should win any future poll for the greatest racecourse in the world. Not the prettiest, not while that quarry blights the bucolic nature of the place, nor the easiest viewing for spectators. Just simply the best.
As the Bowen boys can do no wrong at the moment, it would be easy to go for Constitution Hill, so I will. He is the best around when it comes to hurdles, even if he has now proven beyond doubt that he is not the best jumper of hurdles, and he is certainly not the best of all-time when it comes to champion hurdlers. But he is the best around. 
But this is State Man’s home turf. He is reliable, does all that is needed and not a jot more and it will only take one fluff from Constitution Hill to give him the advantage. Yes, he too fluffed his lines at Cheltenham but greater horses than him have taken a purler at the last hurdle. Think Annie Power. Fingers crossed, though, it has to be Constitution Hill, hasn’t it? That is the bump in the road with this race, the two main contenders have questions to answer, with no current form to provide any clues to the outcome.
Then there is Kargese. Can she be ruled out entirely? She is trained by the equine magician who has spent this week defeating himself with third and fourth strings.
The other two main events this week have proved easy for me to decipher. I could not see how either Marine Nationale and Galopin Des Champs could be beat. This time I can visualise Constitution Hill both winning on the bridle and falling at the last when upside State Man. I can visualise State Man kicking for home off the final bend and Constitution Hill failing to get past him. I can visualise both Golden Ace and Kargese pulling off a big shock win with the big two trailing in their wake.
I hope, above all else, that all six-runners finish the race.

If Constitution Hill does win, which I hope he does, it will cap a great week for British-trained runners at Punchestown. Harry Derham and the small stable of Michael Smith started the ball rolling on the first day, with the winners continuing yesterday. British-trained horses, and this is usually recorded when talking about Irish-trained horses at Cheltenham in March not British-trained horses at Punchestown in April/May, had four of the first five finishers in the 3-mile handicap hurdle, with the Henderson trained Jeriko Du Reponet reversing Cheltenham form with his stable-mate Doddiethegreat, with the James Own trained One Big Bang third and the Harry Fry trained Beat the Bat fifth. Previous to that race, Petit Tonnerre won the 2-mile handicap chase for the O’Neills and the underappreciated Richie McLernon. And to top off a good day for the Brits the Alan King trained Baron Noir won the I.N.H. flat race from the David Maxwell ridden El Cairos, trained for him by the Moores, Gary and Josh and the Hobbs/White trained Kilwaughter third. Long may this period of handicap-type giant-killing continue.

​If Galopin Des Champs had not won two Cheltenham Gold Cups, his record at Punchestown would be deemed quite acceptable. Today he runs in the weakest chase he has ever run in at Punchestown, and quite possibly anywhere else. Spillane’s Tower may possess the potential to be a classy steeplechaser but, in my humble opinion, he is not a Gold Cup winner-in-waiting. Banbridge was a good winner of the King George but we must face up to the truth, there were no true Gold Cup horses in the race. Perhaps Monty’s Star has not lived-up to expectations and his trainer has been more out-of-form than in-form for the major part of the season and he might, just might, have it in him to put it up to Galopin Des Champs for a short while. But there is only one winner and that is Galopin Des Champs. He will win with his head in his chest. Stop complicating matters.

The Ascot Gold Cup will prove another royal romp for Kyprios. My only hope for the race is that the ground will be soft enough for Trueshan to finally get a go in a race where his untold stamina still gives him a chance of glory, Not that at the age of 9 he is going to win the race. It is just that a horse of his following and ability deserves to have at least run in the race.
The surprise entry, at least to me, is Constitution Hill. Again, it is beyond my imagination to form a case for him winning the race or even, if I am honest, being competitive, and the whole exercise is to bring to fruition a long-held dream of owner Michael Buckley. And why not have a go. You never know the ‘Golden Ace’ effect may come to pass. Stranger things have happened, even on the flat. The horse has had only one hard race all-season and since that comeback win at Kempton all he has done is doddled round Cheltenham and in the process gave us a hint of what was to come, followed by an early fall in the Champion Hurdle and another tumble two-out at Aintree. His appearance at Royal Ascot at least gives National Hunt fans something to look forward to this summer.

You can understand Willie Mullins considering sending Ballyburn back to hurdles next season. Given he has many other possible Gold Cup contenders lined-up for next year, he has no need of Ballyburn in that division. Trained by anyone else, and I mean any other trainer in Ireland, Britain or France, he would be the star of the yard and he would very much still be on course for the Gold Cup. Willie Mullins has no need of such dreams. Although he has not set the stage alight this season, I would like to see Ballyburn given one more go over fences before transferring to the 3-mile hurdles team.
Willie Mullins, like Nicky Henderson, has no love for the Betfair Chase, yet given Haydock’s propensity for providing soft ground it seems to me the perfect setting for Ballyburn to determine his future.

Marine Nationale is a high-class two-mile chaser but I would be surprised if he were to go on and win three Champion Chases as his owner/trainer, Barry Connell, predicted after his ‘horse of a lifetime’ firmly put Fact To File in his rightful place, and that is in the staying division. Although Marine Nationale is reliable jumper, the two-mile division is knife-edge stuff, where one mistake at the wrong time in a race can be curtains. I do not immediately see a real rival to Marine Nationale but at this point in his development I would have no confidence in him even defending his title next season, let alone putting together a very rare sequence of victories.

Somewhere in the season, perhaps as a late spring festival, before the good horses are packed-off for their summer break and the hunter chasers still have one run left in them, British racing should consider a Punchestown-type 3-day festival. It is the mixture of the quirkiness and the quality that makes Punchestown unique and we should try the same. There is only one Punchestown, obviously, and only Cheltenham over here has a cross-county course but that should not prevent something similar being achieved on a British racecourse. The largest racecourses in Britain have golf-courses in their centre, so perhaps if such a meeting as I propose is given the green light it will have to be staged at Cheltenham.
I am not suggesting more Grade 1’s need to be invented. But why not valuable handicaps, a few conditions races, mixed with hunter chases, cross-country races over varying distances, with one of them the feature race of the meeting. It is an idea and put out there for someone to take up the baton and run with it until someone is found to take the proposal seriously.

​Remember when a good few racing experts were calling out Fact To File as the next Cheltenham Gold Cup winner after he beat Galopin Des Champs in the John Durkin? And do you remember how quickly he became dubbed ‘disappointing’ once Galopin Des Champs had gained his revenge not once but twice? Now, after one spectacular win at Cheltenham, in a sub-standard Ryanair over 2-mile 4-furlongs, he has become a superstar, tipped to beat the current 2-mile Champion Chase winner (again, not the best 2-mile Champion Chase of recent years) at Punchestown this evening over 2-miles. He might win; he will certainly finish second. But can Willie Mullins have got this horse so wrong? He looked all-over a stayer as a novice, yet now he is a speed horse. Really.
Given how the Cheltenham Gold Cup played out this season, I am in the camp that believed Fact To File would have been right there in the mix. That said, Willie Mullins has got wrong Gaelic Warrior wrong this season. He is not a soft-ground 2-mile chaser but a sound surface 3-mile chaser. Who knows, if he got out of bed with a smile on his muzzle, he might put a hoof up to his trainer by winning the Gold Cup next season.
So, I am in the Marine Nationale camp today. It might even be the only Grade 1 at Punchestown that does not go to Closutton this week.

The dominance of Willie Mullins in Ireland really comes home, even when he often has more horses beaten in one race than another top trainer has horse running in all the races on the card, when you realise that in Ireland he has achieved a 25% strike rate. Think about it; he will often run 4, 5 or 6-horses in any one race, and yet his dominance is so profound that come the final meeting of the season he has a 1 in 4 strike rate.
Paul Townend has not only run away with the jockeys’ championship but he has achieved the trophy with less rides than many of his rivals. His strike rate is a whopping 37%. Patrick Mullins has a strike rate of 33%.
It would be interesting to know what Vincent O’Brien’s strike rate was when he was winning the Irish and British trainers’ championship.

When our racing journalists are critical of changes to the Cheltenham Festival, with some still wanting to return to 3-days (as I believe would make sense while the pool of available top-class horses is as low as it is at present, and then only for a limited number of years) or decry the out-dated National Hunt Chase becoming a handicap and not restricted to amateurs anymore, or any of the other moans and groans that come from the pages of the Racing Post, I always compare Cheltenham to Punchestown, the National Hunt Festival of Ireland.
The first race on the first day of the Punchestown Festival is a Cross-Country Chase over the banks for amateur riders. Later in the week there is a hunter chase restricted to horses owned by local farmers and Ireland’s longest race is the prestigious La Touche, a banks race that is such a speciality that a 13-year-old was able to win it last season. There are also innumerable bumper races amongst the Grade 1’s. Punchestown is an all-the-fun-of-the-fair sort of meeting, a genuine championing of all that is good about Irish racing, the reason why National Hunt retains its popularity in the country of jumping’s origins.
We need to stop being so sniffy and Grade 1-centric; all horse races are horse races and if you took away the labels and the importance we as humans build into some races and not others, we might just enjoy our sport for what is and not what we imply it is. There is great pride to be had in winning the Farmers race or the La Touche, every bit as much, perhaps more, even, than winning any of the Grade 1’s.
One thing is for sure, Willie Mullins will not be winning either the Farmers race, the La Touche or the opening race of the meeting. And that gives others the opportunity of a small moment of the limelight. Perhaps we should leave a few spaces at the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival that Willie and his rivals cannot occupy.

​If I seem overly negative at times, it is because I want this sport to succeed, to thrive, but mostly I want it to survive long after my death. Horse racing has been the central pivot of my life and what sanity I have is due almost entirely to the love and fascination I have for the sport. So, when I criticise the B.H.A. and the stupid governance structure that hide-bounds the sport to the whims of stakeholders with only their own interests at heart, I do so with the very best of intentions. The members of the B.H.A. board and all participating parties of the governance structure have other avenues of life to entertain them, I only have horse racing and because of that singularity I believe my love and concern is the greater.
The sport navel-gazes too much for my liking. In his e-mail to subscribers, the Racing Post’s editor Tom Ellis bemoans the lack of coverage the battle between Willie Mullins and Dan Skelton received in mainstream newspapers. At this moment in history, when so many want to rewrite history and twist society out of shape, to mock the Christian God by suggesting there are more than the two sexes he created (lower case h as I am an atheist and only use the Christian Creator when it suits my cause), we are better-off left in the sporting shadows. You can be certain that if a high-profile equine fatality should occur at Epsom, Royal Ascot or Goodwood the sport will be written about, just not in a way that would see us in a good light. Let sleeping dogs lie, Tom, and carry on doing the excellent work of the industry editor. The good human-beings that are Willie Mullins and Dan Skelton can remain our secret.

James Bowen schooled Constitution Hill over 8 (I think that is correct) small schooling fences yesterday and all went swimmingly. Of course, the headline in the Racing Post suggested this might be a clue as to where the future lies for Constitution Hill, though Nicky Henderson was keen to stress that the ground was too firm to school over hurdles. I took this to mean the baby fences were erected on an all-weather surface and was not a measure to have Constitution Hill pick up his feet and to respect the obstacles in front of him.
Whatever, I do hope that during the months ahead Nicky, Nico and ‘Buckers’, as Matt Chapman refers to Michael Buckley, have a sensible debate about schooling Constitution Hill over fences in the autumn with a view to novice chasing next season. As he gets older, it will become increasingly harder to repel the younger horses coming through, and with his reputation already tarnished, why not give fences a go as the slower pace of chasing might allow Constitution Hill to stay 3-miles and then the Gold Cup dream of Michael Buckley becomes a possible reality.

Funny how doors close for one person, while another opens for someone else. Emma Smith-Chaston plans to take-up media work as her second career, which begs the question how many ex-jockeys can be gainfully employed by either the racing channels or mainstream broadcasting. Once upon a time commentators, pundits, paddock experts and presenters were all working journalists, now those positions are being taken-up by ex-jockeys.
In today’s ‘Grapevine’ section of the Racing Post, attention is paid to a 19-year-old, who only rode her first winner recently, planning to go conditional for Nicky Richards next season. Ella McGarry spoke in the interview in the manner of someone with the right attitude, talking of wanting to be a ‘good jockey’, not simply a jockey.
The cohort of female jockeys in this country has curtailed quite steeply in recent years, especially in the north, with even the excellent Charlotte Jones seemingly slipping from the scene, so the addition of Ella McGarry to the professional ranks is helpful to the cause. 
I go on a lot about female jockeys but as I keep saying, 50% of the world are female and in the world in which we live it would do the sport no harm to have a greater percentage of female jockeys, especially at the top level, than we have at present. Rachael Blackmore, Bryony Frost and Lizzie Kelly have proved that given the class of horse required, females can compete in Grade 1 races. Given that one of the three mentioned has retired, one has had to relocate to France to try for greater opportunities and the former must be coming to the end of her career, the debate over whether female professionals should receive an allowance, as they do in certain races in France, should be reignited.