​Mental state much improved and now taken-off ‘suicide watch’. For no apparent reason I bought a kettle yesterday, which I said I would collect, believing yesterday to be Saturday when it was Friday – no point telling you that as from getting out of bed to retiring for the night you knew it was Friday – on Monday. But as it is now properly Saturday there is no reason why I cannot collect it today. As I said, mental state much improved. Crossed-fingers!

The heterosexual male may think he could watch a parade of nude women for twenty-four hours straight, with, of course, bathroom breaks and trips to the fridge, but he could not; he might leave the t.v. or laptop on but his mind would wander after the first half-hour. Within certain parameters a naked woman is a naked woman is a naked woman. This is why ‘Super Saturday’ has no ‘super’ about it. By three-thirty yawns will outnumber thrills by two-to-one.
There are today eight race-meeting across Britain and Ireland, five in the afternoon and three in the evening, highlighted by the July Cup at Newmarket, with supporting cards at York and Ascot. It is overkill. Far too much for a hot day in July, and at a time when hose-pipe bans are coming into force, and that is a mighty lot of irrigation required to provide ground that nature would like to see as firm with hard patches but will be good or good-to-firm at all eight racecourses. Less is more, a sentiment that even a pervert would agree with.

Something Alice Haynes said to Nick Luck last Sunday has resonated with me all week. I was surprised to hear what she said, believing she would favour the complete opposite. In fact, I thought Alice Haynes to be a font of commonsense and I hope Nick has her back on the cheap-looking sofa soon. In her opinion the flat season starts too early and ends too late. Given my belief that the race programme should be torn-up and re-designed to fit the world we now live-in, with careful thought given to reducing the miles horses, jockeys and trainers must travel in any given week and ensuring that two racecourses within hailing distance or one another do not race on the same day, I can only applaud her radical thinking.
To my mind, the flat and National Hunt should have a core six-month season, the flat from May through to October, N.H. from November through to April, with all the major races run in those chosen six-months. That is not to say there should not be turf flat racing in April or November or no National Hunt in October or May. In fact, I am quite sure that some flat racecourses could stage flat racing in February and December, which would be beneficial to trainers with horses that require soft ground, and I am not advocating there should be no ‘summer jumping’. But why not ‘winter flat’?
But the flat season should have a major season opener on May 1st, though not the Lincoln as that could be held in the ‘off-season’ in April. April could be a period of ‘classic trials for the first four classics. Given these races are preparation races for the season ahead, I see no reason why they should have a prize-fund above £20,000 or be considered group races. They are a means to an end, that is all.
The Guineas would herald the start of the flat season proper with the two classics run as close to May 1st as possible. The Derby and Oaks in the first week of June and Royal Ascot at the end of June. Then it would be festival after festival through to the end of October, with the season proper ending with ‘Champions Day’.
The National Hunt season proper would begin on the first Saturday in November at Cheltenham, with the month of October given over in the main to ‘trial’ races for the major races slated for the months of November and December. The season should end with the Aintree National meeting in the last week of April.
The above, of course, is not so much a template for the future as a pie-in-the-sky proposal that has as many flaws as the present race schedule. It might, though, serve as a starting-off point for a general discussion on providing the sport with defined beginnings and endings for both the flat and National Hunt. 
All-weather meetings should be scheduled for the times when they are most needed and not be an integral part of the schedule. As I have said many times, the all-weather, though it serves a useful purpose, is part of the problem we have when it comes to sorting-out the uncompetitive nature of our sport. Less all-weather in the winter months could and should funnel more horses into National Hunt, even if it is at the lower levels, and less all-weather in the summer months would improve field-sizes on the turf. But that too is pie-in-the-sky thinking. (Why pies in the sky?)

​State of mind today – not quite sound and steady, too focused still on my phobia (bordering on panicky or even a form of psychosis) of I.T. and all of its tendrils. And yet I am still here, at the battlefield, nerves frayed, trapped in my bunker. This, my friends, is the way to madness.

I am, as I have admitted, a bit xenophobic. Especially when it comes to the French. Yet I can still rise above my unhealthy prejudices and give praise when the jolly foreigner deserves to be praised. France Galop – they will be so relieved – have earned my praise for their ‘Chevaux dans le Ville’, which, I believe, translates as ‘Horses in the City’ a festival that will take place at the Place de la Concorde in Paris on Sept 5th and 6th. 
It is a celebration of the racehorse and forms the central rallying point in a campaign to persuade Parisians to visit one of the capitol’s racecourses and to parade before their very eyes the undeniable beauty of the racehorse. When I read the headline in today’s Racing Post, my mind went straight to the hideous concept of street racing. Thankfully, this event is more of a pageant, with a replica parade ring in which retrained ex-racehorses will strut their stuff. There will also be a ticketing booth where people can purchase what you would expect from a ticketing booth for upcoming race-meetings. I hope it is a great success and that the B.H.B. and its marketing division get their asses in gear and come-up with a similar idea. Horses in the Park, perhaps.

In his Friday column in the Racing Post today, Chris Cook pulls no punches in his analysis of Anne Marie Caulfield – a supporter of the ban on betting advertising between the hours of 9 am and 9 pm on all media outlets in Ireland, and only a fool could disagree with him. The stupidity of her argument is highlighted when the ban even extends to the dedicated satellite racing channels. The world has gone mad, with mad people in charge of the madness.
Not that Chris Cook is 100% correct. He is rightly concerned that racing in Ireland will lose sponsorship from the leading bookmakers, let alone the racing channels kept afloat by betting-led commercials, if this ludicrous proposal becomes enshrined in law. Caulfield is belittled by Cook for saying. ‘I do think there are other opportunities and a way forward to be explored’. And there is, you know, a way forward where racing in Ireland and here in Britain could grow rather than shrink if only the great and the good of the sport were to think with radical intent. The solution, I believe, lies in a little thing, the driving force for horse racing in so many other, and more successful, racing jurisdictions, called a Tote Monopoly!

Today is the 36th birthday of Rachael Blackmore. What her plans are for her future is for her to know. I only hope she is not gone from the sport forever. We owe her a debt, and somehow I feel we (that really should be them, whoever ‘them’ happen be) owe her an apology for not recognising her talent until she was as close to thirty as she is now to forty. Because of her the professional female jockey in Ireland is no longer an impossibility and hopefully her legacy will blossom and other females will come to grace the winners’ enclosures around Ireland.
This is a watershed moment for female riders both in Ireland and over here. Blackmore is retired, with only Anna Macguinness appearing to be the only contender for the Blackmore spotlight. Bryony Frost is also lost to us, with no other female rider on the horizon to take up her mantle. And with Elisabeth Gales making a name for herself on the flat at the moment, she will also undoubtedly be lost to the jumping game.
As things stand, Lily Pinchin is now the top female National Hunt jockey in Britain and Ireland. With her medical condition, she is, I suspect, a complex character, not though without personality and certainly not without ability in the saddle. Charlie Longsdon does his best to promote her with rides but for her career and the good of the sport, she needs to be supported by many more trainers.

​Today’s mental state is rated poor, having purchased McAfee antivirus software and being incapable of installing it, thinking, stupidly, though consistent with my lack of knowledge of the subject, it would automatically be installed. Instinctively I wanted to run away and play at the river’s edge but have forced myself to write. Truly, if it were not for my reliance on the website and the Racing Post I would get rid of my laptop and have nothing whatsoever to do with the internet and all that comes with it. I have already rid myself of mobile phones.

Paul Kealy, apparently, was not as impressed with Ryan Moore’s ride in the Eclipse aboard Delacroix as the rest of us. Quite rightly, as Ryan Moore himself said in an interview, Kealy suggests it was the horse who was the hero, not Moore. Horse racing, though, is a partnership on so many levels, but especially between horse and jockey. There is no doubt that Moore had a willing partner and even when having to ditch plan A and all other plans that came to mind during the race, Moore remained calm when so many other jockeys would have panicked and started pushing buttons too early to be successful at the pointy end of the race.
Of all the ‘experts’ at the Racing Post, I judge Kealy to be the better when expressing his views. He is highly readable and we need not pay heed to his selections to enjoy his thought-process. Tom Segal gets all the praise, yet Kealy, to me, is more valuable to the Racing Post and should be consigned more opinion pieces. If David Jennings can play tipster, surely Paul Kealy can step outside of the tipping columns and stand in occasionally when Lee Mottershead is away on holiday or on an overseas consignment. 
Ryan Moore, though, was at his very best on Delacroix, despite Paul Kealy’s view.

Also in today’s Racing Post, Alan Sweetman makes a very good point about t.v., and perhaps satellite coverage of our sport. As he observes, horse racing is very much about victory and defeat, and as I have said before, the beaten can be just as imperative in the outcome of a race as the winner, offering the viewer an insight where their races were lost, and why the choices of punters went down the swanee.
Flat jockeys do not seem so cooperative after a race towards I.T.V., with perhaps their loyalty to the owners who employ them preventing them from giving the public nuggets of truth as to why they were not winners. It seems to me I.T.V. (I do not know about the dedicated satellite channels as I do not subscribe) lose valuable time in talking with the beaten while they wait for the winning horse to return from pulling-up, giving us every angle of a finish, often when there is no need for any sort of clarification. Rather like coverage of football that seems we want to see a goal twenty-times over, even if it means missing the restart of the match. 
I would like to also add that the Racing Post really need to give some thought to interviewing, if not highlighting, jockeys and trainers who work their socks off, have small successes, yet rarely take part in the big races. If we want our sport to resonate with the public, we need to get it out there that jockeys and trainers are human like you and me and it is only the top dozen or so who do not have to worry about getting the monthly bills paid on time. Frankie Dettori was often featured in the Racing Post, yet we rarely learned anything new about him. It is the same with Will Buick and James Doyle, two obviously great people but have we not heard all about them by know. It is the same with any of the top jockeys you choose to name, even if the National Hunt boys tend to be a bit more entertaining. Give me a feature on, for example, someone like Faye McManaman (I have spelt her name wrong – a professional would look it up. Which I have done but cannot locate her name) or Richie McLernon, or Kevin Stott or, well, you get my drift. And do not, if this should ever happen, stick with the obvious. Do as the excellent Adam Macnamara does on his Jockeys Podcast, probe a little, ask dainty personal questions. Adam, for instance, always asks about his interviewees (he talks to his guests rather than interviews them. So refreshing) love-life, which often makes them blush. Saffie Osborne went from pink to red when she was asked about her love-life.

​Present state of mental acuity – depressed. Considering applying to be made a ward of court or have my other half take out a power of attorney to protect me from financial embarrassment. As far as modern life is concerned, I am not fit for purpose.
Let us crack on.

Sorely troubled by the prices paid in the auction ring for racehorses. Compared against what might be guessed to be the value of classic and Group I winners, a great number of fairly average horses are selling for inflated figures that to the outside observer would make them think that the racing industry is in tip-top shape, which it is not.
Yesterday at Tattershall July Sales a horse named Humam sold for 190,000 Guineas on the strength of having won 3 minor races, including last time out at York. He is Racing Post rated 91 and is related to Vadream, Mirage Hero and Midream, all half-decent, though way below top-class. Humam originally cost 260,000 guineas, so can be considered a disappointment on the racecourse, and before that he had been pinhooked for 230,000 guineas. This horse has so far achieved 680,000 guineas in three appearances in the sales ring. Why? I doubt if he made a profit for the pinhooker, even with 3 victories, I doubt if he made a profit for the vendor and there is a long haul ahead of the new owner if Humam is to pay back his purchase price this time around.
3 other moderate horses reached 6-figures at Newmarket yesterday, Rose Arbour who went for 170,000 guineas, Spring Lantern 150,000, Jorge Alvares 150,000 guineas. Yes, I realise that the purchasers of these horses may be trying to buy into blue-blooded pedigrees but I do not believe this is a good look for the racing industry as a whole and at a time when we are pleading poverty in light of the government’s proposed hike on betting tax. Yes, the value of anything is what someone is prepared to pay to acquire it and breeders, at least outside of Coolmore, Juddmonte and Godolphin, do not always make big bucks every breeding season. But breeding, as with betting, go hand-in-hand with horse racing and it sticks in the mouth a little that the owner of an ordinary racehorse would have to win up to 10-races on the all-weather to pay his or her expenses, yet the sales market, at the top level, remains buoyant to the point of obscene if compared to the struggle to remain financially viable of trainers, for example.

I ask this question: when was the last time a trainer was banned for 32-weeks for a doping ban? In the past, trainers were excluded for life. Recently, though, the B.H.A. has become more lenient when it is clear the trainer was not liable for the offence. So why did little known Hannah Roach, formerly assistant to John O’Shea, twice winner of the Aintree Foxhunters, receive a 32-week sentence yesterday for the administration of Lasix to a horse that ran in a point-to-point? I am sure there is a back story that only those in the know have access to, and perhaps that is why the B.H.A. applied the lash rather than a sympathetic hand on the shoulder.
This was a first offence and Roach was only in charge of John O’Shea’s stable while he was recovering from heart surgery and he spoke in her defence, even though she no longer works for him and has had little contact with him since her departure. O’Shea even admitted that Roach was directed by him when the Lasix was administered. As the point-to-point season does not begin until November, the point at which the ban takes effect, Roach’s ban is not 32-weeks, close-to the length of the point-to-point season, but also from now till November. It seems harsh justice and as with so much on the fringes of the sport it is not a good look for horse racing.

Soon it will be the King George VI & Queen Elisabeth Stakes. Firstly, the title needs to be shortened. It is a mouthful, unlike the Arc, The Derby, the Gold Cup, etc. Why not the Queen Elisabeth II Stakes, with Memorial added to separate it from all the other races here and around the world named in her honour. Also, it is worth a staggering £1.5-million in prize-money and yet on perusal of the possible runners it might not attract less than 8-runners, depending on how many of the Ballydoyle entries take part and if they choose to use a pacemaker. There might be 1 French runner, perhaps 2 if Sosie takes part, with half the field likely to be from Ireland. No entry from Japan or the U.S. Is this race value for money. Would the half-million part of the prize fund be more beneficially awarded to other Ascot races, the Gold Cup, for example? The K.G. & Q.E. is not the Arc, it is simply the Coronation Cup at a different racecourse and with an obscene amount of money thrown at it in order to attract quality runners from all around the world, which it is not achieving. Again, it is not a good look for a sport that pleads poverty on a daily basis.

​Peter Scargill, a writer of great racing knowledge and range, in the ‘Another View’ column of today’s Racing Post, reminds us of the horror that John Hunt and his daughter Amy has had to live through since the senseless, barbaric murder of his wife and Amy’s two sisters. It is a heartwarming piece and if read by John Hunt will remind him of the love and admiration there is for him within the racing community. It is a lovely piece – almost made this old cynic tearful – and I recommend people seek-out a copy of the paper or go to the Racing Post website to read for yourselves Scargill’s fine tribute to one of the country’s best commentators.

I try to refrain from commenting on racing politics, especially when the murky, sometimes actually corrupt Westminster political situation impinges on our sport. I am not competent enough to spread my take on what is going on, though I sometimes fail to quell the temptation to keep my two-penny-worth from being made public, as I am presently doing now. If you want up-do-date information on the ‘Racing Tax’ and other topics where government are involved, the man to go to is Bill Barber, the Racing Post’s Industry Editor. Another brilliant writer, even if his remit covers topics I find less than entertaining.
The problem I find with the coverage of the ‘Racing Tax’ affair is that I know it is just one of a thousand elements that form the pathway to the formation, perhaps decades away, though perhaps not, of a One World Government and natural extinction of aspects of life that unaccountable elites dislike or consider puts tiger-traps in their plans for population control, both in numbers and in restraint of freedom. If you care to research the World Economic Forum’s ‘Great Reset’ you will understand where I am coming from. Starmer has only 4-years to get the foundations in place so that there can be no going back for this country. As with the leaders of the other G7 countries, and perhaps all the major countries around the world, the idea is to borrow so much money from the World Bank and the (is it?) the International Bank of Settlement – this is why I should keep my nose out of such matters – that it can never be paid back. It is all about bankrupting all the major countries and those debts being wiped clean if those countries agree to a One World Government in which people are not permitted to vote on who sits in that world governing body.
Horse racing is home to large swathes of land, all of which is planned to be designated as needful to net zero and the sustaining of the human population. 15-minute cities. Complexes miles in length and a mile in height that comprise every aspect of life, malls, hospitals, gyms, etc. There is no place for farms, studs or racecourses in the Great Reset. And the countryside is to allowed to go wild, to be as it once was back when technology was all in brass and copper.

I find it hard to forgive trainers who make their name and reputation in the world of National Hunt and then transfer their allegiance to the flat, and that goes for the two O’Briens, geniuses as I acknowledge them to have been and in the younger, remains. It is how my heart is wired. Cut me in two and I hope my veins are inscribed with the words ‘National Hunt’ and the names of all the jumpers that have warmed my heart since the days of Arkle, Mill House and Persian War.

Two corrections. Firstly, and this is due to misspelling the name of the winning jockey in Sunday’s German Derby. It is Baltromei, not Baltromel. Secondly, and this is due to reporting what the Racing Post reported, Nina Baltromei is an apprentice, not an amateur. It seemed odd to me that she could ride against professionals, and in a classic of all races, as an amateur. It is now reported that she signed apprentice forms 4-weeks ago, and as a 27-year-old apprentice professional she is eligible for her 10% of the six-figure prize-money.

​I believe the rules of football need more change than horse racing. Yes, less racing would be beneficial to both the sport and for people wishing to attend as spectators and more imagination might be brought to bare by those who form the conditions of actual races to make races less formulaic. And apart from more sparing use of the whip, what goes on between the white rails needs, in my opinion, little to no alterations.
Where great minds coming together may bring about change in the public’s perception of our sport is in what goes on between the races. Some people choose a day at the races for the drink and alcohol consumption that is easily obtained, while others attend to engage in battle with bookmakers. Some people are at the races for no other reason than they are involved in some way with a horse running at the meeting. Different people choose to spectate at a racecourse for their own individual reasons and these people, our core supporters, must not be left behind in the mad dash for ‘doing what other sports are doing’. We are not an ordinary sport and cannot be aligned with cricket, golf, darts and certainly not Formula 1.
First, racecourses must engage their collective minds to increase and encourage patronage from their local community. And as Newbury have proved, when these people have come through the turnstiles they must not be bored with their surroundings. Everyone from toddlers to the walking stick brigade must be catered for to their satisfaction.
And if we want the outside public to give us thought, what must never be overlooked is our star players – the horses. Horses win Derbies and Grand Nationals much more than jockeys, trainers or owners. When a racing result is announced, though the racecard number may precede the name of the winner, it is always the horse that comes before the jockey, trainer or owner. Any great mind trying to solve the problem of ‘how we make ourselves more loved’ should always remember the order of preference and importance. Sometimes a problem can be overthought. Sometimes simple and obvious change is all that is needed to fall upon a solution.
Oh, an inconvenient truth from someone who neither lives in a racing hotspot or around racing people, the main reason people dislike being associated with horse racing, apart from fatalities, is a jockey’s reliance on the whip. If we either restricted use of the whip further – one hit and that is it – or banned its forceful use entirely, our demographic would increase in an instant. 

Nina Baltromel, an amateur – did not realise amateurs could ride against professionals on the flat in Germany – became the first female jockey to win a national Derby recognised by the European Pattern Committee. It is an achievement I always hoped would first occur in this country, yet the honour of breaking another of racing’s glass ceilings has fallen to Frau Baltromel riding Hochkonig.

The ‘Go Racing In Yorkshire’ campaign is up and running again this month and their community spirit template should be considered by racecourses linked by location to boost awareness and attendance. I have always argued that summer jumping should be organised around local festivals, with racecourses such as Worcester and Stratford, Perth and Kelso, Carlisle and Cartmel either staging joint meetings or as is the case with the Yorkshire racecourses, cooperating with shared tickets, and race-meetings in the same week or on consecutive days to allow trainers, jockeys and owners to cut down on travel expenses. It just needs the B.H.A. to rip-up the present calendar and start the schedule anew and to allow for more innovation from clerks of the courses.

Always saddened when a jockey is forced by circumstance to retire. The latest is Jordan Nailer who chose to go quietly. At least he is not entirely lost to the industry as he continues to ride out for trainers local to him and, as Greg Fairley has proved, he remains young enough to make a comeback if the hard-work of landscaping and gardening steadies his weight, the main contributing factor that has caused his retirement.

​Slight digestive disorder kept me from the keyboard yesterday, though I remain close to the edge due to the poor display by the Lionesses last night. Williamson and Russo can hold their heads high, though the rest of the team disappointed. While on the subject, the disallowed goal? The graphic showing the last line of defence – could you see Mead behind the French defender? How about a player can only be off-side in the penalty area? Or if we done away with off-side, we could do away with VAR.

Back on topic. I am not a fan of owners retaining a jockey. I much prefer a jockey retained by a trainer. Horse racing is a highly professional sport that is upheld and helpfully financed by very wealthy owners who in the main have no experience in either the management of a stable or how to ride a horse in a race. Trainers head-up a team that includes the jockeys who ride work on a regular basis for him or her and who ride the majority of the horses when they run. That team can only be fragmented when owner A has a retainer on a jockey outside of the team-players for any one stable, while owner B also retains his own jockey but may require him for a horse trained by another trainer.
I dare say the system that has evolved where wealthy owners retain their own jockey works for them but it must make the whole business complex when the trainer has to deal with several different racing managers who without being explicit would rather like the trainer to dance to the tune of their employer. Of course, if I had my wish and jockeys could only be retained by a trainer that would not have stopped Godolphin from insisting William Buick rode Ombudsman in the Eclipse on Saturday rather than Ruling Court, even if John Gosden employed a retained jockey. I just find it unsatisfactory when a top jockey is parachuted in for a ride that has been up to that point been the ride of someone else and who has done nothing to deserve losing the ride. I am probably wrong in this opinion, a sign of my old-fashioned approach to the sport, perhaps.

I am not sure if Ryan Moore is retained by Ballydoyle or by the lads of Coolmore. One thing is unquestionable – he is worth every single penny of that retainer. It is the mark of esteem he is held in by the Coolmore lads and Aidan O’Brien when the trainer makes the comment ‘I thought he would press on but you don’t obviously tell Ryan what to do.’ Ryan Moore could ride as he liked in the Eclipse and that included choosing to discard plans a, b and c for the simple reason that his job was not on the line if for whatever reason his chosen plan did not reap the reward of victory. Aidan O’Brien and everyone at Ballydoyle has his back and, of course, when Ryan’s decisions do not pay-off, which must happen occasionally, the team acquire knowledge, those data points that tell them what should not be done next time the horse runs. Delacroix won the Eclipse yesterday simply because Ryan was 100% confident in both his decision-making and his position as first jockey at Ballydoyle. It is a lesson many owners and trainers might want to learn.

Colin Keane expects to receive a 14-day ban this Tuesday for going two over the whip limit on Windlord at Sandown on Friday. He has held up his hands and taken full responsibility for a lapse that will most likely prevent him from riding Field of Gold at Goodwood in the Sussex Stakes. He should though be listened to when he said that it would make life easier for jockeys coming from Ireland if the whip rules in Britain and Ireland were harmonised. The ban will also take effect in Ireland, obviously, and the trainers and owners who Keane rides for will also be affected. So, is it not in Ireland’s interests to harmonise their whip rules to make life easier for their jockeys when they come over to Britain to ride?
I also take the opportunity to emphasise my belief that only in extreme cases should jockeys be banned for whip offences. To my mind they should be allowed to go about their job though without being allowed to use the whip in earnest during a race. Instead of Colin Keane being given a 14-day holiday, he should be allowed to race-ride but not be allowed to pick-up his whip for 14-days.

Estrange an Arc contender? Not for me. Perhaps if the ground were to be soft-to-heavy, perhaps. Otherwise not. That said, I would love David O’Meara and Danny Tudhope to win the Arc. Absolutely love it. I still cherish the memory of Luke Morris and Sir Mark Prescott winning the race. Estrange might not even be good enough to win the Yorkshire Oaks, if that is her next race.

Good to hear that Broadway Boy is slowly recovering from his horror fall at Valentines in the Grand National. Whether he will ever be physically fit, let alone mentally unscared, to race again is yet to be decided. He is though still young enough to return to the racecourse even if he sits out next season, if not I doubt he will be leaving Grange Hill Farm as Nigel Twiston-Davies is real old softie when it comes to the horses that have served him well over the years. I thought at one stage that Broadway Boy was going to be Nigel’s next Gold Cup horse. I might have been wrong about that but until Valentine’s Broadway Boy was looking every inch like an outstanding Grand National horse. It would be a welcome sight to see him back racing.

​Jonathan Harding, in the second-part of his look at what other sports have done to please the young with their short attention span and what British horse racing is not doing to grab their short attention span, he mentioned 4-furlong races. I shake my head and plough on. A 4-frlong race is just a furlong short of 5-furlongs, a callow youth having his or her first experience of horse racing will not notice any difference between the two. And when will the call be ‘4-furlongs work, why not 3-furlong races?’ Followed by breeders catering for the craze and further undermining the use for thoroughbreds for anything outside of flat racing.
Unlike golfers, footballers and cricketers, jockeys have very little free time. Unlike the aforementioned sportsman, jockeys regularly fall out of bed long before the cock crows to ride work or school, have time only, if lucky, for a shower and a slice of toast, before driving hundreds of miles to their place of public work, before driving home, mainly in the dark or at least arriving home in the dark. Expecting our top jockeys to promote our sport is, I believe, asking too much. The recently retired Alan Johns, on the other hand, seems bred for the job and the B.H.A. might consider putting him under contract to make media content involving our jockeys.
Rather like athletics, our sport is a pure sport. It is all about whether one horse is faster than another. Outside of the simplicity of the race, the sport is multi-dimensional, with as much to learn as a student studying biology or history. The beauty of horse racing, though, is that a student of the sport need not know the whole to enjoy whichever aspect takes his or her fancy. 
The reason the Racing League has not proved a success is two-fold – one, the teams are made-up nonsense, attracting no true allegiance from spectators and two, at the end of the day it is simply horse-racing, not much different from any other meeting staged that day or any other day. Premier Racing has not worked for the same reasons.
Jonathan Harding was unable to deliver any sparkling ideas to equal the ‘success’ of cricket’s ‘the hundred’. I doubt anyone else will do any better.

Oisin Murphy was fined a staggering £70,000 and banned from driving, the length of that ban, I guess, will be determined by whether he elects to attend a drink driving remedial course.
The driving ban, though no surprise, is concerning as it allows him to drink after racing knowing his chauffeur will be available to drive him home. Surely if as a society we want discourage alcoholics and social drinkers from getting behind the steering wheel would we not be better served if these people had a device placed in their car (or cars) where if alcohol was detected on their breath the car would be impossible to start. The ban may keep Oisin off the road as a driver yet makes it easier for him to drink either after racing or even on the journey home or God forbid! on the way to the races. And it is all very well admitting his guilt and apologising profusely to all and sundry but at some point Oisin is going to have to accept that alcohol and him are never going to have a healthy relationship.

Chris Cook in his column today actually answers a question posed in the Post’s letters section. Mr. Peacock of Northallerton decried the use of Americanisms by British commentators, though Mr.Cook was not wholly in accordance with Mr.Peacock’s views. Firstly, I believe our commentators are the best in the world and I have hardly a word of criticism for any of them. I dislike ‘posy’, should that not be ‘possy’? even if it is the shortened version of ‘position’. Why use a word associated with flowers (a posy of flowers) when position is such an easy word to say? Other than that, I agree with Chris Cook, commentators add flavour to a race, and I remain of the controversial view that every one of our commentators do a better job than the legendary ‘voice of racing’ Peter O’Sullevan, one of the ten greatest racing people of my lifetime.

​The first race at Chepstow last night may well have elicited a future question at pub Quiz Nights. Which horse ran, finished the race, yet was officially deemed a non-runner. The answer is Outer Edge. Remember the name. Put it in your tracker or note-book or cork board. What is more, the official explanation for being Outer Edge being officially made a non-runner, despite running, was ‘unruly at start’. This might seem a case of making up the rules as the Chepstow stewards went along as the horse could not have been that unruly given he started the race, though due to having a back leg caught in the running board as the gates opened, it was considered he was denied from starting on equal terms as the other runners.
The matter, doubtless, will be referred to the B.H.A. and in due course the views of the jockey, trainer and owner will be heard. I suspect they will put blame for the incident on the starter and the starter will apportion blame to the jockey, and the owner will want compensation for his or her horse having run 5-furlongs in hot pursuit, with special attention drawn to the possibility the horse may have run injured due to trapping its hind leg in the running board (how does the design of the stalls allow that to happen) and that protocol suggests a vet would have had to inspect the horse if the horse had needed to be removed from the stalls.
I await the B.H.A.’s report on the incident, if only to see how they cover-up what must be a cock-up by the starter. Having not witnessed the incident I may, of course, be wholly wrong and my apology is being drafted as a write this.

On the one-hand the sport is in dire straits, with more hurt to come if our questionable (and that is putting my views mildly) government hikes betting tax on horse racing to the same level as the tax on games of chance, yet on the other hand Wathnam, Amo and others are prepared to spend millions if not billions on equine talent to be trained in this country, and now Yulong Investments are to construct a purpose-built thoroughbred stud at Newmarket, a project that will cost millions and provide job opportunities for the local population. A paradox, is it not?
Personally, given the road of travel with our present government, I see little hope of them backpedalling from their taxation policy and have little faith in the Treasury ‘talking’ with officials from all sectors of our sport. The country, if truth be told, is bankrupt and if the World Bank decided to ask for all the money it has leant the British government, mainly to house, feed and generally pamper the millions of illegal migrants presently residing in four and five-star hotels, we, the population, would be up shit creek in a boat made of paper-thin promissory demands.

In today’s Racing Post Jonathan Harding begins a two-part series on how to make British horse racing better again with a look at how other sports have gone down the path of fundamentally changing the shape of its sport to entice younger people to engage with it. As someone who has a limited engagement with most sports – I used to follow Formula 1 but went clean off it when it began to resemble hooligan drivers on a single track road – I can only take at face-value Harding’s perception on what has worked for other sports. Cricket has migrated from a game lasting 5-days to one that is over in 3-hours. It has retreated from being a game requiring the tactical skill of an Admiral of the Fleet to that of a game of Snap or Snakes and Ladders. That is surely posted under the term ‘dumbing down’ to suit the lowest of denominations. Jonathan Harding did not mention rock climbing, a sport – I always thought of it as a pastime, rather like hiking but instead of progressing horizontally, the climber progresses vertically – is now an indoor sport. We have one in our High Street, which is pretty mad when you think of it. 
Tomorrow young Harding will be availing us of all the ways horse racing can tread a similar avenue of discovery. If he proposes City Street Racing I shall be, let me say, disappointed in him, though 4-furlongs races will be proposed and no doubt a rock concert in the ‘dead-time’ between races will be aired. I look forward to being appalled. 

​I look kindly upon Kia Joorabchian and wish luck upon his enterprise. I dislike those who buy success and find it difficult to be happy for Wathnam, even I am for their retained jockey James Doyle, when they win race after race at Royal Ascot. It is never truly their success when they have bought a horse at an inflated cost weeks before the event. It is the previous owner who has borne the cost till then and now with a six-figure cheque in his or her bank account they can bask in the shade, knowing that in the future Wathnam might return and pay even more for one of their horses.
I know little of personal success yet I witness the success of others from afar and what they have in common is consistency of team. When the captain of the ship is forever changing personnel, the captain is making mistakes. Already on his third stable jockey, Kia is now about to have his third main trainer in Kevin Philippart de Foy. The previous incumbent Raphael Freire claims he was always only in acting charge at Freemason Lodge and is happy to be relieved of his duties as the licence holder. I doubt if that is 100% true but one must respect his take on the latest Kia merry-go-round.
Everyone makes mistakes in life; I dare say even Aidan O’Brien made an arse of himself in the early days of his training career. Some people continue to make mistakes, some the same mistakes over and over again; they are the people who do not make good in life. Kia must learn to go with the flow, to roll with the blows and to trust the people he has personally put in charge to carry out the one division of his operation he is incapable of doing – the running of a stable and the training of winners. He should bite the bullet now and allow his new trainer time to put down the foundations that will build, cross-fingers, success. And I would advise he stops spending the millions upon millions simply to acquire a foothold in the most blue-blooded pedigrees and buy horses for a reasonable price to win more than a reasonable number quality of winners. 

The hopefully immortal David Ashforth is the provider of the Wednesday Column in the Racing Post today and his unusually downbeat piece centred on the young jockeys to have made their way in the racing life through the pony racing circuit. He starts with Elisabeth Gale and his hoped-for headline of ‘Gale blows away the opposition’ and progresses though all of those apprentices who have made their name recently and can be referred to now as a ‘professional jockey’.
Anyone who has not read any of Ashforth’s books should rectify the omission in due course. I recommend ‘Ashforth’s Curiosities of Horseracing’, ‘Fifty Shades of Hay’ and ‘Ringers & Rascals’. 

As anyone who has strayed onto this site in the past might be aware that I am an advocate of triple crowns and would like to see triple crown races for sprinters, milers, middle-distance and stayers, with a large bonus for the owner of a horse to win all three races in their triple crown series. As it is very unlikely we shall ever see, certainly not in the rest of my lifetime, a classic triple crown winner, the establishment of four new triple crown series would add spice to a developing season.
Also, I would like to see more champion jockeys throughout the year. In a heartbeat I would kill-off the present method of establishing our champion jockey and revert to how things used to be, which was to start with the first turf race of the season and finish with the last turf race of the season. It should be as God intended, not as a marketing consultant thought best.
I would not include all-weather races when it comes to the turf champion jockey but have a separate summer all-weather title, with the final meeting of the ‘season proper’ similar to all-weather finals which pinpoints the end of the winter season. The winter all-weather championship should continue as of now. So, there are three title championships for jockeys to contend for, a triple crown, if you may.
I would divide up the apprentice championship into three categories. Overall turf champion and summer and winter all-weather champion. Again, a triple crown for apprentices. I would also award prize-money and a trophy for the leading apprentice who began the season without a winner, a novice prize, if you will. I should also like to establish a champion female apprentice as I still believe females require an identity boost within the sport.
If we are to have amateur flat races – they irk me slightly as they seem just an excuse for racecourses to stage a cheap race – I would like three prestige amateur races, with what used to be the Moet and Chandon at Epsom staged at the revamped Derby meeting, plus two others to make another triple crown series.
Apart from marketing, the establishment of this series of triple crown championships and races would cost very little in monetary terms yet provide the on-going narrative of the season with stories and hopefully excitement, denouements and plot-twists.