shoemark, hollie and the girls & royal ascot 1900.

​I expressed the wish that Kieran Shoemark had the last laugh over the Gosdens regarding his dismissal from the number one job at Clarehaven. Boy, Kieran must have really pissed-off the racing gods in one way or another. Perhaps in both ways considering the kicking he is experiencing at the moment. He wins the French 1,000 Guineas, no doubt takes joy in having the last laugh, only for the French stewards to take the race off him for interference in the final furlong. I would imagine being demoted from a classic win is infinitely worse than John Gosden summoning him to his office to inform him he is no longer the favoured one. Somebody please give Kieran Shoemark a ride in the Derby because when his luck changes it will doubtless change big time. Unless the racing gods know something about him we do not.

At the weekend, at Ascot, and only a few weeks since Hayley Turner retired, Holly Doyle became the winningmost female jockey in British racing. She is 28. Hayley is 43. Not only is she now the best female flat jockey in British racing history but with 10 Group 1’s and 2 foreign classics to her name, surely she must either be the most successful female jockey currently riding anywhere in the world or at least honing in on being the most successful when it comes to riding Group 1’s and classics. I posed the question poorly to John Randall, Racing Post historian, and his answer was based on individual wins, which places Holly a long way below a former U.S. jockeys, whose name I cannot recall but doubles will do at some time during the day.
The Racing Post published a list of the top ten British female flat jockeys in their piece on Holly Doyle yesterday (Holly also featured in the big article) and it made for unsettling reading. Holly at the time of writing sits on 1,023, with Hayley, obviously, one win in arrears. Then comes Josephine Gorden with 417, Cathy Gannon 344. Alex Greaves 287. Saffie Osborne 258. Kim Tinkler 250. Joanne Mason 247. Nicola Currie 236. In comparison the leading British female jump jockey Bryony Frost has ridden 293 winners in this country.
Despite Holly Doyle being one of top jockeys riding in this country, I still believe that to achieve more female jockeys riding regularly at the top meetings and in the top races, female jockeys who have not ridden more than – this numbers alters every time I give thought to this subject – 200-winners in their careers should receive a 3Ib allowance in all handicaps. They should certainly be allowed to claim 3Ib for a set number of winners after they have ridden ‘out their apprentice claim’. Yes, it is unfair on their male colleagues. But it is also unfair that a good percentage of owners and trainers have a prejudice against female riders.

Royal Ascot 1900 looked quite similar to Royal Ascot 2,000 or any year before the meeting changed to 5-days. As far as the monarchy was concerned, prior to the Prince of Wales, who batted away his mother’s criticism of his involvement with racing with great tact and an iron will, the Royals would only attend the Royal meeting on the two important days, Tuesday and Thursday, the only two days when the public could enjoy the royal procession.
The most valuable race on day one was, appropriately, the Prince of Wales Stakes, worth £2,100 to the winner. On the Wednesday, the Coronation Stakes was the feature race, worth £2,750 to the winner, £259 more than the Royal Hunt Cup. On the Thursday the Ascot Gold Cup, worth £3,360 to the winner, was not only the feature race but after the classics the most important race of the whole season. The Hardwicke Stakes was the feature on the Friday, with £2,421 going to the winning owner.
The first race on the Friday was the Ascot High Weight Stakes over 10-furlongs and worth £565 to the winner. I confess I do not know what is meant by a High Weight race. If it were a conditions race for horses that usually carry high weights in handicaps, I would like to see this sort of race brought back.
Also, Royal Ascot in 1900 also featured either a biennial or triennial race on each day of the meeting. As far as I can ascertain these races were designed for horses to come back year after year from 2-year-old to 3-year-old (biennial) and 2 – 4-year-old (triennial) to compete against the same horses each year. Two of these races were in their 42nd and 43rd years, two others in their 37th and 38th year, with the last race on the fourth day in its 47th year.
Am I the only one to think a similar concept might be tried now, though not at Royal Ascot, obviously. Just the one biennial race each year, as a novelty. In 1900, if the idea were new, it would be a race for stoutly-bred two-year-olds, with the 3-year-old race over 10 or 12-furlongs. But in todays speed-orientated world, sprints would be the best bet for the race (races) to be considered successful. I dare say there was a valid point in biennial and triennial races in 1900, which probably does not exist today. But it would do the sport no harm to revisit the past occasionally.