today's racing post.

​Already trembling in fear of the annual Racing Post price increase. Usually, they blame the forced increase on the rising cost of newsprint, although last year the editor basically stuck a stiff finger up at the paper’s loyal readers by suggesting the increase was due to them being worth it.
Anyway, the Racing Post continues to be the highlight of my day and if I have to make sacrifices due to the rising cost of everything, I suspect buying the Post will not be the first or second sacrifice.
March 9th, six-days before the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival and there appears to be a debate breaking out as to whether it is fair to her opponents that the best hurdler on the planet should receive 7Ib from lesser rivals. It is not fair and as I have said many times in the past, it is in need of change. How will we ever know how good Honeysuckle is if she does not carry the same weight as her opponents. In a Championship race, the weights should be equal.
Sadly, horse racing has lost yet another leading patron with the death at 86 of Sir Robert Ogden, the owner of Voy Por Ustedes, Squire Silk, Exotic Dancer and Marlborough, to name but four. I thought his colours of mauve and pink to be sickly, especially silks on a sunny day. But there is no doubt he was good for the sport and he will be missed.
Not that I have anything personally against her, but the good news is that Annamarie Phelps is to step down from her job at the B.H.A. at the end of May – one would have thought she would have stayed on until after the Jubilee Derby, if only in hope of being included in the celebrations of a Royal winner. Of course, it is possible, only being associated with racing for 3-years that she is yet to become aware that the Derby is run in the first week of June. Also, only those who are ‘chair’ of a large organisation would give no thought to how stupid and illogical the job title ‘chair’ is. But I digress.
I believe she has achieved little in her time at the B.H.A., leaving her successor a lot of ground to make-up. Though to be honest, I am of the opinion that since the formation of the B.H.B. and the transformation into the B.H.A. no ‘chair’ has managed to stem the slow road to hell in a handcart. Joe Saumarez Smith will hold the reins until September.
Now, though, is the time for the powers-that-be to headhunt someone into the position of Phelps’ successor who has horse racing experience, either at the coal-face of the racing side of the industry or the breeding side. This is a sport with many nuances and as with the B.H.A.’s C.E.O. those who make the decisions should have first-hand experience of the sport and not have to rely on the advice of juniors.
I find the debate over the closure of saunas rather annoying. Saunas may be bad for the overall health of jockeys, yet senior jockeys are making valid contributions to the debate and are being side-lined by the decision makers. If saunas at racecourses are bad for jockeys, then surely saunas in jockeys’ homes must be worse as they will be totally unregulated. It is the same with driving to the races with the car heater at full-blast while wearing a rubber-suit. It would have made more sense to keep the saunas at the racecourses but have someone of authority monitoring their use, with perhaps a limit on how long a jockey can use them. But we live in a woke society where common-sense is a foreign language.
And finally, the town of Cheltenham would appreciate a 5-day Festival as the present 4-day Festival brings up to £60-million into the town’s economy and an extra day will almost certainly boost the coffers even more. The National Hunt Festival is the biggest earner of the year for local businesses and the loss of crowds last season was a knife in the heart for the whole town, not just the racecourse. A fifth-day is inevitable and I just hope, at least to begin with, the racecourse goes with my idea of a 4-day Festival, with what I term a ’Heath Day’ on the Saturday, using the races dropped from the Festival in recent years, the consolation races from the big handicaps presently run at Kempton, and with the highlight the Cross-Country race. Oh, and move the Midlands National to the Saturday before Cheltenham and create a brilliant betting day with the Imperial Cup at Sandown. Not that anyone ever listens to my advice. I wonder if Annemarie Phelps or Julie Harrington has a better suggestion?