Firstly, and again I propose this, is it not time to shorten the title of Britain's most valuable race, the King George & Queen Elisabeth Stakes? Which George does the race honour, and increasingly into the future, if the sport is to have a long-lasting future, which Elisabeth? Personally, I would like the name to evolve into the Queen Elisabeth II Memorial Stakes. Our late Queen was undoubtedly the sport's greatest and most admired racing monarch. Sadly, no member of the present royal family will surpass her involvement in the sport or possess her knowledge of both the horse and the sport. Though there are many races around the world named in her honour, it would be fitting if this country's most valuable race should carry her name and her name only.
Next season, as Ascot attempts to decrease the differing prize-money between the K.G. & Q. E. Stakes and the Prix De l'Arc De Triomphe, the K.G. & Q.E. Stakes will have a prize fund of £2.5- million. Although it might, as this year, attract interest from Japan, its place in the calendar surely will rule out any chance Ascot have of knocking the Arc off its perch as Europe's greatest race. To improve its chances of becoming more popular with overseas trainers and owners, I suggest Ascot offer a large bonus for any horse that can win both races in the same season. Big-time owners, above all else, are greedy and the opportunity, say, of winning the two-races with the add-on of a mega bonus prize will sure to lure them in, with their best 12-furlong horses trained with both races in mind.
Matt Rennie in the Another View column in today's Racing Post agrees with my opinion on the shortened version of the jockeys' championship. Through gritted teeth he admits the present format should allow us an unfolding and intriguing narrative as Billy Loughnane, Oisin Murphy and Rossa Ryan fight it out on a daily basis for the right to have the crown bestowed upon their heads on Champions Day. He makes the point that if we were still using the traditional way of acquiring our champion jockey, the makes-more-sense method of the first turf race of the season to the last turf race of the season, the intrigue would be lessened as Loughnane at this time would be on 130-winners, Murphy on 100 and Ryan on 96.
Given the old view that flat racing this country starts each season with a whimper, goes bang, bang, bang, through the summer and autumn, only to finish with a whimper, I suggest that the last turf meeting of the season should be Champions Day, that way the jockeys championship could revert to the time-honoured method that kept our top jockeys in this country until last knockings and making sure those in contention for the crown do not turn their back on British racing for the rich pickings around the world.
Using the term 'emancipation' in the heading for this bloggy-blog-thing may be going over the top. Female jockeys are not held in chains, though I would contend that they are not wholly free from constraints imposed on them by social norms or misogynist opinion.
On Saturday, at Ascot, Touleen is to be ridden by William Buick, one of the world's greatest jockeys. I have no criticism of Buick, neither as a jockey or a human being. And, I dare say, he will chuck a lot of unfresh eggs in my face by dotting up on Touleen, a filly deserving of a change in fortune. She has been ridden all season, though, in Jim Crowley's absence, by Saffie Osborne, a jockey having the best season of her career, having won her most valuable race of her career only last Saturday in a bobbing photo-finish. Although at Royal Ascot she may have got herself in a poor position, a position that required luck in running to have any chance of winning, no one could say with any conviction that Touleen would have won if she had a clear passage.
I accept that it is the owner who calls the tune, but I ask how is any female rider is going to ride themselves onto the top table when they are constantly denied opportunities, as Saffie is denied this weekend? Plenty of jockeys, including the very best jockeys, rode races at Royal Ascot this season that they wished they could have had a second go at. Murphy made a bollocks of Friendly Soul, for instance, another filly in need of a change of fortune. How many of those jockeys lost rides because of one slip-up, even if Saffie was guilty of achieving her own slip-up? If Jim Crowley was to be in the saddle on Saturday, I would not have a leg to stand-on. My criticism would be muted at source. But as someone who has championed the cause of female jockeys since the days when Hayley Turner was an up and coming apprentice, it would be remiss of me not to criticise the decision to remove Saffie from perhaps the best horse she is yet to ride. I dare say she will suck it up, accept her dismissal with a smile and good grace. But for the cause of equality between the white rails it is yet another kick in the teeth.