AIDAN & MARTIN.

The era of the super-stable is nothing to be excited about. Elitism is the death-knell of competition. It is all very well, and perhaps acceptable in certain cases, to elevate someone into the realm of 'genius', but who is to say if others had the same ammunition to fire they too would be equally successful. Yes, the likes of Aidan O'Brien and Willie Mullins started their careers on the lower rungs of the ladder and only moved forever upwards due to hard work, ability and dedication, but there must have been an element of luck on the upward trajectory, luck that the present-day journeyman trainers never get to enjoy. O'Brien has the good fortune to be backed by the Coolmore 'boys'; Mullins had the good fortune to come across Rich Ricci, for example.

I am no socialist, believe me, and would jump for joy if Britain's Labour government were to mysteriously disappear - if only - but I do believe that everyone should be given the opportunity to succeed in life. Cherries, in my experience, do not always get the right growing conditions to become ripe and juicy. When it comes to horse racing I believe strongly that for the sport to survive and thrive the support at the bottom levels should mirror the support given to those who succeed at the top. In short, the sport needs to be grown from the bottom up, not from the top down.

It is why, even though I know him to be a fine fellow, modest and grateful to those who avail him of the opportunity to become known universally as the most successful trainer in the world, that I am bored and somewhat scathing of his perennial boasting of his latest 'never seen one like it at Ballydoyle in all my born years', or something along those lines. This year it is Albert Einstein, last year it was The Lion In Winter, the year before it was City of Troy. Not exactly superstars, were they, the last two? His quotes can be relied upon to be used by the Coolmore marketing department when bigging-up the latest 'not so good as predicted' but blue-blooded colt to stand at stud.

It has become, at least for me, 'take with a pinch of salt' time when it comes to the press days at Ballydoyle. I am not suggesting that Aidan is playing with the media when he says of Albert Einstein 'we thought last spring that all of our two-year-olds were no good, so good was Albert'. 'In terms of speed, I don't think we've had a horse so quick.' Albert Einstein is a son of the deceased Wootton Bassett, which makes Albert a very valuable commodity and talking him up cannot do his stud prospects any harm, can it?

In today's Racing Post there is a tribute to Martin Pipe, with many of the present-day trainers who at one time or another worked for Martin recounting their time under his tutelege, everyone of them keen to express their admiration of him, grateful to have learned their trade by watching the great man at close quarters. Gordon Elliott reveres the man as a god of the profession. Venetia Williams spent time working for Pipe, as did Ian Williams, Ralph Beckett, Owen Burrows, Tom Dascombe, Rod Millman and many other successful trainers. Martin began his career as a trainer as ignorant of horses as the average bin man, yet through an insatiable curiosity for knowledge allied to a determination to prove his doubters wrong, he became one of the greatest men ever to grace our sport. There was never any bull or speel from Martin, only honesty and a love of his horses. I believe Martin Pipe is as deserving, if not more so, of being acclaimed a genius as Aidan O'Brien, a man who for the majority of his career has been spoon-fed quality upon quality; Martin Pipe had to mend and make-do for the majority of his career. Martin liked nothing more than winning a seller with a horse no one thought capable of winning a two-horse race against a donkey. That is genius, not winning a hundred classics with blue-bloodied colts and fillies all related to classic winners going back generations.