BALDING FOR CHAMPION? THE START BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT, SCOTT THE CONQUERER & TIMED TO PERFECTION?

For the the first time since Ballydoyle got into full swing, Andrew Balding leads in the trainers' title race. Will he stay there, that is the question? I hope so as no one deserves the accolade more than the ever-consistent Balding team. Andrew believes it will be a tall order for him to become champion as he believes Aidan O'Brien will have a stronger team of runners for Champions Day than he will. What has helped him, though, is Scandanavia running at Longchamp yesterday rather than the Long Distance Cup at Ascot. Obviously Aidan will have others waiting in the win for that race, while Balding will perhaps not be represented.

The advantage Balding holds over Aidan, as long as he comes out of Ascot in touching distance, is that the trainers' title extends for a full twelve-months and does not end until December 31st. It would be unlikely for Ballydoyle to have more than one or two runners on the all-weather in the period between Champions' Day and New Year's Eve, while Balding might be active on most days there is an all-weather meeting. Of course, the trainers' title should be brought into allignment with the jockeys' title and end on Champions Day so that the trophy can be presented in full glare of both the media and the public. The title could still be resolved over a 12-month period if that 12-month period began the day after Champions' Day and ran to the following year's Champions' Day. Champions' Day should be a celebration of all our champions, not just the jockeys.

Next weekend we have the Welsh Festival of Racing at Chepstow, the meeting our top trainers believe to be the start of the National Hunt season proper. This year all three-days will involve hurdle racing only, with a few bumpers to make up the numbers. To ensure terrestrial coverage, the Persian War is on Friday and at entry looks a competitive heat. But without significant rain Chepstow is going to suffer as will the National Season in general. The jumps course at Ascot yesterday looked pleasantly green, though as the inner and outer aspects of the racecourse still looked bare, I very doubt the jumps course is anything other than firm at the moment. If the weather does not deteriorate in our favour in the coming weeks, I suggest the King George on Boxing Day might well see a field in which half the runners are making their debuts for the season. Anyone going to church today could do our sport a favour and pray for rain, lots of it.

Flat trainer of the year this time around should go to George Scott. He has taken his form to a whole new level season, proven by his double at Longchamp yesterday with Wimbledon Hawkeye and Cabball De Mar, two horses who have improved markedly since coming under his care. For a period in the summer Cabbllo de Mar looked a horse either with a serious medical condition or was completely out-of-love with the game. Yet he has since won a moderate Doncaster Cup and the Prix de Cadra, defeating no less a horse than Scandanavia, the Champion stayer. With Victorious Forever as his main supplier of horses it does not take a genius to predict it is forever upward for Scott.

Here is a poser. Was the ride Jo Mason gave Sondad at Redcar yesterday perfection, getting up in the last stride without ever subjecting her mount to a hard steer or simply just good fortune that the cards fell in her favour? Jo is a top-notch jockey, undervalued by the big southern stables and a jockey deserving of better rides in better races than the low-grade handicaps that are her bread and butter.

I sometimes wonder when a jockey gets up on the line to win, any race, not just the big races, if it is perfect timing or just being in the right place at the right time, and that includes the likes of Ryan Moore and Oisin Murphy? Yesterday, Paul Mulrennen did absolutely nothing wrong. If he had won, it would have been called a great ride. Yet in being touched-off in the shadow of the post his ride was not worth mentioning. I have seen jockeys give their mounts outstanding rides and yet unless they finish without stirrup irons, they are described in the same short-handed manner as all the other unplaced jockeys. Jo Mason has been exceptional all season, especially on Sondad, and I have no fear of calling her ride yesterday as top-notch and I have no doubt if she were a Joseph and nota Joanna the ride would be noted by the top southern trainers, with her name becoming high on the list of jockeys they would want when they either sent a horse up north or when it came to the heritage handicaps down south.

Saffie Osborne, remember, was pilliored for her ride in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, when she only failed narrowly to beat Precise. She beat herself up about it and the connections of the horse have since employed other jockeys. Yet the filly - the name escapes me - has not run anywhere close to her form at Royal Ascot subsequently for any other jockey, including Will Buick. Whether it was jockey error at Royal Ascot I cannot say. She looked unlucky to me but then I have a bias in Saffie's favour. If Buick had ridden the filly at Royal Ascot and finished second, whether he took the route Saffie chose or not, would he have been jocked-off? I suggest not. What I am suggesting is that male jockeys, at least at the top level, are more easily forgiven for their errors of judgements than our female jockeys. In Jo, Saffie and Hollie, we have three female jockeys the equal of most of the top male jockeys and if Jo's ride yesterday was perfection, why is it all three can be ignored when it comes to Group races and, in the main, heritage handicaps?