In the history of this site, I have on various occasions proposed that the St. Leger be removed from its classic status, be upgraded to the most valuable flat race in Britain and opened-up to older horses, an alternative to the Arc, and keep its classic status but lose its tag as part of the triple crown, with the Eclipse restricted to 3-year-olds and upgraded to classic status. As far as I am aware no one has ever supported me in any of these proposals, even with 10-furlongs now considered the sexiest distance and with the Eclipse viewed far more as a stallion-maker than can ever be hoped for the St. Leger. The St. Leger always was my favourite of the five classics; my wish for change is based on not wanting to see the race become an irrelevance, a consolation classic, as I have termed it. It is a classic,...

How the Frosts cope with the adulation heaped upon their daughter is beyond my imagination. I am not suggesting she is undeserving of the universal praise, only that her parents know her, whereas her admirers only know of her. Her parents can, no doubt, recount stories of disobedience and perhaps even insolence, of tears and tantrums and interrogation in the wake of nights out with boyfriends who in the eyes of loving parents rarely came up to their expectations. As I have said before, Bryony Frost is the best publicity this sport has ever had. We must neither waste her talent as a jockey, which must be the first consideration, nor her ability to transmit to her audience her love of horses and of the sport she already dominates. We must not put her on a pedestal. She maybe a star but she is also human. We must not take advantage...

Anyone who did not visit this site last year will not be aware that I was all over The Jukebox Man as the coming Gold Cup winner, only failing to name him 'the next big thing' by the narrowest of confidence margins. I loved him from his chasing debut at Newbury all the way to his blow-out in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Ben Pauling, quite rightly, I believe, came in for criticism for not informing anyone that a week prior to the festival The Jukebox Man had been lame with an undeclared injury. It was also said that the horse had made a 'noise' in the latter stages of the Gold Cup which would requiry surgery. It was all unsatisfactory. Again without description of the injury, The Jukebox Man will be off-games until the second half of the season, meaning he will be unable to defend his King George crown on...

In today's Racing Post, in the Letters section, Mr. Nicholson of West Bolden, makes the point that as a retired man with time on his hands, someone who can go racing whenever it pleases him, he cannot see where the sense is in having three racecourses, all of which he would have attended if they were on three different days, staging meetings on the same day, namely, Sedgefield, which has acquired a fixture that due to ground conditions Uttoxeter could not hold, Redcar and Carlisle. There is no sense, of course, in swamping one area of the country with three-meetings on the same day. There is, though, explanation, and that is the financial fact that racecourses achieve more revenue from media rights payments than they do from public attendance. Not that this inconvenient truth is an excuse for the B.H.A. to allowg these three meetings to take place on the same...

The Bowens are a mighty National Hunt family. Mother, father, champion jockey, champion jockey's brother and Mickey, the current holder of the trainers licence, are all perpetual winners. A proper old-fashioned family unit; hurt one member of the family and you hurt every one of them. It is why I was surprised to read in today's Racing Post that Mickey will, in the next 12-months, relocate from the family farm at Yet-Y-Rhug, Letterston, in Haverfordwest, to Hanley Swan in Worcestershire. I doubt if Mickey Bowen truly wanted to move away from home. It seems that economics was the deciding factor in his decision. He cites travel and location as the primary reason for the upheaval. North Wales may be heavenly for holiday makers in search of peace and quiet but in the winter Bowen believes the air conditions, muggy and damp, are the reason the stable does not do so well...

On his first run since March, as a nine-year-old ex-hurdler, I thought finishing only 5 and a bit lengths behind two genuine Group 2 horses was a perfectly respectable effort on the part of Constitution Hill. The horse will come on for the run; will doubtless be better on turf; and will be seen to better effect when in his proper grade, when he can run in a handicap. I also think, as Billy Loughnane suggested, that he should be upped in trip. Why Nicky believes 14-furlongs would be his maximum trip is for him to explain. For a nine-year-old hurdler he might well be a bit speedy. But on the flat he will taking on younger legs yet to have their natural speed taken from them. In Nicky we trust, though. As for Hayley Turner and Adele Mulrennen wanting the horse retired! Do they not read the papers. I mean...

It is, according to the front page of today's Racing Post, Judgement Day for Constitution Hill. The great horse has had quite a few judgement days since he first went down with the 'twisties', as gymnast Simone Biles described her short-term fall from grace. He had a kind of judgment day when he first hit the deck in the Champion Hurdle won by Golden Ace. Then he fell again. Then he ran deplorably at Punchestown. Then there was the judgement day at Newcastle and then the one behind closed doors when he nearly fell twice schooling at Lambourn. The there was Southwell. So, Constitution Hill is well used to his fans and others choosing to call judgement on him. After two champion jockeys have had a go on him, it is the champio-elect who will be on board this afternoon at Kempton. I hope his presence, the horse not the jockey,...

I hope Chris Cook will forgive me for quoting from his insightful and wonderfully written article in today's Racing Post. I wish I could write so clearly and with such an easy rhythm as Mr. Cook. 'How do you get people to adopt as their favourite sporting heroes a bunch of athletes who might compete six-times over a two-year period before disappearing through a trad-door?' In the following paragraph he used the word 'tristesse' which I did not understand, and after a search of my big Readers' Digest Universal dictionary, I remain ignorant of the definition of the word. The answer to the question posed is easily answered, though difficult to achieve. What it needs is for horses like Bow Echo to stay in raining at least until their four-year-old careers. Bow Echo did not sustain an injury that would have prevented him from racing next season. The decision of those...

The Racing Post is currently running a series titled 'The Fundementals of Betting'. As someone who is an irregularly bettor, and you can define irregular in my case as once a year, this series has not taken my interest, though for anyone who does bet frequently, I am sure there are tips that might prove useful. My advice is to pick a professional punter and stick with his guidance, otherwise you will go mad cherry-picking contrary advice from all the other 'experts'.  Don't get me wrong. I would bet if I were wealthy enough to be able absorb thedoubtless losses. For me to bet, given the unhealthy state of my life-time savings, would be to put me in the category of gambler and I am too risk averse and too cowardly to go down that route. Chris Cook in today's in stalment of the series highlights the expert's opinion on jockeys...

I had to close my eyes and reflect, to steady my heartbeat, to take it in. The savage constitution of fate surrounds us all, especially those of us who either live at close quarters with the equine thoroughbred or who worship its presence amongst us. Tomorrow the cruelty of fate might assualt you or I. Today the assualt was on all of us. After only 5-days of retirement Galopin Des Champs has suffered a catastrophic leg injury and after x-rays and the best veterninary treatment was put to sleep. Ruby, his usual calm and efficient self, relayed the news to what I can only assume to be a stunned public, the greatest honour anyone could have bestow on her ripped away from his daughter Isabelle without her, perhaps, ever having the chance to sit on him, to take him on the journey through his retirement. A dead horse is a terrible...

I could be accused of being head of a campaign of one to lay ruin to Doncaster's St. Leger, to render it in importance to the level of the Irish or French versions, neither of which is even considered a classic these days, a valuable prize to win but lacking any prestige whatsoever. I would like it opened-up to older horses. I would like to have it run earlier in the season and I would like several buckets of money thrown at it, to have it as the most valuable flat race in Britain. Normally, I am a tradionalist, largely wanting to keep prestige races unchanged. The Epsom Derby must always be run over 12-furlongs. Race distance must remain in imperial. The Ascot Gold Cup should remain at 20-furlongs, and should be the most valuable race at Royal Ascot. 12-furlongs should always be recognised as the supreme distance for flat horses....

Mr. Bradley of Goole, in todays letters column of The Racing Post, makes a very good point about this year's renewal of the Ebor Handicap. A wholesale gamble on Love Me Tender went down the pan, as we know, punters, drawn in by the magic of Willie Mullins, backed Love Me Tender, ridden by William Buick, as if they were 'all in the know', as if they could not afford not to back 'the next Ethical Diamond'. The horse did not have the form to win an Ebor, having won nothing of note in either France or Germany before his arrival at Closutton and had not run in either Ireland or Britain before his attempt to win Europe's most valuable flat handicap. As Mr. Bradley correctly states, surely it would not be beyond expectations that horses running in such a prestigious handicap might have run in Ireland and Britain in order...

Zavateri proved himself top-class as a two-year-old and yesterday at Goodwood he proved he had retained his ability as a three-year-old. But has he done enough to warrant a place at stud? Yes, he has achieved more than many colts who are whisked off to stand as a stallion long before neither his limitations nor the ceiling of his ability has been proved. To my mind, no three-year-old should be retired to stud. I say this time and time again; unless the sport is given priority by all sectors of the industry, eventually it is the thoroughbred breed that will suffer. If I had my way, in the same way as there is a European Pattern Committee that decides whether certain races should either be upgraded or downgraded, there should be a licencing committee to determine if a horse has achieved enough on the racecourse to make a contribution to the...

Pony racing used to be thought of as 'flapping' and was frowned upon by racing's rulers. Unscrupulous people would take a horse under 15-hands from the flat and run it under a different name at a local 'flapping meeting' and back it like there was no tomorrow. If the Jockey Club discovered a licenced individual was involved with unlicenced racing his career under rules would be over as he would be warned off. A 'flapping meeting' was not run under the rules of racing, whereas bone fide pony racing was. In fact, the Pony Derby at Northolt, governed by Pony Turf Rules was Britain's equivalent to Ireland's Dingle Derby. Northolt, opened in 1929, is not to be dismissed lightly. It soon became the Newmarket of pony racing. Its stands were considered by many as the best in Britain and Northolt was the first racecourse in the country to have an automated...

Oisin Murphy, quoted in today's Racing Post, believes Andrew Balding has more than a sporting chance of dethroning Aidan O'Brien as British champion trainer. I would like to think he was right. Yet I believe there are two very high hurdles between Balding's first championship title and they are Balding himself already saying his horses will go where they are most likely to win, be that in other parts of the world rather than Britain, and the unarguable fact that Aidan is very likely to win the Doncaster St. Leger. Aidan has seven entries for the St.Leger, with all of them capable of winning the race; Balding has two, with neither likely to do any better than third or fourth. I hope Oisin is proved right but with most of the big-money two-year-old races to come, plus two more stayers races, either or both of which has Scandanavia's name written all...

Gordon Brown, once in the running for being the worst Prime Minister the country has ever had to endure, is demanding the government increase the tax on slot machines in betting shops. I believe most of our sport's problems with affordability checks began with the introduction of gaming machines in betting shops. Slot machines, I believe, should only be found in arcades, and not in any form on the high streets of Britain. In fact, I would suggest betting companies might do well to remove these machines from all their shops, thereby thwarting the government's raid on our sport. If we cannot be enriched by these infernal machines, why should the government? Fixed odd betting terminals, to give this incidious and no doubt addictive form of gambling its correct name, has no place in an environment where a certain amount of knowledge is required in an effort to work out the...

The Doncaster St. Leger is now reduced to being the 'Consolation Classic', its fame and glory as the oldest classic race in the world lowered in stature comparable to the family member that only gets invited to the party as no one has the pluck not to invite the black sheep. 16 remain in the race, with seven of those trained by Aidan O'Brien, two from son Joseph, two trained by Andrew Balding and one each from the Hannon, Appleby, Burke, Bramley and Eustace stables. And let's be honest about it, unless Joseph can uptip the apple cart, the race, and the trainers' championship in this country with it, is bound for Ballydoyle. Something has to be done to save the St. Leger from its slow descent into irrelevance. Even in its 250th anniversary year the race is shunned in favour of other races, mainly outside of this country. The Ebor...

I was disappointed, though not surprised, to read in The Racing Post today that Maltese Cross is to be aimed at the Arc and not the St. Leger. To me, this is a kick in the teeth for the St. Leger in its 250th anniversary year, another example of a leading British trainer giving his silent ascent to the destruction of the oldest of all classic races. Yet if I said to William Haggas or any of our leading flat trainers that the St. Leger should loose its classic status they would as one man rise up to defend the race as if I had insulted one of their children. Maltese Cross could have won at Doncaster this year and gone to Longchamp in search of Arc success next year. Horses in the past have gone from winning at Doncaster, or in the case of Alleged, suffered defeat in the St....

I have already expressed my opinion on pacemakers, plus the useless use of pacemakers on occasions, but now my ire has been piqued by Aidan O'Brien using a 2-year-old as a pacemaker. This, to me, is an abomination. Yes, Carry The Flag held on to finish second, with his stable favoured Man's Best Friend out with the washing. But why subject a young horse to such a hard race? I dislike myself for being critical towards the Coolmore/Ballydoyle axis as they are overwhelmingly a force for good within the sport, and the only breeding operation dedicated to breeding 12-furlong+ stock, yet over the past few years, and perhaps guided this season by Aidan's attempt to break his own Group 1 winning record, a win at all costs attitude seems to be creeping into their racing policy. Two-year-olds are still babies in some respects; the breed does not fully mature until five-years...

Brierley Turk - the third Arabian stallion imported into this country alongside the Godolphin and Darley. Memory failure from the other day. Came to me while watching York yesterday.  I am not a jockey or never was a jockey or ever likely will be, in this world or the next. Yet I remain wedded for life to my opinion that a whip does not make a horse go faster or give more effort than nature will allow it to. I am not an advocate of banning jockeys from carrying whips as in desperate situations a whip could save the life of both the rider and horse and causing damage or injury to others. But when people have suffered censure, fines and suspensions for trying to make a horse start a race against its will, when assistant starters are no longer permitted to use a long tom behind a horse holding up...