By winners trained, Mark Johnston is the greatest trainer of all-time. Obviously, this claim is not based on a like for like basis. Mark Johnston may have trained more individual winners than anyone else but with so many victories, I suspect, comes the title of more losers than anyone else. And at his height, Johnston had over 200-horses under his care. the great trainers of the past would have been lucky to have eighty. Yet being a title holder is not what I will remember him for; to me Mark Johnston is the man with the greatest and most erudite passion for our sport of my lifetime. If I could have chosen someone to fill the remit of Horse Racing Czar or supremo, I would have nominated Johnston in a heartbeat. You may not always agreed with him but you listened to every word. He will never be lost to our...

Paul Mulrennen did not need a whip to win the King George Qatar Stakes at Goodwood yesterday. On playback, I thought he lost the whip at around the two-furlong pole, though I may be wrong about the exact place hand and whip became disassociated. He won nonetheless, that is the point I have no problem with whips being carried. For health and safety purposes a whip is essential. By pulling it from one hand to the other a jockey can keep a horse running straight or prevent a collision with another horse or even the rails. My argument with the use of the whip is based on the three legs of the milking stool. 1) I believe we are being kinder to a horse when a whip is not used for encouragement than when it is used in earnest in a finish and it removes the justification of 'the horse comes...

Diamond Necklace has proved by winning two French classics that she is a true Group 1 filly, perhaps the best of her sex in the whole of Europe. Yet be honest, what did she beat in the Nassau Stakes yesterday? The second, a Group 1 winner in France two-seasons ago, is a good mare but not a great mare. She might need softer ground to be at her very best, though she is never going to give weight and a beating to a top-class 3-year-old, is she? Sea The Fire is a good mare but a long way short of top-class while the other two were never going to get competitive, with one looking over-tried and the second O'Brien filly not run on her merits, pacemakers never are. Although 'the lads' are famously happy to run their best horses against each other, what do you think the chances are that Constitution...

I thought Bow Echo was superb in the Sussex Stakes. As was Billy Loughnane. Good horses can pull defeat from out of the ashes and turn the day into one of unbridled joy and Bow Echo achieved that at Goodwood yesterday. I was not alone at the two-furlong pole to believe it was not going to be Loughnane's day as he seemed too far off the pace and locked-up with limited options to gain his freedom. Even a coming together with Zavateri did not blind his focus and without too much arm-swinging from his jockey, Bow Echo buckled down to the job in hand and once again showed Gstaad who was the boss of the 8-furlong division. A lovely watch. Of course, racing and breeding journalists are already writing about where Bow Echo will stand as a stallion, even though George Boughey has talked about the horse staying in training as...

Firstly, if I inadvertantly added an extra n to Scandanavia's name yesterday, I will accept any punishment that Judge Jennnings may meter out without comment. I also want it to be known that I bravely write this slog-a-blog without the safety-net of Grammarly or any similar aid. I am also old and without a fully-functioning brain. Not that I wish Judge Jennings to take that into account when passing judgement on me. (As if he even knows I exist) I hope Rossa knows I exist, as I will have my fingers crossed for him tomorrow as he appeals against the draconian sentence passed on him by the Sandown stewards last Friday. Didn't Amiloc behave extraordinarily well yesterday. Did you notice the professional way he hit apex of both the left hand bend and the right, saving himself so much ground he ended up challenging for the lead. And didn't he put...

When Lord Allen was appointed chair of the B.H.A., I was appalled. His insistence of an independent board won me over, though. But he was still the wrong man for the job, as events were to prove. I said that racing needed a man at the top who had experience, long experience, at the cliff-face of the sport and finally we have that man, finally we have a Chair that cares about the sport. The good news is that Simon Cox does not view his new post as a part-time job. In today's Racing Post, in an article by the Industry Editor, Bill Barber, Cox commited himself to working flat out to resolve the problems that threaten to derail the sport. And I believe him. He has resigned from all the other racing committees he is involved with, including the Thoroughbred Breeders Association and the B.H.A. Jumps Pattern Committee, and has...

With the start of Glorious Goodwood only a day away, you might be surprised to discover that the first overseas winner of a race on these shores was achieved in 1850 when the German-trained Turnus won both the Stewards and Chesterfield Cups. Not on the same day, though those short of achievements were not exactly uncommon back in the 1800's, but in the same week. Three-years later, France won its first race on British soil when Jouvance won the Goodwood Cup. I would imagine it is not a coincedence that both these successful forays into racing history occured at Goodwood as in 1850 and 1853 there was no such conveyance as a horsebox to transport horses from port to racecourse and Goodwood must be a comparatively short walk once leaving the ship. The Americans arrived on our racecourses some thirty-years later, with Iroquois winning the Epsom Derby in 1881, though his...

Eight-races at Ascot yesterday, four of which went to female jockeys, though one female in particular greedily took home three of those winners. I doubt if while watching Touleen yesterday that Saffie Osborne gloated in her abject defeat, at least not nearly as much as I did. Touleen's defeat at Royal Ascot had more bad luck than poor riding involved in the eventually result. At the royal meeting, the filly was baulked at least three-times and though no one could say she would  have won without the interference, she would certainly have finished closer. Every jockey, every day, can find themselves in a poor position in a race through no real fault of their own and the criticism thrown at Saffie was uncalled-for. Owen Burrows should have shown some loyalty, as should the owner. Is anyone criticising William Buick for not be able to grab hold of the filly to get...

In The Racing Post today there is a photograph of the finish of last year's Japan Cup. It is an innocent enough depiction of a tight finish between two brave horses and two determined jockeys. To an outsider, though, not necessarily an opponent of our sport, it represents a very bad look. I know, as you know, that the Pro-Cush whip used by modern-day jockeys is soft and should not leave a mark on the hide of a horse. The horse is not being beaten as punishment but encouraged to maintain its speed and when a horse cannot improve its position or is out-of-contention, a jockey is expected to continue only using hands and heels. The welfare of the horse comes first, after all. All the same, photographs like the one published today represent a bad look for the sport. If a human being was photographed arm-raised, whip in hand, with...

I suspect the stewards officiating at Sandown Park yesterday are descendents of Judge Jefferies or those who held the office of the Spanish Inquisition. It is lucky for Rossa Ryan that he lives in this century and not the Middle Ages when a fair and equable sentence was a sentence that included an invesigation of a felons intestines. Let's be clear, not once in the final furlong did Ryan properly drop his hands. He did pause for a stride or two from being forceful and it is arguable whether his mount slowed down during those strides, especially as Jamie Spencer on Zero Error was bearing down on him in the manner a Perigrine Falcon bearing down on its prey. Ryan erred, yet no one died, no horse was harmed in the making of his error of judgement. Yes, I hear it, the punters who had backed Thunder Home were robbed. Or...

It is easy to criticise the B.H.A., and boy do they give people ample reason to throw brickbats at them, but on this occasion I believe they have done good. I suspect the interview stage of the process was just a blind as they had already chosen who was going to succeed Lord Allen, though on first inspection I think, and hope, they could not have appointed a better Chair than Simon Cox. My only criticisms are that he is only expected to work two-days a week, when the uphill task before him could easily require eight-days a week, and that he will not officially take up the job until October. Hopefully in the intervening 9-weeks he will have laid the foundation for a flying start to finding solutions for racing's many problems. Well, Craig Thake, writing the Another View column in The Racing Post today, had no need to get...

According to a front page story in The Racing Post today, owner slash breeder Simon Cox is to be announced next week as the new Chair of the B.H.A. He has owned racehorses for fifteen-years and keeps broodmares for the purpose of breeding jumpers. He is a former beer seller, rising through the ranks at Molson Cours to become president and chief executive. My first thoughts on reading of his arrival at the B.H.A. were - at least he is a jumping man and how many days a week will he give to his new post? Whether he is the right man for the job only time will tell but he seems a better fit than any of his immediate predecessors, although there remains the odour of a city man getting the job; jobs for the boys, if you wish. He is not Peter Savill, who would have been a popular...

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...

What gets my goat is when commentators and journalists do not bat an eye when talking or writing about the purchase price at auction of a horse. Poker cost Amo Racing 4-million-quid and gives the impression of only being up to winning a selling hurdle at Plumpton and when his name is mentioned commentators have to fight to hide their smirks. What has Poker, trained by a seasoned winner in Karl Burke, no less, has to do with prize-money? If there were a levy on the purchase price of a horse sold at public auction of say 5%, with that 5% going towards prize-money in this country, Poker's 4-million-quid price tag would actually be of benefit to the sport. My maths is pretty pathetic, especially when it comes to percentages, but wouldn't 5% of 4-million be £80,000.  Think of the extra income stream that would provide if a 2%, 3% or...

When Tom Segal said that he believes Joseph could one day be considered a better trainer than his father, his peers mocked him. How could anyone, let alone the son, become greater than the god of all trainers? Well, I went first on this subject, though tempering my approval of Joseph's ascent to the throne with my belief that he needed to remain a trainer of National Hunt horses as well as the blueblooded flat horses that are his bread and butter.  As David Jennings pointed out in The Racing Post today, the son is ahead of schedule in his bid, though I doubt given the level of his levelheadedness the thought has not even spent more than a single second in his head, to beat his father's record of 152-winners in an Irish season. In his record-breaking season of 2018, at this point of the season Aidan had 72-winners on...

One of the problems with a fading memory is that you condition yourself to always question or second guess yourself. For instance, as far as I can, I am a man without form-books, after all, I seek confirmation for too much of which I write as fact. That I may be right more often than not does not take away the fear of being wrong. Another element of an untrustworthy memory is that I must also take as fact what others write. The Racing Post, thankfully, is never wrong in its communication of facts. Though as an example of my rickety memory, I take as fact that the 2022 Ribblesdale at the Royal meeting was won by Magical Lagoon, a filly I have absolutely no recall, even though, apparently, she went on to win the Irish Oaks. I am shocked that I cannot recall a top-class filly from as short a...

Change the shape, change the start. That is the hope. After long discussion with everyone that matters, Cheltenham are to realign the racecourse to put an end to races starting on a bend. This one factor is the greatest contributor for the false starts that have blighted the Cheltenham Festival over the past few years. There never was any need to start on a bend; the problem was always the distance between where the starter instructed the jockeys to gather and where he was standing, flag in hand. The new procedure, while welcomed by those who were asked their opinion, suggests to me that the starter will continue to have the jockeys line-up beyond what might be called a shouting distance from him, allowing horses all the time they need to break into a canter and scupper the start. What is clearly an improvement is that 'false poles'  (why false?) will...

I make mistakes. For someone who has the nerve to put his thoughts into a public domain, the least the reader can expect is a lack of avoidable errors. I always proof-read anything I write before hitting the publish button, always aware that a lazy eye is not easy to overcome. And though this is not an acceptable excuse, I am not a professional writer. I earn no money from this site. I write, therefore I am.  I have just finished 'Full Flight' by Eamonn Prescott, a book I was looking forward to reading. And it is a good read, It should be as it narrates the golden age of hurdle races, the era of Persian War, Bula, Comedy-of-Errors, Lanzarote, Night Nurse, Monksfield and Sea Pigeon. And, though he repeats elements of the story throughout, the author brings back into the light those glory days when the best horses around took...

Firstly, my apologies for the late arrival of this slog'n'blog, which is due to the death last night of one of our older cats. Because of the heat at the moment, his death required a quick burial which we undertook at six o'clock this morning. We may have started early in the morning but we did not complete our task until 8.30 am due to the foreman of the work insisting the hole be a good one-foot deeper than strictly necessary. No blood was spilt; no voices raised. A cat had died, the moment required solemnity and teamwork, which was duly delivered. Being unable to sleep last night, I read today's Racing Post between the hours of 10-30 pm and 11.30, which now requires me to be able to read my scribbled notes and to do a fair amount of remembering. Here goes. After riding five-winners at Windsor Friday evening, Oisin...

Let's face it, the B.H.A. is an institution that works for them, not us, perhaps not for the industry. The B.H.A. has a penchant for secrets, knowledge that only they are privy to possess. They seem to have no truck with the opinions of the lower forms of life on the outer edges of their universe. The B.H.A. is undemocratic and the on-going trough the sport is in will remain until the B.H.A. is shown the errors of its ways. It is not that Peter Savill has been rejected as a candidate for Chair. It is, as things stand, the prerogative of the B.H.A. board to choose who they think best suited to the role. What is a kick in the guts though is that the view of the 250 people who put pen to paper in support of Savill, who approved in principle his plans for the future of the...