CARLISLE and SALISBURY, TEAM TACTICS, EPSOM UNDER FIRE & AMO.

Outside of the magnificent racing and enduring memories that Royal Ascot provided last week, what I recall is the high number of mentions that Carlisle and Salisbury racecourses received from trainers and pundits. Without being a betting man, I would bet a few pennies that more Ascot two-year-old winners came from races at Carlisle and Salisbury than racecourses more associated with Group1 racing like Newmarket or Newbury. Over jumps, Carlisle is favoured by the top southern stables as a lovely place to start a young chaser, as on the flat Salisbury is seen by flat trainers as a lovely place for a two-year-old to make its debut. Both Brigadier Gerard and Mill Reef won as two-year-olds at Salisbury, for instance.

Given their importance to trainers of high-class young horses, perhaps both racecourses should be given a better grade of race and greater exposure on national television. Carlisle recently benefited from having a meeting transferred from Haydock, drawing compliments from trainers and jockeys alike. The same can be said for Salisbury. These two racecourses nearly always provide good, safe ground and are obviously well run and appreciated by their local community. They are jewels in racing's crown.

There is a whole load of hypocrisy going around when the subject of debate is team tactics. As was said on Nick Luck's podcast over the weekend, how can anyone prove team tactics were involved during the St. James's Palace Stakes last week. For example, was it part of the 'team tactics' for Ryan Moore to give Billy Loughnane's mount a hefty bump in the first furlong, putting his main rival on an unsound footing from the off? Can it be proved that during his walk of the course before racing that Christophe Soumillon had not decided the best strip of the ground in the straight was two or three horse widths off the running rail? And if team tactics were involved, why was Aidan O'Brien, the man who gives the orders at Ballydoyle, not also charged with the same offence?

When Wayne Lorden in the Coronation Stakes ensured that Saffie Osborne did not get a clear run on Touleen, 'closing the door on her' as Saffie put it, why was that considered 'fair race riding' by all and sundry and not part of the 'team tactic' to ensure Ryan Moore and Precise had a clearer passage? You can say that Saffie should not have been where she was coming into the straight but that does not justify the action of the 'professional foul' towards her.

Using pacemakers, or non-triers, if you like, to set 'an even pace', as Aidan justifies this kind of 'team tactics', is within the rules, yet a jockey riding a second string is riding outside of the rules if he pulls wide to allow the number one string an easy passage to victory. To suggest that the sport is a team game at home but not a team game when between the white rails is wanting to keep the cake and eat it at the same time.

Letters published in the Racing Post yesterday where all doom and gloom as far as the Epsom Derby were concerned. The call for the Epsom Derby to follow the French Derby and have the distance reduced to 10-furlongs to mirror the trend of breeders spurning stamina for speed is a nail in the coffin of European racing history and the quick route to the Americanisation of racing in Britain, with, in time, ten-furlongs thought to be a bit far and a call to have the majority of races over distances between 7 and 9-furlongs. This 'trend' is a threat to the all-round viability of the thoroughbred breed.

At what point does Amo Racing become a bit of a joke. This is an operation built on the shifting sands of huge debt and though they nearly won a race at Royal Ascot last week, the majority of their runners were expensively bought long-odds outsiders. It seems the ethos of Amo Racing is based on the old adage of 'to win a small fortune in racing, you have to start with a large fortune'. It might also be in David Egan's mind that his association with Amo is restricting his career progression.