FUTURE COMMENTATOR LEAVES O'BRIEN, NICHOLLS WITHOUT COBDEN & DEMANDING LIGHT TO BE LET IN ON MAGIC.

Johnny Burke, a jockey with the ambition to become race commentator when he retires, is set to go freelance next season, leaving Fergal O'Brien after tomorrow's end-of-season meeting at Sandown Park. While it is a brave move for any jockey to give-up a retainer, Burke's career in the saddle would unlikely progress if he remained with O'Brien, as excellent a trainer as he is. When he is available, Burke is a bit of a go-to jockey when spare rides in good races become available, so at the age of 30 he must have decided it was now or never to roll the dice in hope of riding a better-class of horse on a more regular basis. If he had been a freelance this season, he might have been a good-fit for Paul Nicholls now that he has lost his faithful stable jockey. (Incidentally, it was only a few days ago that I learned that the contract with J.P.McManus was originally meant to start on January 1st this year but Cobden wanted it to be deferred to the end of this season as he considered he had a debt of honour to Nicholls and his owner as without them he would have had no career to speak of.) Johnny Burke will go to France this summer, joining an ever-expanding band of British jockeys out there, to ride for Noel George and Amanda Zetterholm, so who knows if he will return as relocating British jockeys rarely find they were back. 

It will take some getting used to, not seeing Harry Cobden riding on a daily basis for Paul Nicholls, seeing him jocked-up at places like Gowran Park, Clonmel and Navan, rather than Taunton, Warwick or Plumpton. It took me a long time after he retired before my eye did not automatically seek-out A.P.McCoy on racecards. I dare say it was the same when Richard Dunwoody retired or Peter Scudamore.

I hope for Cobden's sake that he strikes early in the gold and green and doesn't have to wait weeks and weeks for that first winner. Frank Berry has announced that next week at Punchestown it will be business as usual, with Mark Walsh having first choice of J.P.'s runners. I still expect Mark Walsh to announce his retirement at Punchestown or do as Rachael Blackmore did and just retire, announcing her departure several days after making her decision, not wanting a fuss made about it. Mark Walsh, I suggest, would be of a similar mindset. Also, I cannot believe that either McManus or Berry wanted to sack Walsh, the jockey who has ridden more Grade 1's for the gold and green than any other jockey, and that the change stemmed from Walsh saying he intended to retire at the end of the season.

I have no worries about Cobden succeeding Walsh. Harry is a great horseman/jockey and I am sure the owner will not suffer any loss of prize-money due to the change of retained jockey. I do worry though if Harry will miss his day-to-day involvement with his farm, his tractor and his cows. Harry Cobden is half-farmer, half-jockey. I hope Frank Berry and J.P. will understand if there is an emergency on the farm requiring Harry to be all farmer for a day?

There is a bit of a fuss being made -doubtless by journalists sniffing out a story - about the use of barrier trials and the data from them not being made available to punters and tipsters. In Australia, the results of barrier trials - mock races designed to educate young horses to starting stalls and the race-day experience - are published in the sporting papers the folllowing day, accompanied by times, weights, jockeys, etc. In Ireland, trials are as much for young hurdlers as they are for two-year-olds, and the mock-races are published on-line for people to watch and make-up their own minds.

Why Britain must always copy the set-ups of other countries is beyond me. If we follow this line of travel, publishing the results and data from an element of a horse's training, how long will it be before tipsters and punters are crying to be told the result of every private gallop conducted by a trainer on his or her own land or on the public gallops of Newmarket or Lambourn? It is a trainer's express job to bring a fit and healthy horse to the racecourse and the express job of tipsters and punters to decide which horse they should tip or bet on. A world where light is let on magic in all instances would be a world without magic. Leave trainers alone to train their horses how they want, to only allow the data of every gallop to be dispensed to the owners involved.