HEROES HOMECOMING, ONLY SEVEN NEED COME OUT, BREEDERS PRODUCE RACES & NICO NOT GUILTY.

As is now tradition, the equine Closutton Cheltenham heroes paraded along Leighlinbridge high street yesterday. Gaelic Warrior seemed to be on his best behaviour, although Il Etait Temps and Lossiemouth were reported as lapping up all the attention that went their way. As reported in the Racing Post today, Willie Mullins also lapped-up the attention, signing his autograph for anyone who asked and posing for selfies. Heroes should always be granted ceremony and be recipients of civic pride, though with no ill-will extended to Willie Mullins and his staff, I must admit to sort of praying that there will be no repeat after the Aintree National. Surely it must be someone else's turn to taste the glory of blue riband success.

That success, I hope, will go to Dan Skelton this time around with the mare Panic Attack. If she gets in - she needs eight to come out, though in reality she only needs seven as her stable-mate Grey Dawning will not be running in the Aintree National - she will be at the right end of the weights, receiving a goodly amount of weight from the Irish and  McManus horses that at present sit at the top of the ante-post markets. I was initially disappointed with her at Cheltenham behind Dinoblue in the Mares Chase but over that distance she would have needed softer ground to have finished closer to the winner as her most commanding performance this season was in the Coral Trophy (old Hennessey) over 3-mile 2-furlongs and it was on that day when she became my fancy for the Aintree National.

The declining foal crop in both Ireland and Britain requires a swift and cunning plan to bring about a reversal in numbers. I am very often critical of the breeding industry, believing that flat racing is structured primarily for the benefit of breeders and not the actual sport that feeds it. But without a healthy and diverse breeding industry the sport will wither on the vine. Once upon a time there were, if I have the term correct, Breeders Produce races, two-year-old races restricted to home-bred horses. This would be a good starting point in the attempt to reverse the current downward trend, a few races throughout the season, with enhanced prize-money, restricted to home-bred horses foaled in this country. What must happen, though, given this can only be a long-term project with no quick fixes available, is incentives for people to breed from race-winning mares rather than to sell abroad or to the mega-breeders that already dominate the  sport. Farmer/owners and landowner/owners should be incentivised to breed for the flat, if only with a single mare. The big stud organisations are not going to breed from more mares at a time when the industry is struggling; for the trend to be reversed, it needs new blood, a step back to the days when it was possible to incur a financial windfall each late autumn by selling a foal at Newmarket or Doncaster.

An enquiry by the B.H.A. has established that Nico de Boinville did not say nasty words to Declan Queally during the balls-up of a start at the Cheltenham Festival last week. He did not call a paddy a paddy or anything like that. He only used acceptable expletives and his disreagard for amateurs and Irish jockeys in particular was an expression of free speech, which should always be encouraged.