Of course, Billy Loughnane will not accept he is a certainty to be the new champion jockey. He is too sensible than to assume the crown is his. He might suffer a fall today or tomorrow which puts him on the sidelines until after Champions Day and Oisin could then easily ride the 21-winners (currently) that would allow him to retain his title. But we know, barring unforeseen incidents, that Billy is going to take the crown from Oisin.
In today's Racing Post, it is suggested that Loughnane will attempt to better both Sir Gordon Richard's total of 269-wins in a season and the record-breaking 289 of A.P. McCoy's. Of course, we are not talking exactness here. Sir Gordon's haul in 1947 came solely from a turf season of March to November, Loughnane has the advantage of artificial surfaces in January, February, half of March, half of November and December. And there was far less racing in Sir Gordon's day. Personally, though I applaud Loughnane for becoming the youngest champion jockey since Charlie Elliott in the 1920's, I hope Sir Gordon holds on to his record. His achievement in riding 269 winners in a turf season will always be a greater achievement than anything a modern-day jockey can achieve. In 1947 there was still petrol-rationing and many a time he would have to travel to the races by train and even when he used his car there were no motorways in his time. Sir Gordon deserves to keep his record at least until Loughnane has a few Derby wins to his name.
Today, it is Lee Mottershead day in The Racing Post, with two excellent articles by him. In the first, he asks whether British racing should follow the lead of Australia and have horses on view on the racecourse for several hours before they run. In Australia, apparently, horses are kept in 'day stalls' in view of the public, with all the preparations for a race viewed by an inquisitive public. The horses face outward, and kept centrally by ropes tied to posts left and right. For purposes of transparancy this is an excellent idea, though I cannot see exciteable horses, those who currently are saddled in the racecourse stables, for example, accepting this system. Or indeed the Ballydoyle horses that Aidan likes to saddle in the open air. It certainly would not work in the winter months when horses need to be kept warm. This is Britain, not Australia. Perhaps, though, despite my scepticism, it should be trialled next summer at a few low-profile fixtures.
Also today, Lee Mottershead has an excellent piece on 'climate change' and how it is going to effect horse racing now and into the future. Everything described in this article, water-saving, the need for more reservoirs, creating more shade and cool areas for horses, the effect on long-distance travel for horses during heat-waves etc, is to be applauded, and I am in no way suggesting that weather-patterns are not changing even if I question whether the world as a whole is heating-up. The weather is Britain now is different to how it was 500-years ago. The Thames no longer freezes over in winter and it is rare even to see ice on ponds and waterways. But it is not so drastically different from, say, 1897 when, to quote George Lambton from his book 'Men and Horses I Have Known' 'a year when the summer was of tropical heat.'
To forearm is to be forewarned; it is possible that we may have to endure warmer summers but we should not allow ourselves to be hoodwinked by climate scientists towing a flag for those who benefit from scaremongering. In 1976 I lived in the Midlands of this country and the summer that year was a replica of the summer we have just endured and I can assure you that the reservoirs around the country were emptying at an alarming rate, as was the water table. Yet racing continued without the dire warnings of doom and gloom presently being presented by climate activists and by Lee Mottershead's article in today's Racing Post.
We are living in an era of government over-reach, where free speech and opinion can be labelled ' far right', 'racist' or 'climate denying'. If you are not in lock-step with government or global thinking you are a troublemaker and could easily become a victim of the sort of rough justice once the preserve of communist countries. We must protect our racecourses and our sport and if by carrying out all the proposals in Lee Mottershead report we are future-proofing our right to race, then we should all put our shoulders to the wheel. All I ask is remember 1897 and 1976. We survived then, and without the irrigation systems we have come to rely on now, and with a little common-sense we will survive 2026.