'JUSTIFIES PRICE TAG', 'SUPER SATURDAY', CHELMSFORD & 'A LIFELONG DREAM'.

Occasionally someone makes a comment or there is a headline that makes me laugh even though no humour was intended. In The Racing Post today, in the breeding industry section, that though it will perhaps become a truth, as of now is simply pie in the sky. Referring to Senorita Bonita's victory in the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes, the headline  suggested that she had justified her price tag. 900,000-guineas is a huge amount of money, and for someone with my small amount of savings it is an insane amount, enough to buy two houses and a top-of-the-range second-hand car. Yesterday the filly won her owners £70,000, so at the moment she is somewhere around 800,000-guineas in deficit, not taking into account training fees. I know you will say that by being a black type winning filly, if she came on the market again she might make £1-million, far more if she were to win the 1,000 Guineas next season. But is all ifs, maybes and crossed-fingers. To my mind she will have justified her price tag only when she wins in prize-money the same amount of money. Until then she is a filly of great promise.

Today is 'Super Saturday'. It is not a day that is at all popular with most of the industry, though. Today is overkill; too much for a single day. York, Ascot, Chester, Salisbury, Hamilton, plus Navan and Limerick in Ireland is enough to fry the brain. In fact, for those who study form and who either earn their salary as a professional tipster or gambler, it must be a nightmare, a 24-hour marathon just going through the form of, perhaps, every horse running that has some sort of chance. With the possibility of missing 'good things' through sheer fatigue. I do not know how they do it or even why! It also must be a fright show for trainers with opportunities for their horses at multiple racecourses, and in this heat, for their staff, it must be like taking part in a marathon, even if it involves sitting in an uncomfortable horsebox for most of the time. There is one sector of the industry thatmust look forward to 'Super Saturday', though - the journeyman jockey who because the top jockeys must be at York or Ascot opportunities present themselves to get on a higher calibre of horse for trainers they might not usually ride for. For them, it might become a really super Saturday.

I like it when it appears I might be right about something I have proposed. According to comments made by Jim Mullen, Jockey Club C.E.O.,in an interview with Ed Chanberlain, his employers are interested in acquiring Chelmsford racecourse. At least, they are monitoring the situation. Such an acquisition would have nothing to do with the sale or otherwise of Kempton Park but it would make, I suggest, for a good stand-by position for the Jockey Club as they could transfer Kempton's all-weather fixtures to Chelmsford. It will be a while before I am right about anything else but small wins are still wins.

As with most people, I have, at times, been exasperated by our champion flat jockey. He has, perhaps, also been exasperated by himself. But through of his trials and tribulations I have always maintained that at his core Oisin Murphy is a good human being. To me, in his own measured way, Oisin is as good for flat racing as Frankie Dettori. He is articulate, choosing his words carefully. He is knowledgable about the sport and, I suspect, about current and world affairs. He is also a one-off, a man difficult to know which peg to hang his character on. He owns and rides show jumpers; he is not scared about riding over hurdles when the opportunity and his sister's will prevail - his sister is clerk of the course or manager at Wincanton racecourse. And onTuesday evening Oisin will achieve 'a lifelong dream' to ride at Killarney, the racecourse closest to where he was born in Ireland. I wonder if Ryan Moore is still to achieve a lifelong dream that is unconnected to winning Group 1's? Oisin may be his own man but he is a force for good and I hope long into the future that racing is a force for good to Oisin.