As I have come to expect, and you cannot imagine how much I envy the quality of his writing, Lee Mottershead hits the nail on the head in the debate/dispute over whether geldings should take part in the Prix de I'Arc de Triomphe. The argument used by by Bozo the French tit and his chief supporters at Coolmore that geldings have an advantage over colts is shot to pieces by two vets quoted by Mottershead. Colts have more muscle mass - you only have to compare active stallions to a steeplechaser to understand the truth of that claim - over geldings and muscle mass can ensure more speed. It is true that a colt can improve both in temperament and in form when gelded but that does not equate to evidence that geldings have a distinct advantage over colts. How many former classic hopes that have failed to live-up to expectations go on to win Group 1's ? Not many, though they might win heritage handicaps, hurdle races or group races abroad. Sea Pigeon would never have been the legend he was if he had remained a colt, for instance.

Also, the whole stupid 'the Arc is a stallion-making race' falls by the wayside when it is given unbiased reflection. Most of the colts in this year's Arc were already stallions-in-the-making at the moment the stalls opened. And remain so. Any colt that wins the Arc will be prime stallion fodder and, if or when a gelding wins the Arc, any colt that somes second or third will remain a horse for the stallion sheds. And what the thoroughbred breed requires at the moment is more stallions standing at a working man's fee, not fewer stallions owned by fewer people standing at exorbitant fees that only the few can afford. 

What gets me is that none of those who are championing this petition - as if racing has no other problems requiring clever and immediate answers - are so het-up about the geldings issue that they are threatening to boycott the Arc in the future or, if they have a gelding in the future with the form to win an Arc, are saying that on principle they would bypass the Arc. It is too silly an issue, the fabulously rich furious that a little man might, sometime in the future, take the golden trophy from their grasp. It is always the same, the rich looking after the rich.

Lewis Porteous, in a feature piece in The Racing Post today, outlines the falling number of people wanting to become a trainer. I suspect there are a thousand people wanting the opportunity to train and are confined by not having the wherewithal to do so. I have said down the years, especially in relation to what has been done to the Aintree National, a race that once was a realistic ambition of everyone but is now consigned to the fabulous few, that the one-horse owner, the small breeder, the journeyman jockey, the country racecourses and the trainer with less than 30-horses, are not only the backbone of the sport, they are the very foundations of the sport. The B.H.A. are intent on building the sport back-up from the top-down, when all great monuments were built from the bottom up. We do not need million-pound races but we do need prize-money at the bottom end to be worth double, at least, what they are now. A minimum first prize-money of £10,000 should be the target of the B.H.A. as that would help everyone and not six and seven-figure prize funds as that only helps those in least need of financial assitance.

Good to see that Aamilah Aswat has secured the services of one of the top jockey agents in Gordon Clarkson. It is also good to read that she will soon be riding over fences and that already she is down to claiming 7Ibs. It is all up to her now, as well as owners in both the Bailey & Nicholls yard and others to give her the opportunity to either ride her way to the top or to show-up her limitations. Cross-fingers it is the former as her face can only be of help in promoting the diversity of our sport.