NAMES, AGAIN, START OF THE FLAT, THE LINCOLN & ALBERT EINSTEIN, CHAPTER TWO, THE GLADNESS.

I dislike the compounding of words to create a name for a racehorse. But today in the 1.30 at Uttoxeter there is a horse called All One Word. I like the name, don't get me wrong. Yet surely given all one word comprises only one word, should the owners not have considered naming the horse Alloneword?

You do not get it so much these days but not long ago the days leading up to the Lincoln meeting comprised a lot of moaning that the flat always started with a whimper; it also went out with a whimper.  The latter is natural and could only be avoided if 'Champions Day' were to be the final fixture of the season. There is no reason, though, why the turf flat season should not begin with a little flag waving and several trumpeters. Flat connoisseurs have waited through a long winter for this day, so why not give the day a bit of spring razzmatazz? Or at least a little love, a little respect and a smattering of something different?

I will not repeat my radical proposal for the Lincoln, nor will I suggest that the Lincoln is a race in need of some love. In what ever form the Lincoln is run, the traditional or something far more radical, it should be regarded as one the feature 1-mile handicaps of the season, perhaps the first leg of noted 1-mile handicap triple crown. I am fond of the concept of triple crowns and believe all divisions of the flat should have triple crown events, with a bonus, perhaps, for the connections of any horse that can will all three legs.

The Lincoln Handicap is worth £77,000 to the winner, a good prize by any stretch of the imagination. But if it were worth twice that amount to the winner, and connected by way of the triple crown proposal, to the Royal Hunt Cup - it is a pity the Cambridgeshire is over 9-furlongs, not eight - and a third prestigious mile handicap, the race would rise in prestige and be seen as the first stitch in the golden quilt of bright new season. Also, to give the start of the turf flat season the bang it deserves, the opening day could comprise five or six other handicaps, including a 3-year-old mile handicap, a junior Lincon, if you wish, with the second day comprised of all the listed races presently on day one and two. And the Brocklesby, if you must. It may not be the bang of Royal Ascot or Goodwood but it would make more of a noise than the present arrangement. And if the six or seven handicaps could be made into a nation-wide I.T.V. six or seven, with a guaranteed million-pound jackpot, the bang would be even louder.

After long consulation, research and study, my two for the Lincoln Handicap today are Botanical and Metal Merchant. Oh, for information purposes only, I cannot remember ever tipping the Lincoln winner.

The first chapter of the Albert Einstein story began nearly 12-months ago with Aidan O'Brien whispering loudly to certain Irish racing journalists that he had a flying machine amongst his two-year-olds. The colt was eating-up the gallops with such ferocity that Sue Magnier could not decide on a name worthy of such a mythical creature - the fastest horse ever seen at Ballydoyle. First he was named Mars. But Mars is a dead planet where only the wind moves. Then he was named Italy but Italy is not the country it once was. Which is why the colt by the now deceased Wootton Bassett, out of Yet (Epsom Oaks winner?) became Albert Einstein, the most famous scientist the world has ever known. The second chapter, Is The Hype Justified, is written today at the Curragh in the Gladness Stakes. I wonder if Aidan will have fingers crossed for the majority of the seven-furlongs?