NO DEFENCE REQUIRED, WORLD POOL, BIG BUCKS & WHY THE RACING LEAGUE FAILED, MR. BLAKE.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Shergar Cup. I might even have fallen back in love with it . And there certainly was no need for Oli Bell and Kevin Blake to waste air-space defending the event or even belittling it as harmless and a novelty. To start with, five of the six races had ten-runners and due to a late non-runner (why no reserves?) nine in the other race. There have been plenty of meetings during the summer less competitive and with fewer declarations. Anyway, the public gives it endorsement year after year, so who gives a single hoot what the Bells and Blakes of this world have to say.

In its 26-years, Ryan Moore has only honoured the Shergar Cup with his presence twice, 20-years apart. Both times he was leading rider and was a member of the winning team. Unlike the other four jockeys who won at Ascot yesterday, he refused to carry a flag into the winners enclosure, while those who did accept the flag of their country were sheepish in their acceptance, preferring to drape it around their necks of laying it across the withers of their horse. As Ryan explained, his first winner was trained by a South African, with the groom a Jamaican and the second winner was trained by an Italian. No matter the occasion, Ryan' success is never about him, which tells you all you need know about the greatest flat jockey of my lifetime, not that he cares one jot for such an acclammation from me or anyone more worthy of making such a judgement.

There were four female jockeys riding yesterday, two of which won races, all of whom have achived great success in the countries in which they ride. Yet what yesterday confirmed to me is that Saffie Osborne is the best female flat jockey in Europe, perhaps the world and is deserving of the opportunity to ride in Group 1's and classics. She also has a sense of fun as she proved when taking up the challenge to spray Ryan Moore with champagne after the awards ceremony. Ryan knew what was coming and could be seen edging backwards on the podium as Saffie put down the trophy for the winning team. In Saffie the sport has a star, someone with the presence to sell this sport to a younger audience. Owners and trainers have to step up now to give her the opportunity to be in front of the cameras before and after the big races are run. Having placed Saffie at the top of the female jockey pyramid, I have to conceded she still has a long way to go to equal the force of nature that is Holly Doyle and her haul of Group 1 winners. And for one have missed Holly during this long spell on the sidelines.

Though I instinctively dislike when an outside entity imposes its whims on our sport, I have to accept that the World Pool and its comingling (one of my favourite words) is a financially wonderful coworker for horse racing in this country. I did not approve of the World Pool's insistence that the Goodwood Stakes had to be started from stalls as it removed the novelty of it being one of the few races left that was started from behind tapes. A small price to pay, perhaps, for the financial gains that was Goodwood's reward for making both the concesssion and all the preparatory work that allowed stalls to be used.

Big Buck's, one of the greatest racehorses of all-time, has died aged 23. When his death was announced on I.T.V. yesterday I was stunned. Reading about his life and death in The Racing Post this morning I became quite emotional, especially when his name was included in the list of the other great horses that were stable-mates at Ditcheat. Kauto Star, Denman, and the only two still alive, Master Minded and Neptune Collonges, the Ringo Star and Paul McCartney of the horse world. The heatwave beat Big Buck's in the end, apparently. He was, though, a warrior to the end. I hope he is buried, with a headstone to remind those in the future of his achievements.

Kevin Blake seems bemused as to why The Racing League failed. Here is why. The end product was but a shadow of the original proposal. Godolphin, Coolmore and the other big studs and stables were mooted to take part and yet what we ended up with were a homeless and random assortment of teams comprising a random assortment of nationalities with no affinity with either the public or even the teams they represented. The public were expected to form an allegiance with something that only existed six-nights in a year. Also, if team racing were to be successful, how could it fit in with the day-to-day running of the sport. It is this bloody analogy with Formula 1 that was part of the problem. Formula 1 has a season and does not exist outside of those 22+ races. Horse racing is a 365-day sport and industry. If anyone else compares our sport to Formula 1, the most boring form of motor sport, I will hunt them down and poke them in the eye with a soft feather. Horse racing on the flat is a hundred-times more intriguing and exciting than Formula 1. National Hunt is a thousand-times more compelling than Formula 1. May I never make another comment on the Racing League ever again or it might bring on a stroke, and not a nice kind of stroke!