NO SURPRISE, STRANGLES, AGAIN, ANOTHER EXAMPLE & SHIFTING SANDS OF BELIEF.

I was surprised as anyone when it was announced that Godolphin had acquired Billy Loughnane as a retained rider. I thought it was inevitable that Godolphin would want Loughnane 'on their team' in the near future but for him to immediately become equal in the pecking order with William Buick did take me off-guard. Loughnane is twenty and that is very young in comparison to 38-year-old Buick, a rider with vastly more experience in the big league of racing. I have no doubt that Loughnane will cope with his new job and with a smile on his face. But will Buick? Even when his best mate James Doyle was retained by Godolphin, Buick was always top dog, with Doyle riding what Buick rejected. But from December the 1st, Buick will have the best young jockey since himself snapping at his heels. Buick may be mates with Charlie Appleby but the trainer is as employed by Sheikh Mohammed as Buick himself and if their master determines that Loughnane is the future and is given priority when it comes to the classic horses, Charlie will do as he is told. It will be interesting how Buick reacts to the new situation. Perhaps as a married man with young children, one who famously has learning difficulties, he might enjoy stepping back a pace, allowing Loughnane to take on those long flights to the U.S. and Canada at the height of a British summer. Or he might grit his teeth and set out to make a point, that he is still one of the best in the world. Certainly no longer being the number 1 retained jockey will heighten his senses and steel his eye. But from now on he cannot look into the stables of Godolphin's highest rated colts and fillies and allow himself to imagine the races he will be riding them in come next season and how best to ride them.

Strangles is a disease of the lymph nodes in the respiratory tract. It is the most commonly diagnosed infectious disease in the world. I think I am saying that we have now had three seperate outbreaks in this country in a little over a year, though one was a case where a non-thoroughbred was stabled very close to a racecourse, Plumpton if my memory is correct. The latest outbreak has occured at the stables of Dr. Richard Newland, with three horses diagnosed as suffering from the disease. The affected horses are in isolation and no horses will be allowed to enter or leave Newland's property until the threat of the disease spreading has ended, with biosecurity ramped-up at Newland's stables and at the racecourse stables where Newland has recently had runners. This is not an over-reaction. Strangles has the potential to stop all racing in the country if this latest outbreak is not contained. Strangles, though, is not the devil of a disease it once was, though there remains 600+ outreaks reported in this country every year, far more commonly in non-thoroughbreds than with racehorse thankfully. Cross-fingers this latest scare remains no more than a scare.

Now then, on to one of my hobby-horses. There is a race at Naas on Sunday with the following title. 'Tote Guarnteed Never Beaten by S.P. Brown Lad Handicap Hurdle'. This race is not in the running for the most convoluted title of the year, it serves does though allow me to rearrange those very same words into a more orderly fashion. The Brown Lad Handicap Hurdle presented to you by the Tote Guarantee, Never Beaten by S.P.. Does that not give equal prominence to a race title that honours Brown Lad and to the sponsor? To my mind, the history of a race is of the same importance as any sponsor. On this occasion the Tote has the honour of sponsoring a race in memory of one the great horses of Irish jumps racing. A little reverence would not go amiss.

There is a saying in a journalism circles, or there used to be, perhaps younger journalists have yet to be aware of this get out of jail card, that for me to know what I believe, I must read what I write. Belief can change or alter in size and scope. What infuriates me today, might not be so important to me next week or next year. It is not many years ago I believed that the Cheltenham Festival should extend to 5-days. Now, I believe it should be 3-days in March, with a 2-day Winter Festival in December or January. Many years ago I was an advocate for the whip, now I believe the whip is an impediment to increasing support for our sport. Some years I am really down on flat racing and in other years, as the one just passed, I can admit to enjoying flat racing, not as much as National Hunt, of course, but then we all suffer from one bias or prejudice, don't we? I am also aware that at times I can be hyper-critical, hypocritical and prone to hyperbolise. As long as I am taken seriously when I am serious and not taken seriously when I am not being serious, I can live with myself. With me, the sport comes first. And I am 72 and a half years old and people of my age and older should always be given a longer length of rope than mere striplings under the age of forty. My apologises, I am hyperbolising.