REVELEY RETIRING, STATE MAN, TOO, HOLLY IS BACK, FORRISTAL AGREES WITH ME & THE E IN THE R.

One of the lesser mysteries in the world, at least to me, is when a jockey has to go abroad to prove to his fellow natives how good he or she is. Rachel King could barely get a ride in her home country, yet after relocating to Australia she is noted as being one of the best of a very high quality crop of jockeys. And so it is the same with Felix de Giles and James Reveley, journeyman jockeys at best at home, yet based in France both have become champion jockeys, with the latter often recruited by British trainers for high-profile rides. At 39, James Reveley is to call time on his career at the end of the year to take up training on a dual licence with Marine Pineda, described in The Racing Post today as 'his partner', whether that is business or romantic is left unclear. One thing I am pretty certain about is that given his antecedence, Reveley will be as successful as a trainer as he was as a jockey.

If I were to find a lamp in an antique shop today, one with a genie inside, one of the three wishes granted to me would be to have State Man live a long and happy retirement. Great horses rarely have long lives in retirement and I hope State Man bucks that recent trend. It is not just all the Grade 1 races he won or that he won a Champion Hurdle, just that by all accounts he was, as Nicky Henderson will put it, 'a very nice person'. He would be deserving to spend his retirement at the Irish National Stud alongside the other great Irish horses in the Living Legends paddocks.

The best news today is that Holly Doyle returns to the saddle at Southwell on Saturday. She has been missed, at least by me. From May to November is a very long time for a jockey to be on the sidelines, especially when the husband goes off to work everyday and occasionally coming home with more Group 1 trophies to be poloshed. And she is not returning quietly, with one ride to test out her mended body. It is four-rides for Holly, with many more rides before she goes off to somewhere warm for the winter, though I would prefer her to stay in England to renew old acquaintances and establish some new ones.

Although I take the opinion that this is my website and I will express my ideas and opinions in any fashion I please, I am pleased, if not flattered, when I read views expressed by a professional columnist that is broadly in agreement with me, as with Richard Forristal, the Irish editor of the Racing Post. He agrees that Jack Garrity has been sorely mistreated by the Leicester stewards and that far from not riding to obtain the best possible placing and hauling him across the coals under the non-triers rule, he did most of what he could have done to achieve third place, when others may have given-up and allowed the horse to coast home. As Forristal pointed out, it was Red Derek's best run of the season.

Two things should happen at Garrity's appeal. 1) He should be exonerated, and 2. the Leicester Stewards should be charged with bringing the sport into disrepute. Stewards should have to live by the same rules as they judge others by. When a jockeys errs, he or she is fined or banned. When stewards err, there is no reprimand, not in public, anyway. This must change.

All I will say about the Labour Party's latest ploy on the long road to kill our sport is this: it is morally wrong that our sport is kept afloat by Fixed Odds Terminals. They bear no elemental simalarity to horse racing or indeed betting. Fixed Odds Terminal have their home in arcades, and if gambling companies want profit from them, they should start owning such shady places. The boomakers should, in my opinion, get together and take the decision to remove all F.O.T's. from all betting shops and decide amongst themselves to ensure every town has access to a betting shop. Cities, obviously should have more than one. Instead of threatening to close thousands of betting shops, the betting industry should make a pledge to keep one betting shop open in every town. A good many must close, as that seems to make financial sense.

In the small town where I live, there are two betting shops. If one closed, the other should, I hope, gain in patrons and make more money. If the global betting chains care about both the sport and its customers, they need to draw-up a plan to keep the lights on and to inflict as little harm on our sport as is financially possible. Remember, this heinous govenment will only have a short shelf-line if we all vote Reform at every opportunity. In saving Britain, Farage will save our sport.