RIDER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME, FALLEN ANGEL, THE O'BRIENS, PROOF THAT SMALL CAN BE GOOD & WHAT OTHER SPORT.

On occasions, an article will appear in The Racing Post that reminds the reader how much there is in our sport to be proud about and which other sports, if they knew, would be envious of. Former jockey, former St. Leger winner, George Baker, is the face of the B.H.A.'s Rider Development Programme. Not only is George coach to many apprentices, he also drives his white van, loaded with his equisiser (is that spelt right? Looks wrong) to stables up and down the country to advise stable staff on how to improve their riding skills. This initiative will not only improve riding skills but will also reduce, cross-fingers, accidents on the gallops and grow confidence amongst the lesser skilled riders employed in the industry. Always try to rise up from the bottom, not dumb-down from the top.

The other day I quoted Jack Leach, former jockey, on why, in his opinion, horses raise their head-up in a finish. If you look back at the Matron Stakes at Leopardstown on Saturday, you will see, at around the 3-furlong pole, Fallen Angel going from looking like a winner to putting her head in the air and dropping away as if she is about to fall out of the picture. Yet soon after, she lowered her head and ran on again to finish third. Taking Jack Leach's theory as gospel, I would suggest Fallen Angel has a respiratory issue and it would be interesting to know the dialogue after the race between James Doyle and Karl Burke.

Aidan O'Brien, nudged on by Ronan Whelan letting on to journalists at Doncaster that Christmas Day coughed on the way to the start of the St. Leger, admitted on Sunday that the Ballydoyle horses are being stymied by a low level grade virus, explaining why some of his horses are running below par. While not questioning for a moment Aidan's press release, I have to ask why he would run Constitution River twice in Group 1 company during this period of widespread scoping and blood testing at Ballydoyle? I have no doubt much of the inferior form shown by his horses in recent months is due solely to this quick to come and quick to go virus but is this explanation also a mask for some of his more high-profile horses denting their reputations of late?

Joseph, isn't he brilliant? Wins the Doncaster St. Leger again on Saturday, followed by a treble on the second-day of Irish Champions weekend. First two at Doncaster, first two in National Stakes at The Curragh. What he ia achieving without the aid of 'the Coolmore lads' and their blue-blooded pedigrees is beginning to equal if not outweigh the achievements of his father. And when brother Donnacha gets a good one, he too can fire bullets straight as a die, as Commanche Brave reminded punters in the Flying Five. As I have always said, Aidan's greatest achievement is not the records he breaks on the track but the family he and his wife have produced. Have you ever heard a harsh word said about any of the O'Brien family?

They say 'never judge a present by the size of the box'. They also say that small can be beautiful. Katie Scott has only twenty-horses in training and yet in Naana's Shadow she has one of the top sprinters in the country. The filly just keeps on improving and yesterday at Longchamp Scott won the Group 3 Prix du Petit Couvant, breaking the course record. If only the bigger operations would spread their nets more widely and give trainers like Katie Scott one of their, perhaps lesser achieving, blue-bloods, if only as an experiment to discover if they can operate more regularly at a higher level. Everyone in this sport deserves a chance at greatness, I believe.

When a Grand Prix driver wins a race, he does not say to the media 'have to get on, I am in the next race'. Captains of football or rugby teams do not raise the trophy one minute and then dash off to play in another game thirty-minutes later. As with any jockey who has ridden a classic winner, and it was the same for Lester or Frankie, Saffie Osborne rode in the next race after the St. Leger. After racing, she jumped in a car and returned to Newmarket, even though she was riding at Doncaster the following day. After a short celebration, where she refused the champagne being freely consumed by everyone else, she returned to her sparsely decorated flat, to be up early to ride out for Richard Spencer, before the return journey to Doncaster. Today she is riding at Windsor.

The keyboard warriors, who shame their families with their inaccurate and sometimes downright spiteful comments on social media platforms, should try walking in the same boots as our jockeys to discover what it is to be hard-working and dedicated, to sacrifice many facets of what others might term the 'good life' to put their heads above the parapet five, six or seven-times a day to face in the quiteness of evening the thoughtlessness of the little-minded who think themselves big and bold with their snideness, pettiness and expletive-filled rants. Jockeys are not perfect human beings, there are, though human, if, compared to our nine-to-five lives, more super-human than most.