SPELLING VERSUS PRONOUNCIATION, FRENCH LADY JOCKEYS, TRAWLERMAN & OUR SPORT IN REFLECTIVE GLORY.

No one moans about the minutia of our sport more than I do. And despite all the consequential problems the sport is plagued by, most of which has hung round the neck of the sport for far too long, it does not mean that the smaller issues need not be addressed. For instance, I believe the names of racehorses matters and that the names of outstanding or even infamous names of the past should not be used in this day and age, especially when the options are wide and various. Around this issue is whether commentators should be taken to account if they mispronounce a name. In today's Racing Post, in the letters colomn, Mr.Hamer of Brighton provides a list of names regularly incorrectly pronounced. I see the matter from both sides, especially as I have a dislike of French, especially the mixing and mangling of English and French in the name of a horse, and Arabic with its propensity of m's and u's and no u after q and just the overall simularity and difficulty to articulate.

Apparently, the horse named Go Rimbaud should be pronounced Go Ram Bow, though how anyone is supposed to know this is beyond me. I am of the opinion, if the owner would like us to pronounce the name Go Ram Bow, he or she should spell it Go Ram Bow and not Go Rimbaud. Racecards should not be an extention of an English/French test. There is merit in Mr. Hamer's observation, though none more than my constant moan at owners who compound four, five or six words in order to stay within the 18-character rule, something that, if not ruled against, might approach overload in the near future.

I don't know why but I was under the impression that female jockeys in France were more successful than our female jockeys in this country, especially since female jockeys riding in France were given a 3Ib (or is it 4) allowance to encourage trainers to give them better opportunities. Yet a look at the French championship table tells a different story. If Holly Doyle was not out injured, as she has been for the majority of the season, we would most likely have two females in the top dozen riders. Saffie Osborne currently lies 8th, and has been as hight 5th or 6th since the turf season started in earnest. In France, only Delphine Santiago is in the top twenty, lying 15th with 41-wins from 212-rides, two-winners less than Saffie.

It is has been a sad week for racing with the retirement of Trawlerman coming only days after Bow Echo's injury was announced. Trawlerman has retired sound, even if a small injury came to light after his run at Goodwood, and will retire to Wood Ditton Stud, along with his famous goggles, to join Rebel's Romance and all the other old horses that Godolphin care for in their old age.

I doubt if we residents of this country appreciate what we have as far as our sport goes, at least not as much as foreign visitors to our racecourses do. In today's Racing Post, Wesley Ward is fulsome in his praise of Royal Ascot and British racing people and our racing in general. He even makes the bold statement that if it were not for the wonder of Royal Ascot he would not be where he is today and that his now grown-up children would not be doing as well in their chosen pathways in life. It is just a shame, I must add, that our beautiful sport is not understood by either our politicians or those who hold the mythical social licence that allows us to enjoy the magnificent creatures that we pay homage to on an all most minute-by-minute basis. Or that the governance of our sport is so poor. Perhaps while we have Wesley Ward in our country this week, York's supremo, William Derby, should attempt to get him an introduction to someone of influence in the present government to allow him to bathe in the glow of Wesley's admiration of our sport.