I thought Bow Echo was superb in the Sussex Stakes. As was Billy Loughnane. Good horses can pull defeat from out of the ashes and turn the day into one of unbridled joy and Bow Echo achieved that at Goodwood yesterday. I was not alone at the two-furlong pole to believe it was not going to be Loughnane's day as he seemed too far off the pace and locked-up with limited options to gain his freedom. Even a coming together with Zavateri did not blind his focus and without too much arm-swinging from his jockey, Bow Echo buckled down to the job in hand and once again showed Gstaad who was the boss of the 8-furlong division. A lovely watch.
Of course, racing and breeding journalists are already writing about where Bow Echo will stand as a stallion, even though George Boughey has talked about the horse staying in training as a 4-year-old. I hope the trainer gets his way, otherwise I will be upsetting people again by limiting my praise of Bow Echo being only the best of his generation, as I do with Sea The Stars and Dancing Brave. To remind those who are unaware of my criteria for a horse being deemed 'one of the greats'; a horse should prove as a 4-year-old that it can give away the age allowance to the top 3-year-olds of the following season. Unlike both the aforementioned one-season wonders, Bow Echo was a leading 2-year-old and so I cannot dismiss him as lightly but truly great horses must prove themselves against younger legs, prove their soundness by racing over three-seasons and most of prove themselves clean-winded and strong of heart. As 3-year-olds, Sea The Stars and Dancing Brave were clearly the best horses of their generation but their 'greatness' was only established over a comparatively short period of time, whereas Frankel and Brigadier Gerard raced for 3 full seasons, winning over various distances, the latter from 5-furlongs to 12-furlongs. As I said, I hope whoever is now in charge of Sheikh Mohammed Obaid's racing empire will show the courage to keep Bow Echo in training as a 4-year-old and perhaps even try him over the sexy distance of 10-furlongs.
I was surprised to see Saffie Osborne as the subject of the Question and Answer section of today's Racing Post's breeding industry pages. I thought her too young and too busy to have any other interest than her riding career, though I suppose every jockey has to have an interest in stallions and mares, if only as a guide to the distances and ground conditions their offspring might prefer. Unlike Saffie, I have little interest or knowledge of pedigrees so I will skip the majority of her answers to the questions posed to her. I will though mention that two races highest on her bucket list are the Arc and, surprisingly, the Cheltenham Bumper. Her four fantasy dinner guests showed a liking for tennis, wildlife and perhaps the environment and a soft spot for self-aggrandising bastards with ambitions to rule the world. Roger Federer, Billie Jean King, David Attenborough and one of the men behind the Covid virus and its vaccine, the philanderer and philanthropic (when he is getting something out of it) Bill Gates.
I recently wrote in support of Peter Thomas's belief that banning jockeys has little effect on preventing jockeys making those mistakes over and over again. I think I sent a letter to The Racing Post on the matter, though I doubt if it will be published as after a longish period not writing letters for publication, I got over-active, with many topics firing-up my ire. To cut a long story short, which I rarely achieve, Craig Thake - I must have written about something he wrote recently (my memory - shakes head, moves on) contacted me with the perfectly valid comment that a jockey allowed to ride but banned from using his whip in earnest will not be employed by anyone and in that respect the ban on using a whip would be the same as an outright ban. I replied out of curtesy. He replied in the same manner, neither of us moving an inch in our thinking. I then - I did need to wait for half-an-hour for the kitchen floor to dry before I could have lunch, so I had time on my hands - wrote perhaps the longest e-mail I have ever sent providing evidence for why I believe 'they are out to get us' and why British racing should prove that 'the horse comes first' by being harder on jockeys who put the lives of jockeys and horses in peril by being responsible for falls than jockeys who simply have a momentary misjudgement and by further limiting the use of the whip.
I regret that e-mail now, as it must come across to Craig Thake that I was desperate for the last word. That was not my intention, though I hope it has become the last word. The problem I have is that horse racing is my one true passion and it grieves me to see the sport so badly governed, for it to have so many troubles and that use of the whip remains a great wall between us and those who hold the 'social licence' that is the difference between acceptance and intolerance.