TITLE CHALLENGE, GALOPIN, CARLISLE INQUIRY & THE IRREPRESSIBLE SPIRIT OF THE JOCKEY.

Oisin Murphy, quoted in today's Racing Post, believes Andrew Balding has more than a sporting chance of dethroning Aidan O'Brien as British champion trainer. I would like to think he was right. Yet I believe there are two very high hurdles between Balding's first championship title and they are Balding himself already saying his horses will go where they are most likely to win, be that in other parts of the world rather than Britain, and the unarguable fact that Aidan is very likely to win the Doncaster St. Leger. Aidan has seven entries for the St.Leger, with all of them capable of winning the race; Balding has two, with neither likely to do any better than third or fourth. I hope Oisin is proved right but with most of the big-money two-year-old races to come, plus two more stayers races, either or both of which has Scandanavia's name written all over them, I cannot see any other outcome other than Balding finishing second. He might though gain compensation though by winning the Arc with Item.

There is no denying that Galopin Des Champs was one of the best chasers of the modern era. Not that I can put a date on when that modern era began. Any horse that can win two Cheltenham Gold Cups and three Irish Gold Cups, plus all his victories in the Savill Chase, must be ranked high on the all-time list. For two or three seasons Galopin looked unbeatable, as did Constitution Hill until he started beating himself. For that reason alone, Galopin must be considered the best National Hunt horse of that undefined period we refer to as 'the modern era'. As with B.C., horseracing, at least National Hunt, has a B.A. and A.A. Before Arkle and After Arkle. Galopin was not Arkle, though he might, and I stress 'might', be the best since the great horse. Not that they even tried to win the sort of races Desert Orchid won, the big handicaps, the races that Arkle raced in and won as there were no other races at the time for horses of his calibre to run in. Modern champions have it easy by comparison with the champions of the past. But without Galopin there is a giant hole to be filled in Closutton, Ireland and the whole of the sport.

Yesterday morning, apparently, Ruby Walsh and his daughter arrived at Closutton to take the great horse back to their place for the daughter, Isobelle, to retrain him as an eventer. What a horse for a young girl to be given to look after!

Something odd, at least to me, happened yesterday at Carlisle, one of my favourite racecourses. After the amateur riders race, the rider of the horse that finished second, Miss Isla Clarkson, was asked to explain her ride, the stewards believing she had not given her horse a positive enough ride to achieve a best possible placing. Yet she was positive enough in the finish to nab Kayleigh Williams on the line, with Williams given a 7-day ban for failing to obtain the best possible finishing position. My gripe with this is that the riders in the race were not high on experience, with the race restricted to jockeys who had not ridden more than three-winners. Instead of the 7-day ban, for instance, which in fact is far longer than 7-days as it only aplies for days on which there is an amateur race scheduled, why not send Miss Williams to the Racing School or somewhere or to someone for extensive jockey coaching. Miss Williams will not come out of her 7-day ban a better rider, she would though be improved if her ban was only for 7-day's worth of coaching which she would have to pay for. In this instance, Miss Clarkson may also have been better served if she too was similarly given a set period of mandatory coaching.

Jockeys are a different breed from ordinary mortals. Science should study them, research their D.N.A. to discover where their long ago descendents originated. Sean Bowen is presently riding with 25-stitches in his mouth after a good kicking from a horse that had fallen with him. Dylan Browne MacMonagle was airlifted to hospital at Bellowstown in the week, those who witnessed the incident fearful of the outcome for him. Also In Ireland, Gary Noonan broke ribs, a shoulder blade and punctured a lung in a fall and Paddy O'Brien broke his pelvis and L4 vertebra, yet both are reported by their agent as being in 'good spirits'. I don't know about you but when I broke my leg fifteeen or so years agao, I was a long way from being in good spirits for many months. Not that I am familiar with whatever good spirits feels like. No matter how bad the injury, the jockeys' mantra seems to be 'it could have been worse'. If jockeys do get to go to heaven and St.Peter (shouldn't he have retired long ago, the saint must be 2,000-years old by now) makes the comment that they must wish there were horses waiting for them, every one ot their creed will reply. 'Rather be here than the other place. Not one for fire and all that brimstone. No, this will do me fine. Can you get satellite up here? The first at Killarny will be off soon.'