YORK, SHARJAH, WILLIE NOW INTO EXPENSIVE YEARLINGS & WHEN SHREWSBURY COULD BOAST OF A FIRST.

Finally we have arrived at the top destination for many of the flat season. York, and more precisely the Ebor meeting. And advocates of sexy milers should take note: this meeting is named after a race for stayers. This great love for sprinters, milers and ten-furlong horses is why, in my opinion, the sport is off-kilter; the sport has lost its true course, kicked its history down the street like it is a balloon worth popping and followed the fictitious yellow brick road of the Breeders Cup and U.S. dirt racing. York is a beautiful round course so befitting the running of long-distance races. Our sport will remain in the doldrums until we take stock and appreciate our history and make a point of reversing wayward thoughts that speed is king and return to the thoughts of old, that the highlights of the season were always races won by a combination of speed and stamina, the Epsom Derby, the Ascot Gold Cup, the St. Leger and all the prestige handicaps over 12-furlongs+.

York has history. They used to hang villains on the Knavesmire as a public spectacle. Of course, they had no television in those days and no organised race-meetings, no football and little in the way of food. So you can excuse those who took pleasure in the slow death of sheep-stealers, pick-pockets and highwayman. I have a history of York racecourse; I must look it up and dig out other snippets of its history.

Today, and this is only a suspicion parading as instinct, so please do not have more than your smallest investment on him, I fancy Item to cause a big surprise in the Juddmonte. He shouldn't win as his form is a ten bus stops short of Ombudsman and Constitution River but the latter has this far not brought any joy to my heart and the former, though undoubtedly a great racehorse at 5, which he was not at 3, might now have plateaued. Oh, Colin Keane has a high opinion of Item and he is an authority worth listening to.

Another death of a great horse has been reported. Sharjah a winner over hurdles and fences for  Rich Ricci has died of colic aged only 13. Patrick Mullins is quoted as saying that it was one of the thrills of his life to have ridden Sharjah in so many top-class hurdle races and that he was a kind horse who was everyone's favourite when in training at Closutton. He deserved a longer retirement. Fate can be cruel.

Willie Mullins never stands still for long. The man who can do little wrong is feeling the financial pinch when it comes to buying the very best and has set about on a new project - buying expensive yearlings at Arqana's premier autumn sale. Expensive is a relative term in light of one yearling colt realising 4.8-million euros. That horse is bound for Ballydoyle, no doubt. 1.65-million was the highest price paid by Harold Kirk, with the intention of running all 4 yearlings he purchased on behalf of Willie in back-end 2-year-old races next autumn, with the hope they might pay their way on the flat thereafter. If not, look for their names when the entries for the Triumph Hurdle come out. Closutton does not play to single plans. This is short, middle and long term planning.

Reading about the Arqana sale flickered into life a memory of something I read in a very old book of reminiscences by one of the great trainers of the late 1800's, William Day. Now then, this is not something I am advocating as it represents the complete opposite to my view that in many ways 2-year old races are an abomination and should not take place until late July at the earliest.

Between 1774 and 1886 Shrewsbury once boasted a racecourse. I cannot give you any details about it as it became defunct before 1900, the starting point for Chris Pitt's wonderful book 'A Long Time Gone.' According to William Day, Shrewsbury staged the first yearling race ever reported, won by Heroine. owned by Lord Anglesey and trained by Day himself. I suspect no one agrees with my views on two-year-old races, though I would hope everyone would agree that yearling races were an abomination.