I do not have the brain-power for mathematics, so what I am about to propose is based on instinct and a nod to the past.Though I am on board with the suggestion that Britain has too many meetings for the present horse population, I fear if there is a sufficient enough culling of meetings to provide more competitive racing, we might, in time, lose several of our smaller racecourses. To the hard-minded, this might be the road to travel, after all the sport did not experience withdrawal symptoms at the loss of Wye, Stockton, Birmingham or any of the racecourses that have sadly closed in my lifetime. I am a sentimentalist at heart, rather than a pragmatic business-minded executive who values money and profit before history and what might be. To see houses, tarmac and street lights where once sporting endeavour once thrived pulls at my heartstrings to a greater extent...

Golden Ace, if you take as fact what you read in the form book, has all the luck, while Sir Gino, a far more talented horse, one for whom there was no foreseeable limit, has no luck. Having twelve-months ago fought-off an internal infection that almost took his life, now, as Nicky Henderson put it, Sir Gino fights on another battleground. The pelvic injury he suffered on Trails Day at Cheltenham is not now the primary cause of concern for the veterinary team treating him but a new internal infection.I am not versed in these matters but perhaps the new infection is the old one rebooted by the trauma of the pelvic injury, having hid away unnoticed in a secluded area of his body, at rest, in wait of another opportunity to engage in a battle to take the life of this wonderful horse.Life is not fair, not on any of...

The call for diversity in society obviously has dark undertones. As with weather manipulation by various world governments, which is doubtless responsible for ‘climate change’ around the world, forced diversity goes against the normal order of things. I am not against, you must understand, allowing diversity to occur, as I believe everyone should be given an opportunity in life to succeed, not that everyone will achieve success beyond living an ordinary life, of course. When all is fair in love and war, the cream will always rise to the top.There has always been diversity in racing, even if in small measure. In the early part of the twentieth-century there was more than one black-skinned jockey riding in major races on the flat, for instance, and for the whole of the recent history of the flat, between and after the two World Wars, many were the years when the leading owners have...

A paltry entry number for the Aintree National this year is further proof that far from evolving into something better, the race is actually, year by year, going in a direction that will lead to the small numbers that lined-up for the race in the very earliest renewals of the race. The people do not, as the present clerk of the course might suggest, want a race fit for the elite but not the common man, but a race that resembles Grand Nationals of legend.What annoys me most is that the Aintree executive, the Jockey Club, the racecourse management, the clerk of the course, did not have the guts to admit that the last true Grand National was run in 2012 or 2015 or whichever year it was decided that the opposition were right all along, that those who invaded the racecourse had a justifiable point – the Grand National was...

I admit to the fact that thus far in his career Fact To File has not won me over. Mark Walsh, a man who is riding like he has nothing to lose anymore, on the other hand has great belief in him, and, though I have not lost any faith in The Jukebox Man, I would be prepared to forecast that the two will partner each other in the Cheltenham Gold Cup come March, with Walsh, not that he is likely to, having the last laugh by, perhaps, winning his second consecutive Gold Cup triumph. I fear Fact To File now, which before I did not.This time last year, Inothewayurthinkin was one of the ante-post favourites for the Aintree National and needed to be supplemented for the Gold Cup. This year it is Fact To File that needs to be supplemented to run in the Gold Cup, while the 2025 Gold...

I was informed yesterday, by the author, that Michael Tanner has commissioned the printing of 50 new editions of his book ‘My Friend, Spanish Steps’. If you wish to avail yourself of a signed and dated copy, price £14. 95, e-mail Michael at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. It is a prized edition of my small racing library and worth a place on the shelf of any racing enthusiast with a fascination for the history of National Hunt.Anyone who believes big, strong, wide-hoofed horses should be at home in heavy ground needs to think again. Very often a small mare with dainty hooves will skip through heavy ground to far better effect than a gelding of larger stature. I say this in order for the supporters of Final Demand, those with a financial stake in him winning the Brown Advisory at the Cheltenham Gold Cup, to not give up hope of cashing in those betting slips. He...

Sandown made the right call. Hands up, my criticism to pass fit the hurdles course was another example of my ignorance. It just goes to prove there is no substitute for experience and knowledge when it comes to making correct decisions.I thought Sixmilebridge was very impressive in the only Grade 1 of the season named after a local roundabout. He jumped well, adapted to the harsh underfoot conditions and galloped all the way to the finishing line. What was there not to like. It was an overdue second Grade 1 for a jockey whose ability in saddle suggests many more should have come his way by now and a fitting reward for the Megsons, owners of Sixmilebridge, people who invest regularly in the sport.For what it is worth, I agree with Fergal O.Brien, and disagree with Tom Scudamore, that Cheltenham and the Brown Advisory is the fitting next target for the...