I suspect the stewards officiating at Sandown Park yesterday are descendents of Judge Jefferies or those who held the office of the Spanish Inquisition. It is lucky for Rossa Ryan that he lives in this century and not the Middle Ages when a fair and equable sentence was a sentence that included an invesigation of a felons intestines. Let's be clear, not once in the final furlong did Ryan properly drop his hands. He did pause for a stride or two from being forceful and it is arguable whether his mount slowed down during those strides, especially as Jamie Spencer on Zero Error was bearing down on him in the manner a Perigrine Falcon bearing down on its prey. Ryan erred, yet no one died, no horse was harmed in the making of his error of judgement. Yes, I hear it, the punters who had backed Thunder Home were robbed. Or...

It is easy to criticise the B.H.A., and boy do they give people ample reason to throw brickbats at them, but on this occasion I believe they have done good. I suspect the interview stage of the process was just a blind as they had already chosen who was going to succeed Lord Allen, though on first inspection I think, and hope, they could not have appointed a better Chair than Simon Cox. My only criticisms are that he is only expected to work two-days a week, when the uphill task before him could easily require eight-days a week, and that he will not officially take up the job until October. Hopefully in the intervening 9-weeks he will have laid the foundation for a flying start to finding solutions for racing's many problems. Well, Craig Thake, writing the Another View column in The Racing Post today, had no need to get...

According to a front page story in The Racing Post today, owner slash breeder Simon Cox is to be announced next week as the new Chair of the B.H.A. He has owned racehorses for fifteen-years and keeps broodmares for the purpose of breeding jumpers. He is a former beer seller, rising through the ranks at Molson Cours to become president and chief executive. My first thoughts on reading of his arrival at the B.H.A. were - at least he is a jumping man and how many days a week will he give to his new post? Whether he is the right man for the job only time will tell but he seems a better fit than any of his immediate predecessors, although there remains the odour of a city man getting the job; jobs for the boys, if you wish. He is not Peter Savill, who would have been a popular...

Firstly, and again I propose this, is it not time to shorten the title of Britain's most valuable race, the King George & Queen Elisabeth Stakes? Which George does the race honour, and increasingly into the future, if the sport is to have a long-lasting future, which Elisabeth? Personally, I would like the name to evolve into the Queen Elisabeth II Memorial Stakes. Our late Queen was undoubtedly the sport's greatest and most admired racing monarch. Sadly, no member of the present royal family will surpass her involvement in the sport or possess her knowledge of both the horse and the sport. Though there are many races around the world named in her honour, it would be fitting if this country's most valuable race should carry her name and her name only. Next season, as Ascot attempts to decrease the differing prize-money between the K.G. & Q. E. Stakes and the...

What gets my goat is when commentators and journalists do not bat an eye when talking or writing about the purchase price at auction of a horse. Poker cost Amo Racing 4-million-quid and gives the impression of only being up to winning a selling hurdle at Plumpton and when his name is mentioned commentators have to fight to hide their smirks. What has Poker, trained by a seasoned winner in Karl Burke, no less, has to do with prize-money? If there were a levy on the purchase price of a horse sold at public auction of say 5%, with that 5% going towards prize-money in this country, Poker's 4-million-quid price tag would actually be of benefit to the sport. My maths is pretty pathetic, especially when it comes to percentages, but wouldn't 5% of 4-million be £80,000.  Think of the extra income stream that would provide if a 2%, 3% or...

When Tom Segal said that he believes Joseph could one day be considered a better trainer than his father, his peers mocked him. How could anyone, let alone the son, become greater than the god of all trainers? Well, I went first on this subject, though tempering my approval of Joseph's ascent to the throne with my belief that he needed to remain a trainer of National Hunt horses as well as the blueblooded flat horses that are his bread and butter.  As David Jennings pointed out in The Racing Post today, the son is ahead of schedule in his bid, though I doubt given the level of his levelheadedness the thought has not even spent more than a single second in his head, to beat his father's record of 152-winners in an Irish season. In his record-breaking season of 2018, at this point of the season Aidan had 72-winners on...

One of the problems with a fading memory is that you condition yourself to always question or second guess yourself. For instance, as far as I can, I am a man without form-books, after all, I seek confirmation for too much of which I write as fact. That I may be right more often than not does not take away the fear of being wrong. Another element of an untrustworthy memory is that I must also take as fact what others write. The Racing Post, thankfully, is never wrong in its communication of facts. Though as an example of my rickety memory, I take as fact that the 2022 Ribblesdale at the Royal meeting was won by Magical Lagoon, a filly I have absolutely no recall, even though, apparently, she went on to win the Irish Oaks. I am shocked that I cannot recall a top-class filly from as short a...

Change the shape, change the start. That is the hope. After long discussion with everyone that matters, Cheltenham are to realign the racecourse to put an end to races starting on a bend. This one factor is the greatest contributor for the false starts that have blighted the Cheltenham Festival over the past few years. There never was any need to start on a bend; the problem was always the distance between where the starter instructed the jockeys to gather and where he was standing, flag in hand. The new procedure, while welcomed by those who were asked their opinion, suggests to me that the starter will continue to have the jockeys line-up beyond what might be called a shouting distance from him, allowing horses all the time they need to break into a canter and scupper the start. What is clearly an improvement is that 'false poles'  (why false?) will...

I make mistakes. For someone who has the nerve to put his thoughts into a public domain, the least the reader can expect is a lack of avoidable errors. I always proof-read anything I write before hitting the publish button, always aware that a lazy eye is not easy to overcome. And though this is not an acceptable excuse, I am not a professional writer. I earn no money from this site. I write, therefore I am.  I have just finished 'Full Flight' by Eamonn Prescott, a book I was looking forward to reading. And it is a good read, It should be as it narrates the golden age of hurdle races, the era of Persian War, Bula, Comedy-of-Errors, Lanzarote, Night Nurse, Monksfield and Sea Pigeon. And, though he repeats elements of the story throughout, the author brings back into the light those glory days when the best horses around took...

Firstly, my apologies for the late arrival of this slog'n'blog, which is due to the death last night of one of our older cats. Because of the heat at the moment, his death required a quick burial which we undertook at six o'clock this morning. We may have started early in the morning but we did not complete our task until 8.30 am due to the foreman of the work insisting the hole be a good one-foot deeper than strictly necessary. No blood was spilt; no voices raised. A cat had died, the moment required solemnity and teamwork, which was duly delivered. Being unable to sleep last night, I read today's Racing Post between the hours of 10-30 pm and 11.30, which now requires me to be able to read my scribbled notes and to do a fair amount of remembering. Here goes. After riding five-winners at Windsor Friday evening, Oisin...

Let's face it, the B.H.A. is an institution that works for them, not us, perhaps not for the industry. The B.H.A. has a penchant for secrets, knowledge that only they are privy to possess. They seem to have no truck with the opinions of the lower forms of life on the outer edges of their universe. The B.H.A. is undemocratic and the on-going trough the sport is in will remain until the B.H.A. is shown the errors of its ways. It is not that Peter Savill has been rejected as a candidate for Chair. It is, as things stand, the prerogative of the B.H.A. board to choose who they think best suited to the role. What is a kick in the guts though is that the view of the 250 people who put pen to paper in support of Savill, who approved in principle his plans for the future of the...

You may be of the opinion, and perhaps quite rightly, that I write self-indulgent twaddle. It is, though, you must accept,  advert-free twaddle. You may also ask yourself why I bother, especially when, even though retired from paid-employment, I continue to get out of bed at 4 in the morning to read The Racing Post and write in response to what I read? I will tell you. I care about our sport and for the horses who provide our entertainment. I am, though, on the outside of things. I am also an outlier in the sense that my commitment to the sport has nothing to do with betting. And although I can afford to go racing once in a while, as I have got older, even though I am very fit for my years, mentally I struggle with travelling to unfamiliar places, technology that is nowadays everywhere, and crowds.The former used...

On occasions, you just like the look of a horse. Yesterday, at Newmarket, I was taken by both the manner of the victory and the overall look of Haffner and would prefer him evry day of the week above Abraham Lincoln who beat him on debut. I am fully aware that you would have to look long and hard for several seasons to find a filly or colt at Ballydoyle that could be described as unattractive, with the majority of the colts sporting the look of equine demi-gods. Given the unlikely opportunity that 'the lads' granted me one of my wishes, I would have Haffner associated with my name, especially when it comes to next season's Epsom Derby. One of racing's great selling points is the diversity you will find on any day of the week. In today's Racing Post, either side of a photograph of 'buy of the century and...

Occasionally someone makes a comment or there is a headline that makes me laugh even though no humour was intended. In The Racing Post today, in the breeding industry section, that though it will perhaps become a truth, as of now is simply pie in the sky. Referring to Senorita Bonita's victory in the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes, the headline  suggested that she had justified her price tag. 900,000-guineas is a huge amount of money, and for someone with my small amount of savings it is an insane amount, enough to buy two houses and a top-of-the-range second-hand car. Yesterday the filly won her owners £70,000, so at the moment she is somewhere around 800,000-guineas in deficit, not taking into account training fees. I know you will say that by being a black type winning filly, if she came on the market again she might make £1-million, far more if she...

I thought criticism from the always elegant, usually fair and diplomatic, Francesca Cumani on the ride James Doyle gave to Arabian Crown in the Princess of Wales Stakes at Newmarket yesterday was uncalled-for. It is a poor look for the sport when a jockey is criticised for not using his whip more often in a race, especially when the jockey involved is not given an opportunity to explain the instructions given to him by the trainer. I am sure Francesca's comments were in light of the team tactics hoo-ha after Royal Ascot. It is perhaps true that Arabian Crown was there to make an even pace for his more illustrious stable-mate Rebel's Romance, yet when push came to shove, James Doyle did just that, not conceding to his best mate William Buick until perhaps the final few strides. He may have only used his whip once but that might have been...

Late reporting for duty as being someone who wilts in the sun, I needed get the cycle out before it gets too hot. I remain determined to die healthy! Occasionally, and not often enough for my peace of mind, a horse comes along that becomes like the furniture in your home and when they are gone you not only miss them but you appreciate them more in their absence than when they were present season after season. One such horse is Sweet William. Philippa Cooper has announced 'her favourite horse' is now retired and will join her other grand servants or 'thugs' as she described them in The Racing Post today, in what I am damn sure will be a life of reverential retirement at her Normandy Stud. (Hope I have named the stud correctly) For all the reverence thrown at sprinters and milers by breeders and sales agents, not one...

Hate, as with the word genius, is one of the most overused and misappropriated words in the English language, so I will modify my emotion to 'dislike' the type of day when the subject matter that dominates the pages of The Racing Post is either political with a capital P or just plain bad news for the sport. Today politics with a capital P combines with plain bad news to make the start of my day one of annoyance and frustration. The Gambling Commission has carried out the Devil's work and imposed affordability checks on punters to the tune of £5,000 net deposit in a rolling period of 24-hours for over 25's and £2,500 for under 25's net deposit in a rolling period of 24-hours. That is only stage 1, though, and I suggest you research the subject further to learn about the Interim Stage and the Final Stage. The age...

I would be amazed to discover that Julian Muscat believes in any topics of debate that are labelled 'conspiracy theories'. He is, at least his style of writing and thought process comes across to me, a Geoff Boycott type of guy. Nicely struck singles are more his thing, rather than lofted straight drives that only just makes it over the head of the fielder on the boundary. He bats straight and true. I say this as he is the member of The Racing Post team of contributors that I am least likely to agree with. Not that he necessarily is wrong in what he writes, just that he doesn't always chime with my opinions, and I am as likely to be as stumped while floundering outside of the crease as anyone. Anyway, having poured cold water on the expressions of greatness for Constitution River by his colleagues, it was surprising to...

Well, something had to be done; someone had to move things forward and congratulations to the good people of Goodwood and York for grasping the heated handle. Of course, Ascot started things off by announcing they were resigning from the Race Course Association (RCA) and now Goodwood and York have got together to propose a shake-up of racing's governance. They have jointly proposed that the sport be split into 3 sectors, rather like the days when there was The Jockey Club and The National Hunt Committee, going forward with a nod to the past. What is proposed is that there should be an Elite Flat Panel, Foundation Flat Panel and a Jumps Panel, which I hope and pray is titled The National Hunt Committee. All commercial and committee groups will be consigned to the bin to remove self-interest stifling progress. Each panel would have three representatives of licenced professionals, owners and...

I was wrong, again. It was not Aidan first and second but Aidan first and third, with the youngest son in between. As I have claimed before, we are living in Aidan's world and are priviledged to witness him training-up the inheritors of his world, his two sons. We will entitle this period in our racing history 'The King and his Two Princes'. Firstly, let me get this out of the way. For a colt, and worse, a top-class colt, to be named A Boy Named Susie is wrong, disrespectful and if there lies humour in the name, the joke must soon wear thin. The quiet member of the O'Brien clan is responsible for breeding the unfortunate colt, and perhaps for labouring him with the burden of a parody of one of Johnney Cash's most remembered songs, 'A Boy Named Sue.' Ana, I am sure, is as nice a human being...