I had to close my eyes and reflect, to steady my heartbeat, to take it in. The savage constitution of fate surrounds us all, especially those of us who either live at close quarters with the equine thoroughbred or who worship its presence amongst us. Tomorrow the cruelty of fate might assualt you or I. Today the assualt was on all of us. After only 5-days of retirement Galopin Des Champs has suffered a catastrophic leg injury and after x-rays and the best veterninary treatment was put to sleep. Ruby, his usual calm and efficient self, relayed the news to what I can only assume to be a stunned public, the greatest honour anyone could have bestow on her ripped away from his daughter Isabelle without her, perhaps, ever having the chance to sit on him, to take him on the journey through his retirement. A dead horse is a terrible...

I could be accused of being head of a campaign of one to lay ruin to Doncaster's St. Leger, to render it in importance to the level of the Irish or French versions, neither of which is even considered a classic these days, a valuable prize to win but lacking any prestige whatsoever. I would like it opened-up to older horses. I would like to have it run earlier in the season and I would like several buckets of money thrown at it, to have it as the most valuable flat race in Britain. Normally, I am a tradionalist, largely wanting to keep prestige races unchanged. The Epsom Derby must always be run over 12-furlongs. Race distance must remain in imperial. The Ascot Gold Cup should remain at 20-furlongs, and should be the most valuable race at Royal Ascot. 12-furlongs should always be recognised as the supreme distance for flat horses....

Mr. Bradley of Goole, in todays letters column of The Racing Post, makes a very good point about this year's renewal of the Ebor Handicap. A wholesale gamble on Love Me Tender went down the pan, as we know, punters, drawn in by the magic of Willie Mullins, backed Love Me Tender, ridden by William Buick, as if they were 'all in the know', as if they could not afford not to back 'the next Ethical Diamond'. The horse did not have the form to win an Ebor, having won nothing of note in either France or Germany before his arrival at Closutton and had not run in either Ireland or Britain before his attempt to win Europe's most valuable flat handicap. As Mr. Bradley correctly states, surely it would not be beyond expectations that horses running in such a prestigious handicap might have run in Ireland and Britain in order...

Zavateri proved himself top-class as a two-year-old and yesterday at Goodwood he proved he had retained his ability as a three-year-old. But has he done enough to warrant a place at stud? Yes, he has achieved more than many colts who are whisked off to stand as a stallion long before neither his limitations nor the ceiling of his ability has been proved. To my mind, no three-year-old should be retired to stud. I say this time and time again; unless the sport is given priority by all sectors of the industry, eventually it is the thoroughbred breed that will suffer. If I had my way, in the same way as there is a European Pattern Committee that decides whether certain races should either be upgraded or downgraded, there should be a licencing committee to determine if a horse has achieved enough on the racecourse to make a contribution to the...

Pony racing used to be thought of as 'flapping' and was frowned upon by racing's rulers. Unscrupulous people would take a horse under 15-hands from the flat and run it under a different name at a local 'flapping meeting' and back it like there was no tomorrow. If the Jockey Club discovered a licenced individual was involved with unlicenced racing his career under rules would be over as he would be warned off. A 'flapping meeting' was not run under the rules of racing, whereas bone fide pony racing was. In fact, the Pony Derby at Northolt, governed by Pony Turf Rules was Britain's equivalent to Ireland's Dingle Derby. Northolt, opened in 1929, is not to be dismissed lightly. It soon became the Newmarket of pony racing. Its stands were considered by many as the best in Britain and Northolt was the first racecourse in the country to have an automated...

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...

Gordon Brown, once in the running for being the worst Prime Minister the country has ever had to endure, is demanding the government increase the tax on slot machines in betting shops. I believe most of our sport's problems with affordability checks began with the introduction of gaming machines in betting shops. Slot machines, I believe, should only be found in arcades, and not in any form on the high streets of Britain. In fact, I would suggest betting companies might do well to remove these machines from all their shops, thereby thwarting the government's raid on our sport. If we cannot be enriched by these infernal machines, why should the government? Fixed odd betting terminals, to give this incidious and no doubt addictive form of gambling its correct name, has no place in an environment where a certain amount of knowledge is required in an effort to work out the...

The Doncaster St. Leger is now reduced to being the 'Consolation Classic', its fame and glory as the oldest classic race in the world lowered in stature comparable to the family member that only gets invited to the party as no one has the pluck not to invite the black sheep. 16 remain in the race, with seven of those trained by Aidan O'Brien, two from son Joseph, two trained by Andrew Balding and one each from the Hannon, Appleby, Burke, Bramley and Eustace stables. And let's be honest about it, unless Joseph can uptip the apple cart, the race, and the trainers' championship in this country with it, is bound for Ballydoyle. Something has to be done to save the St. Leger from its slow descent into irrelevance. Even in its 250th anniversary year the race is shunned in favour of other races, mainly outside of this country. The Ebor...

I was disappointed, though not surprised, to read in The Racing Post today that Maltese Cross is to be aimed at the Arc and not the St. Leger. To me, this is a kick in the teeth for the St. Leger in its 250th anniversary year, another example of a leading British trainer giving his silent ascent to the destruction of the oldest of all classic races. Yet if I said to William Haggas or any of our leading flat trainers that the St. Leger should loose its classic status they would as one man rise up to defend the race as if I had insulted one of their children. Maltese Cross could have won at Doncaster this year and gone to Longchamp in search of Arc success next year. Horses in the past have gone from winning at Doncaster, or in the case of Alleged, suffered defeat in the St....

I have already expressed my opinion on pacemakers, plus the useless use of pacemakers on occasions, but now my ire has been piqued by Aidan O'Brien using a 2-year-old as a pacemaker. This, to me, is an abomination. Yes, Carry The Flag held on to finish second, with his stable favoured Man's Best Friend out with the washing. But why subject a young horse to such a hard race? I dislike myself for being critical towards the Coolmore/Ballydoyle axis as they are overwhelmingly a force for good within the sport, and the only breeding operation dedicated to breeding 12-furlong+ stock, yet over the past few years, and perhaps guided this season by Aidan's attempt to break his own Group 1 winning record, a win at all costs attitude seems to be creeping into their racing policy. Two-year-olds are still babies in some respects; the breed does not fully mature until five-years...

Brierley Turk - the third Arabian stallion imported into this country alongside the Godolphin and Darley. Memory failure from the other day. Came to me while watching York yesterday.  I am not a jockey or never was a jockey or ever likely will be, in this world or the next. Yet I remain wedded for life to my opinion that a whip does not make a horse go faster or give more effort than nature will allow it to. I am not an advocate of banning jockeys from carrying whips as in desperate situations a whip could save the life of both the rider and horse and causing damage or injury to others. But when people have suffered censure, fines and suspensions for trying to make a horse start a race against its will, when assistant starters are no longer permitted to use a long tom behind a horse holding up...

When interviewed, I prefer people who express their true opinion over those who say a lot when saying nothing at all. Aidan, of course, is the champion at offering many words during an interview without actually saying anything we did not already know. Yesterday, in the aftermath of his horse Starlust finishing second in the Nunthorpe - in truth Starlust won the race that was going on in Bacio's wake - Ralph Beckett expressed his opinion that the B.H.A. should rethink how they handicap horses coming from the U.S.. At Royal Ascot, Bacio was given what has proved to be a too lenient mark and he strolled home in the Palace of Holyrood House, as he did yesterday in Europe's premier 5-furlong sprint. All Beckett was asking for was that horses coming from abroad without a hadicap mark should have to run first in a British handicap in order to establish...

Billy 'the kid' Loughnane going forward should be referred to as 'Billy the Cool'. His ride yesterday on Libertango was not the ride of a twenty-year-old but the ride of long-established rider of multiple major winners. Poorly drawn, wide of his main adversaries, 'Billy the Cool' took a pull coming out of the stalls, edged his way across the course until he had Dylan Browne McMonagle in his sights and proceeded to plunder the spoils with the authority of a Ryan Moore look-a-like. Great ride; already a great jockey. The Legend of Billy the Cool is already taking shape. Of course, there is only one Ryan Moore. Loughnane may be the future but Moore remains the present. His ride yesterday in the sales race was a masterclass of keep calm, keep winning. Out the back in a twenty-runner field, scrubbing along, looking here, there and everywhere for space to appear, balked...

Tom Marquand has won a St. Leger, now he wants an Arc on his c.v.. That is what I got from his comments after winning the Great Voltigeur yesterday on Maltese Cross. It is not an absurd suggestion that Maltese Cross should go to Longchamp instead of Doncaster, he won well yesterday, making his challenge still on the bridle and then instead of winning by five or more lengths he idled and only exerted himself enough to give the backers of Pierre Bonnard false hope. I am sure if it was left to his trainer, a proud Yorkshireman, I am sure the master of Somerville Lodge would like to go for the St. Leger. And he would be right, I believe. Maltese Cross can only win a classic this season. Next season he could add the Arc to his roster of success. If owners, trainers and jockeys do not lend their...

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...

I am not a conspiracy theorist. However, I do like conspiracy theories and mysteries and, yes, that includes U.F.O. and stuff like it, and whether there is life after death. The unknown intrigues me. Now, whether I am peddling a conspiracy theory of my own making when I suggest there is a universal policy of natural existinction for human activities that take place in wide open spaces intended for nature in the future to develop in its own way, only time will tell. Yet, world-wide, fifteen racecourses have closed, including both racecourses in Singapore (?), as well as the famous U.S. racetracks at Aqueduct and Arlington Park. The two racecourses in Singapore (?) closed for different reasons than the other racecourses and may not be included in the figures released by the I.F.H.A. Council on Anti-Illegal Betting and Related Crime. In five-years, closure of racecourses have increased 50% and the I.F.H.A....

If this sport had grasped the nettle forty-fifty-sixty-years ago, would this sport be in the mess it is? I am not anti-bookmaker and do not agree with A Burnham that betting shops are a cauldron of sin and vice. But bookmakers have contributed greatly to the mess. Fixed Odds Terminals are, I believe, the sin and vice that started the downslide. Greed was the driving force for the F.O.T.'s invading the High Street and as they are now feeding the greed of government, bookmakers should be voluntarily removing them from their shops. And the aim of government, alongside banks, post offices, supermarkets and churches, should be to ensure there is one such establishment in every high street, although in the case of betting shops not at least one but only one. In the town in which I reside, we have two remaining betting shops that are side-by-side. One would be enough....

No one moans about the minutia of our sport more than I do. And despite all the consequential problems the sport is plagued by, most of which has hung round the neck of the sport for far too long, it does not mean that the smaller issues need not be addressed. For instance, I believe the names of racehorses matters and that the names of outstanding or even infamous names of the past should not be used in this day and age, especially when the options are wide and various. Around this issue is whether commentators should be taken to account if they mispronounce a name. In today's Racing Post, in the letters colomn, Mr.Hamer of Brighton provides a list of names regularly incorrectly pronounced. I see the matter from both sides, especially as I have a dislike of French, especially the mixing and mangling of English and French in the...

I am forever, it might seem, though not in reality, taking issue with the thoughts of Craig Thake. Recently, we clashed with the verocity of two dancing Morris men with their bells and hankerchiefs over the use of the whip. Today, in the 'Another View' column of The Racing Post, he proposes that due to climate change horse racing should stage less racing on grass during the summer months and far more racing on artificial surfaces. Obviously, with my fear that all-weather will eventually become all-consuming, I take issue with this prospect. Firstly, and for those appalled by what comes next, I suggest a deep dive into climate prediction since the 1940's, predictions for future climate change over the past 70-years have all proved incorrect. A new ice-age has not come upon the planet, Peterborough remains a respectable distance from the sea, with no sea port up for planning consent, and...

The Green Party M.P. Adrian Ramsay, as reproted by Jonathan Harding in the Friday column of The Racing Post, has retweeted his only contribution during the Westminster debate on 'The Future of British Horseracing' where he described racehorses as 'expendable assets' and which 'many of them injured on the track could have been saved but were euthanised for financial reasons'. Although there may be cases when his comment has some validity - as in any walk of life, even amongst politicians, there must be despicable human beings within the racing family - on the whole he could not be further from the truth.  Only in today's Racing Post there is a report on the retirement of Tim Easterby's grand old stayer Art Power. He will spend his retirement at Owenstown Stud in Kildare, the very place where he came into this world. In the main horses are euthanised as a last...