​The horse racing industry is worth £4-billion to the British economy. The treasury receives £300-million directly from British Racing, and the industry employs 100,000 people. So why is the British Government doing all it can to drive the racing industry into extinction. As with the blatantly flawed Net Zero zealotry, it is all to do with ideology. The problem they are trying to solve is worthy, I admit, yet horse racing has very little to do with the problem. On-line gambling is where the problem lies, casinos and poker games. Anyone who would like to be better informed on this issue I direct to today’s Racing Post and a piece written by serving M.P. Dan Carden. I have not looked-up which side of the house he sits as I do not want to prejudice myself against him.

Came across what may well have been the first outing of Great British Racing’s ‘The Going Is Good’ campaign yesterday and I was not appalled by the content. Light and fluffy, perhaps, and it made no great claims other than anyone attending a race-meeting is sure to have a memorable time.  That said, Newbury’s Shaun Hinds has proved that the best way to boost attendance is to address the people living in the local post-codes, a marketing campaign that must have cost a fraction of the G.B.R.’s £3.2-million. 

Our repulsive, lying, dictatorial, traitorous and smug Prime Minister, announced in Parliament yesterday, though he did not actually mention it to M.P.’s as I doubt it matters a jot to him, that the upshot of his belly-licking negotiations with the repulsive, lying, corrupt and dictatorial E.U., is that life will soon be easier and less costly to transport horses across the Channel to France. This new freedom of movement for livestock is also very helpful to French trainers as they get caught up in the red tape when returning from a journey to a British racecourse.
And do not applaud either our Prime Minister or the E.U for sorting out this mess as politicians were responsible for it in the first place.

Reform of the Irish novice chase programme, especially the withering of the Beginners’ Chases, is to be applauded. You can have 20 runners in a Beginners’ Chase, though with only a handful in anyway competitive. Get within ten-lengths of a Willie Mullins ‘Cheltenham type’ and you are handicapped out-of-all-proportion to the horse’s true ability. Though as Willie Mullins will also be diverted to novice handicaps, I suspect the problem is being more moved sideways than solved. The Willie Mullins problem is a hard problem to solve, to be sure. If every other trainer in the whole of Ireland cannot solve the Willie problem, what hope does Horse Racing Ireland have?

Outside of equine charities, which I still believe horse racing could do more to help, the racing industry has a great record of helping human charities raise funds. Jane Buick has become the driving force behind the charity ‘Autism in Racing’ and is heading up ‘The Great Big Ride’ event next month to raise awareness and funds. It is a call for people in the sport to get mobile on horse, bike or shank’s pony and, if possible, to send a video of the day to the charity. There is also to be a mini open day in Newmarket for families of an autistic child to tour the stables taking part. I believe the day is to be limited to ten families.
One should never brag about what you do for others, though I do believe the racing industry should make the public more aware of how it looks beyond its own borders when it comes helping human charities.

​I heard one pundit suggest that if Mikhail Barzelona had not dropped his whip in the French 1,000 Guineas he would have certainly won and negated the hoo-ha about the disqualification of She’s Perfect. This is pure supposition as we cannot know whether the filly would have gone forward for use of the whip or twirled her tail in resentment. 
Julian Muscat, writing in the Tuesday column of the Racing Post, whilst giving his thoughts on The Lion In Winter and whether Ryan Moore will choose him over Delacroix, makes reference to Wayne Lorden dropping his whip on Japan in the closing stages of the 2019 Epsom Derby.
There seems to be a given amongst racing commentators, in line with most punters, that the whip, or Pro-Cush as there is a push for us all to call a whip (some of us like to call a spade a spade and a whip a whip) is some sort of go-faster turbo charger. It is an encourager tool, to give it a more accurate definition, whilst also being a safety device when used correctly to keep a horse galloping in a straight line.
During a race, a use of the whip should be akin to the referee of a football match, seen but never heard. The less a jockey uses the whip, the less likely anything will go wrong, to my way of thinking. The whip can so easily get both a jockey and the sport into headline bad news. Too many horses go ‘sour’ due to over reliance of the whip. Frankie Dettori and Ryan Moore use the whip sparingly, as a last resort, and every apprentice should be taught to use the whip in a similar manner.
Some horses resent the whip and curled up when it is used, even sparingly. Honest horses do not need the encouragement of the whip. Horses winning easily do not need the whip to be used. Horses out-of-contention should never have the whip used on them. The whip gets the sport into trouble, as when a jockey pulls the whip from one hand to the other and the horse, especially a 2-year-old or ‘green horse’ rolls away from the whip. Even Ryan Moore cannot be sure how a horse will react when he changes whip hands, as happened with Exactly in the French 1,000 Guineas.
The whip is not a magic wand and it is not an instrument of punishment. Stewards should take into account – and I am referencing the Wexford stewards here – that some horses, especially mares, can be made sour by any use of the whip as encouragement and they should decide on caution when a jockey or trainer of experience and respectable character informs them that the horse in question has an aversion to the whip. I am sure some pundits and most punters would like to see a jockey suspended if they should drop their whip as it prevents them from riding to achieve the best possible placing.

Betfred will give a bonus of £2-million to the owner of any horse that wins the Triple Crown. Obviously, the only owner who stands to win their largess is Godolphin with Ruling Court. When the bonus was announced it was assumed, certainly be me, that only a colt can win this bonus for its owner. But why shouldn’t a filly be allowed to win the Triple Crown. I contest the last winner of the Triple Crown was not Nijinsky but Oh So Sharp when she added the St. Leger to her Oaks and 1,000 Guineas victories. I have heard her achievement referred to as the fillies Triple Crown but why should it be less of an achievement for a filly to win three classics than for a colt to win three classics?
Of course, this year, given Godolphin won both Guineas at Newmarket, with both heading for Epsom, Godolphin should have two bullets to shoot for the Triple Crown bonus, with Desert Flower and Ruling Court.
So, I ask again, why shouldn’t a filly win the Triple Crown and the £2-million bonus?

​Shaun Hinds, chief executive of Newbury racecourse, has proved that if you treat your customers with the reverence and respect that each and every of one of them deserve, great results can be achieved. Attendances have increased both over jumps and on the flat for nearly every meeting since Hinds took control. Once upon a time, when I was but a callow youth, I admit, going racing at Newbury was more akin to a parade inspection at an army barracks. Fun was not acceptable; ‘do as you are told’, the unspoken motto.
As a racecourse, the green bit the horses perform on, I mean, I believe there is not one better in the whole of the country and it deserves the number Group 1’s befitting such a fair and galloping racecourse.

How Journalism kept the Preakness is beyond me. And why no intervention by the stewards? In Britain we outlawed nudge and jostling more than a century ago and yet in the U.S. it seems if jostling and nudging is outlawed, barging and boring is permitted. The Kentucky Derby was run on a track brother to a slurry pit and the Preakness was more a brawl governed by the Queensbury rules and less a fair contest. I am not suggesting that the best horse did not win the race, I am though suggesting his rider was fortunate he did not put another jockey on the ground and in hospital. The more I witness U.S. racing, the less I like it.
Oh, Heart of Honor sort of disgraced himself in the stalls and then ran on to good effect to finish 5th and doubtless paid for his trip there and back.

The Derby trials are more or less done and dusted and I have yet to see a colt to take away my faith in Ruling Court.

The Summer Jumps programme, which started weeks ago, is to have a summer jumps championship starting next weekend at Cartmel. Smells slightly of an idea only recently cobbled together, not that it should be dismissed as bad, even if it is tardy.
I will also say ‘only £30,000’ up for grabs, though any help will be do, as most trainers and owners will counter. The championship is for jockeys, trainers, owners and ‘small trainers’, those who trained less than 30-winners in the 2024/25 season. The best aspect is there are more points up for grabs in bigger field races than with fewer. In 5-runner races, the winner gets 5-points. 6 and 7-runner races the points are 5-pts to the winners and 3-pts to the runners-up. 8 runners or more and it is 10-pts to the winners, 5-pts to the runners-up and 2-pts to the connections of those in third place.
So, good idea, pity it could not be announced for the first meetings of the summer season and the prize-money really should be double or more than is on offer. Cannot think it will do much to aid competitiveness this time around but as a concept it is a step in the right direction.

The Irish stewards are a bunch of half-wits. Let us not bandy about with half-truths. Some of the decisions both racecourse stewards and the H.R.I. are simply ridiculous and threaten to bring the sport in Ireland into disrepute. At Wexford over the weekend Ted Walsh was fined £3,000 after a running and riding enquiry. Ta Na la had finished second to the favourite Aspire Tower, a horse with far better form than the runner-up and subsequently was banned from racing for sixty-days and jockey Shaun O’Callaghan given a 14-day suspension.
Jockey instructions were ‘to settle the mare as she can be very free, get her jumping and to come home the best he can, and not to use his whip’. Given the mare ran as well, if not better, than the form-book suggested would be the case, I can only assume O’Callaghan offence, as instructed by the trainer, was not to use his whip.
Again, kindness is being considered a crime. Again, common-sense in Ireland is blown to the winds. Again, the welfare of the horse is placed second to the expectations of punters. Ted Walsh is guilty of looking after the mare and her owner, nothing else. All he set out to achieve was to make a racehorse out of a mare who seems to be her own worst enemy and in achieving that, he was doing what he is paid to do by the mare’s owner.
The Wexford stewards are right up there now for being the least competent stewards in the whole of Ireland. I can gratulate them and wish them luck in the final.

​John Gosden said of his Lockinge winner Lead Artist that the horse had plenty of stamina as he has already won over 9-furlongs. John Gosden spent his early training years in California where 9-furlong races are indeed spoken of in terms of stamina. In California, I dare say, races over further than 10-furlongs are the equivalent of 2-mile+ races over here.
Flat trainers use the word ‘stamina’ when talking about how far their prize two-year-old might stay when all grown-up and mature, as if they are talking of a potential Ascot Gold Cup winner, rather than the ability of the horse in question to stay seven-furlongs. 
This use of the word ‘stamina’ by flat trainers is annoying. Why will they not adopt the word ‘ability’ when postulating on the furthest distance their horse might be capable of winning at? I fear one day in the future, if horse racing has a long and fruitful future, that trainers will be saying that they are sure their prize horse will have the stamina to stay the speed-requiring distances of six or seven-furlongs. 

Rachael Blackmore continues to be central to our sport, even in retirement. She obviously took everyone by surprise last Monday and it is testament to her place in the sport’s hierarchy that every Racing Post writer is eager to have his or her say on the woman who moved mountains and altered the percentage of prejudice against her sex.
As you would expect, Lee Mottershead’s piece on her is lead by facts and the opinions of the famed and famous in our sport. In fact, and it is no surprise to me, someone who follows the exploits of female riders perhaps a little closer than most, little has changed during the ‘Blackmore Years’. Although more female jockeys are riding now, especially in Britain, the win to ride ratio has hardly altered, and if you took Blackmore’s rides in Ireland out of the equation, I suspect the tide has rolled backwards in her homeland.
Rachael Blackmore was – odd to use the past tense about her – a brilliant jockey, as her career record clearly demonstrates. Her career highs outstrip the achievements of every male jockey who has ever ridden, with the exceptions of the greatest of jockeys, and she is entitled to be in that select band. She did not win the King George at Kempton, yet that is the only ‘classic’ National Hunt race that slipped her grasp. I just hope it cannot be said of her ‘there will never be another like her.’ There has to be or there will not be a Blackmore legacy.

What is required, of course, for there to be another female to follow in the footsteps of Rachael Blackmore is for a trainer or owner to give a female jockey similar opportunities to those given to Rachael.
I am putting Ed Walker on trial when it comes to this subject. No one can say that Hollie Doyle has any need of a Blackmore legacy. She has created her own legacy in the sport. On Saturday, she won on Qilin Queen for Ed Walker. The filly will next be seen in the Epsom Oaks. But will Hollie keep the ride? Husband Tom usually hops into the saddle when Walker has a runner in a big race, when he is not required by William Haggas. Saffie Osborne also rides regularly for Ed Walker.
If trainers and owners do not give opportunities to even our top female riders, and no one can argue that Doyle and Osborne are in the top echelon of riders in this country, what chance is there for the gender-equality playing field to ever become level. Blackmore did not rise to the pinnacle of the sport due to her ability in the saddle, she succeeded because she was given the opportunity to prove herself the equal, and the better in most cases, of her male colleagues. And it does matter if Qilin Queen is 25/1 for the Epsom Oaks, odds which doubtless reflect the likelihood of her winning the race. If Hollie or Saffie cannot be trusted with riding a 25/1 shot, what are the likelihood of trainers turning to them when they have previously ridden a horse that is favourite?

Billy Loughnane is a phenomenon. Only 19 (? They grow up so fast, these days) and he has already ridden a winner at every British racecourse bar 4. It cannot be long before quantity is replaced by quality.

​Sometime today, time-zones confuse me so it may have already happened, Saffie Osborne, in conjunction with her father and comedy partner, Jamie, attempts to become only the second female jockey in U.S. racing history to win a leg of the Triple Crown. Her mount, Heart of Honor, has the most annoying habit any racehorse can have in not liking 1st’s against his name, and preferring to bask in a succession of 2nd’s, which suggests he is either unlucky or does not particularly strain every tissue in the final hundred-yards of a race. Now is the hour Heart of Honor. For Saffie and your country strain every tissue and prove yourself a true warrior. 
I do not follow U.S. racing and apart from viewing a replay of the Kentucky Derby, a race that had more in common with equine mud-wrestling given the underfoot conditions and the mud-pack every horse adorned at the finish, than a classic horse race, I have no insight on the form and quality of the 3-year-old classic crop. If they are an ordinary bunch then Saffie might have an opportunity of attaining the height and glory of Rachael Blackmore. Saffie is a great gal and I have my fingers crossed for her, though crossing my fingers is not going to improve my typing skills. If I left in all the typos I produce, mainly just hitting the i when I intended the o or the h when I was intending to spell gal or glory, for instance, the 200-words thus far would read like a cypher and any reader would need to be a cryptographer to understand my meaning. 
And to think after her first every ride in public Saffie’s mother turned to Jamie and suggested that perhaps race-riding was not for their daughter.

Hewick, along with Monmiral, goes into battle against the best staying hurdlers at Auteuil today. He was a meritorious runner-up in the same race last season and is now 4Ib better off with Losange Blue, though he is also a year older. He is a great little horse and once I know how Saffie gets on in the U.S. I will recross my fingers in hope of Hewick providing Shark Hanlon with more recompense for the injustice done to him by the Irish authorities last year. 

In Sean Magee’s history of Royal Ascot, an entire chapter is devoted to one horse. The horse in question cannot be claimed as the best horse ever to grace the Ascot turf but he remains the most popular horse to have ever graced the Ascot turf. His name: Brown Jack.
An element of horse racing that grieves me is the reuse of famous equine names of the past. Though to the horse its name is of little consequence, to the human element it should be of great importance. I was enraged when Coolmore named a horse Spanish Steps a decade or so back and many people rallied to my cause. To this day, the majority of correspondence I receive is about blogs I have uploaded about perhaps my favourite racehorse of all-time.
A good while back a horse came from France with the name of Brown Jack and I was pretty narked about it and wrote to the racing Post to complain about it. People must be reminded that Brown Jack was the Desert Orchid of his day. He had public houses names after him, as well as a steam locomotive. Away from Ascot, he was the winner of the second Champion Hurdle ever run. He was, I stand to be corrected, the first horse to have a book written about his life. R.C. Lyle. A great book. With what I deem faint praise, Ascot stage a 2-mile handicap named in his honour. He won the Ascot Stakes in 1928, was second in the race the following year, though he won the Alexandra Stakes a couple of days later, and went on to win Alexandra Staes for the next 6-years. Steve Donogue worshipped him and when he was retired on winning the race for a sixth time in 1934, grown men were seen to weep. He deserves a full-size statue at Ascot. He should be honoured, as Seam Magee honoured him, above all other winners at Royal Ascot since 1934, including Frankel.
We all live in the shadow of these great horses. We cannot be seen to allow them to drift into the dark of the unremembered.

I received an e-mail today from someone in New Zealand regarding how to contact the writer Chris Pitt, author of ‘Fearless’, ‘Down to the Beaten’, ‘A Long Time Gone’ and many of the best books ever written about the sport. I have suggested a few routes to discovering Chris Pitt’s contact details and I thought I would extend the enquiry to anyone who might read this blog. I always try to help anyone who gets in touch with a question and query and I am disappointed when I cannot directly provide answers.

​I like David Jennings. I enjoy his style of writing. I enjoy his opinions and his tipping makes me feel better about myself. If I knew him, I suspect I would pinhole him as a ‘good egg’, which is old folks speak for a decent fellow.
He does, though, occasionally, depending on how you view such opinions, either put his head above the parapet unfearing of the bullets that might fly his way or those opinions can be viewed as pretty darn well stupid. Putting in the public domain that only two colts can possibly win the Epsom Derby this season is, to my mind, firmly in the latter category.
Delacroix looks solid; a perfectly reasonable Derby favourite. The Lion In Winter on the other hand, although darn certain to win a clutch of Group 1’s in the future, looks too shaky and flaky at this moment for any one to install him as one of only two colts with the ability to win the 2025 Epsom Derby. He sweated-up quite badly at York yesterday and even proved half-heartedly reluctant to go forward to his stall, an unusual trait for a Ballydoyle horse. And for the first two-furlongs he was a right old handful, as if he was wanting to test if Ryan Moore’s reputation as a great horseman was justified. It was; Ryan won the battle.
If he were not trained by Aidan O’Brien, he would be 20/1 for the Epsom Derby rather than 6/1. Of course, if Aidan tells us The Lion In Winter will improve leaps and bounds for the run, all past evidence dictates we should believe him. I am of the opinion, though, that the Derby razzmatazz is what may defeat him if he goes to Epsom, and I suspect that Aidan, given he has half-a-dozen other Derby candidates, will take the cautionary route of sending the horse to Chantilly and the French Derby.
Pride of Arras looks a nice prospect, though he did not look a Derby winner to me, yet as Epsom will be only his third-run he is as entitled to come on for the run every bit as much as The Lion In Winter.
To return to David Jennings bold prediction that there are only two candidates for Epsom glory this year, I say this – have you forgotten Ruling Court? I also have an instinctive liking for the Dermot Weld-trained Purview.

In his column today Chris Cook put up a lively defence of the decision by the French stewards to kick-out She’s Perfect and to promote Zarigana as the winner of the French 1,000 Guineas. He almost persuaded me that She’s Perfect was legitimately disqualified due to Shoemark being unable to keep his mount running in a straight line. He made a persuasive argument for the principle that all races should be run fairly. I would argue that not one of the first three kept to a straight line and when push came to shove the two contenders did not touch.
In our desperately annoying present-day wokish environment, though I accept that Barzalona caused his filly no harm, fourteen-hits (2 with the whip, 12 with his hand) was unsightly and not a good look for the sport. How hand-slapping is any different to using the reins as a substitute whip as Rachael Blackmore chose to do at Cheltenham the season before last, and was cautioned for it, is hard to defend.
But the main reason why Chris Cook did not win me to his side of the fence was that he made no mention of the view of the incident from the patrol camera following the runners. It is as clear as a cloudless sky that the coming together with Exactly by She’s Perfect was nothing more substantial than a brush, while Exactly went sideways for some distance to collide with Zarigana and was this incident that cost Barzelona the opportunity to win the race, though losing his whip must also have contributed.
On the balance of the evidence, I believe the appeal should succeed, though I doubt it will. Fairness, I suggest, is how you wish to define it.

On a day when Jody Townend will don the Royal silks at Leopardstown in a Ladies only handicap, in the preceding apprentice race there are 8 females slated to ride in the race, though two of them are on possible substitutes and will need withdrawals to be able to take part. I suspect that 6 female riders in an unrestricted gender race in Ireland must constitute both a record and a significant step forward for female jockeys in Ireland. Perhaps the Rachael Blackmore legacy will be on the flat for females and not over the jumps.

​I would not back against Oisin Murphy retaining his title no matter what he says about not prioritising his defence this season. Does he not say it every year? He is not favourite, though, to be champion. He is not even second favourite.
Favourite is Rossa Ryan at 11/10. I admire Rossa’s approach to life. He would like to be champion, he intends giving it a good kick this season, but if should fail to succeed he will not cry about it. I would have him favourite to ride the most winners in a calendar year but I am not as confident he will win enough races during the arbitrary period of the championship to take the crown this season.
Second favourite is Billy Loughnane. I predicted last season (or was it the season before. Time passes so quickly when you reach my age) that within a few years he would become champion jockey, a bold shout as he had not yet succeeded to the throne of champion apprentice. At 9/4 he is too short in the market even though without big-name horses to ride he will doubtless mop-up at the more minor meetings throughout the summer.
Oisin is 11/4, which represents better value than the two ahead of him in the market. Oisin is Oisin. The more I see of him, the more I like him.
Tom Marquand is 11/2. He is handicapped slightly by being stable jockey to a brilliant if cautious trainer in William Haggas, a man who likes to take his time with both 2-year and 3-year-olds. And more so than Ryan and Loughnane, he is also hampered by having to ride abroad on Sundays, as well as Ireland. He deserves to be champion, though I cannot see it happening this season.
William Buick is 14/1 and would doubtless be champion again if he put his mind to it. Quality is Buick’s game, though, and as well as forays to France and Ireland on weekends, Godolphin run plenty of horses in the U.S. and Buick will go where Charlie Appleby sends him.
The most tempting bet, even though I have no expectations of her achieving the fete, is the 100/1 about Hollie Doyle shaking the tree again by becoming champion jockey. 100/1! Given she invariably finishes within single digits numbers of husband Tom each season and he is 11/2, 100/1 is a present for backers. Love to see her as champion jockey as it will be a great boost to the sport, but I just cannot see it happening unless trainers get behind her to make it happen.

Tomorrow at Leopardstown, Jody Townend will achieve an honour that brother Paul must have thought highly unlikely for either of them. Jody rides Reaching High in a Lady Riders handicap for the King and Queen. Yes, Willie Mullins now trains for the British monarchy. I hope the Closutton magic works on the former Sir Michael Stoute trained horse and that Reaching High proves to be a high-class dual-purpose horse.

The She’s Perfect team have chosen to appeal against her demotion in the French 1,000 Guineas. Having seen the camera footage from the rear, I believe they have a sporting chance of winning their case. It is surprising, though, to see how the verdict of the Longchamp stewards has split opinion, with some well-respected commentators giving the Basher Watts team little chance of getting the race back, while others cannot believe there was an enquiry in the first place. I sit on the fence. I believe the Basher Watts syndicate were wronged, while having no faith their appeal will be successful. I cross my fingers on their behalf.

As with the domination of Willie Mullins in National Hunt, which was amusing at first, so it is becoming with Aiden O’Brien on the flat. Both are close to near perfection, though thus far this classic trial period O’Brien has already achieved perfection. Indeed, given he has had runners-up in several trials, he should be marked-up as perfection+.
It is, though, not a good look for the sport, especially when it comes to the classics on the flat. To just take the Epsom Derby and Oaks for example. Not only where are the British-trained opposition going to come from but where are the French-trained horses? Breeders, I believe, are killing the classic races, apart, perhaps, for the 2,000 and 1,000 Guineas, by breeding for speed and ignoring the history and tradition of our sport by treating staying blood like it is a virus that needs to be vaccinated against.
Of course, Ballydoyle will rule supreme – Coolmore are the only breeding organisation 100% committed to breeding for stamina.
My solution to the problem, to stemming the flow of classic riches to O’Brien – pour millions of pounds into the prize-money of the Ascot Gold Cup and the Doncaster and Goodwood Cups and add-on a bonus for any horse that wins the Stayers Triple Crown. And cut the number of Group 1 5 and 6-furlongs races. We have to turn-around the leviathan that is the breeding industry and twist the arms of breeders to persuade them to stop following the trend of the U.S. and remind them that the equine heroes of the ages were always Derby and Gold Cup winners.

​The Global Jockeys Challenge series proposed for next season, though with little detail yet provided above the aspiration for such an event, is flawed and unlikely to achieve what its proponents wish for it.
The reason I say it is flawed, and I believe I said the same about the David Power Cup when it was announced, is that the jockeys are not the stars of our sport, and I defend that point of view by asking readers to say out loud the name of our sport. Horse Racing. It is not Jockey Racing. And any attempt to put the jockey before the horse will be grasped by our opponents as humans making use of a beautiful creature for its own selfish ends.
The G.J.C. is proposed to give us a world champion jockey, in the same way Formula 1 appoints a world champion car driver. Yet the series will not take in any of the established great horse races staged around the world. The best will not be paired with the best. The best, at best, will be paired with handicappers. To return to Formula 1, the equivalent of which would be to take away the high-powered single seaters and ask Verstappen, Norris, Hamilton and others to risk their necks driving road cars around the Grand Prix circuits of the world.
Let us assume for the purposes of argument’s sake that Ryan Moore is the best jockey riding anywhere around the world at the moment. If he were to finish in last place in the G.J.C., which as this series will be draw-based as far as horse allocation is concerned, with ground, stall-position and circumstance leading factors in any race, would this mean that our opinion of Moore would be evidenced as wrong?
This concept is profit-lead, especially as the jockeys must make a contribution both financial and commitment-wise. And this is only going to contribute to an already, in Britain if nowhere else, bloated race programme and smaller field-sizes either side of meetings that stage races for the G.J.C.
Given the prompting behind this concept is to boost jockeys’ profiles, and to promote the sport to a larger public around the world, it would do aeons of good if some of the profit from the series went to rehabilitation and care programmes for retired racehorses. As I said quietly earlier, the sport is named after its main contributor when it comes to effort and sacrifice, the horse.
How this series can be fitted into a race programme that in Britain, if not in the other countries who will host the G.J.C., is literally flat-out from May to November and is an aspect of this proposal I believe the originators have not even addressed in their haste to announce the name of their ‘baby’ to the world. Given the 12-jockeys named for the series will be 12 of the busiest jockeys in the world, with commitments and contracts that all add-up to make them as rich as they already are, it would seem an impossible task to get all of them in 12 different rooms across the world all at the same time.
Also, in a world desperate for diversity, inclusion and equality of the sexes, it was a poor overlook to not include a G.J.C. for the best female jockeys to run parallel to the male G.J.C.. This would be easier to achieve, given that even the very best female flat jockeys are not given the same opportunities afforded to their male colleagues. 
I view the Global Jockeys’ Challenge as more an aspiration than a promise of improvement for the sport to come. Flat racing is not the dominant sport in any country around the world and in Britain and Ireland it is not too far a stretch to say that National Hunt is more popular amongst the public. I doubt if too many non-racing people could name 3 current flat jockeys, though without Rachael Blackmore that might now be said about National Hunt racing, now I come to think about it.
There is no need to promote jockeys as superstars when racing results are narrated by beginning with the name of the horse, followed by the starting odds. Jockeys work seven-days-a-week, working more hours than any other sportsman/woman. With those that work the hardest and longest amongst those who achieve the most meagre of rewards for their dedicated service to the sport. The Global Jockeys’ Challenge will not go a thousand-miles close to addressing the problems of those who operate at the lowest rungs of the sport. Making rich jockeys richer will do very little to help the sport rise higher in the estimations of the sporting and non-sporting public.

​Yes, I am wrong more often than I am right. Which, I suggest, outside of Willie Mulllins and Ryan Moore, is just about average for the whole of the human race. Yet there is something far worse than merely getting your facts wrong – being right when you wish you were wrong.
I predicted a few weeks back that Rachael Blackmore would retire from riding at the end of the Irish season. And that is exactly what she announced yesterday. Little pony-riding girls all over Ireland will be heartbroken this morning.
The void she will leave behind her is unquantifiable. She is Rachael. She is the gleaming star of Irish racing. The face of Irish racing. Paul Townend may outrank her when it comes to championships and Grade 1’s but he was never first on peoples’ lips when asked to name a jockey. And that applies equally to Britain as it does to Ireland.
The sadness is that we shall probably never see her like again.
Oddly, and perhaps this needs explanation, she announced her retirement ‘with immediate effect’, even though she is jocked-up for two-rides at Sligo today. Knowing her from afar, which is perhaps to not know her at all, I suggest she planned her retirement in the way she has done to mitigate any hullabaloo, to go on her way in the same manner in which she arrived. Quietly.
As someone who has championed female jockeys since the days when the gentler sex was few and far between, the bad news keeps on coming. Hayley Turner’s retirement removed the smiley face from British flat racing. In losing Bryony Frost to France was as big a loss to British racing as Rachael’s will be to Irish racing. Emma Smith-Chaston has also recently retired from riding. And as I have said so many times recently, there is no one coming through the ranks to take their place. Yes, Hollie and Saffie are top ten on the flat but the divide between them and the rest of the girls is huge. Apart from Jo Mason being stable jockey to her uncle and grandfather, name another female who holds a stable jockey position?
Now, even if Hollie Doyle agrees with the decision, the Shergar Cup organisers have taken the retrograde step of doing away with an all-female team and this year each team will have one female member. Hollie may be right in believing it is a step forward to treat male and female jockeys the same, and in every other aspect of flat racing that is perhaps the right way forward, even if I believe young female jockeys need an edge in order to persuade owners and trainers to give them opportunities they presently lack. But the Shergar Cup is all about taking sides and I very much doubt I am alone in always supporting the all-female team, even if they are not the underdogs they once were.

Having now watched the finish of the French 1,000 Guineas from all angles, I believe the She’s Perfect team have an each-way chance of getting the result reversed in their favour. From the rear-view camera it is clear beyond doubt that Ryan Moore on Exactly bumped the Mikhail Barzelona horse, which caused him to veer from a straight line and the coming together between She’s Perfect and Exactly was minor, no more than a slight brush. Also, though the French whip rules allow a jockey to hit a horse with his hand as many times as the jockey sees fit, Barzelona hit his mount twice with his whip and twelve-times with his hand after losing his whip.
I am convinced She’s Perfect was unlucky to lose the race in the stewards’ room. I am inclined, though, to expect the result to stay the same. In this country, connections would be odds-on to get the race back. In fact, in this country she would not have lost it in the first place. I simply cannot see the French appeals panel over-ruling in favour of a British-trained horse.

NB. (Note Bene) The name of the female jockey considered by John Randall to be the most successful female in the history of racing is Julie Krone, with a total in the 3,000’s. How many of those victories were Grade 1’s or classics John Randall did not disclose. Of course, I should undertake the research myself. Perhaps. Maybe.

​I expressed the wish that Kieran Shoemark had the last laugh over the Gosdens regarding his dismissal from the number one job at Clarehaven. Boy, Kieran must have really pissed-off the racing gods in one way or another. Perhaps in both ways considering the kicking he is experiencing at the moment. He wins the French 1,000 Guineas, no doubt takes joy in having the last laugh, only for the French stewards to take the race off him for interference in the final furlong. I would imagine being demoted from a classic win is infinitely worse than John Gosden summoning him to his office to inform him he is no longer the favoured one. Somebody please give Kieran Shoemark a ride in the Derby because when his luck changes it will doubtless change big time. Unless the racing gods know something about him we do not.

At the weekend, at Ascot, and only a few weeks since Hayley Turner retired, Holly Doyle became the winningmost female jockey in British racing. She is 28. Hayley is 43. Not only is she now the best female flat jockey in British racing history but with 10 Group 1’s and 2 foreign classics to her name, surely she must either be the most successful female jockey currently riding anywhere in the world or at least honing in on being the most successful when it comes to riding Group 1’s and classics. I posed the question poorly to John Randall, Racing Post historian, and his answer was based on individual wins, which places Holly a long way below a former U.S. jockeys, whose name I cannot recall but doubles will do at some time during the day.
The Racing Post published a list of the top ten British female flat jockeys in their piece on Holly Doyle yesterday (Holly also featured in the big article) and it made for unsettling reading. Holly at the time of writing sits on 1,023, with Hayley, obviously, one win in arrears. Then comes Josephine Gorden with 417, Cathy Gannon 344. Alex Greaves 287. Saffie Osborne 258. Kim Tinkler 250. Joanne Mason 247. Nicola Currie 236. In comparison the leading British female jump jockey Bryony Frost has ridden 293 winners in this country.
Despite Holly Doyle being one of top jockeys riding in this country, I still believe that to achieve more female jockeys riding regularly at the top meetings and in the top races, female jockeys who have not ridden more than – this numbers alters every time I give thought to this subject – 200-winners in their careers should receive a 3Ib allowance in all handicaps. They should certainly be allowed to claim 3Ib for a set number of winners after they have ridden ‘out their apprentice claim’. Yes, it is unfair on their male colleagues. But it is also unfair that a good percentage of owners and trainers have a prejudice against female riders.

Royal Ascot 1900 looked quite similar to Royal Ascot 2,000 or any year before the meeting changed to 5-days. As far as the monarchy was concerned, prior to the Prince of Wales, who batted away his mother’s criticism of his involvement with racing with great tact and an iron will, the Royals would only attend the Royal meeting on the two important days, Tuesday and Thursday, the only two days when the public could enjoy the royal procession.
The most valuable race on day one was, appropriately, the Prince of Wales Stakes, worth £2,100 to the winner. On the Wednesday, the Coronation Stakes was the feature race, worth £2,750 to the winner, £259 more than the Royal Hunt Cup. On the Thursday the Ascot Gold Cup, worth £3,360 to the winner, was not only the feature race but after the classics the most important race of the whole season. The Hardwicke Stakes was the feature on the Friday, with £2,421 going to the winning owner.
The first race on the Friday was the Ascot High Weight Stakes over 10-furlongs and worth £565 to the winner. I confess I do not know what is meant by a High Weight race. If it were a conditions race for horses that usually carry high weights in handicaps, I would like to see this sort of race brought back.
Also, Royal Ascot in 1900 also featured either a biennial or triennial race on each day of the meeting. As far as I can ascertain these races were designed for horses to come back year after year from 2-year-old to 3-year-old (biennial) and 2 – 4-year-old (triennial) to compete against the same horses each year. Two of these races were in their 42nd and 43rd years, two others in their 37th and 38th year, with the last race on the fourth day in its 47th year.
Am I the only one to think a similar concept might be tried now, though not at Royal Ascot, obviously. Just the one biennial race each year, as a novelty. In 1900, if the idea were new, it would be a race for stoutly-bred two-year-olds, with the 3-year-old race over 10 or 12-furlongs. But in todays speed-orientated world, sprints would be the best bet for the race (races) to be considered successful. I dare say there was a valid point in biennial and triennial races in 1900, which probably does not exist today. But it would do the sport no harm to revisit the past occasionally.