YELLOW, 4,600,000 & AIDAN CHANGES PLAN.

The subject of horses' eyes has always intrigued me. Trawlerman's sensitivity to bright sunlight was evidence, in my opinion, that when looking for solutions to a horse losing its form, the eyes can be overlooked. It is the same when a horse starts falling in races after being considered a good jumper. Eye trouble might have been the cause of Constitution Hill's problem, though it was proven not to be as Nicky Henderson had the foresight to have his eyes checked-out. Which brings me to the appeal by the owner of Paddy The Squire to the result of a race at the latest Newbury fixture.

Ryan Moore won the race on Balsac, trained by Jane Chapple-Hyam. At or around the furlong pole, Barsac veered away from the rails and 'impeded' Paddy The Squire, ridden by Andrew Mullen. On the day, the stewards saw no reason to reverse the placings which angered the owner of the second. At the appeal yesterday, Ryan said that his horse was startled by the bright yellow advertising boards of the day's sponsor and backed-up his opinion by reminding the B.H.A. of their own research study that decided that bright yellow and bright blue have the highest contrast in a horse's eye. He also reminded the panel that a horse has only a two-colour spectrum. This is the sort sensible defence you would expect from someone as professional as Ryan Moore. The panel did not find in favour of Ian Jones, the owner of Paddy The Squire.

The great and the mighty learned no lessons from the 4,300,000-guineas paid for Poker at last year's Tattersall Book 1 sale, it seems. Yesterday the great of the multiple colours and the mighty blue stood figuratively toe-to-toe in a bidding war for a Night of Thunder yearling, with the might of Godolphin winning the battle as 4,600,000-guineas, a record for a yearling bought at public auction in Europe. With commission and all those guineas added to the 4,600,000 pound-notes, I should think the yearling cost nearly 5-million-quid. For a sport approaching the doldrums that is crazy stupid money for a horse that tomorrow might injury itself and put paid to his life as a racehorse. The world of the breeding industry is so far detached from the world of the racecourse it can be likened to the distance between Earth and Mars.

What gets me is that I do not believe any of that 4,600,000-guineas benefits the sport. The horse could, obviously, and Godolphin definitely benefits the sport but that particular amount of money does not. The top dozen or so lots yesterday made somewhere close to 17-million-guineas. If 1% of that number could be levied off for use as prize-money; if 1% of the price for all horses bought at public auction could be used to boost prize-money in this country, everyone wins and only sellers lose an amount of money too small for them to notice. If anyone reading this could add-up the entire amount paid for all the lots at the Book 1 auction this week and then divide by 1%, I would grateful if the figure could be past on to me. I have never been good with numbers and as I have aged my ability with numbers has diminished to the point below where I was at as a schoolboy. I used to be able to count in my head but now I have to write the numbers down and I still have trouble. I wrote to The Racing Post this time last year to ask if they could do the math as I considered a levy on sales prices would be a good way of boosting prize-money. Sorry to say, I received no reply.

As much as I admire Aidan O'Brien and the Coolmore 'lads', I do believe they get away with 'cheating the system' at times. Very often in Ireland, and in this country, a jockey will be found guilty of not attempting to ride to gain the best possible placing, yet time and time again, when Ballydoyle have multiple runners in a race, they may win with their number one, while their other runners are given a quiet educational run. I do not think Aidan has ever been asked by race-day stewards to explain the running of any of these horses. Also, when he runs pacemakers, these horses are clearly not running on their merits and also these horses are very often spoiled as racehorses. I reference Action, a classic contender earlier in the season, yet he could not land a blow the other day in a listed race in which his two-year-old form suggested he would win with his head in his chest.

That said, Aidan is not one for conformity. Plans have changed, or might change - nothing is set in stone - come Champions Day. Constitution River is to, might do, swap to the Queen Elizabeth Stakes over 8-furlongs, while Gstaad is to go up 2-furlongs to the Champion Stakes. Aidan thinks he may have been getting these two wrong all season.

In the past, top-class horses changing distances was not seen as unorthodox. Back in the day, many a horse would run in the Cambridgeshire and the Cesarewitch in the same year. Derby winners would almost always have the Ascot Gold Cup as their main target the following year. In Ireland, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National winners could as easily be seen running over 2-miles as 3-miles+. That is the problem, if it is a problem, with a set pattern of races, it takes away the need for connections to think outside of the box. Guineas winners stick to 8-furlongs, Derby winners can too easily be reverted back to the sexy 10-furlongs. Not only might Gstaad have the stamina for 10-furlongs but if Aidan and the 'lads' were bold ebough, he might even stay 12-furlongs. Not that we ever get to know the limitations of a horse as trying a longer or shorter distance is considered today as too much a financial gamble. A loss is just a loss; it is not a death, as the great and the mighty seem to think!