I cannot see any horse winning either the Derby or Oaks this season. Hardly worth staging either race, is how I see it. I could not even be sure if an O'Brien will be holding the trophy aloft. Yes, something will have to win the Derby and Oaks, it is just, thus far, my instincts are telling me that all the talking horses (the Ballydoyle horses) are a mixed bunch and all the others are ordinary fare. My mind's eye is empty; all I see is a racecourse with no horses and all the fun of the fair poised as if in wait of Prince Monolulu calling for punters to pay him their hard earned money in exchange for the name of the winner of the Derby. If you tied me up and put a gun to my head and I was told by my nervous captors 'your Derby tip or...

'attempts to become the first British-trained winner of the Group 1 since 2022' is an example of the sort of writing that irritates me, up there when I have noticed error and laziness in my own creative efforts. 2022 is only 4-years in the past. Since 2022 there have only been three renewals of this particular race, the name of which eludes me for the moment. It is in the same category as 'creates history', when sporting or racing history would be more accurate. The word history in this instance refers to a time in the long past, 'to be of historic significance, being one of a kind'. You get my drift. The first horse trained in Germany, Italy or Peru to win the Epsom Derby that would be of 'historic significance'. No British-trained horse winning a race for 4-years is of no historic significance at all and was not worth...

Racing journalists often question why there are so many Derby and Oaks trials in so short a time span. How can it be  anything other than a classic trial orgy when there is barely more than 4-weeks between the Guineas meeting at Newmarket and the Epsom Derby? Of course if there were less classic trials the more information punters would have, with classic trials becoming more meaningful races. For all the kind words directed towards the trials at Chester, as actual races they were one-horse affairs with little excitement generated and nothing we did not already know coming from the results. There is an argument to be made, I suggest, while the pool of available horses remains low, for the Dee Stakes to become a handicap, thereby directing more classic hopefuls to the Vase. You see, as things stand, losing classic trials is the only solution if you believe the orgy...

The O'Briens, father and two sons, currently hold 3 of the top six positions in the Irish Trainers' Championship table, with Joseph top and Aidan second. The father, of course, has reigned as Irish champion for the past twenty-years or more. Being champion is what Aidan does; I dare say when he was driving a fork-lift for the Co-Op he was, if only in his own mind, the champion at stacking pallets. Recently, going against the grain of popular opinion, I suggested that Joseph was perhaps the top trainer in the world right now and though not expecting readers to take my opinion strictly seriously, if you go by the diversity of the top races he wins, as well as his success abroad, Joseph is unique if he isn't the best in the world. But that is just opinion; there is no real formula for deciding such accolades. Yes, Aidan wins...

I have thought for a long time that it must be disappointing for Maureen and William Haggas that Derby horses rarely come their way. Haggas is, of course, a Derby winning trainer, though he was not long out of short trousers when Shaamit won the race. But at least Haggas was able to prove to his father-in-law that he was up to the task, which so few son-in-laws are able to achieve. So I was as pleased as those who backed Maltese Cross yesterday that Haggas will again be represented at Epsom in a little over 3-weeks time. You can never be sure how good the form will work out when two-horses finish so far in front of the third, especially when the third would be considered a no-hoper if he were to run at Epsom. Of the classic trials run this week, to my mind Maltese Cross looked the most...

Recently I purchased a book from a Book Relief charity shop for £3. It was great value. It would be of greater value if bought by someone whose interest of horse racings lies in not what happened on the racecourse but in the breeding sheds. Do not get me wrong, Lesley I Sampson's book 'Nijinsky. Blue Riband Sire' is a mighty tome and a good specilist topic for anyone wishing to take part in Mastermind but for someone who only knew Nijinsky as a racehorse, even if as a teenager I had a print of him on the wall of the living room of the family home, this is a book that disappointed. Rarely do I skip whole chapters in a racing book but with this book, I admit, I flipped more than I read. But if you want to know all that there is to know about Nijinsky the stallion,...

The weather forecast for North Devon yesterday afternoon was for heavy showers and possible thunder and lightning. It was dry all day. I am not 100% sure if the forecast for Chester was the same - the summary I read suggested Northern and Western regions would receive the largest dollop of rain - yet the outcome was the same as here in North Devon. Eloise Quayle was a hostage to fortune. If she had put 8mm of water on the course and it had rained as forecast, Chester would have been a quagmire before the third race and the ground for the Chester Cup today would have been compromised. In complaining about the state of the ground, Chester's clerk of the course was hung out to dry. I thought I.T.V. dealt with the impasse in a professional manner, even if I would have preferred an additional race from Huntingdon rather than long...

In the 'Another View column in the Racing Post today, Catherine Macrae makes the point, I think, that Cherie DeVaux becoming the first female to train a Kentucky Derby winner should not be seen as great news, even if it was an historic event in racing history, but a tide mark in the sand in the continuing domination of the male gender in our sport. As Macrae points out, it remains a rare event for a female trainer in this country to even have a runner in the Epsom Derby, with Jesse Harrington the only female to be represented in the last two decades. Female jockeys in the Epsom Derby are rarer still. In Australia, the Melbourne Cup has in recent years had a female winning jockey and Rachel King won the latest running of that country's Derby. In the U.S., though, the days of female jockeys regularly riding in the...

'Oh ye young man, take my advice, Beware of painted faces, And mind which way your pony runs When you're at Totnes races.' Totnes and Bridegetown races came to an end on September 1st 1938. The annual two-day fixture in September, celebrating the end of the Harvest, was described as an equivalent of a Roman Saturnalia, with theatre, cock-fighting, marching bands and fireworks, though perhaps that was in its earlier days as racing was recorded at Broad Marsh in 1794. I mention Totnes as it was a not fixed racecourse, with the fences placed to suit the condition of the farmland it used. Local landowners were happy to haves the races on their land but not on fields not yet harvested. The real quirkiness of Totnes, though, was that the River Dart had to crossed twice on any one circuit of the course. It was not unusual, if the Dart was...

Everyone in racing from the stable-yard to Portman Square is fully aware that after the Labour Government the governance of British horse racing is top of the tree for mismanagement, lack of credibility and for letting a golden opportunity fall through its fingers. The B.H.A. is crap; the idea that every facet of the sport could have a voice in every important decision was naive enough for the child of hippies to have made, and an organisation that cannot find someone to sit in its golden chair must bear all the hallmarks of a ship about to sink. We are doomed, I tell ye! We are doomed! As Private Fraser once said many times. Ascot's chief executive, Felicity Barnard gives the appearance of being Woman's Institute material, yet beneath the pearls beat the heart of a true rebel. She gave the R.C.A. (Racecourse Association) one-month's notice to create an air of...

Today is a bank holiday in Britain. In this country at this time of year, between April and the end of May, it is almost the bank holiday season with, if Easter is late, three bank holidays in a six or seven-week period. Why today is a bank holiday is hazy in my imagination and why we need a day off work between Easter and Whitsun is also lost on me. The B.H.A. deal with this rogue bank holiday by ignoring it. Now, nonsensically, we all know that horse racing, or the B.H.A., do not own the race fixtures that comprise the racing year, with the racecourses owning the majority of fixtures, and we also know that in many instances the B.H.A. is a  toothless tiger with no sense of direction and operates without a rudder and with little authority when it comes to the number of meetings per year. Bank...

I can be naive at times. For instance, I believe in weather forecasts. It was to rain with persistence in East Anglia yesterday afternoon. I did not, though the rain hammered down for hours here in North Devon. I hope no one took galoshes and water-proofs to Newmarket through reading my blog. I doubt either a tornado or a lightning bolt could have wiped the smile from Billy Loughnane's face yesterday afternoon. I not know what age he became before William Bonney stopped being referred to as Billy the Kid but as of 3.45 yesterday I think it became inappropriate to refer to Loughnane as 'the kid' as he is now a fully-fledged member of the exclusive club of jockeys to have won a classic. Billy is the new Piggott. I doubt if anyone who has visited this site since I had it tidied-up back in February will be aware but...

A correction: The Kentucky Derby is not presented by Longines but by Woodland Reserve. Anyone the wiser? Today it is 2,000 Guineas Day. A guinea, for the greater wisdom of the young, is £1 and 1-shilling. Or it used to be back in the days of black and white television and before that the Blitz of London and before that when young boys were poked-up chimneys to clear it of soot. The good old days, as us old folk like to think of those faraway days when races were started from barriers, the jockeys could wear spurs and the Daily Mirror was a penny a copy. 15 potential stallions turn-out on the Rowley Mile, with its dip and bushes the only landmarks from stalls to winning post. It is a straight mile, so you will get a better view of the race listening to the commentary on the radio. Be aware,...

Occasionally I take against a horse and I am later shamed when learning what a nice, friendly, individual they are. I had no love for City of Troy last season, even after he won the Epsom Derby, as everything said about him from his racecourse debut to his last race and final disappointment at the Breeders Cup, was about the marketing of him as a stallion. So many of the Coolmore Derby winners win moderate versions of the Epsom Derby and frequently never increase their reputation there after. That said, the Epsom Derby would be dead in the waters without the support of Coolmore. Field of Gold is the latest recipient of my negativity as people keep making excuses for him every time he is beaten. Also, I thought it was unfair that Kieran Shoemark received all the blame for the horse failing to win the 2,000 Guineas, with John Gosden,...

Willie Mullins had come to terms with the possibility that he might never have a Cheltenham Gold Cup on his c.v at the time of his retirement. Then Al Boum Photo came along to win him two in successive seasons. Ambition achieved. Mullins could die a contented man. Then, as has now become the norm at Closutton, an even greater steeplechaser came along in Galopin Des Champs, another two-time winner of the Gold Cup, a horse that also achieved big-race success at other venues and could race more often than Al Boum Photo. Gaelic Warrior has thus far only one Cheltenham Gold Cup to his name, yet there can be no one who believes it will not be two or even three before his career is over. As a big fan, and still a believer, of The Jukebox Man, it pains me to be so optimistic about prophesying a three-time Gold...

There never was a clash between Arkle and Flyingbolt, arguably the two greatest steeplechasers in the history of the sport. There was for Himself a short-lived rivalry with Mill House which was settled in pretty quick order. Flyingbolt, though, was the only true rival for Arkle's crown. With Arkle, of course, there is no debate; he remains the greatest chaser, perhaps racehorse, of all time. In his era the Gold Cup class horses had to run in handicaps, as the King George at Kempton was the only other non-handicap he could run in. If only there were not a King George, Himself, as he was known in Ireland, might have won 5 or 6 Gold Cups and run in a Grand National, a race Pat Taaffe longed to ride him in. But no, as with Flyingbolt, his career was cut short by an injury to his pedal bone. Flyingbolt contracted brucellosis,...

Though most people do not care a jot about the names given to racehorses, it is a subject that I believe that should be subject to debate. Firstly, great horses usually have sound names, not funny or disrespectful names. Frankel, Brigadier Gerard, Dancing Brave, Grundy, to name but four. Away from that division of naming, what makes my blood boil is the replication or reuse of great but not classic winners of the past. At present, John Gosden has a leading Derby hope by the name of Morris Dancer. A horse of this name is indelibly linked to Paul Mellon and Ian Balding, a great old handicapper who won - guessing here - over 20-races and gave a lot of young jockeys their first winner. This is one name that should have been allowed to die with the original Morris Dancer. Today, David Menuisier introduces a horse to the racecourse by...

It keeps being said that no horse has won the triple crown since Nijinsky, yet Oh So Sharp won the 1,000 Guinease, Oaks and St. Leger in 1985 (spent the last ten-minutes trying to find my book on Henry Cecil only to discover it was published in 1983!). Of course, I am unlikely to witness another triple crown winner as the St. Leger has lost its prestige, even if it is the oldest classic of them all. As anyone who has visited this site on a regular basis will be aware, I would like the Eclipse to be upgraded to classic status, thereby giving the sport a more respresentative look to the racing age we live:  a 8-furlong classic, a 10-furlong classic and a 12-furlong classic. To my mind the St.Leger should become all-age, with the sport throwing a bucket-load of money at it, upgrading it to be a complimentary race...

I hope in death I go to where Thistle Ask has gone. He was a happy horse. He died happy, I hope, even if his death, for humane considerations, was at the hands of an experienced veterinary surgeon. We had a wonderful ginger cat called Thomas. He taught me a lot about cats, more than I  taught him about humans. He was a happy cat, at least I hope so, right up to when he began to walk into walls, then he was unhappy, his freedom and independence lost to him. He had a brain tumour and, like Thistle Ask, for humane considerations, we had to have him euthanised. He died on our kitchen floor, his head in the lap of the vet called-out one Sunday morning to ease him on his way to wherever much-loved animals go in the afterlife, in such a realm exists. National Hunt racing gives us...

Earlier in the week I was of the opinion that Dan Skelton would fall short of winning £5-million in prize money. I was wrong; it is now, after winning here, there and everywhere this week inconceivable to think he will not achieve his latest ambition. It was Willie' world last year, now it is the Skelton world in which we are blessed to be a part of. The big question is when these two worlds collide next season, who will get to rule the universe? Dan, like Willie, is almost impossible to dislike but his success is not down to his affable nature or willingness to be interviewed but to planning, planning, hard work from his team, determination and yet more planning.  Winning a race at every racecourse in Britain is not only a unique achievement but testament to his no stone unturned approach to his job. At Sandown Park today...