The turf
Hearing that the Queen has both a real and an official birthday, a small boy asked the obvious question: ‘Does…
The turf
Greville Starkey’s great victories as a jockey included the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Star Appeal at 119-1. In…
The turf
Who owns Altior? I ask because of the brouhaha over Nicky Henderson’s late withdrawal of his stable star, winner of…
The turf
Why hasn’t Bristol De Mai become as beloved by the racing public as his fellow greys Desert Orchid and One…
The turf
First the company report. Readers who invested a tenner on the nose each time our Twelve to Follow for the…
The turf
With or without the crowds, nowhere does racing like Cheltenham. The four winners, including her first Group One shared equally…
The turf
Fortunately for me and the politicians we entertained over my years covering the darkest profession, Mrs Oakley didn’t do a…
The turf
Wetumpka Racing? When your yard is running at a handsome strike rate of 40 per cent wins to runs you…
The turf
It is all, it seems, in the tweaks. So said Aidan O’Brien, Ireland’s master-trainer supreme, before his tough filly Magical…
The turf
We all have weeks when every win bet finishes second and every each-way comes home in fourth. You begin to…
The turf
Lester Piggott was famous for pinching other jockeys’ rides. He used his friendship with owner Ivan Allan to have Luca…
The turf
It was to have been, if not a glorious return, at least an encouraging one. On the Stewards’ Cup day…
The Turf
When I first began racing, few jump jockeys reckoned their careers would last beyond the ages of 32 or 33.…
The turf
It wasn’t so much a Derby victory this year as an act of grand larceny. Aidan O’Brien isn’t just a…
The turf
Royal Ascot it wasn’t: for the first time in her 68-year reign, thanks to Covid-19, the Queen was not there.…
The turf
Horse racing, it turns out, wasn’t the first sport back in post-lockdown action: that distinction went to pigeon racing when…
The turf
Horseracing in Britain, which was suspended by coronavirus on 18 March, is due, as I write, to resume on Monday…
The Turf
There is racing elsewhere in the world. It restarted in France on Monday, la course de chevaux being classed in…
The Turf
Seven hundred pages of memoir is stretching it a bit even for an ex-inhabitant of No. 10 with David Cameron’s…
The turf
Sport may well be ‘the great triviality’ as Timeform founder Phil Bull once put it, and racing as trivial as…
The turf
Asked, after his Imperial Aura’s impressive win in the Northern Trust Novices’ Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, if he…
The turf
The socialite MP Chips Channon once noted in his diaries his feelings about an after-lunch snooze in parliament’s Library: ‘It…
The Turf
Every time the Cheltenham Festival looms, I recall a remarkable experience. It was already 25 years since Dawn Run’s recovery…
The turf
Few jumpers have a better record at Ascot than the Paul Nicholls-trained Cyrname. He triumphed in the Betfair Chase at…
The turf
I was once at a racing dinner in York where a distinguished clergyman in attendance was invited to say grace.…
