The turf
Relief Rally put the Ascot heartbreak behind her at Newbury
‘God it’s hot,’ said a Newbury waitress escaping into the lift from rain-soaked crowds jostling in the bars last Saturday.…
Paddington emerged victorious but Eclipse was an enthralling duel
I should have listened to George Duffield. Sandown Park’s Eclipse Stakes, the first time the Classic generation of three-year-olds take…
Frankie gets his last Royal Ascot hurrah – in spades
We all wanted Frankie to have a last Royal Ascot hurrah. In the end he got four, including a ninth…
The science of horse racing
Everybody in racing is looking for an edge. With 7-4 the field, the punter is looking for a 2-1. The…
My summer Twelve to Follow
Usually in May I am still casting an enviously nostalgic eye backwards to Aintree and Cheltenham, reluctant yet to pack…
Kitty’s Light is the horse of the year
John Trotwood Moore, one-time State Librarian of Tennessee, was a racist and defender of the Ku Klux Klan. But in…
The grand shame of the Grand National protestors
When jockey Derek Fox came over from Ireland to join the Scottish stable run by Lucinda Russell and her partner,…
In praise of small racecourses
Mrs Oakley not being a turfista, she rarely joins me on a racecourse expedition. But before we had a dog…
The magic of Veterans’ Chase Day
Like most people in racing I began 2023 down in the dumps, moaning about insufficient prize money, small fields and…
Ascot was a high-profile disaster for jump racing
The government may for the moment have disbanded its circular firing squad, but racing has never shown a greater ability…
My Twelve to Follow over jumps
The dozen recommended in May left us with a decent profit
Lesson to self: don’t put a bet on in autumn
When things went wrong in his days running the Daily Mirror, the scoundrel Robert Maxwell used to shout: ‘Which effing…
The making of a Classics winner
For a Radio Four programme she was hosting Clare Balding once had the idea that it would be fun to…
The lessons of Newmarket
The swallows who nest yearly in my garage have agreed that ‘that’s enough baby-making for this year’, and started their…
My racing moment of the year
It takes a little bit of magic to train any racehorse. It takes plenty of magic to keep a 13-year-old…
Goodwood was glorious but it highlighted the range of problems facing the sport
Irish trainer John F. O’Neill owes the stalls handlers at Goodwood a good drink or two. In Ireland this season…
Is this the death of horse racing?
I don’t miss too many from the political world I once inhabited but I was saddened by the death of…
