The turf
The turf
When the nine equine athletes involved in the seven-furlong contest for Newbury’s Saturday highlight, the Group Two BetVictor Hungerford Stakes,…
The turf
On no course in Britain does jockeyship count for more than at undulating, tricksy Goodwood and although Frankie Dettori was…
The turf
‘God it’s hot,’ said a Newbury waitress escaping into the lift from rain-soaked crowds jostling in the bars last Saturday.…
The turf
I should have listened to George Duffield. Sandown Park’s Eclipse Stakes, the first time the Classic generation of three-year-olds take…
The turf
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…
The turf
Usually in May I am still casting an enviously nostalgic eye backwards to Aintree and Cheltenham, reluctant yet to pack…
The turf
John Trotwood Moore, one-time State Librarian of Tennessee, was a racist and defender of the Ku Klux Klan. But in…
The turf
When jockey Derek Fox came over from Ireland to join the Scottish stable run by Lucinda Russell and her partner,…
The Turf
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…
The turf
The government may for the moment have disbanded its circular firing squad, but racing has never shown a greater ability…
The turf
The dozen recommended in May left us with a decent profit
The turf
When things went wrong in his days running the Daily Mirror, the scoundrel Robert Maxwell used to shout: ‘Which effing…
The turf
For a Radio Four programme she was hosting Clare Balding once had the idea that it would be fun to…
The turf
The swallows who nest yearly in my garage have agreed that ‘that’s enough baby-making for this year’, and started their…
The turf
It takes a little bit of magic to train any racehorse. It takes plenty of magic to keep a 13-year-old…
