The turf
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…
The turf
Irish trainer John F. O’Neill owes the stalls handlers at Goodwood a good drink or two. In Ireland this season…
The turf
I don’t miss too many from the political world I once inhabited but I was saddened by the death of…
The turf
‘You’re being unfaithful,’ says the punter’s wife brandishing a note found in her husband’s suit pocket: ‘Dorothea 07440 521321.’ ‘No,…
The turf
President George W. Bush used to quote his fellow Texan Robert Strauss who famously declared: ‘You can fool some of…
