The turf
Racing can’t survive without crowds
We all have weeks when every win bet finishes second and every each-way comes home in fourth. You begin to…
Why it pays for a jockey to follow the rules
Lester Piggott was famous for pinching other jockeys’ rides. He used his friendship with owner Ivan Allan to have Luca…
In a jam: what Goodwood did with 900 punnets of strawberries
It was to have been, if not a glorious return, at least an encouraging one. On the Stewards’ Cup day…
Why racing will miss Barry Geraghty
When I first began racing, few jump jockeys reckoned their careers would last beyond the ages of 32 or 33.…
Aidan O’Brien’s Derby victory was an act of grand larceny
It wasn’t so much a Derby victory this year as an act of grand larceny. Aidan O’Brien isn’t just a…
Royal Ascot was a triumph – even without the cheers and the hats
Royal Ascot it wasn’t: for the first time in her 68-year reign, thanks to Covid-19, the Queen was not there.…
Horse-racing has made a triumphant return
Horse racing, it turns out, wasn’t the first sport back in post-lockdown action: that distinction went to pigeon racing when…
Racing needs us as much as we need it
Horseracing in Britain, which was suspended by coronavirus on 18 March, is due, as I write, to resume on Monday…
How to get your racing fix under lockdown
There is racing elsewhere in the world. It restarted in France on Monday, la course de chevaux being classed in…
What the Queen will miss most in self-isolation
Seven hundred pages of memoir is stretching it a bit even for an ex-inhabitant of No. 10 with David Cameron’s…
A first-hand account of a racehorse trainer’s battle for survival
Sport may well be ‘the great triviality’ as Timeform founder Phil Bull once put it, and racing as trivial as…
Does horse-racing have a future?
Asked, after his Imperial Aura’s impressive win in the Northern Trust Novices’ Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, if he…
Cheltenham Festival was a triumph
The socialite MP Chips Channon once noted in his diaries his feelings about an after-lunch snooze in parliament’s Library: ‘It…
The magic of Cheltenham Festival
Every time the Cheltenham Festival looms, I recall a remarkable experience. It was already 25 years since Dawn Run’s recovery…
Cyrname was lucky to survive his shocking fall at Ascot
Few jumpers have a better record at Ascot than the Paul Nicholls-trained Cyrname. He triumphed in the Betfair Chase at…
The saviours of racing
I was once at a racing dinner in York where a distinguished clergyman in attendance was invited to say grace.…
The trainer who gives the big boys a run for their money
Racing’s New Year began well with the award of OBEs to both Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls, showing that they…
The battle for the future of Flat racing
The master plan in acquiring our flatcoat retriever puppy Damson was that as folk no longer with full-time jobs we…
Farewell to Australia’s greatest horse
Storm clouds may be rumbling over racing’s future financing in terms of gambling legislation but 2019 offered no shortage of…
The election won’t bring any joy to the racing community – whatever the outcome
Whatever the outcome of the election on 12 December, it is unlikely to bring joy to the racing community. Conservatives…
Cheltenham was the perfect antidote to election politics
I can only be sorry for the 67,496,581 citizens of the UK who were not at Cheltenham last Saturday. For…
The best thing about autumn is the return of jumping
Never mind Keats’s mists and mellow fruitfulness, or even that glorious autumnal odour of wet dog — a regular accompaniment…
The dark world of Victorian horse racing
Two hours after showing her father, the Marquess of Anglesey, the wedding dress in which she was to marry the…
When nice guys come first
With shorter days and leaves falling, I begin to itch for the more sporting, less obviously commercial world of jump…
Excessive gambling is dangerous – a flutter on the horses is not
Sorry is allegedly the hardest word to say — so Carolyn Harris, chair of the all-party parliamentary group studying gambling-related…
