Horse racing

How sport helped shape the British character

2 December 2023 9:00 am

David Horspool connects different sports to our historical experience: cricket with class, golf with property rights, tennis with female emancipation and boxing with ethnicity

The joy of jump-racing

4 November 2023 9:00 am

The murky world of bloodstock agents

23 September 2023 9:00 am

Top owners are quitting horse racing because bookmakers nervous of a government and a Gambling Commission that know remarkably little…

Tom Marquand was the star of Goodwood

12 August 2023 9:00 am

On no course in Britain does jockeyship count for more than at undulating, tricksy Goodwood and although Frankie Dettori was…

Relief Rally put the Ascot heartbreak behind her at Newbury

29 July 2023 9:00 am

‘God it’s hot,’ said a Newbury waitress escaping into the lift from rain-soaked crowds jostling in the bars last Saturday.…

The science of horse racing

3 June 2023 9:00 am

Everybody in racing is looking for an edge. With 7-4 the field, the punter is looking for a 2-1. The…

An unstable world

3 June 2023 9:00 am

Adapted from interviews with a trainer from Iowa, Scanlan’s novel is a disturbing portrait of violence and squalor behind the scenes at racing stables

My summer Twelve to Follow

20 May 2023 9:00 am

Usually in May I am still casting an enviously nostalgic eye backwards to Aintree and Cheltenham, reluctant yet to pack…

Rugby union needs its own Richard Thompson

22 October 2022 9:00 am

Dear oh dear, as exasperated kings are known to murmur – just look at the state of rugby union. But…

The making of a Classics winner

15 October 2022 9:00 am

For a Radio Four programme she was hosting Clare Balding once had the idea that it would be fun to…

The lessons of Newmarket

1 October 2022 9:00 am

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

17 September 2022 9:00 am

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

3 September 2022 9:00 am

Irish trainer John F. O’Neill owes the stalls handlers at Goodwood a good drink or two. In Ireland this season…

Horse racing’s invisible heroes

23 July 2022 9:00 am

President George W. Bush used to quote his fellow Texan Robert Strauss who famously declared: ‘You can fool some of…

Why racing needs Frankie Dettori

9 July 2022 9:00 am

Heading for a holiday in Sardinia, I remembered that the last time we were there our engine-less, drifting boat was…

The joy of Royal Ascot

25 June 2022 9:00 am

In a disintegrating country, stuck for the moment with a Prime Minister who can’t see the difference between a proliferation…

How modesty triumphed in the Derby

11 June 2022 9:00 am

In the absence on her Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty, such an avid Derby attender in the past, and following…

The unacknowledged stars of the jump season

30 April 2022 9:00 am

The Irish aren’t just good at winning horse races: they are in the Super League when it comes to celebrating…

The British shone at Cheltenham

2 April 2022 9:00 am

For Barbara and Alick Richmond, Living Legend’s game 12-1 victory in Kempton’s 1m 2f Magnolia Stakes last Saturday was their…

He knew a swan from a duck: remembering Andy Turnell

19 March 2022 9:00 am

You don’t always have to win to enjoy it. At the end of the £100,000 Paddy Power Imperial Cup at…

My top tips for Cheltenham Festival

5 March 2022 9:00 am

Even when the authorities were refusing Milton Harris the right to renew his training licence after he got his finances…

The young trainer Sam Drinkwater is one to watch

19 February 2022 9:00 am

Certain sections of the media love to run a knocking story and when champion trainer Paul Nicholls’s horses failed to…

The new Tote is a ray of hope for British racing

22 January 2022 9:00 am

There is nothing like visiting a stud early in the foaling season. As amiable mums-to-be saunter up to the paddock…