Blog

Thank you for having me, a near 20 years for Channel 4 Racing, 15 of them in vision, it’s been fantastic.  As one of many kind messages sent to me stated, it’s been a great innings!  Now time to walk away from the crease and back to the pavilion with many treasured memories and a life enriched by all the characters met along the way.  But it is the horses that come first, what a privilege to say I was there on many historic occasions for racing. 

Fresh from a really dramatic, thrilling, exhilarating and exciting two days at Epsom, I can wait for what’s in store at Royal Ascot.  Epsom on Friday was freezing, well below normal June temperatures and I’m sure a cold is in the offing with me being foolhardy enough to wear a flimsy jacket.  I was determined to uphold the Ladies Day smart dress code.

The expectation surrounding Midterm is immense, arguably in part it has compressed his odds for the Dante and Derby.  There is so much dissatisfaction surrounding how the Oaks and Derby Trials have played out and yet for me, there are clues galore and plenty of ‘if only’ scenarios...

The words “that’s unlikely to happen” are hardly going to carry weight at present with LeicesterCity sitting top of the Premiership. Worth bearing in mind despite all the hot pots amidst the 28 Cheltenham Festival races, there are bound to be improbable eventualities that secure dreams coming true.

Arena Racing Company has announced it will be reopening Hereford Racecourse in October 2016.

On Monday 7 December I was lucky enough to be at the Horserace Writers and Photographers Awards, where there were some fabulous and heartfelt speeches from deserving victors Alastair Down (Writer of the Year) and John Hunt (Broadcaster of the Year). It was a reminder that life does not revolve around 140 characters. In a world where the pressure for racing to receive any space in newspapers, let alone serious column inches, we have to bang the drum that we have some fantastic storytellers whether in print or on camera. And as for the camera, as they say a picture speaks a thousand words, our snappers are taken for granted and rarely receive the recognition deserved for providing keepsakes and memories of our favourite moments.

My heart goes out to Ralph Beckett, Andrea Atzeni and all involved with Simple Verse. Jamie Spencer can be included in the hard done by collective as he suffered the indignity, sorry a similar fate for the same team at Woodbine aboard Secret Gesture. 

Connoisseurs of the sport are not convinced this is the best Juddmonte International we’re about to see, but they paw over the figures and will dust down the archives to reveal a race of the highest calibre.  I respect their abacus, but at times their analytical nature misses the point. 

How many times have you been racing having had a bet before arriving or during the day and, result aside, ended up saying, what if, if only, couldn’t they just, wouldn’t it be better ….