Horse racing
The turf
Why hasn’t Bristol De Mai become as beloved by the racing public as his fellow greys Desert Orchid and One…
The turf
First the company report. Readers who invested a tenner on the nose each time our Twelve to Follow for the…
The turf
Fortunately for me and the politicians we entertained over my years covering the darkest profession, Mrs Oakley didn’t do a…
Low life
Feeling oddly confident, clairvoyant even, I entered a bar to place a bet on Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.…
The turf
Wetumpka Racing? When your yard is running at a handsome strike rate of 40 per cent wins to runs you…
The turf
It is all, it seems, in the tweaks. So said Aidan O’Brien, Ireland’s master-trainer supreme, before his tough filly Magical…
The turf
Lester Piggott was famous for pinching other jockeys’ rides. He used his friendship with owner Ivan Allan to have Luca…
Carlos the magnificent
We know about the endlessly jaw-dropping greatness of Ben Stokes (a peerage soon, surely), the furious power of a supercharged…
The Turf
When I first began racing, few jump jockeys reckoned their careers would last beyond the ages of 32 or 33.…
The turf
It wasn’t so much a Derby victory this year as an act of grand larceny. Aidan O’Brien isn’t just a…
The turf
Royal Ascot it wasn’t: for the first time in her 68-year reign, thanks to Covid-19, the Queen was not there.…
The turf
Horse racing, it turns out, wasn’t the first sport back in post-lockdown action: that distinction went to pigeon racing when…
The Turf
There is racing elsewhere in the world. It restarted in France on Monday, la course de chevaux being classed in…
The Turf
Seven hundred pages of memoir is stretching it a bit even for an ex-inhabitant of No. 10 with David Cameron’s…
The turf
Sport may well be ‘the great triviality’ as Timeform founder Phil Bull once put it, and racing as trivial as…
The turf
Asked, after his Imperial Aura’s impressive win in the Northern Trust Novices’ Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, if he…
The turf
The socialite MP Chips Channon once noted in his diaries his feelings about an after-lunch snooze in parliament’s Library: ‘It…
The Turf
Every time the Cheltenham Festival looms, I recall a remarkable experience. It was already 25 years since Dawn Run’s recovery…
The turf
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 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…
One to watch: the 5lb claimer Theodore Ladd
Newmarket’s wisest trainer, Sir Mark Prescott, once noted: ‘The greyhound is propelled through the pain barrier by its desire to…
