The unique demands and pressures on jockeys are illustrated yet again by Richard Hughes’s account of his problems with alcohol and how the remorseless need to keep weight under control can often make drinking seem like a logical course-of-action. (more…)

Without wishing to be blasphemous, I am now a believer. In Frankel, that is. Bless me, Father, but I wasn’t before. Years of watching any number of Flash Harrys winning spectacularly only to flop subsequently when it got even slightly tough made it difficult to buy into all that Royal Lodge hype. But contrarily a much less visually impressive display in the Dewhurst has done the trick. (more…)

For a guy that the rumour-mill would have us believe is on the way out, Johnny Murtagh has been performing a more than passable impression of a top class international jockey recently, possibly because he has been pulling off that same impression for almost twenty years now. (more…)

If, as expected, Eamon Tyrell and Jason Behan get the book thrown at them by the BHA, it will officially be for deliberately stopping Casela Park from winning. Unofficially, though, the real reason is because they stopped it in such an incredibly cack-handed fashion. (more…)