The venue’s turf track may take visitors by surprise – few will have cornered at speed on a track as tight as this oneThere was cloud cover and even the occasional drop of rain at Del Mar on Tuesday as the European runners at this weekend’s Breeders’ Cup meeting started to emerge from quarantine, and much the same is forecast for the rest of the week. The climate, then, is unlikely to be the challenge for the visitors that it might have been last week, when the temperature reached 34 degrees. Related: Racing mourns Mary Reveley, shrewd trainer who sent out 2,000 winners Continue reading...
The death has been announced of Mary Reveley, who never sought publicity but won a stack of big racesRacing has lost one of its most understated talents with the news that Mary Reveley died on Monday at the stable in Saltburn, Cleveland, where she saddled more than 2,000 winners. The 77-year-old had retired in 2004 after a busy, highly successful career during which she became one of the most in-demand trainers in Britain despite positively avoiding publicity. Related: Young Hustler would have won a modern Grand National, says trainer Continue reading...
At some point, each racehorse has done their bit and deserves retirement. Does racing need a rule to ensure they get it?This morning’s piece, arising from the terribly sad death of Big Fella Thanks, has brought forth some strong reactions on social media. Most racing fans, it seems to me, are set against the suggestion of an upper age limit for horses in jump races and of course there are examples they can cite of successful teenagers, like Hello Bud winning the Becher Chase a month before he turned 15, or Oscar Time winning the same race when he was only a year younger.Going somewhat further back, Sonny Somers won a couple of minor races over fences in 1980 at...
Ryan Moore’s Saxon Warrior leads a field with four Ballydoyle runners in the Racing Post Trophy as the trainer chases his 26th Group One victory in 2017Aidan O’Brien will saddle four runners in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster on Saturday as he goes in search of the Group One success that would set a new record of 26 in a calendar year. Ryan Moore, O’Brien’s principal jockey, will ride the unbeaten Saxon Warrior, the winner of the Group Two Beresford Stakes last time out, in Saturday’s feature event, and the son of the Japanese star Deep Impact will be joined in the field by his stable companions The Pentagon, Seahenge and Coat Of Arms. Related: Ballydoyle likely to send...
The track’s decision to change its Festival entry rules will effectively prevent celebrity recruits to race-riding lining up at racing’s showpiece meetingPerhaps jumping fans are too busy going through the form for Cheltenham’s first meeting of the new season this weekend to care, but the track’s decision to effectively Pendleton-proof the Festival meeting’s amateur events with immediate effect has generated surprisingly little comment or concern on social media and internet forums since it was announced on Tuesday morning. It is a bit of a struggle to find anyone who thinks the move is a bad one, with even Lawney Hill, who spent many months mentoring Pendleton through her preparation for the 2016 Foxhunters’, in which she finished a fine fifth,...