The Whip Consultation Steering Group prepares to reveal its recommendations and fresh turmoil is possibleEleven years after the last big change to racing’s whip rules, the results of the latest attempt to reach a settled position on its use for encouragement will be published at lunchtime on Tuesday. Anyone who recalls the confusion, anger and occasional moments of high farce that ensued last time around could be forgiven for wondering why administrators are minded to reopen old wounds.For those who do not remember the autumn of 2011 – or had hoped to forget – a strict new regime on overuse of the whip came into force on 10 October, five days before the first Champions Day at Ascot. Continue reading...
Five of the six runners in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown have at least one Group One win but Alenquer can rise to the topFive of the six runners in a fascinating renewal of the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown Park on Saturday have at least one Group One win in the form book already, and it is a big boost for the first all-aged Group One of the season that Vadeni, the French Derby winner, was supplemented to the field earlier this week.Christophe Soumillon kicked off the celebrations some way out at Chantilly and a mixture of proven form at the trip and his scope for improvement means Vadeni looks a better bet than Native Trail, the Irish 2,000 Guineas winner and...
The most famous big-race jockey of the last three decades will struggle for a ride, never mind a winner, at Glorious GoodwoodThere is a scrolling electronic billboard a few hundred metres from Brighton station, positioned to catch the eye of tens of thousands of day-trippers heading home from the beach, and an ad for next month’s Glorious Goodwood festival is currently on the rotation. Amid the scenes of partying racegoers, photo-finishes and the track’s breathtaking downland setting, just one current jockey gets the honour of a snapshot all to himself and it is, of course, the only one who needs no introduction. Frankie Dettori shifts tickets for the races like no one else can.Unless his “sabbatical” from the John Gosden...
A worst return at the Royal meeting since 2013 drew criticism from John Gosden and playful talk of a changing of the guard The Queen did not attend Royal Ascot last week, for the first time since her coronation 70 years ago, but 273,465 spectators did and though they had to make do without the track’s owner leading the daily procession, most will have headed home with overwhelmingly positive memories of the first Royal meeting with a proper crowd since 2019.The weather played a blinder, of course, with only the final hour or so on Saturday seeing any need for spectators to retreat from the lawns and take shelter in the stand. The track was also immaculate, with safe, watered...
Top-notch Australian sprinter Home Affairs may not have it his own way in Saturday’s big race – the Platinum Jubilee stakesRoyal Ascot’s first £1m race on Wednesday attracted just five runners but the second – Saturday’s Platinum Jubilee Stakes – has drawn a record field of 27, headed by the top-notch Australian sprinter, Home Affairs.Home Affairs is a stable companion of Nature Strip, Tuesday’s impressive King’s Stand Stakes winner, and beat him by a short-head over five furlongs at Flemington in February. Continue reading...