A significant number of the individuals whose colours have defined Flat racing for the last 40 years are now in their 70sThere have been few racehorse owners in recent decades who showed as much loyalty to their trainers as the late Sheikh Hamdan al-Maktoum, who died in March 2021.From his earliest days in the sport in the 1980s, being chosen to train for the Sheikh’s Shadwell Stud operation was pretty much a guarantee that more – often many more – impeccably bred horses would follow. While Sheikh Mohammed, his younger brother, famously sent a fleet of horse boxes to remove his entire string from Henry Cecil’s stable one morning, Sheikh Hamdan was characterised by his decision to buy a yard...
French jockey Christophe Soumillon can guide the Guineas hope to victory again in the Classic trial at NewburyNothing will dislodge Native Trail from the top of the betting for the 2,000 Guineas after his successful return in Thursday’s Craven Stakes at Newmarket, but two dual Group One-winning juveniles – Angel Bleu and Perfect Power – line up the Greenham Stakes at Newbury on Saturday and Christophe Soumillon’s arrival to partner Perfect Power is an added attraction.Soumillon rode Perfect Power to victory in the Prix Morny and the Middle Park Stakes last season, the latter race being his first ride in Britain since the Royal meeting in 2019. It was classic Soumillon, as he emerged from behind a wall of horses...
Roger Varian sends the selection back for the All-Weather Championships at a track where he has recorded a hat-trick The decision to switch the All-Weather Championships card from Lingfield to Newcastle also means that Tyrrhenian Sea returns to the track where he reeled off a mid-winter hat-trick, and he is likely to start at odds-on for his in-form trainer, Roger Varian, in the Betway Easter Classic at the end of the card.The four-year-old looked like one of the unluckiest losers of the all-weather campaign when only fourth at odd-on at Kempton Park last month, and he is better judged on a very cosy win from an opening mark of 87 on his handicap debut in February. Continue reading...
Short-sighted, strategically inept choices can only increase the scrutiny of a self-appointed club with such power in the sportA couple of months after causing widespread astonishment and dismay in the sport by selling some of its most precious naming and image rights to the gaming giant Playtech, Nevin Truesdale, the Jockey Club’s chief executive, stuck his head above the parapet this weekend to defend the Playtech deal and discuss all things Jockey Club, in a fascinating interview with the Racing Post’s senior writer, Lee Mottershead.The Playtech deal, Truesdale said, had been “a little misunderstood”. The rapid-play gaming products that will be allowed to parasitise events like the Cheltenham Festival and Grand National are, he claimed, “very safe and they’ve been...
Amateur jockey with a dentistry business was once the go-between for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Such is the enduring lure of the Grand National that one in four adults in Britain placed a bet on this race, prospecting for gold in a minefield of a 40-runner handicap. Not many got lucky, judging by the muted reaction at Aintree as Noble Yeats bounded clear to win at 50-1. But this was a result to warm the soul, not swell the wallet.Earlier in the week Sam Waley-Cohen had announced this would be the final race of a career he has combined with running the £300m dentistry business he founded. Having won a Gold Cup on Long Run in 2011, few...