The turf
The horse with a taste for human flesh
Greville Starkey’s great victories as a jockey included the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Star Appeal at 119-1. In…
Racing books to get you through lockdown
Who owns Altior? I ask because of the brouhaha over Nicky Henderson’s late withdrawal of his stable star, winner of…
Why racing is not a ‘posh’ sport
Why hasn’t Bristol De Mai become as beloved by the racing public as his fellow greys Desert Orchid and One…
Our Twelve to Follow have generated a record-breaking profit
First the company report. Readers who invested a tenner on the nose each time our Twelve to Follow for the…
Nowhere does racing quite like Cheltenham, even behind closed doors
With or without the crowds, nowhere does racing like Cheltenham. The four winners, including her first Group One shared equally…
It is time to fight for the future of racing
Fortunately for me and the politicians we entertained over my years covering the darkest profession, Mrs Oakley didn’t do a…
The trainer who sings opera to her racehorses
Wetumpka Racing? When your yard is running at a handsome strike rate of 40 per cent wins to runs you…
The heirs to Frankie Dettori
It is all, it seems, in the tweaks. So said Aidan O’Brien, Ireland’s master-trainer supreme, before his tough filly Magical…
Racing can’t survive without crowds
We all have weeks when every win bet finishes second and every each-way comes home in fourth. You begin to…
Why it pays for a jockey to follow the rules
Lester Piggott was famous for pinching other jockeys’ rides. He used his friendship with owner Ivan Allan to have Luca…
In a jam: what Goodwood did with 900 punnets of strawberries
It was to have been, if not a glorious return, at least an encouraging one. On the Stewards’ Cup day…
Why racing will miss Barry Geraghty
When I first began racing, few jump jockeys reckoned their careers would last beyond the ages of 32 or 33.…
Aidan O’Brien’s Derby victory was an act of grand larceny
It wasn’t so much a Derby victory this year as an act of grand larceny. Aidan O’Brien isn’t just a…
Royal Ascot was a triumph – even without the cheers and the hats
Royal Ascot it wasn’t: for the first time in her 68-year reign, thanks to Covid-19, the Queen was not there.…
Horse-racing has made a triumphant return
Horse racing, it turns out, wasn’t the first sport back in post-lockdown action: that distinction went to pigeon racing when…
Racing needs us as much as we need it
Horseracing in Britain, which was suspended by coronavirus on 18 March, is due, as I write, to resume on Monday…
How to get your racing fix under lockdown
There is racing elsewhere in the world. It restarted in France on Monday, la course de chevaux being classed in…
What the Queen will miss most in self-isolation
Seven hundred pages of memoir is stretching it a bit even for an ex-inhabitant of No. 10 with David Cameron’s…
A first-hand account of a racehorse trainer’s battle for survival
Sport may well be ‘the great triviality’ as Timeform founder Phil Bull once put it, and racing as trivial as…
Does horse-racing have a future?
Asked, after his Imperial Aura’s impressive win in the Northern Trust Novices’ Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, if he…
Cheltenham Festival was a triumph
The socialite MP Chips Channon once noted in his diaries his feelings about an after-lunch snooze in parliament’s Library: ‘It…
The magic of Cheltenham Festival
Every time the Cheltenham Festival looms, I recall a remarkable experience. It was already 25 years since Dawn Run’s recovery…
Cyrname was lucky to survive his shocking fall at Ascot
Few jumpers have a better record at Ascot than the Paul Nicholls-trained Cyrname. He triumphed in the Betfair Chase at…
The saviours of racing
I was once at a racing dinner in York where a distinguished clergyman in attendance was invited to say grace.…
The trainer who gives the big boys a run for their money
Racing’s New Year began well with the award of OBEs to both Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls, showing that they…
