Twelve To Follow

My summer Twelve to Follow

20 May 2023 9:00 am

Usually in May I am still casting an enviously nostalgic eye backwards to Aintree and Cheltenham, reluctant yet to pack…

How modesty triumphed in the Derby

11 June 2022 9:00 am

In the absence on her Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty, such an avid Derby attender in the past, and following…

The art of picking winners

14 May 2022 9:00 am

‘Some of our players can hardly write their names,’ moaned one leading football manager. ‘But you should see them add…

My Twelve to Follow on the Flat

15 May 2021 9:00 am

Combing through race recordings to try to find some fun horses for Spectator readers this summer, I have been struck…

Our Twelve to Follow have generated a record-breaking profit

14 November 2020 9:00 am

First the company report. Readers who invested a tenner on the nose each time our Twelve to Follow for the…

Aidan O’Brien’s Derby victory was an act of grand larceny

11 July 2020 9:00 am

It wasn’t so much a Derby victory this year as an act of grand larceny. Aidan O’Brien isn’t just a…

Farewell to the greatest jump jockey of all time

11 May 2019 9:00 am

So the Silver Fox has called it a day. We will never see Ruby Walsh, the man whom even Sir…

My hot tips for the coming season

24 November 2018 9:00 am

Trainer Dan Skelton and his jockey brother Harry have 100 winners on the board already but for most of us…

My hot tips for the Flat season to come

26 May 2018 9:00 am

In his days as a novice jockey in the West Country, Bob Davies, who was to ride more than 900…

My hot tips for the jump season

25 November 2017 9:00 am

Richard Johnson may already have 100 winners in the bag, and Paul Nicholls may already have banked £750,000 worth of…

The turf

8 July 2017 9:00 am

Having spent three quarters of my life covering politics and the other quarter following racing, I am often asked what…

How to make a mint at the races this summer

14 May 2016 9:00 am

It has been a little like scraping from the plate as slowly as possible the last traces of Mrs Oakley’s…

This year’s Twelve to Follow netted a £328 profit

14 November 2015 9:00 am

Three personalities dominated the Flat season: Gosden, Dettori and Golden Horn. Victories for the trio in the Derby, the Irish…

My Twelve to Follow are seven up

16 May 2015 9:00 am

Back on political duty with CNN in election week, I came across a dead rat in Downing Street. It had…

Disneyland comes to the Cheltenham Festival

21 March 2015 9:00 am

Irish racing guru Ted Walsh was asked at the start of Gold Cup day if retiring champion jockey Tony McCoy…

The Grand National doesn’t need Jeremy Kyle

24 January 2015 9:00 am

Never mind David Cameron. Are you participating in the Great Debate about an event of national significance that stirs the…

Silviniaco answered his critics emphatically at Haydock

29 November 2014 9:00 am

‘I’m going for Al Ferof,’ said a suit in front of me in the Totepool queue at Ascot on Saturday…

Robin Oakley's Twelve to Follow for 2015 (this year's came out ahead)

15 November 2014 9:00 am

November has never been my favourite month, not since the time when as a Rugby-playing student my face was rearranged…

Why does Newbury alienate potential racegoers?

14 December 2013 9:00 am

You don’t realise how much your pleasures mean until you are denied them. It was wonderful to get back on…