I was a guest of the Northern Racing Club on the panel of their Cheltenham Preview evening at Haydock Park last night. My fellow panellists were Brian Hughes, Andy Gibson and Trevor Harris of Star Sports Bookmakers. I have covered … Read More »

It was fascinating hearing Rich Ricci talking about his horses and other aspects of his life with Luke Harvey and Jason Weaver on ATR races last night. What did become clear is that he thinks Min is, in his words, … Read More »

The news on Wednesday that Faugheen sustained an injury and would miss the Champion Hurdle perfectly illustrates the importance of timing in the horseracing business. As I have said before, both in my published and online work and Cheltenham conferences, … Read More »

Following my week away I returned to hear concerns that a few of Willie Mullins’ horses had been running below form. With a strike-rate in Ireland, as I write, of 40 per cent in bumpers, 38 per cent in hurdles … Read More »

I am leaving for the Isle Of Mull on Saturday for a week to recharge my batteries for Cheltenham. There are a few horses entered to run over the next few days, including one handicap debutant of special interest next … Read More »

There are occasions in this game when everything, for a short while, seems to go right and that is what happened yesterday with Alan King, who landed a big-race hat-trick at Cheltenham and also took the Sky Bet Chase at … Read More »

I am not quite sure how I am going to approach this year’s Cheltenham Bulletin Book. Such is the dominance of Willie Mullins that for the main races it will be either a case of writing the obvious or stretching … Read More »

You can bump into some quite interesting discussions on the racing channels when things are quiet and there was one late this afternoon between Angus McNae and Tony Calvin about ante-post betting. I think we all now accept that ante-post … Read More »

Paul Nicholls will have been encouraged to send out three winners at Doncaster today. This is traditionally a quiet time of year for him, as it is about now that his horses have their ‘flu vaccinations. I believe I am … Read More »

For me the highlight of the last few weeks has not been the performance of a horse or even the thoroughly well-deserved knighthood for AP McCoy. The person to have impressed me more than anyone is Nico de Boinville, who … Read More »

You don’t often see horses prepared for handicaps the old-fashioned way these days, but Nicky Richards has stuck to many of the traditional methods adopted for so long by his late father Gordon and we saw further evidence of that … Read More »

It was around 4.30 this morning that I submitted the text for my Winter Bulletin Book for layout in time to be with the printer on Monday. The book will then be back in our office ready for despatch to … Read More »