A vile motto

It's been a week since Royal Ascot ended but, as Problemwalrus has correctly pointed out, no review of the meeting would be complete without the doffing of one's hat towards the mighty 12-year-old Caracciola, who usurped Brown Jack as the Royal Meeting's oldest winner. Good on 'im - and good on those whose campaign kept the Queen Alexandra afloat, thus making special results such as this possible. That happy victory, though, wasn't actually the final nice result of the day, because at the evening meeting at Haydock Clare Lindop recorded her first British winner, posting a win and a second from two rides for Jeremy Gask. She's over in the UK on a working holiday for a small amount of weeks, staying mainly with Jeremy and his family, which is a natural tie-up as Clare's boss Leon Macdonald was Jeremy's mentor. I've never met Clare (but hope to rectify that before too long) but even so was delighted to cheer her home, as she is extremely popular in her native land. What made the result even easier to enjoy, incidentally, was that this was the first winner to salute in the colours of the very decent and very shrewd ex-Timeform man Simon Rowlands. Clare is the only female jockey to have been champion in a mainland state in Australia (South Australia - the only other girl to have won a riders' premiership there is Beverley Buckingham, in Tasmania) and is the regular rider of one of my favourite horses, Rebel Raider, on whom she has won this season's VRC Derby and SAJC Derby, as well as of Augusta Proud, on whom she won last year's Magic Millions. She was rapt to have won the race, thus fulfilling an ambition to ride a winner in her mother's homeland, and fingers crossed she can ride a few more before she goes home - in fact, she already has added to the total, having had a winner and a second for Jeremy at Doncaster yesterday, the winner being Medicean Man, who got home by half-a-length from Leverage, representing the Luca Cumani/Ryan Moore combination, which is always a hard one to beat.


Clare is not, of course, the only Aussie hoop in the country just now. I don't think my favourite jockey Steven Arnold has ridden out in Newmarket at all - he was here for the pre-Ascot press day but didn't ride Scenic Blast, then went to France for a few days before returning to the UK to ride that horse in the King's Stand, and is currently back in Melbourne - but Jay Ford is now here and has taken over (from Dominic Gibson) the daily riding duties on his best mount Takeover Target. We've also got Michelle Payne (pictured at Caulfield earlier this year, on board the Richard Sims-part-owned and -part-bred, and Colin Little-trained, Kalatruce) here for three weeks, riding out for Luca Cumani. She was in Europe for a working holiday last summer but, although spending a short amount of time here with her sister and brother-in-law Cathy and Kerrin McEvoy (when she rode out for James Fanshawe), was mostly in Ireland with Aidan O'Brien, for whom she had one ride in a Listed fillies' race in which he had several runners. She also had a ride at Deauville for either the brother or father (I forget which) of Olivier Doleuze. She's a great jockey as she demonstrated earlier this year when posting the rare feat of riding five winners on the card one day at Yarra Glen, and also when winning at Caulfield in February on Bart Cummings' notoriously quirky Galileo gelding God's Hand; and as she is bred to be, as seven of her elder siblings are or have been good jockeys (and that total includes one great one, Patrick). Anyway, I was delighted today to have an early start when taking advantage of her availability to get her in here before she went to Luca's at 6.15: we only just failed to beat Clive Brittain's first lot up the Al Bahathri when taking Stardust Memories and Douchkette one step nearer their debuts in a pleasing work-out.

If that gallop was pleasing, it pales into insignificance behind one which I had the pleasure of watching yesterday, when Takeover Target and Scenic Blast matched strides up the July Course yesterday at 7.30, under Jay Ford and Danny Morton respectively. When I heard that this was to take place, it was an easy decision to make a start to the day a bit earlier than usual, thus leaving the way clear to take an hour off at 7.10 to head up there to savour this very special moment. On balance - not least because he must have been conceding around 10kg - one would have to say that Scenic Blast did marginally more to promote his July Cup credentials, but Takeover Target looked, moved and worked really well, and he should not be discounted from that race at all.

I've seen quite a few races on the July Course over the years, but I don't think I've ever seen horses pass the post there as quickly as these two did (after, obviously, having taken things more easily in the first half of the gallop than they would be able to do in a 5-furlong race) and it was a very special occasion - one which this photograph of the two horses heading off down to the start will help me to remember.

Those two horses are, naturally, extremely special - and made all the more special by the unremarkableness (if that is a word) of their backgrounds and the unassumingness (ditto) of their connections - but I hope that they won't mind my saying that not even they do enough to convince me to dispute Brough Scott's claim that his maternal grandfather's horse Warrior was the greatest horse ever. The specialness of Warrior, about whom Brough has written, was made abundantly clear to us on Thursday evening when Brough gave a lovely talk, in aid of the National Horseracing Museum, at the Racing School about him. In short, Brough's maternal grandfather Jack Sealy was a Boer War veteran and cabinet minister who, after having lost his post in 1914, joined the army in his mid-40s and, not wanted by the British army because of fears that he was too much of an individualist to fit in, was foisted onto the Canadian cavarly, with whom it appears he formed a formidable partnership, leading from the front. Warrior was his horse, and thus headed off to France and Belgium with General Sealy. Both were clearly heroes, and charmed ones too: at least twice General Sealy survived when his horse was shot dead from under him (by snipers who, one can assume, were actually aiming for the general rather than his mount), but the happy coincidence being that on each occasion he happened not to be on Warrior that day. In total, Warrior survived eleven incidents which ought to have killed him before eventually arriving back on the Isle of Wight on Christmas Day 1918 - and subsequently proved just how well he had survived the war by winning the Members' Race at the Isle of Wight point-to-point in 1920.

It's a pity that people like Jack Sealy aren't around any more - and in particular that people like Jack Sealy no longer run the country. Half-mad he might have been, but I think that things would probably function considerably better were he in charge today. In particular, I suspect that the national plague of Health & Safety Officers wouldn't be an issue under a Sealy regime. Before the talk, I had enjoyed a chat with the former Fitzroy House trainer and Someries Stud manager John Waugh, during which I had enjoyed reminding him that, of all the many things which he definitely would not enjoy about training nowadays, the ubiquity of red tape would come pretty near the top of the list. It was, therefore, very timely that Brough should then quote a sentence from one of his grandfather's books, the magnificently-named 'Fear, and be slain'. This particular pronouncement was that "'Safety first' is a vile motto". Which I think is as good a motto as any to head this chapter, and possibly for life itself.

Royal Ascot, part three

No review of Royal Ascot is complete without reference to the BBC coverage. It took me two or three decades to learn to appreciate the BBC's contribution to the meeting to its full extent, but the turning point came for me a couple of years ago when I read James Underwood's opinion that the BBC treats Royal Ascot as if it were "the white man's Notting Hill Carnival". Since reading that, I've really learned to enter into the whole off-the-wall spirit of the programmes, and to savour every piece of nonsense. And no aspect is more to be savoured than the contributions of the splendid James Sherwood. One can understand why female racegoers might quake when they see him plus camera crew approaching - there is an unconfirmed rumour that Gemma found herself a victim of his viper's tongue on Tuesday, but as I didn't see the entire programme I can neither confirm nor deny that - but, for everyone other than the people whom he is discussing, his words are a delight. Of the plethora of brahmae today, here are two of my favourites "Probably better for the Riviera than for Royal Ascot - but you'd probably cut quite a dash in the Silver Ring wearing it", and "the campest pirate on the high seas". Those two gems were both prompted by models on the cat-walk (every racecourse should have one), down which we had enjoyed the delightful sight of Willie Carson and Ronnie Corbett promenading together a couple of days previously. This is all just so good. Even seasoned racing professionals such as Claire Balding and Willie Carson rise to the occasion and realise that this show is about much more than mere racing: when telling us that Takeover Target (pictured above with his owner/trainer, plus Jose Corrales, with Scenic Blast and one of the American Royal Ascot raiders looking on) has been scratched from tomorrow's Golden Jubilee, rather than then tell us why - which was obviously the most important piece of information at that point - they instead moved straight onto a series of gags about Russell Crowe and the movie, thus ensuring that (one would hope) the entire TV audience got up from their seats in front of the television to turn on the internet to find out what had gone wrong. It's great: under normal circumstances I'd opt for the specialist racing coverage (ATR or Racing UK) over the generalised, but for Royal Ascot - no way!

I've just watched Ghanaati's excellent win in the Coronation Stakes under one of my favourite jockeys, Richard Hills. This was very special, not just for the fact that this is yet another Group One win for the very sporting Sheikh Hamdam by a home-bred descending from Height Of Fashion, but also because it is yet another good win which Barry Hills, a man whose professionalism and high standards are a lesson to us all, has trained this season despite his on-going major health worries. And on the subject of the excellent Hills stable, we must give further riding honours to one-time Barry Hills apprentice Darryll Holland, who had rides in five of the six races at Musselburgh last night and won on all five. They were all short prices, hence the five-time being "only" something like 63/1, but even so that's a typically very good effort by a very good jockey.

Royal Ascot, part two

We're midway though another interesting afternoon and I'm killing time waiting for the Gold Cup by tapping away on the keyboard. While I'm obviously less keyed up about this race than I would be in advance of a lesser contest in which we had a runner, I'm still really excited, as I presume all racing fans are: can Yeats win? It would be terrific if he could. Geordieland, too, would be a lovely winner, while Veracity is also a horse I very much admire, as is Paktai. The Gold Cup is always one of the season's highlights, and this year is no different.

I was pleased to see Godolphin have a winner earlier on. She's an ordinary-looking little filly, but we've seen time and again that well-bred fillies come in all shapes and sizes, which is a theory which I hope to be able to exploit sooner or later.

Dot, dot, dot ... well, that was wonderful. I've just watched Yeats win and am typing this with tears in my eyes. What a horse! And what a credit to his trainer and stable. I think we're unlikely ever to see a greater feat than four Gold Cups - unless, of course, Yeats can win it again next year. Murtagh's ride was, typically, flawless. Yeats isn't a normal horse and he isn't to be ridden like a normal horse, and Murtagh predictably rode him to make use of his amazing qualities of almost limitless stamina and genuineness. Murtagh earned ride of the day yesterday, and I expect we'll have to give him the same award today. For sure he was on the best horse today (which I don't think was necessarily the case yesterday when he won on Spacious) but, even so, to give a master-class under what must have been as close to a high-pressure situation as one can ever get in sport ('pressure', of course, isn't really a word which should be used in connection with sport - as the late, great Keith Miller put it, "Pressure? Pressure's when you've got a Messerschmidt on your tail") really would be easier said than done. Here's something to discuss: it was put to me in the aftermath of yesterday's racing that "there can be no doubt the best jockey riding is J Murtagh" - do we agree? I'd certainly go along with that. I've long said that Richard Dunwoody is the best jockey (and I'm not differentiating between Flat and National Hunt hoops) I've ever had the pleasure to watch, but I think we can mention Murtagh in the same breath. Anyone agree? Or disagree?

On the subject of antipodean cricketers, which we were a few sentences ago, I saw one sight yesterday which gave me great pleasure. I've been watching the T20 cricket a day late, ie taping the late-night review programme and watching it the next day, and yesterday I was delighted to see a Kiwi batsman called Ross Taylor (not the former NZ Derby-winning trainer, I presume) walk. How often does one see that nowadays? He had been stumped; it didn't look cut and dried to the naked eye so the square leg umpire had asked for the third umpire's verdict, but Taylor didn't wait. He knew that he was out so he walked. That's the way it should be - and clearly is the policy in this splendid team which at first glance one would think I captain. When was the last time an English cricketer walked in an international match? Does anyone know? I always remember in a match against Australia a few years ago, an English batsman sent a ball to Mark Waugh, one of my sporting heroes, which Waugh scooped off the ground. Nobody could see whether it was a clean catch - the TV shots were inconclusive - but Waugh nodded to either the umpire or the batsman (I forget which) to tell him that it was clean. The umpire, as he had not been able to see either way whether it was or wasn't clean and as the various camera shots also proved nothing, understandably did not raise his finger, and so the batsman stood his ground. The commentator said, "That's wrong: he should have walked. If Mark Waugh says it was a clean catch, then it was a clean catch". Mark Waugh looked taken aback by the batsman's stance, but that was that. Sadly, sport now seems to mirror life, and success is generally deemed more important than fair play; so it was a pleasure to discover that Daniel Vettori's team, at least, still plays within the spirit of the game. Good on 'em.

Royal Ascot, part one

I really enjoyed cheering home Scenic Blast (pictured above, receiving a few pre-King's Stand tips from the past master Takeover Target) yesterday. Didn't he win well! It was just a tremendous performance. I'm just so pleased for his connections: coming from Perth to Melbourne is bold enough, but then coming all the way over here is such a big undertaking, and it's lovely that their spirit of adventure has been rewarded. If Takeover Target can make the frame - or even win, if that's not asking too much - on Saturday that would be the icing on the cake. We've actually already had some icing on the cake with the American two-year-old Strike The Tiger winning the last yesterday. With Jane Chapple-Hyam training the winner of the Ascot Stakes, that means that three of the winners on the first day came out of Abington Place Stables, which is remarkable, and really nice.

I met a really nice party of Aussies on Sunday evening, all of whom will have had a wonderful day at the races yesterday. Bryan Martin, the former Melbourne race-caller, always acts as leader of a tour party for Ascot, and the group were staying in the Bedford Lodge for a couple of nights over the weekend. I had the pleasure of joining them for a few drinks out on the terrace on a beautiful summer's evening on Sunday. They were, as you'd expect, a very pleasant crew. Danny Morton and his family turned up to have their dinner there, and I have no doubt that the entire party would have had a nice bet yesterday. In addition to discussing some of the Ascot races (when asked for my nap of the meeting, I took the easy way out and said, "Am I allowed to tip Scenic Blast?"), I took the opportunity to savour some FOO stories: Bryan was the managing part-owner of the syndicate which raced the dual Cox Plate winner Fields Of Omagh, and was as happy to share some recollections as he was taken aback when I got my camera out of my pocket and showed him some photos on it which I had taken of his horse (plus the 1990 Cox Plate and Japan Cup winner BLU - Better Loosen Up) in the paddock at Living Legends, the equine heroes' retirement home which we visited in January.

The final highlight of a very enjoyable Sunday was the third in the 'Empire of Cricket' TV series on BBC2. These are very good programmes. We've had potted histories of international cricket from the point of view of England, the West Indies and Australia so far, and I think and hope that we have a few more to come. So that's another good tip this week: if you haven't discovered this series yet, check it out on Sunday. It's a great way of warming up for the Ashes, and a great complement for the current Twenty20 series which, much to my surprise, I am really enjoying, despite the fact that cricket is more or less not televised any more (other than on the soccer channel, for which I don't pay) and despite the fact that I'm not sure that I approve of the idea of condensing cricket into little parcels more suited to those with short attention spans. I am, naturally, barracking for the Kiwis in this tournament, under the captaincy of my doppelganger Daniel Vettori.

As I write, we've had eight races from Royal Ascot so far. Scenic Blast has to be the highlight - even possibly from an objective point of view - but Canford Cliffs' class was a joy to behold, as was Mastercraftsman's toughness. Steven Arnold is my favourite Aussie hoop so his presence in the saddle was, for me, a further bonus of Scenic Blast's win, but I'd have to give Ride of the Meeting so far to Johnny Murtagh on Spacious, whose win continued the deservedly successful meeting so far being enjoyed by James Fanshawe, for whom the 8-year-old Cesare ran a great race to finish second in the Queen Anne. What lies in store? We'll just have to wait and see. It's shaping up as a very good Royal Ascot - and if Yeats can win tomorrow it will surely be one of the greats.

A (mostly) enjoyable week

Another week between posts, I'm afraid. We were awaiting a visit from our Australian friend and patron Cameron Plant (he is a part-owner of Jenny Dawson) when last I blogged, and as usual his visit proved to be very enjoyable. Cameron passes through the UK fairly regularly as he travels between Australia and various Asian and Eastern European countries where he has business dealings. He is fairly good at ensuring that his British stop-overs coincide with interesting races, and this time he found that his 48 hours here coincided with the Derby. Emma was down at Epsom anyway working for Racenews, but Cameron and I found it an easy decision to head down there on Derby Day, which is my favourite British race-day: the Derby is so special, and I love the fact that it so dominates the card that one can concentrate entirely on enjoying and appreciating it without worrying too much whether one does or does not take in every aspect of the supporting races. (Obviously one would view things differently if one had a runner in one of the other races, but from a detached perspective the Derby dominates). My car, unfortunately, is permanently off the road (which is understandable as it had passed the 180,000-mile mark, but I'd really hoped that it would make 200,000 before giving up the ghost) but luckily our travel problems were resolved by John Egan giving us a lift. For all John's faults - and who doesn't have any? - he is a very generous man, and he duly proved more than happy to take us down, making our Derby Day more enjoyable by his company as well as by the act of getting us there. Sea The Stars (pictured above, as ice cool as his jockey as they prepare to write themselves into the history books) also enriched the day, obviously, because it was a real pleasure to admire such a wonderful horse. I was quite pleased with myself because I had photographed what I deemed to be the two best-looking horses in the parade ring, believing that I'd given myself a good chance of having a pre-race photo of the winner; and the two horses ran first and second. Sadly I backed the wrong one of this pair of extremely handsome horses (ie Fame And Glory), falling into the trap into which I'd blundered a few years ago when I saw Dubai Millenium of thinking, "Can a horse who looks that big and impressive really be as good as he looks?". As we know now (and, in truth, should already have known), Sea The Stars really is as functional as he is magnificent, and he went round Epsom as if he were enjoying a canter around the park. It was a privilege to see it, and to applaud him and his admirable trainer and jockey.

My next trip to the races was far less enjoyable. Hugh and I headed to Redcar on Tuesday with Ethics Girl. I had felt obliged to back her up after the Carlisle debacle as she seemed sure to be in line for a hefty rise in the ratings, so the opportunity to have a second crack at running off a mark of 55 couldn't really be turned down while it lasted. She seemed none the worse for her previous race, but sadly completely failed to reproduce the form. Quite a lot of things didn't go right in the race, and conditions were very different (a cold, windy and very wet day meant that the track had greatly softened, or the surface of it had anyway - and on which subject, wasn't that a splendid going report for Yarmouth yesterday: "Good, good to firm in places, changing to soft after race one"), but basically the decision to back her up was not a good one. Still, she has returned home undamaged and will fight another day.

This property has, though, sent out a winner this week, as Dave Morris' Iceman George won the amateurs' race at Newbury yesterday, ridden by Dave's son Ben. That was a lovely result. Dave's string is tiny nowadays (numbering four, three of whom are currently in training), but he is still a very good trainer indeed; and Ben is turning into a very competent rider, and rode the horse very well yesterday. We could have a second winner from here for the week as To Be Or Not To Be runs at Goodwood this evening and has to have a leading chance. I will watch on television rather than on-course: I have rather a backlog of things to do here (which wouldn't be reduced during any of the several hours which I would doubtless spend on the M25 were I to drive down there this sunny Friday afternoon) and the show will run smoothly with Wayne and Cathy in charge of matters there.

At this time of year, one of the most interesting aspects of Newmarket is the fact that we welcome some overseas visitors. The Abington Place isolation yard, which in past years has contained the likes of Choisir, Elvstroem and Fastnet Rock, currently contains Scenic Blast and (for the fourth consecutive year) the great Takeover Target, plus Wesley Ward's American Royal Ascot raiders. Emma and I enjoyed an excellent evening (which was a Welcome To The Overseas Raiders event) in the Jockey Club Rooms on Wednesday as guests of Ascot and Newmarket racecourses, plus a press conference there the following morning (and Emma went along to watch the overseas horses exercise earlier in the morning, which I eschewed to spend the time with some less high-profile horses); and we gave ourselves an extra treat yesterday afternoon by heading along to the stable for a more personal 'G'day'. This turned out to have a real bonus because, as well as finding the ever-welcoming Aussies Joe Janiak and Dan Morton (who has already trained a big winner this month, Scenic Shot having won the Brisbane Cup on Saturday) we discovered that the man in charge of the American horses is Jose Corrales, formerly the dominant jockey in Macau. I knew him by repute, remembering John Egan telling me years ago what a great jockey he was, so was really honoured to meet him in person. I was very pleased subsequently to hail him again on the Heath this morning; twice in fact, as he was out on the side of the Heath early on when a film crew was filming Dan Morton exercising Scenic Shot, and then mid-morning Hugh, Martha and I passed Kieren Fallon and one rider whom I didn't know riding two horses (which I didn't recognise) towards the start of the canter - and then these horses' provenance became clear as we got farther up the Heath and saw Jose standing by the rail waiting for them to work past him. So that's all been really good - especially as the sun has shone today, for a change.

And just to effect another abrupt change of subject, I can pass on good breeding news. I was delighted to be informed recently by John McNamara that he had discovered that two mares which they had formerly owned and which I had formerly trained have each bred their first winner, a Statue Of Liberty ex Odabella winning in India and an Iron Mask ex Ballets Russes winning in Italy. So that's nice; as was Dandoun, the stallion formerly stood by Chris and Shelley Dwyer at Georgia House Stud in Burrough Green, siring his first winner at Yarmouth yesterday.

Ups and downs

It's been a busy week. It's seven days since I last posted, and the time has flown by. I did indeed enjoy the trip to Carlisle - well, to be more precise, I enjoyed parts of the trip. The journey was a treat: up via the really special Cumbrian section of the M6 over Shap, and home via the splendid Penrith to Scotch Corner road, which was given added spice by the presence of numerous travelling men who were gathering with their ponies/horses for this week's Appleby Fair. On what was just about a perfect summer's day, those two journeys were very special. Many aspects of the afternoon at the races were very pleasant too, particularly the opportunity to salute numerous northern racing identities whom we don't see so often nowadays as we don't have so many faraway runners. What was also nice was to received confirmation that Ethics Girl is a decent filly, and a very brave one too. It was just rather frustrating to be in that rare position of finishing eleven lengths in front of the third and yet not winning the race, failing by a head against the favourite, who had stood out in the paddock as definitely the (only) one to beat. I think that it is fair to say that the favourite had the run of the race, which made our filly's effort all the more creditable - and the narrow defeat all the more frustrating. So, on an otherwise idyllic day, the fact that dear little Ethics Girl had to work very hard for a 'so near and yet so far' result was the one irritation of an otherwise very enjoyable trip.

Last weekend also contained some enjoyable aspects. Saturday had started excitingly. I was riding out slightly earlier than normal (at 6.00) and this led, quite by chance, to my having an early look at Scenic Blast as he tasted Newmarket Heath for the first time. It was a pleasure to bid him and his trainer Danny Morton 'Welcome to Newmarket' and to have a close inspection of this splendid big horse, and then a good view of him cantering slowly away from us up Long Hill in the morning sunshine. One couldn't have asked for a more special way to start a lovely summer's day. That was one memorable aspect of the day, and another came a few hours later when Emma and I took part in Newmarket's Litter Picking Day. This was not an onerous task, and in fact wasn't for me an abnormal event as I find picking up an armful of litter in Exeter Road an almost daily event. I hate litter, so was only too happy to stand up and be counted on what was as much a symbolic gesture as a meaningful method of making the town less filthy. The Town Council is to be commended on its current campaign to highlight the litter problem and to try to make people conscious of the desirability of not contributing to it, and last Saturday's little exercise must surely be regarded as a good thing.

This week will, I am sure, end tomorrow with a really good Derby, but sadly it will also be remembered as the week in which the greatest trainer of our lifetime, Vincent O'Brien, passed away at the age of 92. The Racing Post, predictably, did him justice, providing pages of tributes, with Brough Scott's articles being particularly memorable. As this week's editions of the Post have also contained some of the late Clement Freud's gems, there has been plenty of good reading. Another lovely post-script to the life of Vincent O'Brien was Claire Balding's interview on the BBC today with his son-in-law John Magnier, which was a real pleasure to see/hear. I don't think I'd ever previously seen John Magnier interviewed on television, which made his fulsome apprecation of his father-in-law and mentor all the more moving.

Less impressive was the Racing Post's misinformation that the funeral of Vince Bray was to be conducted today at 12.30 in St. Mary's Church. Vince, tragically, appears to have taken his own life last week. A conscientious and professional racing lad, Vince had worked for numerous trainers over the years, including in recent seasons Mark Tompkins and Michael Bell, as well as in one of the Darley pre-training yards on Hamilton Hill. It is pointless to speculate what prompted his brain to lead him to the conclusion that life had no more to offer him, but whatever it was has left the world short of a good man, and that is just very, very sad. I would have liked to have paid my respects to him at his funeral, but sadly, having read in the Post that the service would take place at 12.30, I found myself in the very embarrassing position of walking through a disconcertingly unpopulated St. Mary's church-yard at 12.28, only to see the doors of the church open in front of me and a coffin, followed by grieving mourners, start to be carried out towards me, the service clearly having just finished.

Vince, sadly, is merely one good person lost to the local racing community in recent days. Yesterday ended with the very sad news that Amanda Bullard had lost her long and brave fight against cancer. Amanda's husband Sam could be described as the acceptable face of the bloodstock 'industry' because he personifies decency and integrity in a profession which attracts more than its fair share of rogues; he is also the head of a family widely recognised as being as nice and decent as he is, and this cruel outcome is, sadly, the latest example of the quirk of fate which seems so often to decree that ill luck be visited on some of the people who least deserve it.

On a happier note, good fortune has today favoured several very deserving people. It was very nice to see the entire team around Sariska enjoying her good win in the Oaks and that has to be marked down as a Classic triumph for the right people. What, though, made the day particularly pleasing for me was that two of the genuinely good and generally unsung members of the weighing room - Mickey Fenton and Jerry O'Dwyer - were able to ride into the famous Epsom winner's circle on Oaks Day after big races, having won, respectively, the Group Three Diomed Stakes on Mac Love and the Listed Surrey Stakes on Ocean's Minstrel. Neither jockey could be regarded as generally over-rewarded, so both results were ones which I greatly welcomed. Micky has been having some great results recently - one particularly good day came last month when he drove to Hamilton for two rides at a Friday evening meeting, and was rewarded with two win, in a Listed race for Michael Bell and on a 20/1 shot in a maiden - and I am delighted to see it. Of today's two winners Mac Love is a thoroughly admirable old horse who is currently being kept in remarkably good form by Steff Liddiard, while it is really nice to see John Ryan handling (and handling extremely well) a good horse. Look Busy, recent brave victrix of the Group Two Temple Stakes, is a wonderful reminder that in many cases a small stable and unfashionable jockey need only a good horse to prove that they can get the job done; and Ocean' Minstrel is, happily for John and Jerry, providing a similar illustration.