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18th March 2024

Plus 7 and dry when driving in.

I drove to London yesterday morning in torrential rain and the roads were flooded. We had 15mm here in a very short time and the results were not pretty..

Racing TV Studios are in Ealing and the area was very quiet when I arrived bright and early to be on Nick Luck’s ‘Luck On Sunday’ programme. Fellow guests were Megan Nicholls and Neil Channing.. Megan I know and she has ridden for me, but I have never met Neil before.. Enjoyed his company.

It is always an interesting programme to be a guest on and the knowledge of Nick is extraordinary, and his composure is of somebody who is relaxed and totally in control… As you can imagine the hot topic was Cheltenham..

Much chat about the racing and a little about where the Racecourse goes from here.. On the latter I know many were delighted when Julia Harrington announced the BHA statement of intent.. 'We must do more, more quickly'….but in my eyes it was a hollow intent and a repeat of last years.

We don’t need to try and make it more difficult for the Irish to win our races. We want to see the best horses running against each other and the best way to do that is make sure we put our own racing house in order, over the year, not just for Cheltenham.

We need constructive communication with those who work in the coal face of racing and by that I don’t mean the bookmakers. We all know we katow to the bookmakers to try and bring in the funding levy, but all we are doing is dilating our product by having far too much racing.

The programme book needs revising and racecourses should help. We need to see less racing and if the racecourse don’t help, then we will see less racecourses; which in time might just save the sport?

Cheltenham thrives on good horses, and the racing enthusiasts pays to see the best horses run against each other, whether they come from Ireland, France or England.. The racegoers wants to see competitive racing not a series off odds on shots strutting their stuff.

Last week was not short of English success, but we really missed NJH and his merry band which of course included Constitution Hill, Shishkin, Jonbon etc..

More importantly we need to sort the attendance levels.

The Racing punter feels that he or she is being ripped off and social media is really their big read, not the Racing Post, so until we have positive vibes flowing through the channels of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X then it will not come round…

What the racecourse needs to understand is that the whole town is affected when the racecourse is not doing its job..

Yes we all know that the hotels double/treble their prices and the fact that people were not coming meant they had empty rooms.. You could even get a table in most of the top restaurants in town last week.. that is something that has never happened before…

The racecourse needs to lead on this and make sure all facets of the town see sense and make next years Festival the first of the new and sensible era moving forward, otherwise there will be even less feet on the ground attending the meeting which would be so sad.. We have the best Jump racing in the world and Cheltenham is our showpiece and it must remain so.

I love Cheltenham and I was brought up on those heady days of great racing.. It can, and will come back, but I just beg those in charge to listen and understand.. We are behind you and need the racecourse to succeed..

Enough said..

Weekend sport.The Six Nations and The Man U game were great viewing..

Land Afar ran a blinder and was second at Huntingdon, 668 since his last run.. He is for sale if anybody is interested..

Monday morning and we have a BHA stable inspection.. An annual visit checking that all is in order..

Not again??