Archive for April, 2010
Tony McCoy from hero to zero
Apr 26th
As Tony McCoy made the journey to Ludlow yesterday there was one figure in his mind. It was not the 195 winners that left him streets ahead of Richard Johnson in the jockeys’ championship that ended on Saturday, that barely comprehendible 15th consecutive title or the 3200 winners – and still counting – that means [...]
Godolphin pass their French exam at Longchamp
Apr 26th
Classic trials are supposed to be a test for horses but there can be equally as exacting an examination for the humans involved. Despite years of success, Alain de Royer-Dupre is a noted worrier at this time of year and the trials meeting at Longchamp may have done little to help his anxiety. He came [...]
Jason Maguire proves stout centurion
Apr 22nd
It is a sobering thought that while Tony McCoy may regard missing a double century this season as a measure of failure, there are only two other jockeys who have reached three figures for the 2009/10 campaign. Richard Johnson passed that milestone as far back as December but Jason Maguire had to wait until spring [...]
Dunguib faces a champion’s test
Apr 18th
Dunguib is set to take his chance in the Rabobank Champion Hurdle at Punchestown on Friday. His trainer, Philip Fenton, has decided to take on the big guns rather than go for the Champion Novices’ Hurdle on Tuesday. Dunguib was one of the Cheltenham Festival bankers that wrecked a few accounts when he finished third [...]
Greville Starkey dies aged 70
Apr 14th
As one of those rare jockeys who completed the Derby/Oaks double it was Greville Starkey’s lot to be remembered as much for one race that he lost than the hundreds he won. Starkey, who has died of cancer at the age of 70, won five British Classics during a 33-year career, which included winning the [...]
Special delivery required
Apr 7th
The Flat season in Britain may have almost disappeared, buried under the current dross of its own making, but those who grow impatient for the Craven meeting can take heart. Special Duty certainly lived up to the first part of her name when she won the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket last October. Now she [...]
Racing needs a really Good Friday
Apr 5th
To race or not to race? That is the question facing the great and the good of racing when it comes to fixtures on Good Friday. Traditionally this has always been a blank day and the lack of racing has been filled by the mass open days of yards at Middleham and Lambourn, both [...]
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