Cheltenham Festival
The magic of Aintree
However hard some people try to make it a business, jump racing remains a sport and the Grand National its…
The turf
For Barbara and Alick Richmond, Living Legend’s game 12-1 victory in Kempton’s 1m 2f Magnolia Stakes last Saturday was their…
Low life
Speaking pretty good English, Dr Tayeb came straight to the point. Was I eligible for the ground breaking new cancer…
The turf
You don’t always have to win to enjoy it. At the end of the £100,000 Paddy Power Imperial Cup at…
The turf
Even when the authorities were refusing Milton Harris the right to renew his training licence after he got his finances…
The turf
There are Flat people and there are jumping people. People like the late Captain Tim Forster, trainer of three Grand…
The turf
How Father Sean Breen would have loved this year’s Cheltenham Festival. The late parish priest at Ballymore Eustace, who owned…
The turf
Thanks to Covid, there could be no spine-tingling roar at the Cheltenham Festival this year as the first race runners…
The turf
With the Cheltenham Festival close, the quest for serious punting money intensifies. I had one potential contributor identified at Kempton…
The turf
Dry January it wasn’t and I am not referring to the trainers who normally undergo an annual abstinence but who…
The turf
Who owns Altior? I ask because of the brouhaha over Nicky Henderson’s late withdrawal of his stable star, winner of…
The turf
The socialite MP Chips Channon once noted in his diaries his feelings about an after-lunch snooze in parliament’s Library: ‘It…
The Turf
Every time the Cheltenham Festival looms, I recall a remarkable experience. It was already 25 years since Dawn Run’s recovery…
It was ladies first at Cheltenham
At soggy Newbury last Saturday racegoers were still reliving memories of an epic Cheltenham Festival. ‘Were you there for that…
The Foxes have little to teach us
A few years ago a motivational speaker brought out a smart little book called Legacy: What The All Blacks Can…
Farewell to Fergie
Writing a Turf column before the Cheltenham Festival, as the Spectator schedule requires, which you are reading only after the…
Low life
For the Cheltenham Festival I received the customary tipster circular from my pal Soapy Joe. Soapy’s most convincing credential as…
Going for Gold
Irish racing guru Ted Walsh was asked at the start of Gold Cup day if retiring champion jockey Tony McCoy…
Size matters
‘I don’t want to seem unromantic,’ said Mrs Oakley as St Valentine’s Day approached, ‘but this year please don’t buy…
True sportsmen
In the parade ring just after Sire De Grugy had won this year’s Queen Mother Champion Chase, I found myself…
A Cheltenham of contrasts
No sporting event anywhere compresses so much drama, emotion and character into a single venue as the Cheltenham Festival. It…
