A few big priced winners yesterday at many meetings.  Franny Norton was the man to follow at Chester, he bagged a three timer.  He is a very good rider, nobody rides Chester as well as him, he has been tactically brilliant for a few seasons at the tight track.

Chester is so unique, a lot of horses find the turns very difficult, it helps if you have a horse that is a strong traveller.  I was lucky enough to ride a winner at Chester for Denys Smith as an apprentice, it was quite a few years ago.  My old guvnor Denys  was a very good man to ride for, he never put pressure on you, orders were usually similar- on whatever you rode, he liked his horses to be ridden fairly close to the pace.  He was a good trainer of Flat horses or Jumpers.

He was a good trainer of jockeys as well.  When I was apprenticed to him we had Alan Dickman, Chris Grant, Andrew Stringer all riding the jumpers, all very good riders, and Pat Kelleher as senior jockey on the flat, with Robert Sidebottom, Chris Olivier, Paul Sedgwick and myself, all apprentices trying to get rides on the flat, competition was strong !

Racing has changed so much, Richard Hughes wrote an excellent article in the Racing Post last Saturday.  He said how hard it was for trainers currently trying to manage staff, and also keep staff on a full time basis.

I recently visited Newmarket, I was on the Heath watching the horses training,  and was shocked by some of the staff riding out, a lot of good riders riding, but a lot of very poor riders as well.  I think something has to be done with the racing schools. I am not totally sure of how long school leavers attend the British racing school in Newmarket when they join, it used to be around six weeks.  But you don’t scratch the surface in that amount of time, the problem is youngsters do the six weeks, and start work in one of the racing stables, and think they can do the job.  I am not sure what the answer is to make a positive adjustment, but 6 months rather than 6 weeks may be a starting point !