We have had 4 winners this last month. Fewer than I had hoped for – but more than I was expecting. By and large they have run well, but we haven’t had our normal volume of runners. I expect June to be different. Seaside Sizzler won again at Kempton on 2nd may, his long term aim is the marathon Goodwood Stakes in late July. Carousel won a maiden at Thirsk on 7th May, she has been sold to the USA. Poyle Punch won at Kempton on 17th May and Redvers got off the mark at Pontefract on 27th May. They should both make fair handicappers. The enigmatic Sylvestris was Listed placed when finishing second at York, and could go for the Sandringham at Ascot. From the start of next year the race programme will become a commercial agreement between the racecourses and the Horsemens Group. The media seem to think this is a disaster, and I became rather frustrated with reading about how the race programme was ‘a delicate balance’ by ‘grizzled BHA planners’, ‘the racecourses and Horsemen lack the impartiality to set fixtures lists and plan races in the best interest of the sport.’, and ‘ripping responsibility from the BHA is wilful vandalism’(Lydia Hislop). Sean Boyce wrote that it is ‘a complex programme that has been 300 years in the making’ So I did some research of June and July, the busiest part of the flat season’s core period. I looked up 6f – 8f handicaps for fillies only rated 0-90, 0-95 and 0-100, catering primarily for horses rated 85-100. Not a particularly large pool of horses, some might think – not according to BHA planners: There are seven 7f races between 1st July and 1st September for that band, plenty in anybody’s book. So I moved onto 6f races, incredibly there are only two in 2 months (6 weeks apart), yet there are three in 7 days between 15th and 22nd September! It gets worse, over 8f there are two fillies handicaps between those dates for that band of horses, both in the first half of July. Yet there are four races in June and two in September. Are we to send that band of fillies on holiday for August? Frankly you couldn’t write a more unbalanced programme for the weight range if you did it with your eyes shut. Trainers wife Marie McCabe wrote in her Racing Post Blog that ‘the programme has been devised by academics over centuries.’ The last academic to be involved was David Oldrey whose team carried out their review 15 years ago. Implementing novice races, median auctions, limited handicaps (now the norm), fillies handicaps and classified stakes. The above example graphically shows it has been ‘wilfully vandalised’ ever since. How did this happen? Simply, if a race attracted small fields, the racecourse could apply to drop it and replace it. The BHA frequently agreed and this inevitably led to downgrading (not a new concept), or the mess described above. A 0-80 6f handicap will always attract more runners than a 0-85 6f fillies handicap. Thus, whatever is decided between the Horsemen and the Racecourses could never be worse than the current situation. Whilst on the subject of the media….earlier this month Frankie Dettori got off a ride in a below tariff contest at Newbury on the morning of raceday. Sean Boyce wrote that his ‘gesture (happening) so late in the day will infuriate thousands of racing fans.’ But, jockeys fail to show up for rides all the time – due to traffic, illness and all manner of other reasons, Dettori included. The BHA fined him £290, which suggests that only the press were infuriated. Finally, as the future of the Tote is announced tomorrow, one question. Given that the government have never claimed to own the Tote, why has their right to sell it, and benefit from the proceeds, never been tested in court?