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On a day themed around Downton Abbey, Tony Carroll travelled the aptly-named Dream Composer to win the feature Ripon Silver Sprint Trophy holding Copper Knight at bay to win by 3/4l under 7lb claimer Myla Coppins. Carroll is a rare flat trainer in the heartland of...

Ripon's opening day belonged to Mark Walford and Harriet Bethell, in some intensely competitive races that had spectators with hearts in mouths race after race: the best advertisement for our sport. Sixty-four runners turned out for the seven race card under cloudy...

We've just been through an exciting month in the international racing calendar, with high value prizes fought out by runners from all over the world in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Dubai, but as we all know, many of these champions embarked as novices or maidens in...

There's a string of excuses for beaten horses trotted out by their trainers and riders in post-race analysis, but if there's one over-riding obsession among racing professionals, it's the state of the ground. Ground is rarely perfect, always too quick, too soft, too...

Trainer Charlie Johnston is based in Middleham, North Yorkshire. He took over from his father, Mark Johnston, in 2023, who had an incredible legacy of 5,000 winners in Great Britain and is often regarded as one of the most successful trainers in British racing...

Every spring, the racing world turns its attention to a single race in Louisville, Kentucky. The Kentucky Derby, often called “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports,” has grown into one of the most recognizable events in global racing. Though far from Europe’s...

It would be fair to say that the turf racing community tends to look down on dirt racing as inferior, or at best, a slightly alien concept. Opinions change slowly, even though racing on artificial surfaces in the UK, and to a lesser extent in France and Ireland, has...

Before a race begins, many experienced punters head straight for the parade ring. It is not just tradition or curiosity that draws them there, but the belief that appearance reveals something statistics cannot fully capture. The way a horse walks, carries itself, or...

Yorkshire is filled with racing stables, each vying to produce the next champion. From trainers based up on the border with County Durham and Teesside, down to those in Doncaster and Barnsley, the county is ripe with quality bloodstock. The Easterby family...

A media circus has surrounded Nicky Henderson's Champion Hurdler, Constitution Hill, since a series of crashing falls dented his unbeaten record and threw into doubt his continued career over obstacles. Flat racing is well used to managing talking horses. After all,...