Storm clouds may be rumbling over racing’s future financing in terms of gambling legislation but 2019 offered no shortage of happy memories. The emergence of the once-bumptious Oisin Murphy as a modest, articulate and thoughtful champion jockey. The pulsating battle between two previous winners in this year’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes when Enable and Crystal Ocean provided the most thrilling racecourse duel since the gut-buster between Grundy and Bustino in 1975, with John Gosden’s mare taking it by a neck. Then there was the dominance of Pinatubo, surely the best juvenile since Frankel, in the Woodcote at Epsom, the Chesham at Ascot, Goodwood’s Vintage Stakes and the National Stakes at the Curragh. He will be the hottest ticket on the racecourse this coming year.
Over jumps we have already enjoyed an enthralling round one in what should be a fascinating series when Nicky Henderson’s Altior lost his 19-race unbeaten record over jumps to Paul Nicholls’s Cyrname.
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