Proper racing is back at last

At last proper racing is back. Through the long days of lockdown horses and jockeys have still given their all on the track. But racing is an emotive, instinctive sport which needs the oohs and aahs of sizeable involved and vocal crowds to impart its magic. With Ascot’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, followed by Glorious Goodwood, at last it felt again like the real thing. In 2020, when the great Enable won the King George VI for the third time, it was behind closed doors in heavy rain. When Derby winner Adayar this year walked into the parade ring with the arrogance of a finely tuned athlete, you could see people literally standing up and taking notice, nudging each other with their racecards. When he was cheered back after beating the multi-stakes winner Mishriff and the crack Irish filly Love, having become the first horse since the great Galileo in 2001 to win Epsom’s Blue Riband and the King George in the same year, you could feel the buzz of appreciation in your bones. As jockey William Buick told us: ‘He’s a consummate professional who possesses a fantastic will to win.’ Adayar looks like the first Derby winner for years who could go on to greatness.

Goodwood couldn’t supply glorious weather this year but with its added intimacy it gave us everything else. Spectacle, speed and style as ever but this year with hefty dollops of added emotion, remembrance and redemption. Lady Bowthorpe, a filly, not an owner, apparently likes a bum scratch and a cuddle when her trainer William Jarvis enters her box. She’d been unlucky in a few runs, including Newmarket’s Falmouth Stakes when her traffic problems moved her popular trainer — the son, grandson and great-grandson of others in the same trade — to tears of frustration.