Ed Gretton's blog

Although Queen Anne’s reign (1702-1714) was fairly short-lived, it was important for the fact that she was the last of the Stuarts. One of the lesser noted aspects of her life was her love and devotion to the Horse in both the racing and hunting spheres.

It’s a line that is wheeled out on an annual basis as the pace quickens on the road to the Epsom Derby: over 70 years ago, Federico Tesio, a famous Italian trainer and breeder, wrote, “The Thoroughbred exists because its selection has depended, not on experts, technicians, or zoologists, but on a piece of wood: the winning post of the Epsom Derby."

The excitement begins now. 6 days before the start of this year’s May Festival, everything is starting to come together as we get news that some of Ireland’s top trainers will be sending over horses for the Cheshire Oaks on Wednesday 5th May and the race meeting itself looms onto the horizon.

In the 2003-2004 footy season, Arsenal managed ticked to a box that no other club had managed to tick for 120 years – that of going for an entire season unbeaten. A fantastic achievement and as they approached the records of previously unbeaten teams, the pressure and tension rose alongside the potential for the glaring and public anti-climax that would come with failure.

Courage means many different things to many different people and as such, is difficult to give a set definition for.

Well, the flat season has only just begun and already, the perennial discussions on the going and how tracks are prepared for turf racing has reared its contentious and dividing head (think Medusa with an axe in the middle). Right, here’s a brief guide to the going and the ins and outs – I would call it an idiot’s guide, but I wouldn’t want to insult your intelligence:

What is the going?

I’m pretty sure that Walt Disney can take the blame, although maybe that is a bit harsh as Aesop was doing it a long time before old Walty produced his Fox and the Hound.

I'm not sure what the blogo-rules are about giving undue prominence to one's family, but here we go - well done to my younger brother Tom Gretton who has now trained his first and second winner in the past fortnight. Starting up as a trainer is a daunting prospect and to get a couple of winnners on the board so early is a fantastic achievement. Well ridden by promising young rider Lee Edwards, the slightly-unfortunately named mare Cat Six (say it quickly) has won by miles on both her last two races.

With the arrival of technology, otherwise known as computers, the word 'Clerk' has generally disappeared from the office lexicon of job descriptions except, that is, from the racecourse office. The Clerk of the Course is a bit of terminology that has stood the test of time, at least thus far, which is difficult to believe as it gives nothing away as to their actual job role.