Not everyone has the appetite to plough through the mountain of data produced by this week's annual publication of the Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings. After 12 hours in my bunker, here are five takeaways which summarise some of my views on the numbers: 1). The G1 Dubai World Cup ranks only 33-equal among the [...]

The arrival of the Australian champion juvenile Vancouver (Aus) (Medaglia d'Oro) at Ballydoyle could turn out one of the major themes of the European Flat preseason of 2016. How good is this colt, whose G1 Golden Slipper win for Gai Waterhouse was mighty impressive? And what are his chances of a top-level strike in Europe? [...]

Racing on television – whatever the platform – is surely doomed if the belief exists that it is “guilty of taking itself too seriously.” This is the charge being aired in numerous places in response to this week's news that, from 2017, ITV is to take over mainstream television coverage of the sport from Channel [...]

The tendency for humans to seek out and try to explain patterns is acutely obvious in horse racing analysis. The sport is governed by a multitude of statistics, and often those numbers produce sequences into which people tend to read a cause. There is no better example than the concept of “Trainer Form”– the apparent [...]

Judging by what has been done and what has been said, Sheikh Mohammed's decision to consolidate his racing and breeding operations under the Godolphin banner conveys a restlessness with the status quo. It remains to be seen how it will differ from a rebranding exercise. In the press release which announced the restructuring on Godolphin's [...]

Hong Kong International Race Day is thriving and so is Ryan Moore. That is the message from Sha Tin on Sunday, a meeting that did not disappoint on its considerable promise. Moore has the most important thing a jockey can own: the confidence of the world's most powerful connections. From Tipperary to Timbuktu, everyone wants [...]

The Longines Hong Kong International Series Sunday morning is a set of four Group 1 races almost guaranteed to throw up close finishes. Racing in the Far East is very tight compared to its more expansive nature in Europe, and heads and necks tend to separate runners instead of lengths. Since the series went truly [...]