The cleverest Premier League football club tycoon is also a devoted racehorse owner committed to “expanding” his racing empire. QED: put Tony Bloom in charge of UK racing and tell him to replicate the miraculous transformation of his Brighton & Hove Albion FC. One day last week Bloom addressed the Gimcrack dinner as an owner [...]

Crossing the line as Equinox sauntered home in the Japan Cup, Christophe Lemaire gave a little shake of his head and beamed as he tried unconvincingly to pat the horse's neck. Lemaire's disbelief was such that he went floppy with delight. Championship races are not meant to be processions. Even legendary horses aren't supposed to [...]

These are challenging times for British punters. If you win too much, your bookmaker could shut you down. If you lose too much, the state might send Big Brother in. This pincer of control and interference in online betting is weirdly at odds with the UK's economic culture, which favours deregulation and free markets – [...]

Around eight hours before Ryan Moore gave Auguste Rodin a lethally cold ride under a radiant Californian sky, his father Gary was winning a Grade 1 hurdle at rainy, mucky Wetherby. On a day of coverage that stretched from the drenched English provinces to the honeyed light of Santa Anita, Luke Harvey, the ITV commentator, [...]

Non-media types won't know that there is creative rivalry between reporters and photographers. Scribes persist with the belief that words defeat images. But often the finest 'snappers' see permanence that writers can't fully capture on a keyboard. Then, cameras triumph over laptops. Gerry Cranham, who died on Friday aged 94, helped start a wave of [...]

Only in racing are the best sent off to stud to produce new – or preferably better – versions of themselves. Roger Federer, say, will have fielded countless offers for his retirement years – but not that one. To watch magisterial Thoroughbreds race is privilege enough. But we then get to see fresh manifestations of [...]

The Corinthian quest is finding life tough. These days romance is run off its legs by finance. Victory for Continuous in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, though, 15 days after his St Leger win, would make history of the most reassuring kind. Each week frontiers in sport are crossed: stats shredded, records set, barriers [...]

Frankie Dettori's retirement this winter has acquired a caveat: 'in theory.' So, in theory, the most famous jockey since Lester Piggott will ride in his last English Classic, the St Leger, at Doncaster this weekend. More garlands, perhaps more tears shed. But Dettori's valedictory lap of world racing at 52-years-old is becoming a little complicated. [...]