Jonny Portman

We've seen a Classic double double, but could we now see a double Triple Crown bid for Godolphin? The quest for the Triple Crown is usually more of 'a thing' in America, though its compact five-week challenge draws consternation from some quarters, and Bill Mott is biding his time before committing Sovereignty to a run in the Preakness Stakes on May 17.  Though the American Triple Crown is a more marketable concept than the sprawling near-five-month challenge that has remained unfulfilled in Britain for 55 years, certainly the Derby had...

Captain Tim Forster, a trainer whose love of steeplechasing ran so deep that he wasn't disparaging just of Flat racing but also of hurdling, was a renowned pessimist. His famously gloomy advice to Charlie Fenwick ahead of the American amateur rider going out to partner Ben Nevis in the 1980 Grand National was "keep remounting". And in a sense it would be good advice to aspiring trainers: to keep getting back up even when it seems the odds are against you. As it happened, Fenwick didn't have to heed the...