THE RACING POST THURSDAY AUGUST 11th 2011

STUART RILEY

“WHO WOULD BE A PUNTER ON A DAY LIKE THIS?

“63  non-runners yesterday-hardly the best way of attracting money into the sport through the levy. Turnover hit as one in six of declared horses fail to go to post.

“PUNTERS wanting to have a bet on yesterday’s racing in Britain had to contend with a deluge of non-runners. Anybody who had spent the previous night studying the form book would have been disappointed to discover that 63 of the 387 declared runners - 16 per cent – did not run, with racecards decimated as trainers pulled their runners out, in large part due to ground conditions, going changes the main reason for poor turnouts.”

J MARGARET CLARKE TURFCALL

WHY SHOULD TRAINERS AND OWNERS RISK RUNNING THEIR HORSES on unsuitable ground, risking the possibility of breaking them down, to never see a racecourse again? Action as this proves beyond all shadow of doubt that racehorses are not wooden or ferrari's with gears, but flesh and blood the same as us.  (horsepower not machine powered)

STALWART ? How is it that stable staff,  licensed top professional handler riders are called STALWARTS? What sort of a con is this, and who is responsible for this shockingly misleading heresy?

TOM O’RYAN BLOODHORSE LITERATE (Racing Post Tuesday August 9^th 2011)

“Tom O’Ryan talks to the young jockey who rides Stewards’ Cup winner HOOF IT every morning at home and is leading the apprentices’ title race.”

LEARNING ON THE HOOF

“He’s the overnight sensation who failed to ride a winner in his first two years. Puzzled? Don’t be. JAMES SULLIVAN, who’s career took off when he switched from Ireland to Britain, is this season’s leading apprentice. Not only that, but he starts most mornings at Sheriff Hutton riding  HOOF IT first lot, the most exciting sprinter the north has seen in years. Afternoon duty on HOOF IT is passed to others.

“EASTERBY has been SULLIVAN’S boss since May 2009 when he ventured across the Irish Sea  in hope and anticipation that he could, like so many before him, make a name for himself in Britain. Quite, reserved and softly spoken, SULLIVAN, 24, admits his first impression of working for Easterby, a larger- than- life character, who calls a spade a spade, if not a shovel, and who expects budding jockey’s to ride anything and everything and turn their hand to anything and everything, was something of a shock to the system.

“It opened my eyes a bit” he says his face creasing into his ever-ready smile.

“SULLIVAN, the son of a Westmeath farmer, his mother enrolled him at RACE, the renowned Irish racing school.

“My first weigh – in there, when I was 16, was 5st 12lb’s, I was very small. “

“Winners, however, proved elusive. SULLIVAN had 21 rides  in his first season, and 25 in his second without getting off the mark. His first victory was not achieved until midway through his third campaign when the Pat Morris –trained ROYAL BECKY won a sprint handicap under him at Navan . It took me three years to ride three winners. I’m one of the lucky ones, I can do 7st 12lb, even with a good feed in me the night before. I’d love to be champion apprentice, but it is not the be -all and end- all for me. What is more important is building a career, carrying on riding winners among the big boy’s and earning a living out of what I am doing. HOOF IT, he’s the best horse I’ve ever sat on. “

“Come York next week, what he’ll enjoy is seeing HOOF IT pitch his talents against his own version of the ‘big boys’ in the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes.” (To be run on Friday August 19^th 2011)

RODNEY MASTERS  'TALK OF THE TRACKS'

MORE BIG-RACE  JOY FOR HALEY TURNER,

“One-time Classic hope PRIMEVERE in record-breaking victory under TURNER.

“ROGER CHARLTON had Classic ambitions in the spring for PRIMEVERE and although she came up short of that requirement she posted a claim to fame in the Listed race for fillies yesterday when eclipsing a 1m2f course record established 13 years ago. Backed into 13-2 (from 15-2) HAYLEY TURNER’S only ride at the meeting mastered front-running OPERA GAL, owned by racecourse chairman Jeff Smith, and favourite SETA to take Salisbury’s second most valuable event of the season – the richest is today’s Group 3 Sovereign Stakes.

“Charlton said : ‘Having always worked well we thought she might have been an Oaks candidate, but she was disappointing in the Pretty Polly and again at York. She’s stronger now and it was a good effort to break the course record particularly with the headwind. Turner is highly rated by the trainer. Chalton is anxious to keep PRIMEVERE in training as a four year old.”

TODAY’S RACECARDS: Salisbury, Newmarket, Beverley, Goodwood, Stratford, Chepstow, Leopardstown and Tramore