Corneliuscast

Rebecca Davies, executive director of Hereford racecourse, tells us how she has guided my favourite English track from the oblivion of closure to that rarity, a sports arena that re-opened and is now looking forward to its fifth season back. She speaks optimistically but realistically about the future of smaller racing venues like Hereford - and indeed nearby Worcester which she also runs - in a (post) Covid age, and about their importance to the local community and economy. I hope you enjoy it, and if you haven't been to Hereford, when crowds are re-admitted I'd recommend you give it a whirl.

The rise of Jason Weaver from slim pickings to keep his weight down as a young jockey to dining at the racing media’s top table on ITV & Sky is a striking one. With 200 winners against longtime friend & rival Frankie Dettori’s 233 in 1994, he’s the only ‘double centurion’ not to be champion, but was partner of some of the smartest horses of the nineties before weight issues forced his retirement and transition to TV and radio. “Find something you’re good at and focus on it”, he says, and that’s exactly what he’s done in the saddle and in front of the camera with great success. It’s a compelling story from buying his first pony to seeing himself outplayed on the golf course by teenaged sons - I hope you enjoy it.

Bloodstock agent Colm Sharkey is guest for the latest episode which gets its title from Sharkey's assessment of Lion Guest, a horse in which I had a share, after he rode it in a race at Hexham. Having taken the decision to give up what had been a promising career in the saddle to go to university aged 25, Sharkey later moved into buying and selling racehorses, a sphere in which he's made quite an impression.

Mitchell, aged 46 and a GP in Pulborough, West Sussex, had his right eye removed when a child because of cancer, but also had a long-harboured ambition to ride in, and win, a horse-race. As a result of the impairment, it took, on and off, 30 years of effort for the son, grandson and half-brother of jockeys to be granted a licence of his own, but on only his fourth mount, at Goodwood's August Bank Holiday fixture, he became the first jockey with one eye to win an official UK horse-race when 50-1 shot The Game Is On was successful. It's an inspirational story - hope you enjoy it.

Michael Caulfield worked specifically in racing for many years observing at close quarters the highs and lows experienced by jockeys, particularly Richard Dunwoody, before, encouraged by AP McCoy, retraining as a sports psychologist. A senior judge's son who 'flunked' his A-levels, Michael couldn't ride before joining the stables of the redoubtable Captain Tim Forster in the 1980s, but has never looked back.