Specialist Writer of the Year

T H E N O M I N A T I O N S SPECIALIST WRITER

of the Year

“Insightful, challenging articles that say things that need to be said about our sport, a must read”

KEVIN BLAKE

“Well-explained, entertaining pieces, a great addition to the Racing Post team”

KEITH MELROSE

“Just brilliant, really enjoyable writing that paints vivid pictures with words, a lost skill”

IAN CARNABY

“Authoritative, readable articles by someone with a most intimate knowledge of their subject”

ALAN SWEETMAN

The Specialist Writer award is the second of two new categories we introduced in 2019. No sport lends itself better to forensic analysis than horseracing and specialists, of whom we have many within the HWPA, were overlooked for far too long when it came to being recognised at these awards. There was once again a very gratifying combination of depth and range to the 2021 entry for this category, and our judges had their work cut out sifting through the impressive output of some of the best brains in the sport in order to narrow it down to these four finalists.

SPECIALIST WRITER OF THE YEAR by Chris Cook THE NOMINATIONS

KevinBlake

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JUMPSPREVIEW RACECARDS RESULTS BESTODDS ATRPLAYER NEWS Fast Results Racecards Fast Results Kevin Blake: Inside Team Ireland Team Ireland Racing Manager Kevin Blake gives us an update after a TeamIrelandRacingManagerKevinBlakegivesusanupdateaftera successful week at Doncaster in the Racing League, as well as looking successfulweekatDoncasterintheRacingLeague,aswellaslooking

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KEVIN BLAKE

If anyone on this short-list requires no introduction, it’s Kevin Blake, who first got noticed while writing race previews on the Betfair forum but has since found fame through appearances on ITV and Sky. His provocative pieces for the At The Races website regularly stir up discussion on Twitter, where he has 70,000 followers.

The man from Golden says he has “no racing background, really”, though his father, a small dairy farmer, dabbled a little after buying a mare for £500 in the pub one night, which is how all the best racing stories start. Kevin’s own interest in the great game was sharpened by the success of Back In Front in the Supreme, as he had been backing the speedster at intervals through the winter.

Kevin loves the game but is not blind to its faults and describes two of his three submitted articles as being on the subject of “National Hunt is broken”. In one, he proposed “a ruthless reduction in the number of Grade 1 races and a conversion of all Grade 2 and Grade 3 races into handicaps” as a means of reversing years of dilution of competition.

Another focused on the rise of the super-trainer in Irish jump racing and was thrillingly illustrated by a bar chart of prize money won over 20 seasons that showed Gordon Elliott cruising up behind Willie Mullins but failing to go past. These days, Kevin does his best to help Joseph O’Brien improve his numbers, having taken on the role of race-planner.

How would he describe his journalism to a new reader? “I like using data to test long-held assumptions,” he says.

The winner of this award in 2019, he is pleased to be part of a much larger group of Irish nominees than the HWPA has recognised in the past. “It’s brilliant, there’s nothing more satisfying than the recognition of your peers. I think social media has done quite a bit to spread knowledge of Irish racing journalism.”

It rained, the sun sho heavy ground and the jockeys opting for the stands' side,which happens here sometimes. And as the afternoon wore on it came to pass, Hollie Doyle leading the field across in the Goodwood Cup like an old hand quietly and calmly teaching youngsters. In fact she is the youngster taking the racing world by storm and leaving no one in anydoubt that she is the star in this world of 'hail fellow, wel met!' happilywith us again now that there are more masks on the ground than around the chin.

hSeptember 6was thedayofthe Carnaby seller atBrighton andalso DonaldZec died, thoughIdidn'tknow itatthe time.Actually, Isay the Carnaby sellerbutthere was a mix-up andtherace differentname, tookplace on August23so Ihadtosettle for a mode seller. Itwas the 25th year I'vesponsored,a milestone thepandemict twelve monthsago; Ithinkeveryone hadagoodtime.Interestingly,JackRyan won the seller thatshouldhavebeen mine an finishedfourthinthenon-seller on September 6.Hewas very backabl firsttime, especially ifyouspentan hour or three rummagi h andtrainer JohnR ' September 6 was the day of the Carnaby seller at Brighton and also the day r 6was e y the Ca y at andalso e y Donald Zec died, though I didn't know it at t Zec di , thoughI know itat

IAN

CARNABY

“It’s lovely to be acknowledged,” says Ian Carnaby, the most experienced nominee in any of this year’s journalism categories. “It comes as a surprise. I’ve been retired for a couple of years but I’ve kept my hand in. I always felt there was a space for my kind of work, which is a sideways look and which I think often puts the punter’s point of view and how difficult it is.”

Ian was fully in the grip of racing from the age of seven or eight, having caught the bug from his parents, but a career in the game must have seemed odds-against when he left Cambridge and moved into the wine trade. “I helped get Baileys Irish Cream up and running, I suppose that was my main contribution,” he recalls.

Ian has had a busy and hugely varied career, gravitating towards racing after initially covering football for various radio stations “for a pittance”. He spent years as an unflappable broadcaster for SIS, including on a memorable occasion when the office cleaner appeared alongside while he was in mid-spiel, a clip which apparently made it onto It’ll Be All Right On The Night and is preserved forever on YouTube.

His written work has turned up in many places, including the Racing Post and the Irish Field, for which he served 32 years as British correspondent. He still writes for Marten Julian’s website, mixing wry observations of current racing with yarns drawn from a seemingly bottomless store.

“I just loved writing for people that would be towards my age. Jeffrey Bernard once said to me: ‘Only an idiot would try to write for everybody.’ I know that I’m writing for a certain audience. I’m just thrilled that anyone would still think it worthwhile putting my work forward.”

THE COMMENT PAGE

4

LAST month marked eightyears since the passing ofthegreat sportswriterJonathan Rendall. Bestknown to racing fans forfans levision series The Gambler, was based on his bookGrand, Rendall often drewisons withJeffrey Be ard

HECOMMENT PAGE KEITH MELROSThe Fridaycolum you getg stakt ing rn ightg betting mathematicsgrandeeEdward Thorp, is that “using toolarge a [Kelly stake] and overbetting is much more severely E Frenr chClasl sic Postcardfrom Paris

Value does notunless THE Weatherbys Super Sprint, perhaps this weekend’s feature race in Britain, is sold as being rarely egalitarian in its nature. Earlier this week (b lo ), who has mean ga thing SCOTTBURTONPo

KEITH MELROSE The Friday l mn

THE Irish dominance of jump racing has become too obvious to ignore. It is widely accepted in Britain that this is not a problem that arrived on the boat in

March with its roots going back a decade or more. That considered, the response has not been as sober as might have been hoped. For some there is seemingly no problem that cannot be solved by increased prize-money, a fantasy Pattern or lower handicap marks all round. On top of those come the inevitable calls for that most noble of all British sporting traditions: graft for graft’s sake. No, no, no, no. Or rather: most likely not; maybe on the side; yeah, OSE A working man’s race? Some misconceptions about the Super Sprint demolished drawn? Look at the last ten winners and the answer might seem obvious. They have come from stall 16, 25, 19, 13, 13, 15, 14, 10, 21 and 5. Go high, or at least high to medium. However, working out races is more complicated than that. To get the best possible answer, it is k increasingly tough THE COMMENT PAGE A working man’s race? So misconceptions about THE COMMENT PAGE but not like that; and well, I suppose it can’t hurt if it makes you feel better. Recognising this is a hugely complex issue is the first step to taking the right corrective action. We all need to check our own solipsism. But forgive me for Serious judgin for a serious prize when deciding who best turned o YOU do not need to be a particularly superstitious pun quake at signs tha your bet may hav ceived the kiss of death. DAVID CARR RACING WRITER OF THE YEAR Another view ri s judging DAVID CARR CING WRITER OF THE YEAR other view

KEITH MELROSE The Friday column

British prize-money DYLAN HILL Another is shocking – but it’s view not why we’re failing Blackmore shows you SE This means that, rather than there simply being a discrepancy on the two scales that tapers away at the girls they top end, there large rump of is Br a comparatively itish horses rated in can achie the region of 117-140. As Barrins points handicappers know out and all intuitively, their dream overrating tends to beget more overrating. Horses competing ains ivals in this tin band M Y DAUGH four when

KEITH

MELROSE

The Racing Post’s betting editor for the past three years, Edinburgh-born Keith Melrose studied chemistry at St Andrews, which perhaps explains his habit of experimenting with data in the hope of coming up with something explosive. It might be more relevant to tell you he is a Timeform graduate, one of two on this short-list.

“It’s all flown by,” says Keith, who describes it as “a proper privilege” to be working with Tom Segal and Paul Kealy, writers he has been reading for a very long time. His own writing has tended to be analytical and challenging, the kind of journalism better accompanied by morning coffee than an evening pint.

It was Keith who introduced Post readers to the Kelly Criterion as a precise means of calculating what proportion of their bank should be staked on each selection. The same article quoted Dostoevsky and drew on the turbulent experiences of the much-missed writer and chaotic gambler Jonathan Rendall.

In another of his submitted articles, showing how a change in the conditions of Newbury’s Super Sprint had had a dramatic effect on outcomes, he referenced Dan Walker and Jeremy Paxman. One stood for quick and dirty analysis of data, the other for an approach with more rigour. Keith plainly favours the Paxo approach.

“I absolutely hate the idea that I might be going over old ground,” he says. “Pride demands that I do something a bit different.

“I’m dealing with the everyday concerns a regular punter would have. If I was a teacher or an accountant, I’d want to learn more about horse racing. That’s who I’m writing for. This is what I’d love to be doing, if I was doing anything else.” sires to fram line-up of top trainers

Racing Post Sunday, September 26, 2021

Kickbackrelaxingweek O ‘ILOVE MEETINGPEOPLEONTHE GROUND ANDHEARING THEIRSTORIES’ LE ING THEIRN AUGUST 31, 1966, Anne Bullitt Biddle, a ish American heiress Palmers

Geraghty. Wellesley’s big-race winners after her separation from her husband Ginger W the record-b in County Meath, the family estate inherited in the 1950s by their father a silver

mad to ge licence – but I got on with it’

Alan Sweetman meets Jessica Harrington, Ireland’s most successfulf “In eventing we were all the same, we competed on equal terms. I was on Irish teams with men and women, and nobody ever gavea it a second were all riders. The only female trainer that some of the carry a huge

Racing Post Sunday, S , September 26, 2021 mad to ge licence – butbu I got on with it’ QUESTIONS on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Irish racing have surfaced in the political arena and setting the agenda is Tipperary TD Jackie Cahill, who has reacted to concerns from Jim Bolger by saying that the trainer’s claims are doing “serious reputational damage to the industry” . C hill represents a constituency Kickback w ke

ALAN SWEETMAN The Tuesday column How Bolger could be forced on to the back foot at hearing t the right answer you have place between them. Has Or h he their

associated with the ground-breaking research conducted by Dr Emmeline Hill in the area of equine genomics. He is likely to be more aware than most that an ability to conduct genetic modification undetectable under current normal scientific testing procedures would be a nightmare scenario for the global racing and breeding industries. Bolger has indicated that conversations with members of his staff have contributed to his knowledge of wrongdoing. The staff W HAT defines a t class trainer? T list of leading trainers is prob the best litmus since have those with powerful string earned that right by their prowess over time. Even then, however, it’s surpr how dependent are some of the trainers on the stock they receiv Aidan O’Brien’s eyes light up on arrival of each new intake of tw year-olds by Galileo but the ext which he is beholden to their collective contribution is rarely explored. So here’s a snapshot. Of O’Br top 20 earners in Britain and Ir last season, 14 were by Galileo a massive contribution, especi since six of the top eight were Coolmore’s Super Sire. Put an way, of the £4.135 million earne ar by O’Brien’s top 20 horse

TheBigReadBigRead Alan Sweetman talks toBrian Kavanagh, outgoingchief executive of HorseRacing Ireland Alan Sweetman talks toBrian Kavanagh, outgoingchief

I’M MEETING Brian Kavanagh atLeopardstown racecourse, a fewmonths on from his 57th birthdayand just before his 20-year spell aschief executive of Horse RacingIreland ended on F id

ALAN

SWEETMAN

Having been published in the Racing Post for more than 30 years, Alan Sweetman is surprised and very pleased to find himself nominated after putting in an entry to the HWPA for the very first time. Like quite a few of us, he was determined to spend his working life in or around horse racing after being given an early taste of the sport.

“I was brought racing from a very early age,” he says, “and was lucky enough to go to school at a place where a lot of my schoolfriends were children of people involved in racing or breeding.” That was Headfort School in Kells, County Meath, where his father was deputy headmaster.

Alan stills regards an early summer job as the most purely enjoyable he ever had, being paid £20 a day to look after sponsors at Phoenix Park, where he was sometimes assigned to Vincent O’Brien’s box, “and got to hang around those extraordinary people”.

He is still doing that, as evidenced by his submitted articles, which include a farewell interview with Brian Kavanagh as he neared the end of his 20 years as chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland. There is also an interview with Jessica Harrington, drawing on her formative years competing with men in other equestrian disciplines - “Equality was something I was used to,” she told him.

Alan’s third piece called on Jim Bolger to clarify the concerns he had expressed about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in racing by unspecified others.

“I think we’ve got a lovely team of people in the Racing Post in Ireland,” Alan says, “and I’d like to pay tribute to Richard Forristal and all my colleagues here for their encouragement, support and help. They’re a great bunch of people.”