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.  

When I departed from the BBC in April 2020, I left many great colleagues who had become very good friends, none more so than the very distinctive, Irish-born commentator - mainly on football - Conor McNamara, not to be confused with the up and coming Irish jump jockey. For this episode I caught up with Conor and found him in characteristically irrepressible form. Hope you enjoy it.

Wilson Renwick is that rarity amongst sportspeople, someone who's competed at a high level in two different sports. After being forced to retire as a successful jump jockey by injuries sustained in a race-fall just a few days before his 2016 wedding - a happy event of which, as a result, he has an only limited memory - the Hawick, Borders-born 39-year-old took advantage of the discovery that he possesses an usually high lung capacity and turned to professional cycling taking part in a string of international events around the globe. Now back in horse-racing, he's bringing to bear his own experiences of the highs and lows of race-riding to become a jockeys' agent and mentor to a growing list of clients. I think you'll find his story a compelling one: thanks for listening.  

This week's guest is Ollie Pimlott, Britain's newest professional trainer who says he will be employing "completely unique", data-driven methods - based on the idea of 'Moneyball' developed in US baseball - to prepare his twenty-two horses at Malton, North Yorkshire. The ambitious 31-year-old who's been a point-to-point trainer and rider, a sports commentator and a pundit with bookmakers William Hill has an intriguing story to tell. I hope you enjoy it.

Journeyman jump jockey-turned-Group One-winning flat trainer Ger Lyons has become one of the headline acts of the 2020 European flat racing season. Not only did Siskin present him with a first Classic win in the Irish 2000 Guineas, but that feat was quickly followed up by Even So in the Irish Oaks, both horses ridden by jockey Colin Keane - ADDITIONALLY HIS FORMER APPRENTICE EMMET MCNAMARA WON THE DERBY ON SERPENTINE. Now as Siskin is prepared for a trip to Britain for the prestigious Qatar Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood, the always engaging Lyons joins me for the latest episode of the Corneliuscast. 

Trainer Eve Johnson Houghton's pedigree is certainly gilt-edged, and in more than one field. Eve is the daughter and granddaughter of distinguished racehorse breeders and trainers but, producers of the Who Do You Think You Are? TV programme would surely salivate at parts of the family tree which include the struggle for female rights in racing and the struggle for freedom in Western Europe during WWII. 

A new jockey-star was born when Emmet McNamara steered home 25-1 shot Serpentine to victory in the Investec Derby at Epsom, a record eighth success in the race for trainer Aidan O'Brien. Now in self-imposed quarantine having travelled overseas from his home in Ireland, 30-year-old McNamara has plenty of time - between watching replays - to talk me through the remarkable all-the-way triumph. 

In Epsom's Investec Derby and Oaks week, one of flat racing's most colourful characters, jockey Martin Dwyer, winner of both the Derby (Sir Percy, 2006) and the Oaks (Casual Look, 2003), joins the Corneliuscast for a fun-packed episode talking Epsom, its Classic races and how, as a proud Evertonian, he's been practising extra social distancing measures around his Liverpool-supporting friends.

Managers of Newcastle racecourse have been celebrating a string of Royal Ascot 2020 winners prepared on their artificial track. And soon the Tapeta surface is expected to play a significant role in the story of leading contenders for the Derby at Epsom. I've been chatting to Newcastle's clerk of the course James Armstrong about the buoyant form of the newest member of British racing's once-dismissed all-weather circuit.  

I love Perth racecourse in Scotland so it was a real pleasure to chat to the track's chief executive Hazel Peplinski for the latest episode of the Corneliuscast. Perth prides itself on ‘exporting fun' to its customers, but when fixtures resume after the lockdown it'll be behind-closed-doors with no crowd to entertain. Hazel talks candidly about her fears for the business during the pandemic, but also a hoped-for brighter future. 

Having not met up with racing media colleagues for months - and, in my case, having left a high profile media job, at the BBC, in the meanwhile - I chat to Beverley, Yorkshire-born, longtime friend and colleague Marcus Townend, of the Daily Mail, about pressroom camaraderie, working life when you're not allowed to the races and his one-off race-riding experience.

Welcome to "Corneliuscast".