Criticism of Oisin Murphy for his losing Goodwood ride is undeserved

I doubt there are too many people in the world who have watched more horse races than me. I still love getting up on a morning and watching as many races as I can from the previous day on the Racing Post website.

However, in terms of actual time, I reckon I spend more hours with the road cycling on the television these days and it's amazing how much you can learn from studying other sports. 

For example, last Tuesday the default position from almost everyone was that Tom Marquand had committed equine robbery in the Goodwood Cup and that Oisin Murphy in particular should have been much more proactive and started chasing on Coltrane much earlier.

Now, don't get me wrong, as a group the other jockeys did let Quickthorn have far too much rope, but anyone who has ever watched a cycling race will know that the person who commits first to chase down the lone leader never wins. That was the position Murphy found himself in on Coltrane and I reckon if he had committed too soon into the wind he would have finished out of the frame and not third as he did.

Ryan Moore played the perfect game of chicken and he did what all the top cyclists do in that he was prepared to let Quickthorn go in the hope that one of the other jockeys went too soon and dragged his filly, Emily Dickinson, up to Quickthorn without having to do any work herself.

What I'm trying to say is that it's easy as armchair jockeys to say they should have done this or that, but if Murphy had gone after Quickthorn earlier I have no doubt he would have massively lessened his chances of winning and severely enhanced the chances of those who sat in behind.

Quickthorn and Tom Marquand complete a remarkable victory in the Goodwood CupCredit: Edward Whitaker

As it happened none of them won and the lone breakaway leader held on, so it can certainly be argued that as a group the jockeys didn't do themselves any favours, but apportioning most of the blame to Murphy just because he was the closest one was simply plain wrong. If anything his ride assisted the finishing position of Coltrane rather than diminishing it.

In cycling what often happens is that a teammate of the chosen one is tasked with bringing back the runaway leader and I wonder whether that is why Coolmore often opt to run loads in any given race. They don't always get it right and in hindsight I reckon they would have ridden Broome much more proactively last week and sent him after Quickthorn in order to help out Emily Dickinson.

In general, though, and It's not often talked about, but having lots of teammates in any given race is surely a massive help to any given stable. Not only does it give the trainer more chances of winning but more importantly it gives them so many more tactical options as well.

Worrying trend for British-trained two-year-olds

I can't be totally sure because things can change quickly, but there has to be a good chance that the British obsession with the here-and-now two-year-olds is coming home to roost. For the past decade or so the fashion has been for sprint sires and a good few juveniles with dodgy pedigrees are packed off to stud before they've achieved anything. They then breed lots and lots of cheapish horses, who are designed to be ready to run straight away.

Personally, I think it's been a disaster for the quality of British horses in general, and without Godolphin, Shadwell and Juddmonte, I think we would be well behind the French, Irish, Germans and Japanese in terms of quality.

There is a strong argument for suggesting we already are with the French winning nearly all of their home Group 1s for the first time in ages, while this season the standard of British two-year-olds has been as low as I can ever remember. Bar the shock winner of the Windsor Caste, the only non-Group race at Royal Ascot, all the other races went to Ireland or America.

At Goodwood last week I thought the juvenile races were as bad as I could ever remember, while a quick glance at the ante-post markets for next year's Guineas are a sorry tale for British-trained horses.

Richard Hannon's Rosallion provides some hope as he looked really good at Ascot and no doubt the Gosdens and Charlie Appleby will have some rockets to unleash in the near future. However, at this stage, I don't think the future for the quality of the British thoroughbred is that bright and I won't be going out and buying any shades any time soon.

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