Racing needs us as much as we need it

Horseracing in Britain, which was suspended by coronavirus on 18 March, is due, as I write, to resume on Monday 1 June at Newcastle. Some French tracks reopened last week but Irish racegoers will have to wait until 8 June. In all cases, including the belated staging of the 2,000 and 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket on 6 and 7 June, Royal Ascot from 16 to 20 June and the Derby and Oaks at Epsom on 4 July, it will be racing behind closed doors.

Thank you, France, for the hors d’oeuvre that served as a reminder of the hot form on the Flat of jockey Pierre-Charles Boudot and, over jumps, of François Nicolle, champion trainer for a second year last year. ‘PC’ broke many English hearts when he swooped past Enable to win last year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Waldgeist and he holds the French record with 275 winners in the 2016 season. Ascot says that the Royal meeting will be open to international competitors, but just how many will make it to British racetracks in the short term remains uncertain.

It isn’t just the horses. You also go racing to see what it does to the character of your fellow mortals

Dale Gibson, a favourite of mine in his jockey days and now an impressive executive director of the Professional Jockeys Association, has told us about some of the changes involved in post-virus racing. With no access to saunas, jockeys’ weights will rise by 3lb and there will be reductions in field sizes to a maximum 12 initially (as compared with 18 in France). That will hurt those of us who favour the big-field heritage handicaps such as the Old Hunt Cup and the Wokingham as gambling mediums. Intriguingly, Dale suggested that if jockeys are restricted to one meeting a day, or face restrictions thanks to their international race-riding commitments, then the jockeys’ championship could open up to include the likes of Tom Marquand and Ben Curtis as challengers to the incumbent Oisin Murphy.