Seconds Out: Oli Bell's Monthly Blog

Hey everyone! Hope you’re all recovered after a brilliant day at York with Scampi on Ebor day. It was great to meet so many owners and despite the fact that my shirt ripped when I was chatting through the card just before I went on air, meeting you all was absolutely the highlight of my week.

As I said in the bar I think York Racecourse were magnificent in everything they did for RaceShare owners. The area for us all to meet and have a base, the choreography pre and post race to enable all Scampi owners to get as close to the action as possible, and the real appreciation for syndicate ownership. William Derby and his team always put on a brilliant event but it was another reminder to all of their excellent work and leaving no stone unturned for anyone.

I’ve not heard anyone complain at York. Stable staff are treated brilliantly, owners (as we saw first hand) are looked after and rewarded with superb prize money – take the Acomb, £34k to the winner in 2013, this year a cool £94k to the winner. In an era where prize money at some tracks is embarrassingly low York has consistently stood tall. Trainers, press and crucially racegoers have a brilliant experience. Whether in the main grandstand or on the Knavesmire meeting Goldream as part of the New Beginnings stand, it was a week to savour and I don’t think we can stress enough the credit William Derby and his team deserve for everything they do.

They set the benchmark and I know from speaking to stable staff and valets that at some venues it can feel like complete chalk and cheese comparatively to York, so I really urge courses to follow the York lead.

Regarding Scampi I thought he ran a huge race, my slight fear that he may get checked at crucial points of the race did play out, but my word he did us all proud.

I hope you tuned into the RaceShare preview show because if you did then hopefully it was a profitable week for you. Lydia was on fire, Ross found the Melrose winner and thankfully my tip in the first on Equilateral got on the winners’ board at a nice price. I really enjoy listening to Lydia’s insight on those shows, she really is one of the great racing brains out there and leaves no stone unturned in her preparation. I don’t know quite how she finds the time to study all the form AND keep her office greenery looking so colourful and healthy but she manages it!

It seems like we are at quite an important point of the year with a number of things both on and off track and this weekend on The Opening Show I’ll be joined by Lee Mottershead to discuss premierisation and the gambling white paper. The latter is a topic I have spoken about publicly before and I really hope a solution can be found, some of the numbers and cost to the industry make for pretty scary reading – it will be interesting to hear whether Lee has any further insight.

That’s to come on Saturday morning but before that, make sure you check out dates for the latest RaceShare stable visits, which were announced earlier in the week. They are great days out and I strongly recommend applying for them.