Seconds Out: Oli's latest monthly blog

Hello RaceSharers, I am writing this after a brutal defeat in the annual cricket match at Goodwood between the Racing XI (Lord March XI) and the Lords Taverners. This year I was honoured to be made captain due to our regular skipper Johnno Spence being on the sidelines with an arm injury. We had lost the last two renewals but that’s unsurprising when you look at their team sheet wxhich is a who's who of former cricketing greats. This year was no different with Monty Panesar making his Taverners debut. Having won the toss I decided to field first and I must say our bowling attack which featured racehorse trainers Nick Gifford and Billy Knight did not let us down. They were superb, containing the Taverners to a score of 141 which was, compared to recent scores, eminently gettable.

Our innings started off impressively with racing journalist Steve Jones playing some gorgeous cover drives and looking very assured. I was batting at 4 and joined Steve in the middle hitting Monty for a few fours before being caught on the boundary off the bowling of Andy Caddick, but at this stage we were comfortably ahead of the run rate and had plenty of wickets in hand. And then, the inevitable happened. The collapse. Think Devon Loch in the National, Jean Van De Velde in the Open, for the Racing XI, this was one of sports' worst bottle jobs. We needed 25 runs, off 7 overs with 7 wickets in hand. The taverners took the 7 wickets for 11 runs. You could hear a pin drop in the Racing XI dressing room after the match. Marcus Armytage, former Grand National winning jockey and Telegraph journalist admirably tried to lighten the mood but there were some glum faces. Despite the result it's such a fun way to round off Day One of the Glorious meeting and a real treat to play with some cricketing legends. The match raises money for the Lords Taverners and is played in honour of former racing and sports journalist Alan Lee who I’m sure would be very proud of the game, but probably less proud of our batting efforts. It adds fuel to the fire for next year!

Outside of playing cricket and watching Goodwood, I’m sure like many of you I have been glued to the Olympics watching sports that I didn’t know existed and becoming an overnight expert in all of them. It’s amazing the dedication and commitment needed to compete at the Olympics, let alone medal so a huge big up to all of the athletes taking part. I’ll see you all again in four years!

Back to the racing, after all, that’s why we are all here and I had a really interesting chat on The Opening Show with Ralph Beckett ahead of Bluestocking's run in the King George. Outside of discussing the horses chances in the race (she ran a blinder) I asked Ralph his thoughts on the leadership vacuum that racing is currently faced with. For those unaware, there are a number of high profile leadership roles that need filling with the likes of Julie Harrington stepping down as BHA CEO, Nevin Truesdale leaving his role at the jockey club, Martin Stephenson and Rod Street likewise at RMG and GBR respectively. Ralph put forward former MP Conor McGinn as someone who would suit the role of BHA Chairman and suggested that whoever took over as BHA CEO had a real understanding of the sport. My personal view is that whoever takes over at the BHA needs to be visible, strong and make decisions with the long term interests of the sport in mind. We also don’t need survey after survey, if racing is to succeed and drive forward then action is needed not research. We know from numbers readily available that young people are spending their time and money on other pursuits and therefore we need to implement changes - and soon - in order to attract new faces into the sport. In my next blog, I will write about my recommendations for what needs to happen...Who knows, maybe some of those ideas will land!

Good luck with all your bets and remember to wear sun cream in this heat! It finally feels like summer has arrived. See you all soon.