Racing Diary: Time for change of policing in UK racing

The Jockey Club that has ruled British Racing for over 250 years now looks as if it's tenure may be drawing to a close as feelings rise that an independent body should take over the policing of racing in the UK.

This follows on from the Panorama programme on the BBC a couple of weeks ago that slammed into the Jockey Club for failing to punish strongly enough certain individuals whom they considered to be 'undesirables' and the consequence of this is that the Jockey Club may be at an end.

The Jockey Club is unique in that it is a self-elected body mostly made up of the aristocracy and wealthy racing individuals many of whom give their time free to act as Stewards of British Racing.

However, though they are powerful in the world of racing they do not have that much power outside it and although they can stop certain individuals going racing by giving them bans they have struggled to gain convictions in the courts.

The call which is getting support from all sides of the industry plus the government is asking for a new independent body to be set up that will have more powers to act to police racing in the stringent way it should be policed and this can only be for the good of the game.

Here in Newmarket the rain has been falling this week and autumn has arrived with a vengeance and this means that the going is now soft for the Champions Day Meeting which started yesterday.

It's all building up to Champions Day itself tomorrow when over £1,000,000 will be up for grabs.

This is a great deal of money especially to be offered on a single day but it pales into insignificance when compared with the $15,000,000 in prize money that is available next Saturday at the Breeders Cup Meeting in Chicago.

It is a shame these two top meetings on either side of the Atlantic are so close to each other and it means that horses cannot now run in both events.

This unfortunately is Newmarket's loss as many of Europe's top horses will now elect to fly to the USA for the massive prizes next week at Arlington.

The £400,000 Dubai Champion Stakes, which is the highlight of tomorrow's race meeting, doesn't look to be brimming with superstars especially now that Sakhee, winner of last year's Prix de L'arc de Triomphe, has been retired to stud and Nayef, last year's winner, is also a non-runner having started coughing.

And while Sakhee will now stand at his stud at Thetford with a fee of £20,000 it is unclear whether Nayef will travel to Dubai to stay in training or become a stallion himself.

Either way it means this year's Champion stakes is wide open and there is a strong word here in Newmarket for Henry Cecil's Burning Sun who has been burning up the gallops.

Also on Saturday the other main highlight is the Darley Dewhurst Stakes,the big race of the year here in Europe for the two-year-olds,and two of the major contenders here look to be Trade Fair and Desert Star.

It wouldn't surprise me if Desert Star came home in front and gave Her Majesty a chance of classic success in 2003.