YOU are a progressive National Hunt trainer (most the trainers in the country are!). You got that breakthrough Cheltenham Festival winner this year. Take it easy now during the summer?

Gavin Cromwell is a multiple Grade 1 winner at the National Hunt Festival, Peter Fahey got his winner there two years ago. John McConnell joined him on that scoreboard this year.

But so much for having a quieter time over the summer.

In the last 12 days, Peter Fahey saddled winners at Roscommon, Tipperary, Bellewstown, Sligo and Tramore in the days from Thursday week to Tuesday. Nineteen runners over that period brought those five winners.

A quick Google Maps calculation makes that a 214km round-trip from Monasterevin to Bellewstown on Saturday, followed by 374km to Sligo and back Sunday, and another 282km to Tramore on Tuesday.

Gavin Cromwell’s ‘travel department’ saw off 30 runners from Thursday week up to Tramore last Tuesday and that included a trip to Pontefract to pick up a listed race on Tuesday.

John McConnell sent out 34 runners over the meetings from Bellewstown on last Thursday to Tramore on Tuesday, including two at Perth last Thursday. Five winners in that spell but it’s some amount of preparation and execution by those trainers to keep those constantly wheels turning.

Who said the summer was for holidays?

ANYBODY got any good news? Just when we had survived another week of bad news stories in the main media coverage, we got hit by a sideswipe that TV racing coverage in Ireland could be seriously hit by drastic restrictions proposed in the new Gambling Regulation Bill.

It’s one of my bugbears that the majority of those from the betting side of the sport seem to think that the main purpose of racing is for gambling.

Similiar to most people, my early exposure to racing came hand in hand with the knowledge that it was a means of winning money through watching and learing to be used at the bookies.

But the was always a slightly dodgy side. The clientele you found in betting shops generally included the ‘boyos’ you were told never to take a lift from nor sit beside in a pub. Gambling never had a good profile. Yet, over the course of the years, stories of great wins and losses make up a huge allure of the sport. And that’s before you add in the most vital financial contribution. Racing is an industry, a sport and a huge means of entertainment. A great deal of the entertainment comes from betting.

Those no-go betting shops of old are no longer a disincentive with 24-hour opportunities on your phone. Personal responsiblilty and stringent controls by online bookmakers are needed but imposing such punishment on the many for the failings of the few is over the top.

The proposed long period of no betting advertising is over the top. Despite having phones at the ready, most people are working between 9am and 5pm and surely opportunities are limited. How much damage does alcohol advertising cause?

Any intention to limit betting coverage on specialist racing channels between 5.30am to 9pm, which would effectively block those broadcasts in Ireland, is madness.

WE hear numerous times in breeding publications that the desire for speedy horses is ruining the thoroughbred breed.

With that in mind, the mating of the brilliant Oaks and King George winner Tagrooda with the triple Group 1-winning, six-furlong sprinter Muhaarar might not have been received well in many quarters.

Yet, as thoroughbred breeding eternally teaches us, there is no fixed formula for success.

Israr is the offspring of the Oaks and the July Cup winner, and he made his first major impact on the racing scene at Newmarket on Thursday when the Gosdens-trained colt lowered the colours of the 2021 Derby winner and 1/3 favourite Adayar - but over a mile and a half as a four-year-old. There’s your speed influence for you.

In the post-race interviews Gosden said it was “age, maturity” that brought about the improvement.

This is the second colt from the Gosden yard who has belatedly hit the big time, Mostahdaf reaching new heights as a five-year-old in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot. It will be interesting to see the path taken by Thursday’s winner, given he should be an attractive stallion prospect.

WITH only 19 entries left in two weeks ago, it always looked as if the Darley July Cup might produce a small field. Today’s nine is the smallest field in the last 10 years . It had 10 in 2017 and the last five runnings had fields of 13, 12, 12, 19 and 13. For an all-aged Group 1 it contains six Group 1 winners.

If the class feels a bit less than usual, the Commonwealth Cup three-year-old rematch gives it its big interest.

Shaquille is progressive but can Little Big Bear gain revenge? Certainly on his win at Haydock before Ascot, the current odds of 4/1 could not have been expected. No doubt the markets will tell the story as with the confidence behind Paddington last week.

But the forecast rain could swing things more towards the dual Group 1 winner Kinross who was disappointing on the good to firm at Royal Ascot. Available at 5s at the time of writing, he may be a more reliable bet.