Unforgettable Stories

Alastair produced a brilliant piece, one of the best he ever wrote, and it caused him no end of grief. A lot of people who were very close to him felt he had let them down.

Chosen by Alan Byrne

Alastair Down on Red Marauder’s National

Covid shutdown

As Cheltenham week went on, the crowd thinned out, the town thinned out and many of our Irish colleagues caught flights back home. Only a few days after that, racing was stopped in Britain and Ireland and we took the decision to pause the newspaper and furlough 80 per cent of our staff, with no certainty about what would come next.

Chosen by Tom Kerr

Rachael Blackmore’s historic Cheltenham and Grand National

I think Rachael Blackmore's achievement is twofold. First, she is a truly amazing jockey who smashed barriers. Second, no female jockey now has to be the one doing these things for the first time.

Chosen by Tom Kerr

The rise and fall of Phoenix

Over a sequence of months we built a case that showed the accusation he [Phoenix Thoroughbreds founder Amer Abdulaziz Salman] was a money launderer was clearly backed by evidence. It took months for racing governing bodies to take any action, which I thought was astonishing. It was a global scandal in which $4 billion had been stolen off victims but the sport seemed quite happy to allow Abdulaziz to continue as an owner. He is currently serving his time in prison, so the story has a full narrative sweep.

Chosen by Tom Kerr - Racing Post editor since 2018

The Queen's death was felt incredibly keenly by everyone in racing. We knew when she passed we had to do her memory justice. We produced what I think is still one of our finest publications, remembering her contribution to the sport and her role as racing's greatest supporter. It was a very poignant moment for the sport and for the nation. We played a small part in that.

The death of the Queen

Chosen by Tom Kerr

From the moment it started, I was welling up. After I reached the end, I had to sit in my office for three minutes because I had tears in my eyes.

Steve Dennis pays tribute to Denman

Chosen by Bruce Millington

Alastair Down pays tribute to Sir Henry Cecil

With Alastair, you always had high expectations. He didn't always meet them but there were times when he didn't just meet them, he exceeded them. His piece on Henry Cecil was astonishing.

Chosen by Bruce Millington

On the Sunday morning I rang Marcus, thinking there was no chance I would be able to get through to him, but he answered and said, 'Hello, Michael, how are you?' as cool as a cucumber. He told me the piece was nearly written and then it arrived half an hour later. It was an absolutely brilliant fence-by-fence description.

How I won the Grand National by Marcus Armytage

Chosen by Michael Harris - Racing Post editor 1988-1993

A newspaper office is one of the best places to watch an unfolding sporting drama but on that day we had to keep ripping up our plans and trying to get a grip on what was happening.

Frankie and the magnificent seven

Chosen by Alan Byrne

I remember being in a nightclub following a dinner and chatting with Peter Savill. A succession of people came up to him and told him how dreadful the Racing Post had been. 'Well, tell him,' he kept telling them, pointing to me.

Sad Mad Bad

Chosen by Alan Byrne - Racing Post editor 1993-2002

In Britain the default was we needed to keep racing going. In Ireland they took a very different view and felt racing needed to stop and show solidarity with the farming community. We thought foot and mouth and, subsequent to that, equine flu were the biggest disasters that could befall horseracing - but then along came Covid.

Cheltenham off due to foot and mouth

Chosen by Alan Byrne

A lot of people thought stable staff got a raw deal. I thought it would be a good idea to run a campaign to try to get them a better deal and David Ashforth was the obvious person to front it. I got a lot of flak from trainers and owners. I remember being at Tattersalls and being accosted by trainer after trainer.

Fair deal for stable staff

Chosen by Chris Smith

A very well-informed source told me Red Lancer was not going to win that afternoon. We watched the race in the office and saw the horse come out of the stalls lengths behind the other horses. We ran a front-page story about it and it ended in disciplinary action being taken.

The Red Lancer controversy

Chosen by Chris Smith

It was a seismic change. A lot of people in the Jockey Club in those days were considered to be arrogant but Stoker (Hartington) had not a hint of arrogance about him. He and Tristram Ricketts were a great team.

The BHB takes over

Chosen by Michael Harris

When I became editor I wanted to develop reader participation. The BBC had carried out a poll about 100 sporting greats and I thought we could do the same for racing. Most people expected Lester Piggott to win but Vincent O'Brien got the most votes.

Vincent O’Brien was ‘THE GREATEST’

Chosen by Chris Smith - Racing Post editor 2002-2007

In my memory it's very personal. Every year we used to have a loud and boozy Grand National party at home. That year I became more and more upset about what had happened. When we all knew it had been a false start, one of the lads looked at me and said, 'Come on, Mike, you're in a position of authority. Do something'.

The abandoned Grand National of 1993

Chosen by Michael Harris

I am still a huge fan of Lester Piggott and his Breeders' Cup success was a magnificent event.

The return of Lester Piggott

Chosen by Michael Harris

You could send David into a phone box, ask him to sit inside it all day and write something about it - and it would be incredible. The body of work he did in that courtroom was amazing journalism.

David Ashforth on the Kieren Fallon trial

Chosen by Bruce Millington - Racing Post editor 2007-2018