Gone is the policy of buying horses in training. In their place is a cluster of unraced youngsters and the long road to the racecourse. Diamond Harry, whom Williams bought two years ago, was having only the fourth run of his life. The Cheltenham Festival now beckons this giant slab of an old-fashioned store.

That Williams, 52, eschews fashion is plain from his unconventional attire. Trinny and Susannah could make hay at his expense, yet it suits him well. This is a man who started young before taking a 15-year break from training. He earned both the money and the right to do it his way when he came back.

Even now, this bluff, engaging character remains a practising accountant with an upper limit of 16 horses. More horses bring problems of the kind that would drive this highly-strung individual to despair. A nine-hour drive wasn’t the sole reason for his collapse in the racecourse stables at Aintree two years ago.

Even with 16, he offered, two of mine clashed in a race at Fontwell recently because it was their only opportunity. There are a lot of political issues within racing that upset me. I find it insulting that we are asked to race for a few hundred quid, so I’d rather concentrate on quality. Mind you, not that I have an abundance of that at the moment.

You would have thought that two jobs were enough for one man. Yet Williams feels so strongly about racing’s ills that he once applied for the post as chairman of the British Horseracing Authority. I’m a chartered accountant and a trainer, he chuckled at the memory, but I didn’t even get an interview.

To Williams, nothing is as welcome as a clean slate with which to work. Hence the decision to concentrate on young horses which, in his words, no one has had the chance to muck up.

The only horses that become stars are the ones you nurture from the start, he said. Breaking and feeding them properly, monitoring their bone structure - we do it all our own way. The more he talks, the more apparent it becomes that he treats every horse as though it were a Gold Cup winner in the making. This is surely a fast-track to disappointment.

Better that then spending ages trying to sort out a horse’s problems when it comes to us, he replied. There’s invariably a reason why someone sells a horse in training. Diamond Harry follows on from Williams’ best season last term, and if further vindication of his approach is required, Reve De Sivola provides it. Bought as a yearling in France, the three-year-old advanced significantly from his debut to run an eye-catching third at Cheltenham in the strongest juvenile hurdle of the campaign so far.

Good races have not eluded the stable, which is a family-run affair. One of Williams and his wife, Jane, usually oversees evening stables while the other tots up the figures at the accountancy firm in which they are both partners.

Husband, wife and two children take care of most of the riding out, although Williams may be permanently grounded after breaking his leg in August.

I’ve had so many injuries that I never seem to be sound these days, he said. In the mornings either Jane or I will ride the important lots to see the horses close up, but I’m beginning to like the idea of staying in one piece for a bit.

Jane has been aboard Diamond Harry most mornings as the big horse continues his climb through the ranks. He will probably run twice more before the Festival, where he will endeavour to break the Williams duck. However, the best will only be seen of him when he tackles fences in due course.

There is a misconception that we have underraced Diamond Harry, Williams said, but all the really good horses don’t take much racing. And I want to win those big races: Gold Cups, Champion Hurdles, Grand Nationals - all with different horses and at different times.

It’s a lot to ask, but then Williams is no shrinking violet in the self-belief stakes. In Diamond Harry, he might just have the horse to make a start.

Of course, we were not voicing such thoughts during the summer, when every Flat race worth winning seemed to be exported either by Aidan O’Brien or Jim Bolger. But that was in another time and, effectively, a different sport. Only now, with the advance of the jumps code that enchants the Irish in a way the Flat has never done, can the depth of the worry lines be seen clearly.

Financially, Irish racing is close to crisis, a situation their administrators at Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) sought to address at a board meeting yesterday. And it is not as if there is consolation to be found in the horses. For the first time in many years, the jumping stocks of Ireland look markedly inferior to their British rivals.

Until now, there have been many reasons to envy Irish racing, paramount among them the financial underpinning of the sport at government level. The sums were not only significant - 76 million (about 64 million) this year - but apparently secure. Unlike their British counterparts, the Irish parliament valued their racing industry - and unashamedly enjoyed it to the full.
As a result, prize-money soared to levels that could only be dreamed about in Britain. With corporate sponsorship similarly plentiful, there were ample incentives for new racehorse owners - and no incentive at all to do as the Irish had traditionally done, sell their best horses to Britain.

The golden era brought rich rewards. Racing became a destination, an aspiration. Horses such as Kicking King, War Of Attrition, Hardy Eustace and Brave Inca attracted vast followings as they picked off the elite Cheltenham prizes. But that was then. The here and now is starkly different.

Funding has been drastically cut by a government that also intends to double betting tax to 2 per cent. The ramifications are so alarming that HRI seems in a state of shock. Reductions in prize-money and fixtures could be a short-term remedy but the malaise runs deep - times were so good that it appears nobody thought to adopt the rainy day policy of prudence.

The Irish might find this easier to bear if they had a champion horse or two. But at Cheltenham in March they drew a blank in the four feature races and then, still more mortifying, they also conceded all the comparable events at their own Punchestown Festival.

The sense of panic over monetary matters is now matched by that over the dearth of top-class Irish chasers. For the first time in recent years, there was not one Irish runner in the Paddy Power Gold Cup last Saturday and graded chases within Ireland customarily attract a mere handful of familiar names.

Only War Of Attrition features at shorter than 50-1 in betting for the King George or Gold Cup and the bareness of the Irish cupboard is encouraging Paul Nicholls to dispatch more of his chasers to mop up what remains of the Celtic Tiger wealth.

And the thing is that none of this is to be celebrated. Smugness is utterly inappropriate. For if March comes around and Irish racing has sunk deeper into the doldrums, the Festival will be only half the event.

Sunday racing can work. More than 16,000 people at Cheltenham this week were happy proof of that, as were the family-orientated full houses at such summer venues as Chester and Perth. But one fact remains unarguable - it is not fulfilling its original aim in Britain, because far too much of it is mediocre to the point of unwatchable.

This was one of several reasons to feel depressed, last week, at news that racing had scrapped its plan to leave four Sundays blank in 2009 and instead filled them with the usual meagre and unmemorable fare.

A lot of research had gone into the fixture furlough. It formed one of the principal planks of the extensive fixture review and was amply justified on the grounds that it gave the certainty of a few free Sundays to jockeys, trainers, stable staff and everyone else connected with the running of horses.

Not allowed, apparently. The bookmakers were having none of it.

As if they do not have enough betting products, from the exotic to the barely believable, to keep their shop customers happy, they kicked up such a fuss about racing’s attempts to take four days a year off that it put the entire levy deal at risk.

It seems that the British Horseracing Authority was in a cleft stick. Stay true to its principles - and to the wishes of its constituents - and the certainty of future funding collapses. Extraordinarily, the betting industry still has this hold over racing. Shamefully, it still chooses to use it selfishly.

We will not notice any difference next year, with the usual endless run of largely anonymous Sunday meetings. But plenty who work in racing might just have appreciated the difference if a worthy initiative had not been held to ransom.

The 3-10 favorite in a field of eight in the 1 1/4-mile Group 2 contest, Viva Pataca, trained by John Moore, never had an anxious moment under a patient ride from Darren Beadman and easily held off the hard-ridden Hawkes Bay for the victory. The winning time on good ground was 2:02.41.

At Kyoto on Sunday, Little Amapola scored a 12-1 upset in the $2.8 million Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup, defeating the 4-5 favorite, Kawakami Princess, by 1 1/2 lengths, traveling the 1 3/8 miles of the Grade 1 event in 2:12.10.

* The Hungarian-trained Overdose, whose win in the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp was declared void after a false start on Oct. 5, made it 11 for 11 lifetime with a 10-length victory in the Group 3 Premio Carlo and Francisco Aloisi at the Capannelle in Rome on Sunday. Making his first start since the Longchamp fiasco, the 1-2 Overdose, a British-bred Sandor Ribarszki trainee, sped the six furlongs on heavy ground in 1:10.00 while carrying 142 pounds.

A daughter of Zamindar trained by Alain de Royer-Dupre for her breeder/owner, the Aga Khan, Zarkava won three Group 1 races this season besides the Arc: the Prix Vermeille, the French Oaks and the French 1000 Guineas, triumphs that garnered her the 3-year-old filly title as well. Christophe Soumillon rode Zarkava in all seven of her career victories.

New Approach, trained by Jim Bolger to win the Epsom Derby and both Newmarket’s Champion Stakes and Leopardstown’s Irish Champion Stakes, was named Cartier’s champion 3-year-old colt. Five-time Group 1 winner Duke of Marmalade took the older horse crown, while his Aidan O’Brien-trained stablemate Yeats was named champion stayer after having won the Ascot Gold Cup for the third time. O’Brien completed a Cartier hat trick as Mastercraftsman took the 2-year-old colt title.

George Strawbridge’s undefeated Group 1 Fillies Mile winner Rainbow View, trained by John Gosden, landed the juvenile filly title, while the Freddy Head-trained Marchand d’Or was awarded the sprint crown for his three Group 1 victories.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum was named the winner of the Cartier/Daily Telegraph Award of Merit.

The Cartier Awards are determined by a combination of points achieved in group races plus votes from both racing journalists and readers of Britain’s Daily Telegraph and Racing Post. The official European Thoroughbred championships will be announced in January as part of the year-end World Thoroughbred Racehorse Ratings.

The complicated ownership dispute focuses on a 20 percent interest of the reigning Horse of the Year controlled by William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr. The two disbarred lawyers have been ordered to sell their interest in Curlin to satisfy a $42 million civil judgment won against them by clients they were accused of bilking in a settlement over the diet drug fen-phen.

Circuit judge Roger Crittenden is trying to sort out whether their share of the horse should be sold back to Jackson, who owns the other 80 percent, and for how much. He could rule as early as Dec. 1, when the parties will next appear in court.

A company owned by Jackson has bid $4 million to buy out the remaining shares, and bloodstock appraiser Ric Waldman testified Monday he believed that was fair market value and that the sale should go through.

But Andre Regard, a lawyer for Cunningham and Gallion, said the price was far too low for one of the most successful racehorses of the modern era. He said Jackson had been responsible for driving down the value by failing to clarify when the horse would be retired to stud.

How does anybody bid on something if they havent retired him? Regard said. If youre going to lay out money, you want to know youre going to get some kind of return for your money now.

On Sunday, Jackson issued a statement announcing that Curlin would be retired to the breeding shed next year, perhaps after running one last race. It wasnt clear whether the horses future home would be at Stonestreet Farms, owned by Jackson, or a prominent breeding operation elsewhere.

Waldman said he put a $30 million value on Curlin over the summer but scaled back his numbers due to the economic downturn that has led to sagging thoroughbred prices.

His $20 million estimate assumes Curlin will be sent to 120 mares next year and command a stud fee of $75,000. Those numbers would drop to 80 mares and $50,000 by year four, he said.

Regard said those figures arent consistent with top horses considered to be in the peer group of Curlin, whose racing career skyrocketed after his third-place finish in last years Kentucky Derbyincluding a victory in that years Breeders Cup Classic.

Derby winner Street Sense went to 157 mares this year, and runner-up Hard Spun went to 181, Regard said.

This years Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown, one of the challengers to Curlins attempts to repeat his title as Horse of the Year, sold to Three Chimneys Farm in Lexington for $50 million. That was before the horse pulled up and finished last in the Belmont. The farm has since set Big Browns stud fee at $65,000 next year.

Curlins minority share was first attempted to be sold through a sealed bid process conducted by Keeneland. While it generated two bids, one of which from an undisclosed major breeding operation, Waldman said neither was deemed acceptable.

Regard said a public auction would have generated a far better bid, citing the record $14 million paid for broodmare of the year Better Than Honour at Fasig-Tipton earlier this month. But Waldman said it was unusual for a share of a champion stallion to be sold publicly and that doing so could risk a lower price than through a private bidding process.

Waldman said if he were using his own money, he wouldnt place Curlins value at even the $20 million he had appraised. While the stallions that produce instant racing stars can produce a fortune, the vast majority see their value plummet after four years.

Ive had it said to me by a very reputable farm that if he had Curlin today, he would have stood him for $50,000, Waldman said.

Gallion and Cunningham bought Curlin for $57,000 in 2004 through their Midnight Cry Stables. They sold the majority interest the following year to a group led by Jackson, founder of the Kendall-Jackson wine company. He has since bought out the other investors.

Gallion and Cunningham face a criminal fraud trial over the $200 million fen-phen settlement. Their first trial ended in July when the jury could not reach a verdict.

The brilliant 3-year-old owned by the Aga Khan won all five of her starts this year, capped by a two-length victory in the Arc against Europes best middle-distance horses.

Zarkava won the award over Breeders Cup Classic winner Ravens Pass, English Derby winner New Approach, five-time Group 1 winner Duke of Marmalade and four-time Group 1 winner and Classic runner-up Henrythenavigator.

Recently retired from racing, the versatile Zarkava was a perfect 7-for-7 during her career, which included wins ranging in distance from a mile to 1 1/2 miles.

Zarkava also was chosen top 3-year-old filly, ahead of Breeders Cup Mile winner Goldikova, Lush Lashes, Halfway To Heaven and Natagora. New Approach was the Cartier winner in the 3-year-old colt category.

Other winners were Duke of Marmalade (Older Horse); Yeats (Champion Stayer), Marchand Dor (Sprinter), Mastercraftsman (2-year-old Colt) and Rainbow View (2-year-old Filly).

The awards were determined by a points system, and media and fan voting.

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Keeneland sale receipts down 45 percent.

Receipts for this years November Breeding Stock Sale at Keeneland have dropped more than 45 percent from last year.
The sale ended Monday, and officials say 3,019 horses sold for $185,552,300, down 45.6 percent from last years record $340,877,200 for 3,381 horses. The average of $61,462 was a decline of 39 percent from $100,821 in 2007.

Keeneland sales director Geoffrey Russell says the lower prices were expected due to overproduction, a situation made worse by the worldwide financial crisis. He says considering the current economic climate, the Keeneland sale was actually solid.

Sales during Mondays final session were down 1.4 percent from a year ago, with the average down 25 percent.

The filly, Nin, began displaying symptoms of equine herpesvirus, which attacks a horse’s neurological system, on Wednesday. Although she had difficulty standing on Wednesday, she was back on her feet on Thursday. Her condition worsened over the weekend, however, according to the officials.

The barn where the filly was stabled is currently under a hold order, and no horses are being allowed to ship into or out of Laurel Park because of concerns about the disease.

Maryland agriculture officials said that as of Monday, five of the 25 remaining horses in the barn have tested negative, and that the other 20 results are pending. In addition, the 31 Laurel-based lead ponies - who mingle with more horses on the grounds than any others - have tested negative.

Laurel has been placed under restrictions three other times in the past two years because of concerns over equine herpesvirus.

The supreme stylist of jump racing could be out until after Christmas after having his spleen removed on Saturday evening. Walsh, who was kicked by a following horse after a fall in a hurdle race, must once more surrender his rides on the most coveted chasers in Britain to Sam Thomas, who resumed his role as the privileged deputy with immediate success aboard Tatenen yesterday.

Paul Nicholls, the champion trainer, portrayed a mix of anxiety and frustration, concern for his stricken jockey combined with bewilderment that Cheltenham’s first big day of winter had tormented him again. This time, though thankfully free of the fatalities that blighted Paddy Power Gold Cup day for him last year, Nicholls endured five beaten favourites on Saturday in addition to the loss of Walsh.

The nature of Walsh’s injuries were not immediately evident after his fall from Pride Of Dulcote but the course doctors referred him to Cheltenham General Hospital, where surgery was performed within hours. Other jockeys, including Paul Carberry, have needed several months to return from such treatment and Walsh’s first feasible target - just as it was after his shoulder injuries a year ago - will be the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day.
Nicholls insisted that the rides on Kauto Star, Big Buck’s and Master Minded, over the next three Saturdays, will go to Thomas. I don’t care if some owners have other ideas, Sam is my number two jockey and he responded brilliantly when the same thing happened a year ago, Nicholls said. The difficulty for him is that he’s been back in the shadows since winning the Gold Cup, so a winner today will do his confidence good.

Thomas, who won the Betfair Chase, Hennessy Gold Cup and Tingle Creek Chase in successive weeks when standing in for Walsh last season, was calmness personified as he surveyed his fortune. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to it, he said. It’s extraordinary the way it’s happened at the same time as last year but I hope for Ruby’s sake it’s not as severe this time.

After the momentum I’d built up last season, it has felt pretty quiet lately but that is the nature of the job I have. I’m very sorry for Ruby but I have to take my chance again now - and, as Paul told me today, the only pressure I’ve got is what I put on myself.

Thomas gave a positive ride to Tatenen, who reinforced his position as favourite for the Arkle Chase in annihilating Straw Bear. Most bookmakers have halved his price to 5-2 for the Festival novice and Nicholls hopes to plunder more euros in Ireland first. I think we’ll take him to Leopardstown on Boxing Day, he said.

The Irish may grow heartily sick of Nicholls sending his chasers over this season but the hurdling divisions are a different matter. The most significant hurdle race of the weekend was run at Punchestown yesterday, with Hardy Eustace belying age, odds and logic in turning over three far younger pretenders to the Champion Hurdle.

Paddy Flood, riding the 11-year-old for the first time, drove him back to the front when Sizing Europe went from cruising to crawling, just as he had at Cheltenham in March. Remarkably, some bookmakers shortened Sizing Europe for the Champion after what must count as another disappointment.

The same applies to Jered, who looked laboured in third. Tony McCoy had been tempted to fly out and ride him for his boss, J.P. McManus, but instead stayed at Cheltenham for Straw Bear and Aigle D’Or, who emerged with huge credit from a head defeat by Numide in the Greatwood Handicap Hurdle that brought four-day bans for both McCoy and Jamie Moore.

Nicky Henderson, who also trains the Champion Hurdle favourite, Binocular, for McManus, will now look for a two-and-a-half mile race for Aigle D’Or. Henderson was later understandably emotional as Punchestowns sauntered home impressively for the widow of his great friend Lynn Wilson, who was killed in a car crash in July.

We’d like to bring him back here, because he’s obviously very good around Cheltenham, Twiston-Davies said yesterday. We’ll know on Tuesday what the handicapper has done to him and, as he won by less than three lengths, we hope he won’t be too severe.

Twiston-Davies, who has only twice run Imperial Commander away from his beloved Cheltenham, was relieved when the horse trotted up sound yesterday. He had some growing pains in his joints which made us stop with him halfway through last season, he explained. But he’s still improving and we have to think of all the big races now.

Paddy Brennan exploited Imperial Commander’s stamina and slick jumping, going to the front a mile from home in a hotly competitive race. He never looked like being caught and Brennan called him the best chaser I’ve ridden. He added: Time may prove he was thrown in at the weights but he’s done the job very well.

One man not forgotten amid the celebrating was Tony Evans, who retained the ride on Imperial Commander even when usurped by Brennan as stable jockey last season. Evans has now retired after suffering arm injuries in a car crash but he was present on Saturday in the winner’s enclosure. They can probably thank me, he said wryly. He wouldn’t be so well handicapped if they’d had someone decent on him before.

As Twiston-Davies’s bandwagon rolled on - away from Cheltenham, he won the Southern National at Fontwell yesterday - certain notable stables are not in such heady form. David Pipe, whose father Martin regularly farmed a handful of prizes at this meeting, emerged from a bleak weekend smiling when Pablo Du Charmil won a valuable two-mile chase yesterday.

Pipe, who scratched the Greatwood Hurdle favourite, Ashkazar, overnight, admitted that relief was the prominent emotion. He had endured a number of below-par runs capped by the forlorn return of the Grand National winner, Comply Or Die, who was pulled up on Saturday. Timmy thought he was taking the micky and we may put blinkers back on, but I still thought he would run a lot better than that, Pipe said.

Joe Lively, a wide-margin winner of that race, will be aimed at the Grand National this season by his trainer, Colin Tizzard. His next stop could be the Welsh National at Chepstow after Christmas.

Ridden by Tyler Baze, Evita Argentina covered seven furlongs in 1:21.80 and paid $14.80, $5.80 and $3.40.

Mi Chiamano Mimi returned $3.40 and $2.60, and Palacio de Amor paid $3.60.

Evita Argentina was 11th entering the far turn and only had three fillies behind her when she headed for home.

Me and this filly click, Baze said. Shes straightforward and gives you what shes got. They were going fast and this filly was cool as a cucumber. Shes special to me and I really love her. Shes just awesome.

The victory, worth $71,100, increased Evita Argentinas career earnings to $204,900, with three wins in five starts.

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National Pride wins Big As Pass the Tab Stakes.

National Pride beat Vacation by a nose Sunday in the $74,900 Pass the Tab Stakes for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct.
The chestnut colt improved to 4-for-6 with his first stakes victory. Eibar Coa was aboard for trainer Saeed bin Suroor as National Pride, the 8-5 favorite, paid $5.50, $2.80 and $2.30. Vacation returned $4.30 and $2.80. Z Humor paid $2.80 to show.

Time was 1:37.48 for the one mile. The race, originally scheduled for the turf, was shifted to the main track rated good.

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Good Night Shirt defends steeplechase title.

Good Night Shirt completed a perfect season by winning the Colonial Cup Steeplechase for the second year in a row on Sunday.
The 7-year-old Good Night Shirt edged Preemptive Strike by a neck to run his record to 5-for-5 in 2008. The win all but assured Good Night Shirt a second straight steeplechase championship.

Good Night Shirt trailed the field early in the 2 3/4-mile, 17-fence race, but started closing in on the 10-year-old Preemptive Strike on the turn for home. As the field reached the next-to-last fence, jockey Willie Dowling started to make his move, taking Good Night Shirt to the inside, closing the gap to about two lengths.

Preemptive Strike would keep a slim lead at the last fence and held it down the stretch run. Dowling used an outside-inside move and was able to overtake the race leader and jockey Jody Petty at the wire.

I thought, jumping the last (fence) that Preemptive Strike had me. I didnt think that we would get by him, Dowling said.

Good Night Shirt, through his last races has just kind of killed everybody. Today, I didnt think that going into the last, that he was going to get it done, trainer Jack Fisher said. I thought he was done.

Best Attack was third, followed by Dark Equation and Pleasant Pick.