Inside the Rails

This month, Phil and Simon chat about the early season flat racing action and look ahead at the plans for their syndicate runners in the coming weeks.  They discuss upcoming events which make shared ownership such an attractive experience.  The guys are then joined by Josh Apiafi, a man with more hats than probably anyone in racing!  Josh discusses his journey into racing and his presenting role w...

Phil and Simon pay their tributes to the sadly departed Stefano Cherchi, a guest on ITR in 2023.  They discuss the early action on the flat, the end-of-season action over jumps and their own syndicates and horses.  They are then joined by Deputy Ireland Editor at the Racing Post, David Jennings.  David explains how he grew to love racing and ended up working in the industry and he discusses his ro...

Phil and Simon discuss the recent Cheltenham Festival and what has been going on with their syndicates.  They send their best wishes to recent guest, Stefano Cherchi who was injured in a fall in Australia in March.  Sophie Buckley, the stud manager at Culworth Grounds Farm, a stud near Banbury is their special guest.  Sophie outlines her role into racing and describes her role at Culworth Grounds...

Phil and Simon discuss their syndicates and chat about a new development in horse shoes which Phil is about to try on Stryder. Simon has an impressive book of shareholder events upcoming and the guys look ahead to the Cheltenham Festival this month. Matt Colemen from Stroud Coleman Bloodstock joins our hosts for a chat about his role as a bloodstock agent and tells us what he looks for when buying...

One month after chatting with former Champion Jump Jockey, Richard Johnson, this month Simon and Phil are joined by Paul Johnson the head of the National Trainer’s Federation. Phil and Simon discuss their syndicate runners and the social benefits that can arise from shared ownership before reviewing the recent action and some of the latest stories from the racing industry. Paul joins to talk about...

Phil and Simon discuss their syndicate runners and the progress of their horses along with shareholder social events and chat about current racing issues. They are then joined by former champion jumps jockey, Richard Johnson. From a background in farming, Richard discusses his journey into racing and his riding career as well as what he has been doing since retiring from the saddle. Richard shares...

Simon and Phil discuss affordability checks, the Breeders Cup and the November meeting at Cheltenham as well as their own syndicate horses. They are joined by apprentice jockey Frederick (Freddie) Larson who is part of the Mick Appleby team and who was at the Breeders Cup when their horse Big Evs was victorious. Freddie tells us how he got into racing and discusses his big race win in the John Smi...

Simon and Phil discuss their recent syndicate runners and Simon has been off to the sales where he purchased two new horses for Solario Racing. Our hosts look back at Champions Day at Ascot and look ahead to the jumps season. Jockey, Jack Quinlan, joins Simon and Phil from the car park at Huntingdon Racecourse where he was riding on our recording day. As well as telling us about his journey into r...

Phil has a new horse and Simon is off to the October Yearling sales There is plenty of shared ownership chat, looking at syndicate lounges and the Great British Racing Ownership Days. Affordability checks are still causing plenty of concern to all in racing and our hosts look at what has happened in this area since our last episode. A review of last months’ action covers the St Leger Meeting, Iris...

Last month saw the first ever “across the card” double for Inside The Rails as both our hosts recorded a winner on the same day! Ownership has “downs” to go with the “ups” and there have been some of them as well, but the joy that a winner can bring easily outweighs any disappointment along the way. After chatting about shared ownership, the recent Great British Racing ownership event at Windsor a...

Having learned how to pronounce Caldean last month, the guys are back in the classroom this month, to learn how to correctly say the name of this month’s guest, Stefano Cherchi. Now that we know that the “Ch” is pronounced in the same was as “Chianti” wine, we will be getting it right in the future! Phil and Simon have been all over the country in July finishing up at the Racehorse Syndicates Asso...

From Royal Ascot to Kingsclere, it is a regal episode of Inside The Rails! Simon and Phil have experienced mixed fortune on the racecourse with their syndicate runners, but both enjoyed Royal Ascot 2023. After chatting about that and the upcoming syndicate raceday at Nottingham on 21st July, the guys are joined by Anna Lisa Balding wife of royal trainer Andrew Balding and Head of Operations at the...

After reviewing their month and the success of Simon’s horses to follow last month, Phil and Simon look back at the first two classics and ahead to the next two. They are then joined by Rebecca Davies from Arena Racing Company (ARC). ARC has rolled out syndicate lounges across all their racecourses in 2023 and Rebecca tells the guys how this rollout has gone and describes her journey into racing a...

After our first double-guest episode last month, we are at it again when we are joined by joint-training licence holders, Daniel and Claire Kubler. Daniel and Claire combine some fascinating modern science with some good old-fashioned horsemanship in the training of their horses and provide Simon and Phil with an insight into how this has helped them to succeed on the racecourse. Ahead of the inte...

We are all used to hearing someone on the racecourse public address announcing winners and presentations and providing other details on a race day. Laurie Brannan was the first person to carry out this role back in the 1960s and with his son Philip still doing that job at Newbury and Goodwood, the Brannans are well used to a microphone! This month, they both joined Simon and Phil on Inside The Rai...

This month, Simon and Phil have both been racing at Lingfield Park with runners on the same day! They look ahead to the Cheltenham Festival before they are joined by leading jumps trainer, David Pipe. David looks back at his journey into racing and the long relationship between the Pipe and Scudamore families started by his father Martin, whose stable jockey was Peter Scudamore, and continued thro...

This month, ITV Racing broadcaster Rishi Persad joins Simon and Phil on Inside The Rails. Rishi has covered most major sports in his career but tells us why horseracing is his first love. He discusses his journey into broadcasting, his thoughts on how we might make racing more inclusive and why he thinks that syndicate ownership is such a great experience. Simon and Phil discuss recent jumps actio...

Simon and Phil turn the tables on Racing TV presenter, Frankie Foster who has interviewed them on the racecourse several times in 2022. Frankie discusses his love of racing and his recent participation in syndicate ownership. As part of the race day team on Racing TV, Frankie is keen to bring the sport to a younger audience and makes our hosts feel old when they realise they have both been going r...

ITV Racing broadcaster, Francesca Cumani, joins Simon and Phil to talk about her racing background and to compare and contrast racing in the UK with racing in Australia where racehorse syndicate ownership is hugely popular. With the jumps action now underway, Phil is back in his comfort zone and reviews some of the November action whilst Simon covers the very late season action on the flat. The gu...

Simon and Phil chat with two-time champion jockey, Paul Hanagan, who joins them from Bahrain where he is riding this winter. Paul tells the guys about his journey into racing and some of his memorable moments as a jockey. As an ambassador for the Good Racing Company, Paul discusses this new initiative which pairs the thrill of racehorse ownership with the support of worthwhile causes. Alongside th...

Phil and Simon reflect on the possible impact of our change in monarch on the sport of horse racing. They review their own runners over the last month and the action elsewhere and Simon provides listeners with some horses to follow. Syndicate ownership is discussed and all the benefits of shared ownership are outlined. Listeners are given some details of how to get involved in ownership and links...

There have been plenty of syndicate winners this summer and this month, Phil is celebrating one of his own! He discusses syndicate ownership with Simon and they look back at the York Ebor Festival before they are joined by William Derby who as CEO and Clerk of the Course at York, was instrumental in the growth of the Ebor Festival on the GB racing calendar. William discusses what goes into running...

It has been a busy month for Simon and Phil who have each had plenty of runners and one of them has a winner to tell you about! The guys discuss their syndicates and what an amazing experience it can be to be involved in a winner. They go on to look back at the racing action and stories from the last month before chatting with Andrew Black from Chasemore Farm. After co-founding Betfair, Andrew now...

This month Simon and Phil welcome racecourse commentator and broadcaster, Mike Cattermole, to Inside The Rails. After discussing their syndicate runners and highlighting some of the benefits of shared racehorse ownership, Simon and Phil reflect on the Epsom Derby meeting and Royal Ascot and look at some of the other subjects that have hit the racing headlines recently. Mike Cattermole provides a g...

After discussing racecourse going reports over the last couple of episodes, Simon and Phil take the opportunity to interview Mike Maher, managing director of Turftrax, the company behind the “going stick” readings taken at all UK racecourses. Mike has the dream job of visiting major race meetings both in the UK and around the world to help assess the ground conditions for racing. The guys also dis...