IT was interesting to hear trainer Karl Burke call this week for an overhaul of the start of the turf flat season, claiming that the way the relative dearth of turf action between the Lincoln and the Craven meeting at Newmarket leaves the flat feeling, well, flat.

In order to create more of a fanfare, Burke has suggested moving the Lincoln to the weekend immediately before Newmarket’s traditional midweek fixture, and it’s hard to argue that it would be much easier to maintain the excitement of the season’s curtain-raising fixture with the knowledge that the season’s first meaningful classic trials would follow immediately.

The Lincoln meeting used to see huge fields of horses who hadn’t been seen in action on the level since the previous autumn but, while that was genuinely exciting for fans of the sport up to the 1980s, the advent of all-weather racing changed that dynamic markedly and, in more recent years, the existence of high-class international racing in the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the weeks preceding the Doncaster fixture have undermined it further.

It’s long been the case that the Grand National is anticipated much more than the return of the turf, and Great British Racing’s marketeers have effectively decreed than the “real” turf season begins with the 2000 Guineas and ends on Champions Day at Ascot. I’m not a fan of that philosophy at all but, in order for the flat season to have an identity beyond the British Champions Series, there needs to be more definition to the start and end of the season.

That means that either the Lincoln is allowed to wither on the vine - with the Craven the de facto start of the season proper - or the Doncaster handicap must sit in a space where it does not get lost. Burke’s suggestion of the Saturday before Newmarket’s opening fixture makes perfect sense.

That logic also needs to extend to the November Handicap, another big contest which comes after all interest in the season has ended, and Doncaster has been unfit for racing on the allotted weekend in two of the last five years. The track stages the Futurity on the weekend after Champions Day, and it makes much more sense for that day to be the moment to bring the curtain down on the season, coming as it does on the same day as the year’s final domestic Group 1.

It’s been pointed out that the weekend before the Craven this year is also Grand National day, and that staging the Lincoln on the same day as the Aintree marathon would be counterproductive to say the least. I’d point out that the proximity of the Grand National to racing at Newmarket is a very recent phenomenon, and hardly a difficult issue to fix, assuming that the will is there to do so.

WE have not seen too much turf racing, jumps or flat, this spring, but there are a couple of jockeys who have impressed me on the green stuff already and who have big seasons coming up.

Saffie Osborne has always been a jockey with the innate confidence to make her mark and she has improved with each season that she has been riding. She had just a handful of rides in the Middle East earlier this year, but made a huge splash, becoming the first woman to ride a winner at Meydan when partnering her father’s Ouzo to victory in the Lord Glitters Handicap, and she then took a local Group 3 on Emaraaty Ana on the Doha turf.

She didn’t manage to ride a winner in the International Jockeys’ Challenge in Riyadh in her bid for a unique treble but impressed the locals with her riding when making the frame on both of her rides on the dirt track.

Saffie showed that she has nerves of steel with her win in last year’s Chester Cup aboard Metier, and what she once lacked in a finish is now imperceptible. She has only ridden five victories on the UK circuit this term but has a big-race temperament that many riders lack, and I’ll be disappointed if she doesn’t get close to a century of winners by the end of the year.

Turned pro

Another rider who continues to impress is Jo Mason, who started life as an amateur, and turned pro much later than most riders, but she has looked a match for almost any of the men on the northern circuit in the last couple of seasons and has been in fine form in the last few weeks, riding her first winner of the turf season at Catterick during the week, and making it four wins from her last eight rides when steering the tricky Woodstock to victory at Wolverhampton on Thursday evening.

Compact and strong, in a similar mould to Hollie Doyle, she works hard to achieve the success she’s had and her ready smile disguises the tough mentality needed to succeed. She has made her best start ever to a season with 20 winners so far in 2024. Most of her 2023 winners were for Mick and David Easterby, but she has already ridden successfully for seven other stables this term and looks sure to be in increasing demand north of the Trent throughout the summer months.

MAMBHA (Michael Dods)

Too backward to run as a juvenile, Mambha was one of a pair for the Michael Dods stable in the opening maiden at Pontefract on Tuesday, and she took the eye in the preliminaries as a filly who would benefit from that patient approach. A half-sister to juvenile winners Mamba Wamba and Chatburn (both sprinters), she has the build of a sprinter but is more of a late-maturing sort and predictably found things happening a bit too quickly for her behind stablemate Close Connection.

Slow to stride and green with it, she never looked likely to feature, but did encouraging late work under an educational ride and is expected to improve markedly for the experience. Michael Dods has an exceptional record with sprinting fillies and Mambha could hardly be in better hands.

TRILBY (Sam England)

With the ground almost unraceable at Catterick, the meeting was dominated by mudlarks, with the majority of winners well positioned throughout at a track that tends to develop a distinct pace and track bias when the ground is testing. One horse who did not fit that trend was last race winner Trilby, who came from off the pace and away from the favoured stands’ rail to win the six-furlong handicap by half a length. With several of the field clearly short of peak fitness, the form is nothing to go overboard about at first glance, but winning rider Joe Fanning never went for everything on the winner, who might have won more decisively with a more serious question asked.

It’s possible that Trilby needs to be produced very late as he was beaten at Pontefract last autumn, having travelled best only to idle in front (traded 1.01 in the run), but he’s already shown improved form for the underrated Sam England having left George Boughey a five-race maiden last summer. He can’t go up much for his narrow success and I’m far from certain the ground had much to do with his improved display. He certainly looked ahead of his mark on good/soft ground at Pontefract, so he doesn’t need the mud.