Corneliuscast

A new jockey-star was born when Emmet McNamara steered home 25-1 shot Serpentine to victory in the Investec Derby at Epsom, a record eighth success in the race for trainer Aidan O'Brien. Now in self-imposed quarantine having travelled overseas from his home in Ireland, 30-year-old McNamara has plenty of time - between watching replays - to talk me through the remarkable all-the-way triumph. 

In Epsom’s Investec Derby and Oaks week, one of flat racing’s most colourful characters, jockey Martin Dwyer, winner of both the Derby (Sir Percy, 2006) and the Oaks (Casual Look, 2003), joins the Corneliuscast for a fun-packed episode talking Epsom, its Classic races and how, as a proud Evertonian, he’s been practising extra social distancing measures around his Liverpool-supporting friends.

Managers of Newcastle racecourse have been celebrating a string of Royal Ascot 2020 winners prepared on their artificial track. And soon the Tapeta surface is expected to play a significant role in the story of leading contenders for the Derby at Epsom. I’ve been chatting to Newcastle’s clerk of the course James Armstrong about the buoyant form of the newest member of British racing’s once-dismissed all-weather circuit.  

I love Perth racecourse in Scotland so it was a real pleasure to chat to the track’s chief executive Hazel Peplinski for the latest episode of the Corneliuscast. Perth prides itself on ‘exporting fun’ to its customers, but when fixtures resume after the lockdown it’ll be behind-closed-doors with no crowd to entertain. Hazel talks candidly about her fears for the business during the pandemic, but also a hoped-for brighter future. 

Having not met up with racing media colleagues for months - and, in my case, having left a high profile media job, at the BBC, in the meanwhile - I chat to Beverley, Yorkshire-born, longtime friend and colleague Marcus Townend, of the Daily Mail, about pressroom camaraderie, working life when you’re not allowed to the races and his one-off race-riding experience.

Welcome to "Corneliuscast".