Interviews with Gary Moore & Dan Skelton

Sad news broke on Thursday morning that Ayr racecourse's former head of PR Iain Ferguson had passed away. Iain retired from his post at last year's Ayr Gold Cup meeting and, having known him for a number of years, I considered him a good friend. He regularly bought me a Racing Post for the big meetings when they were in short supply in the local area. A local journalist as well, he was an avid sports fan and a keener supporter of Ayr United. We regularly talked about football as well as the day's racing - the last time being at the Scottish National meeting in April. My Racing TV colleague Gordon Brown informed me of Iain's passing - he was a proper fella who loved a drink and watching sport and will be sorely missed. 

On Thursday afternoon, I interviewed Gary Moore and Dan Skelton for the new edition of One Jump Ahead. Gary had another very good season last winter with 76 winners earning £1,268,352 in prize-money, while Dan won a series of big races including the Betfair Chase, Coral Gold Cup and Becher Chase in the space of three weeks in November/December of last year. Both trainers have plenty to look forward to for the new campaign and the pair were very generous with the time. Gary is a rare breed nowadays - a non nonsense character and, rather like his son Ryan, doesn't speak for the sake of it. Anything he says is always worth listening to. Dan kindly carried out his interview on the way back from the airport, which is greatly appreciated. Paul Nicholls' former assistant won the Betfair Chase, Coral Gold Cup and Becher Chase in the space of three weeks in late November/early December. Third in the trainers' championship with 133 winners and prize-money of £2,614,206, Dan won't rest until he claims his first title. 

The Talking Trainers list includes Harry Fry, Chris Gordon, Donald McCain, Gary Moore, Lucinda Russell and Dan Skelton. More interviews will follow next week. One Jump Ahead is due to be published mid September and I will be updating the website with full details, plus the Updates, in August.