Lincoln Handicap

For many years it was a tradition that the British Flat racing season would start on the Carholme at Lincoln towards the end of March and then finish at Manchester (and at Lingfield, which raced on the same afternoon) in November. Lincoln and Manchester have both now been lost in the mists of time, each having closed its doors in the 1960s. Happily, the season's first big race (the Lincolnshire H., as it became known in 1860, having previously been known as the Lincoln Spring H.) and its last big...

One man who will certainly notice the absence of the Lincoln H. at what was supposed to be Doncaster's curtain-raising flat meeting on Saturday is Richard Fahey, the trainer having plundered two of the last seven renewals of the one-mile contest with runners owned by Marwan Koukash. First up was the 6-year-old gelding Brae Hill (Ire) (Fath) in 2012, followed by Gabrial (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) three years later. Fahey noted that the popular contest has become more difficult to win. "The Lincoln has got a lot tougher to win...