Paul Hayward

On a bright autumn afternoon at Ascot, Oisin Murphy raised and then kissed a silver trophy that symbolised the arc of his redemption. Banned for 14 months for twice failing breath tests and misleading the British Horseracing Authority over a trip to Mykonos during Covid, Murphy stood on Champions Day as the embodiment of a fall-and-rise narrative. There are lots of those in sport, and they sure as hell beat the opposite, which is fall-and-stay-fallen. The 2024 Champion Jockey was given a guard of honour by his fellow jockeys and...

There are seven basic plots in fiction - and around the same number in sport. One is the removal of doubt. In language that no actual person ever used, Fleet Street newspapers used to love a win that "silenced the knockers." Racing is not short of those narratives but is unique in attaching them to animals who can't give press conferences, offer excuses, or just say they had an off day. Hence the debate is free to rage around whether a horse such as City Of Troy is as good...

The first thing you pick up on at David Menuisier's yard in Pulborough, West Sussex, is a feeling of calm or harmony. Veterans of training ground visits will recall stepping into authoritarian mini states, ruled by fear, or at the very least by hierarchy. A lifetime in sport teaches you one thing above all: teamwork, which sounds abstract, but really isn't, is the most vital component in success. Collective effort is born not of motivational mantras stuck on walls but the way people actually treat each other. This isn't a...

Only in racing are the best sent off to stud to produce new - or preferably better - versions of themselves. Roger Federer, say, will have fielded countless offers for his retirement years - but not that one. To watch magisterial Thoroughbreds race is privilege enough. But we then get to see fresh manifestations of them arrive as foals. Champions retire but their progeny take over and keep the family story going.  For many of us the end of Frankel's racing career was hard to bear. Yours truly felt a...

The Corinthian quest is finding life tough. These days romance is run off its legs by finance. Victory for Continuous in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, though, 15 days after his St Leger win, would make history of the most reassuring kind. Each week frontiers in sport are crossed: stats shredded, records set, barriers smashed. With every new 'first' the surviving 'nevers' gain mystique. Racing still has a few. No horse has won the St Leger and the Arc in the same season. It was hard enough already with...

Frankie Dettori's retirement this winter has acquired a caveat: 'in theory.' So, in theory, the most famous jockey since Lester Piggott will ride in his last English Classic, the St Leger, at Doncaster this weekend. More garlands, perhaps more tears shed. But Dettori's valedictory lap of world racing at 52-years-old is becoming a little complicated. With every big prize won, and each sparkling performance in the saddle, the fait accompli of his departure feels less secure.  To us, the grateful audience, the response to Dettori's radiant affirmation of his talent...

Author and award-winning sports journalist Paul Hayward has joined the TDN's team of writers in Europe and will feature as a regular columnist. Based in England, Hayward's early years in journalism were spent working for the Racing Post before branching out across other sports in his role as chief sports writer for various national newspapers, including The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian. He has been Sports Writer of the Year at the SJA British Sports Journalism Awards on five occasions and is the author of England Football: The Biography 1872-2022....