Tony Stafford Racing Blog

Tony Stafford is racing manager to Raymond Tooth, owner of 2008 WBX.COM Fighting Fifth Hurdle and 2009 Champion Hurdle winner Punjabi.

Tony is widely regarded as one of the best-known and well respected of British racing journalists and for over 30 years worked at the Daily Telegraph where most recently he occupied the position of Racing Correspondent.

Since leaving the newspaper in December 2001, Tony has maintained his close affinity with racing, working with a number of trainers while also supplying a regular weekly column to Raceform Update.

24 March 2010
Champion Hurdle Review

Timing, as they say, is all. Manchester United’s annual Premier League challenge is obviously one perfect example. Binocular, though, got it wrong last year, and if he had been on song earlier this season, he would have won wbx.com’s million pound bonus. More »

15 March 2010
Champion Hurdle Preview

So after all the to-ing and fro-ing, here we are with a tight 12 for the Champion Hurdle. More »

8 March 2010
Solwhit Worry

In midwinter, the Irish challenge for the Champion Hurdle looked very strong, but now with Sublimity out, Dunguib reasserted as Supreme Hurdle bound, Monday’s news of a “bad scope” for second-favourite Solwhit, leaves it pretty much Go Native against the world, well at least the English. More »

25 February 2010
Punjabi Trial

There will be a few anxious faces on Racing Post Chase day at Kempton at around 1 o’clock on Saturday when Punjabi tackles what is effectively the last Champion Hurdle trial, one week after his planned prep was frozen/ washed out at Wincanton. More »

03 February 2010
Champion Hurdle Update

All’s fine on the Punjabi front. As they say, no news is good news. More »

25 January 2010
Haydock Debrief

I am beginning to understand why horses at the top level have such a difficult time. More »

20 January 2010
Champion Hurdle Trials

They say weight can stop a freight train. In watching the various important hurdle races that have come along – and often been lost to the weather in this frustrating midwinter – I have come to admire the skill behind the nowadays more standardised conditions in Champion Hurdle trials. More »

13 January 2010
Where Next for Punjabi?

Just when you thought it was safe to come out from the warm, winter chose a crucial midweek to renew its grip. So having believed Kempton’s Lanzarote Hurdle meeting would be safe as temperatures rose, so the provisional all-bumper card for Sunbury looked the likelier. More »

05 January 2010
Punjabi Still on Track

One man above all others will be hoping Ffos Las proves right in being optimistic that Saturday’s meeting, featuring the SIS Live Welsh Champion, will go ahead and prove an oasis in a tundra of British ice and snow. More »

28 December 2009
Champion Hurdle Update

So the dream is still alive. Where Punjabi’s 2008-9 WBX.COM £1 million bonus challenge foundered at the second leg when he fell two from home in Kempton’s Christmas Hurdle, Irish-trained Go Native came through that tricky part of the treble on Saturday – but only just. More »

16 December 2009
Champion Hurdle Musings

It was a long wait but Punjabi finally got back to the track for the Boylesports Hurdle on Saturday. As expected, his encouraging home work did not quite translate to winning form, the six-year-old fully living up to trainer Nicky Henderson’s prediction that he would be fitter for the run. More »

1 December 2009
Fighting Fifth Reflections

The WBX.COM Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle might have thrown up as many questions as answers on Saturday, but one incontrovertible fact is that only Go Native is in line for the firm’s £1 million bonus for winning three Grade 1 hurdle races. More »

27 November 2009
Fascinating Clash on Cards

While the WBX.COM Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle on Saturday promises another epic contest, with two of the real Champion Hurdle heavyweights flexing their muscles, sadly I’ll be 300 miles and a bit more away to the South-West at Newbury. More »

17 November 2009
Challengers Emerging as Big Guns Lay Down Markers

They say a week is a long time in politics. In jump racing, four minutes is enough to move mountains. More »

11 November 2009
Countdown Continues as Entries are Revealed

Well the entries for the WBX.COM Fighting Fifth Hurdle are in and with less than three weeks to go, I’ll have to remind owner Raymond Tooth that the perpetual trophy depicting a fusilier of the famed “Fighting Fifth” will have to make what we hope will be a temporary time away from his sideboard. More »

2 November 2009
Looking Ahead to the New Season

In the hope that this is a series of articles that will stretch well into the New Year – indeed the second week of March - I am pleased to chronicle the well-being or otherwise of Punjabi, the reigning Champion Hurdler. More »