His granddad was a 10p each way yankee punter on the TV racing and they used to watch it together. Kaiya used to imitate the top jocks when riding his bike on the street, and then went to help out at the Ebony Horse Club in Brixton where Khadijah Mellah learned to ride. Kaiya didn't sit on a horse until he went to the British Racing School in Newmarket aged 16. He has a fantastic supportive mum, as this interview reveals. He is expected to ride a fancied one at Epsom on Saturday. Some story.

I meant to add a particularly irritating action of the BHA to illustrate undeniable evidence that the bookies are calling the shots. Before the current fixture review was unveiled the pinheads in Holborn had quietly announced that for the summer and autumn calendar there would be no novice chases, only novice handicaps. Why? Because the bookies complained that punters were picking the winners of novice chases too easily as they tended to attract small fields. And that would never do. (Ironically in recent weeks novice handicaps have struggled to attract fields larger than four or five.) Never mind that trainers now cannot give their novices experience over fences without threatening their handicap mark. If they won a novice chase they had the option of continuing under a penalty in the same class of race for a year without putting their handicap rating to the test. Now that option is closed: horses with attractive marks over hurdles will now cash in in a novice handicap chase, which has a knock-on effect in hurdles races where non-triers will be encouraged with fencing in mind. We are in a situation now in which our glorious rulers understand neither the needs of owners and trainers nor the way gambling works. How the hell did we get here?

The Irish perspective on the BHA fixture changes implies that there may have been little or no consultation with the IHRB regarding these scheduling changes. Irish and British racing are effectively the one product when it comes to bookmakers so you would imagine that the Irish fixture list will have to be altered to accommodate these changes in Britain. It will be interesting to see how many Irish fixtures make it into the “peak customer engagement period” on Saturday afternoons. Any Irish meetings that cannot be facilitated between 2pm and 4pm on a Saturday will presumably have to start and finish before 2pm or begin some time after 4pm. It seems that once again Britain is looking down on the Irish and pushing them around - which is the ultimate irony if you believe as I do that Irish racing is in a much better place, better financed, better organised (with the glaring exception of recent local stewarding decisions, from which we are not immune here in Britain) and with a superior racing programme than its UK counterpart. Sponsorship from Irish companies is pouring into racing - the two-day fixture at humble Ballinrobe is just the latest example - while in Britain the sheer volume of racing has meant that proper long-term sponsorship in these tight economic times has dried up. How the Derby needed a non-bookmaker sponsorship from a blue chip company, if only to return to a time when racing seemed to exist perfectly well without being in thrall to betting companies. British business has looked at racing to attach their name to and they don't like what they see. Despite their protestations to the contrary, the BHA is entirely beholden to the betting industry and are incapable of sensible decisions that do not have the bookies' interests as their primary concern. It is deeply worrying. The era of Julie Harrington and Co will go down as racing's darkest hour unless there is a swift change of course.

The RP did a heart-warming piece today on the promising apprentice jockey Kaiya Fraser. Kaiya comes from a non-racing background and has been given his break by Harry Eustace. He hails from my neck of the woods in Hackney, NE London, about as far from the wide open spaces of Newmarket Heath as it's possible to imagine. It goes to show what can be achieved by a talented youngster with hard work and talent and a little help from the right people.

Horse dealers and art dealers are cut from the same cloth.

Allez France was owned by Daniel Wildenstein whose racing silks were some of the most perfect ever designed - royal blue, sky blue cap. They could have been lifted straight from the palette of Monet, whose paintings he dealt in so profitably. If I had to choose one favourite Wildenstein filly it would be close between Allez France and Dahlia. They lit up the difficult, drab, dark seventies with their sheer brilliance and - well, Frenchness. The next best thing to actually having a French girlfriend.

For someone who tells everybody how hard she trains in the gym Bryony Frost was surprisingly weak in the finish in the last at Uttoxeter. She flapped the rains, give a swish of the whip and allowed Sam TD to come from an impossible position to grab the win in the closing stages. It was a pathetic effort. I was surprised Milton Harris put her up on two horses today - she is not his sort of jockey at all.

Well done with High Chieftess. She seems to have come on a bundle. Ryan was outstanding all afternoon. He showed the full range of his skills and received fulsome praise fro Aidan O'Brien.

Ooh Betty is a warm favourite in the Uttox 2.50. Fortunately for her supporters Frank Spencer is not doing the steering.

Last night when all good Christian folk should be in bed (I was still up) there was the least competitive race held this year. The bumper at Ffos Las saw a field of two runners in Indian file jog round for two miles and then went home. The winner, trained by Sir Mark Prescott - on a hot streak of seven wins from nine runners - was priced up at 1/100 but drifted alarmingly to a generous 1/66 at the off. He exerted himself more in walking up the ramp into the lorry than he did in the race. Meanwhile the astute Tracey Barfoot-Saunt walked away with some useful place money which may never happen again with this particular horse.

Tiggy Wiggy was a precocious 2yo for Hannon and finished third in the Guineas. High Priestess looked anything but precocious in two backend maidens. That Guineas was won by Legatissimo for David Wachman. Whatever happened to him? Was he just keeping the seat warm for when young Joseph and Donny grew up?

Two of the three are by the US sire Quality Road whose progeny seem to thrive on fast dirt. I doubt Curragh handicaps were on the radar when these matings were planned.

Art Power benefited from the watering though as all his best form has been on softer ground. Ironically he has got closest to the standard time of the two-day meeting so far. It's a much deserved first Group 2 for the 6yo - I still nurse hopes that he might yet bag a Group 1 some day. I'm sorry that that stalwart of the northern weighing room David Allan didn't keep the ride. He's done years of work with this horse yet today he missed out on his finest hour and instead is fiddling around in three York handicaps.

You wonder how a smaller course will deal with it when they are staging their big race of the year. Take Market Rasen, for example. On a Saturday in July they have the Summer Plate, probably the highlight of the summer jumping calendar, a highly competitive steeplechase with strong fields and excellent prize money. How will they fit around the meetings at Grade One courses Doncaster, Newbury and Newmarket which will be full of bookmaker friendly handicaps that are not make-or-break affairs like the Summer Plate is at Rasen? Will they have to run the race at 1pm?

The Height Of Fashion Stakes. I wonder if Haggas has targeted this race with Blue Missile for the King? Height Of Fashion was one of his mother's best horses and winning the race that commemorates that brilliant mare would earn the trainer a few brownie points.

There's not much to like about the BHA's shake-up to the fixture list, but plenty to loathe. Chief among those is the so-called "premierisation" of racing on up to three Saturday meetings between 2 and 4pm. Other "lesser" meetings must start after or finish before those times. Typical BHA - they always consult with "stakeholders" but have as usual neglected to take in the views of stable staff in facilitating even earlier starts on racedays and even later finishes. Staff at smaller yards still have to get up to do their three or however many they look after, before loading horses onto the lorry and travel to the meeting. A seven-race early card will start at 11am if it is to finish by 2pm. It just makes racedays far longer even than they are now. And there will be evening meetings on Sundays. This will just add to the crisis in recruitment and retention of staff. But Harrington and Co on the BHA's commercial committee sit in their warm offices and shuffle bookmaker and punter friendly proposals without a thought for anyone out in the real world. The ship is sinking and it all comes down to bad navigation. It's time Captain Harrington was put over the side. PS: My spellchecker dislikes the word premierisation as much as I do.

Well, Thapa VC won on Wednesday, so maybe that's a good omen.

Al Asifah - 4/9 for a debutant. Sheesh.

It's on my bucket list.

Hackman is one of those from Blue Storm's race to have come out and won next time, and did so in a good time on rain-softened ground at Chester. Mehmas offspring like it fast so he may improve for Sandown's quicker ground tonight. 8/1 is fair.