Robin Oakley on Muck Rack

Robin Oakley

Verified
Europe
As seen in: The Spectator, CNN, Slate, Foreign Policy Magazine, WYFF-TV (Greenville, SC), WDSU-TV (New Orleans, LA), Dialnet - Universidad de La Rioja, KITV-TV (Honolulu, HI), Spectator US, The Spectator Australia
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Articles

After 30 years, it’s farewell to The Turf

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By Robin Oakley Verified
| The Spectator Australia Verified
It was Frank Johnson who as The Spectator’s editor asked me to mix my then day job as the BBC’s political editor with writing this column. For someone starstruck by racing as a 12-year-old, bicycle propped against the old Hurst Park racecourse wall to watch the jousting jockeys in their myriad colours flash by, the opportunity was irresistible.
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My most profitable day on a racecourse ever

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By Robin Oakley Verified
| The Spectator Australia Verified
The Champions Day finale at Ascot gave us, as it should, the best race of the season. Thanks to weather patterns that for once provided not soggily risky October ground but perfect ‘good’ going, few quality horses ducked the meeting. In the Champion Stakes, arguably the three best ten-furlong horses in Europe – Delacroix from Ireland, Ombudsman from England and Calandagan from France – took each other on. In the Eclipse, Aidan O’Brien’s Delacroix had chinned Ombudsman in the dying strides.
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Gambling tax hikes could kill British racing

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By Robin Oakley Verified
| The Spectator Australia Verified
Back in the days when politicians were real flesh and blood rather than social media pushovers, I sat down with the then-chancellor Kenneth Clarke for a BBC interview. ‘Live or pre-record, Robin?’ he asked as we were mic’d up. I have long relished his reply when I confirmed it was the latter: ‘Pity. I always prefer the lives.
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