I'm sure most trainers will agree that one of the most important aspects of running a successful racing yard is good competent staff.

The number of unemployed people over the country runs into millions but over half the racing yards in the country are looking for staff.

The Northern Racing College at Doncaster and the British Racing School at Newmarket train groups of youngsters on 12-week courses, ready to go into racing yards, but intakes are unfortunately limited.

One of the problems is that quite a few youngsters who are interested in going into racing or any other employment are unemployable. A lot of the youngsters are not interested in early mornings or working weekends. In fact, they are not interested in work at all.

Whether that is due to our schooling system and lack of discipline in classrooms is open to debate.

Maybe they need more of an incentive to work. In the past I've had applicants apply to me, saying: 'I don't want to work weekends' or 'The hours are too long'.

There's no doubt that the work is hard and quite long hours - most staff work a five-and-a-half-day week, Monday to Saturday, with a few extra hours every other weekend.

People have to enjoy working with horses and not mind hard work. Most people working in racing yards will that the benefits include an outdoor life and great job satisfaction.

It's great for them seeing the horses, which they care for daily, win races. I'm lucky I have a group of good, hard-working staff and long may that continue.

I have had a few runners this week, all which have performed well, but the Bernard Hathaway-owned three-year-old John O'Groats sprang a surprise at Nottingham in the three-year-old maiden over five furlongs. He is an extremely nice individual whom I rate highly - but I thought he would benefit from a run.

However, he won well at 25-1 under John Carroll and I'm sure he will enjoy further success possibly at a higher level and over a longer trip. He's well worth following.

Next week I expect to have runners at Pontefract on Monday where, if the ground dries out, Al Azhar and Rudetski could run well.

Later in the week Jeffrey Anotherred travels to Warwick and if the ground is soft, he'll run well.

Storyteller makes his reappearance at Musselburgh on Tuesday but he usually benefits from a couple of runs.

Hopefully, the weather is going to improve and we'll be racing more regularly with plenty of success.

I won't have any runners today, but I'm off to the Sunderland v Newcastle game as a guest of some of my owners. The Magpies are a certainty.

Published: 21/04/01