Steve drowne

Jockey based in Berkshire

[Steve drowne @drownie1]

Rest In Peace Brad, He used to greet everyone with 'How are you legend' the irony that very few ever reached that status. He did! Thoughts with family/friends

[Vaughan Lewis @VaughanLewis1]

Regulation can only hold regulated businesses to account. A black-market operator can’t be. So where regulation pushes players toward unlicensed sites, as even the OBR say it does, there’s a direct line from regulation to harm.

Well-intentioned rules only reduce harm if players stay in the regulated market. Lose that balance and you increase the very harm you set out to address.

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

A farmer dies in April 2026.

His son inherits the farm. The farm has been in the family since 1847.

The farm consists of: 300 acres of grazing pasture, a farmhouse built in 1892, a barn, a milking parlour, two tractors of varying ages, a Land Rover that runs about 70% of the time, and a herd of 180 Hereford-cross cattle.

On paper, the farm is worth approximately £3.2 million. This is because land near him has been bought recently by a London hedge fund looking for carbon credits, which has dragged the comparable value of every field within forty miles upward to a number nobody local can justify.

In cash, the farm produces a profit of about £28,000 a year in a good year. In a bad year it loses money. The son also works as a fencing contractor three days a week to keep the operation viable.

The inheritance tax bill on a £3.2 million estate, even at the reduced 20% rate, comes to approximately £140,000 after the increased threshold is applied. The son does not have £140,000. The son has never had £140,000. The son has £4,200 in his current account and an overdraft.

The son sells 60 acres to a developer to pay the tax. The developer puts solar panels on the 60 acres. The remaining herd cannot be sustained on the reduced land. The herd is sold. The barn becomes a holiday let.

A different family eats Brazilian beef this Christmas without knowing why the price went up.

The Treasury collects £140,000.

The land never produces British food again.

[Matt Chapman @MCYeeehaaa]

A message to @GamRegGB from @Nigel_Farage 🙏

Are you listening @Keir_Starmer? @UKLabour?

@SenseiChanning
@nickluck
@chrisgambler247

Full interview to follow…

[ClarksonsFarm @ClarksonsFarm1]

Repost!🙌🏼

[British Horseracing Authority @BHAHorseracing]

British racing has today sent an open letter to the Secretary of State for @DCMS, Lisa Nandy MP, calling on her to pause the introduction of affordability checks on having a flutter.

#BackBritishRacing #SaveOurBets

[Francis Keogh @HonestFrank]

@WeAreTheOverlap @SkySports @itvfootball Some more (sort of related) bonus content

Lee Sharpe on Eric Cantona

[History of Horse Racing @horsevault]

2013 Nunthorpe Stakes - Jwala

[Michael Channon @MichaelJohnCh11]

Top Man is Jim. 👊😍

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

California's Central Valley produces 80% of the world's almonds. Each almond requires 3.2 gallons of actual irrigation water to grow. Not rainfall. Actual tap water pumped from aquifers.

One gallon of almond milk requires 162 gallons of irrigation water. Compare that to dairy milk at 8 gallons of tap water per gallon, with the rest being rainfall that falls on pasture anyway.

But here's where it gets properly grim. Almonds bloom for exactly three weeks in February. During those three weeks, California needs every pollinating bee in North America transported to the Central Valley or the crop fails entirely.

Commercial beekeepers truck in 31 billion honeybees. That's two-thirds of America's entire managed bee population, all concentrated in one valley for three weeks. The bees are packed into trucks, driven across the country, dumped into almond groves drenched in pesticides, worked to exhaustion, then packed up and shipped to the next crop.

The mortality rate is catastrophic. Beekeepers report losing 30 to 50% of their hives annually. That's billions of bees dead. Not from natural causes. From being used as disposable pollination machines for your almond milk.

The pesticides don't help. Almond groves are sprayed with neonicotinoids which scramble bee navigation systems, fungicides which weaken their immune systems, and herbicides which eliminate the wildflowers they'd normally forage on between almond blooms.

Meanwhile the aquifer depletion is permanent. The Central Valley has sunk 28 feet in some areas from groundwater extraction. That water took 10,000 years to accumulate. It's being drained in decades for almond milk.

Your vegan latte killed more bees and used more water than a year's worth of dairy milk. But it's got "plant-based" on the label so you're definitely saving the planet.

[Victoria Derbyshire @vicderbyshire]

Just a few days left to get involved in the Hunt Family Fund Silent Auction.  Some incredible items have been added in the last few days – the auction closes on Dec 11
👇

https://t.co/UXPFjq5hQR

[Richard Hills @richardjhills]

💔

[Jonathan Powell @PowellJfpracing]

Farewell to David Maxwell, the last in a distinguished line of cavalier gentleman jump jockeys who brought a dashing mixture of boldness, fun and boyish enthusiasm to the business of riding over fences against the best pros. A proper sportsman in an era obsessed by elf’n’safety

[Kevin Buckley @BuckleyKevin]

Extremely saddened to hear this news…Bruce was gentleman and I always enjoyed his company😞
May he rest in peace

[Robin Mounsey @Robin_Mounsey_]

Make sure to sign the petition to #axetheracingtax. It only takes a few moments.

[Brendan Powell @bpowell13]

Sad to read this. What a character Con was. Had a jumper every year and was lucky to ride them for him. 100/1 winner at Newbury one day, and told me beforehand it would win. RIP

[History of Horse Racing @horsevault]

1998 Mill Reef Stakes - Golden Silca

[David Johnson @davidjohnsonTF]

20 years ago today, Blue Monday won the Zetland Gold Cup and earned £32,500. Liberty Coach picked up £21,600 for today's win. That sums up well the downgrading of Bank Holiday fixtures in the sport in the intervening period.

[ClarksonsFarm @ClarksonsFarm1]

Repost, spread the message 👏🏻