www.rescuethehorses

RoR helps support three recognised retraining units - Moorcroft, Greatwood and the Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Centres - with £75,000-a-year plus grants for modernisation projects. But, even together, these experts can only re-home 75 horses annually. That's why RoR this week launched its new website, www.ror.org.uk to target the other 3,925.

This site provides trainers and owners with support when a horse comes to the end of its racing career. It ideally aims to make the charitable centres a rare last resort for racehorses by highlighting how, with professional retraining, a racehorse can enjoy a happy and useful second career. Former Grand National winners Corbiere (1983), Mr Frisk (1990) and Royal Athlete (1995) were all prime examples, plying their new trade respectively in show-jumping, horse trials and dressage. Stunning, the mount of Britain's No1 eventer William Fox Pitt is a former racehorse, as is Peanut, who recently won Pony Of The Match at the Cartier International polo event.

At the National Stud's July Fair tomorrow, situated next to the July Course in Newmarket, you can see exracehorses showing off their new skills as part of an RoR promotion.

Or you may consider writing to those bookmakers who have now ceased to contribute to RoR. The guilty are Victor Chandler, Bet Direct and Done.

But it's not just about hand-outs. If you're wealthy enough to purchase a racehorse and have it trained at a minimum of £15,000 a year, you can afford a fraction of that to have it re-educated for a happy future. A racehorse is for life, not just for its racing career.

Spencer spoils case for setting the pace

In one hot-headed instant, jockey Jamie Spencer re-opened the prosecution's case for banning pacemakers in British racing.

These are horses employed by the rich few to ensure a big race is run to suit more fancied stablemates.

Riding Godolphin second-string Narrative in last Saturday's Coral-Eclipse at Sandown Park, Spencer was beaten with three furlongs to go.

Video evidence then shows him clocking favourite Nayef on his inside and steering his mount into that opponent's path, compromising his chance of winning.

Spencer's subsequent five-day ban was lenient.

Nayef is owned by Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, who has made his displeasure known to his brother, Godolphin mastermind Sheikh Mohammed.

It is inconceivable that Godolphin, who have won two Group One races with a supposed pacemaker, told Spencer to use Narrative as a 'spoiler'.

The Jockey Club will soon revise its rules, making it an offence for pacemakers to pull wide to allow stablemates a charmed passage - like Fantasize did for Russian Rhythm in another Ascot race.

But although pacemakers ensure a sound pace and therefore a true result, their presence flouts racing's tenet of attaining the best possible placing and they remain a source of potential sabotage.

Another Air rage just will not do

Flying filly Airwave re-opposes Australian hulk Choisir in tomorrow's Darley July Cup, aiming to reverse the form of their Golden Jubilee encounter at Royal Ascot last month. Bookmakers expect Choisir, who last month became the first Aussie-trained horse ever to triumph in Europe, to make it three wins from as many starts on his pioneering raid of Britain's best sprints.

But if the filly does gain her revenge, trainer Henry Candy will have some explaining to do. Only after she ran at Ascot did he reveal that she was in season - a condition that can impair performance. Denied the chance to make an informed punting decision, supporters of the 11-8 favourite were rightly aggrieved - as were the stewards, who never received official notification from Candy.

Remember, rule H14 demands that a trainer report anything which might adversely affect a horse's performance.