In praise of trainer Dan Skelton

I’m not sure how the BBC would have taken it in my Nine O’Clock News days if after a tough interview I had embraced a disconsolate politician (though I can guess and it wouldn’t have been to the corporation’s credit). It was, though, the best moment in the ITV coverage of last Saturday’s racing, when presenter Alice Plunkett put her arms around Laura Morgan and hugged the tearful trainer who had just lost her star horse. Earlier in the programme, Alice – who seems to be friends with everyone in racing, from the merest muck-shoveller to owners campaigning £200,000 jumpers – had interviewed Laura following the success of her stable’s J’Ai Froid at the same day’s Warwick meeting.

The ups and downs of the sport could hardly have been more starkly illustrated when, in the Silviniaco Conti Chase at Kempton, her three-time winner Notlongtillmay was fatally injured in a last fence fall.