In the know

Master golfer Gary Player had the perfect retort when a 19th-hole pundit on his fourth G&T declared, ‘It’s all down to luck really.’ ‘Of course,’ replied Player. ‘But it’s strange: the harder I practise the luckier I get.’ Betting is much the same: a bit of luck helps but good information can improve your luck. When it comes to food I have access to the top gen: Mrs Oakley may be pencil-slim but she devours the writings of top chefs, cooks like an angel and sniffs out good new restaurants like a truffle-hound after a tuber. As we waited to embark for a lecture trip in New York last month, she led me unerringly to the basement brasserie of the Andaz Hotel on Fifth Avenue where the five-course tapas-tasting plate was the nearest thing to culinary nirvana I have yet encountered. Obtaining info of that quality about four-legged investments is not easy, but a magic day at Newbury last Saturday confirmed that it can be found without the aid of nose-tapping tipsters.