Robin Oakley’s Twelve to Follow for 2015 (this year’s came out ahead)

November has never been my favourite month, not since the time when as a Rugby-playing student my face was rearranged by an opponent’s boot. At an Oxford hospital’s casualty department that 6 November fireworks lost their fun. Before they could see me the attendant clinicians were busy for hours tending children’s burns. November, too, is the reckoning time when I must reveal how the 12 animals whom I urged you to support through the Flat season have performed. Fortunately, as this column embarks upon its 20th year the news is good: had you invested £10 to win at starting price every time our Twelve reached the racecourse you would today be sitting on a comfortable tax-free profit of £171.

John Gosden’s Taghrooda was our star, winning The Oaks (at 5–1) and the King George (at 7–2) in scintillating style, and finishing third from a cruel draw in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.