Robin Oakley

The Brexit effect

Racing is one of the first extravangances to be cut back by the well heeled when the future looks murky

issue 23 July 2016

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Theresa May’s arrival at No. 10 is that it has given us back a prime minister who has owned a racehorse. Well, part of one anyway. Theresa the Merciless was once in a syndicate at William Muir’s friendly Lambourn yard which owned a grey called Dome Patrol, the winner of a couple of races back in the 1990s. At least it did better than Brexit, a two-year-old filly that finished sixth at Newbury on referendum day after being fifth the time before. Not exactly going in the right direction…

Pressed back into commenting for CNN  on the resulting festival of conspiracies, cock-ups and character assassinations completed by a coronation, I fell to musing in the intervals between live broadcasts from Downing Street on how some of Mrs May’s rivals might have named their nags had they too ventured into ownership. Michael Gove would surely have chosen So Sorry Boris.

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