A Sandown Saturday proved the perfect send-off for 12 raceless days on the otherwise wonderful Isle of Mull. A Frankie Dettori win on a progressive colt who could bring the Queen a Derby victory in her Platinum Jubilee year of 2022, another victory that restored the rumbustious Jane Chapple-Hyam’s faith in her best filly, and a talk with a jockey whose career is taking off nicely thanks to hard grafting after an early mistake left me in perfect holiday mood. I was bouncing anyway thanks to a meticulously researched family history that Mrs Oakley had bought me to celebrate a birthday with a big zero attached.
Links back through a few generations of Worcestershire farmers and teachers were no surprise. These were intermingled with labourers, grate fitters and a waterworks stopcocker. Go back enough great-great-greats, however, and it seems we Oakleys had some grander connections. One Lord Howard Thomas had been Commander of the English army in Scotland before he was (on flimsy evidence) convicted of treason and executed at the Tower of London on 2 June 1572.
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