The inside track on racing syndicates

Billy Connolly once declared that Scotland had only two seasons: June and winter. Perversely, though, just as the northern swallows are setting their alarm clocks and checking departure times for Cape Town and Johannesburg, it has become the Oakley tradition to head for the Isle of Mull. In recent years the accompanying essentials, Mrs Oakley, a case of good wine, long wellies and a surf-addicted flat-coat retriever, have been supplemented by author Felix Francis sending me in late August his latest forthcoming ‘Dick Francis novel’. 

Racing’s continuance owes much to partnerships and syndicates. They have spread the joyous experience of racehorse ownership to many who, denied the background of a family hedge fund or a hefty legacy, could never before have contemplated funding a bouncing Richard Hannon two-year-old or a craftily campaigned Fergal O’Brien jumper.