The turf | 15 November 2008

‘Look here, Sunshine,’ I remember Eric Morecambe responding to a raised eyebrow from André Previn about the comedian’s musical efforts. ‘I am playing the right notes, just maybe not in the right order.’ My tipping goes like that too.

For the previous Flat season I suggested that William Haggas’s Conquest might ‘pop up at a nice price later in the season’. So he did. Unfortunately, Conquest’s 40–1 victory in the Stewards’ Cup and his 16–1 handicap victory happened not in the 2007 season but in the one just ended.

After our healthy profit over jumps the Flat Twelve sadly proved more a case of appreciating quality than counting profits. But it takes only one horse to give you a joyful season and Raven’s Pass did that for me. Though he won Goodwood’s Celebration Mile it took him until his fourth attempt (after three seconds) to start beating Henrythenavigator, which he did at 3–1 in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.