The turf: bad-mane day for Tropics

At the degenerative stage of a dinner party recently I heard related with perfect timing the tale of the gent who saw a sign in the window of his local newsagent/tobacconist/sweet shop offering ‘Condoms personally fitted’. Finding a pretty blonde behind the counter when he entered, he inquired, ‘Do you really have the service you are advertising in your window?’ ‘Oh, yes, sir.’ ‘And who does the fitting?’ ‘I do, sir.’ ‘Well, in that case, young lady, would you mind washing your hands, because all I want is half a pound of liquorice allsorts.’

Racing, too, is all about expectations, and about timing, and having recently for this column visited the yards of two of Britain’s friendliest trainers, Henry Candy and Dean Ivory, I have been taking a special interest in their horses. At Newmarket, on Cambridgeshire day, I fancied the chance of Henry’s Code of Honor in the Betfred Cambridgeshire. Having taken some 16–1 ante post, I doubled my bet on the course when Code of Honor was backed down to 12–1. My only worry was that even more money was flooding on to Educate, the mount of Irish veteran Johnny Murtagh, whose praises I have been singing all season. Educate went clear but then the white and red colours of Code of Honor came hurtling out of the pack in the hands of Fergus Sweeney to give chase, seemingly at twice the pace of anything else. Code of Honor came home first of the pack of 17 horses his side of the track. Unfortunately for me, Educate, too, was first of 12 on his side of the course, and after the judge called for a photo it was Educate who had held on by a nose thanks to the sheer strength of Johnny Murtagh.