The turf: Profit and loss

As she walked towards a Palace dining room once in company with the playwright Noël Coward, the late Queen Mother noted his gaily lascivious eye flickering over the Guardsmen lining the stairs. ‘No, Noël,’ she admonished him before he had spoken. ‘I wouldn’t if I were you. They count them before they put them out.’

Following the end of the Flat season, I have to do my own counting and it is not the happy story it was last jumps season when our Twelve to Follow showed a 50 per cent profit. Between them our Flat twelve made 41 racecourse appearances and from those they mustered six victories, six seconds and four third places. The star was William Haggas’s Green Destiny. Gambled on heavily at Royal Ascot, he was hampered and lost the plot. He made amends by winning the John Smith’s Cup at York at 6–1 before disappointing at Goodwood, when his apprentice jockey bustled him to keep with the early pace.