It has been a little like scraping from the plate as slowly as possible the last traces of Mrs Oakley’s exquisitely sauced vitello tonnato; like draining reluctantly the last glass of our best Condrieu: this year I never wanted the jumps season to end. Sprinter Sacre came back to his best, Richard Johnson finally won the jockeys’ title, Paul Nicholls gutsily collected his tenth trainers’ championship. But if the joy of jump racing is continuity, the attraction of the Flat lies in its sense of renewal. As sleek would-be contenders started strutting their stuff in the Classic trials, as the first precocious two-year-olds bounded excitedly on to the scene, I remembered why I love the summer game too. Which will be the breakthrough stables this year? Who is the next Golden Horn? Which young jockey will emerge to rival last year’s apprentice find Tom Marquand?
First to betting business. Regular readers may remember our bumper profit from the last Flat season when our Twelve to Follow, on the basis of a £10 win stake on every run, gave us a return of £328 and our trainer to follow, Hugo Palmer, won not only his first Classic with Covert Love but took another Group One as well.
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