Why does Newbury alienate potential racegoers?

You don’t realise how much your pleasures mean until you are denied them. It was wonderful to get back on a racecourse for Hennessy Day at Newbury even if my two sticks proved an encouragement to every acquaintance to engage at length about the hip replacements endured by their nearest and dearest. Even worse was the speculation about what had caused my problem. One even recalled me dancing on a tapas bar table at a BBC political staff Christmas party. How the past comes back to haunt you.

I have been feeling haunted by the disappointing show from our Twelve to Follow on the Flat, but fortunately the jumps Twelve are setting things to rights. True, Katenko fell in the Hennessy Gold Cup but at Newcastle The Last Samurai won at 7–2 and Bob Ford ran second at Bangor. The next day, Royal Regatta won a Leicester novice hurdle at evens and Doing Fine had already won for us at 10–1 so things are looking up.