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I went to a talk he gave (at least I think it was him; it was a long long time ago).From memory he said to always look at horses future entries and because of that it is something I do at the start of the flat season.

There used to be a wonderful column in the Observer by Katharine Whitehorn called Dulce Domum. I often find some of them that I cut out and put into various books.

David Attenborough’s new wildlife series Kingdom. The older I get the more I struggle with watching stuff like this but this series is so good. They don’t have the usual making of bit at the end of each episode but have put it all in the last episode. I thought I’d cheat and watch that to see...

I backed Neo King in running. I did ( aftertiming alert) back the winner but that doesn’t count because I have far too many bets in races like this, which is why I rarely put them up. Painful, that. Did back Marble Sands in running too, though. Betting in running is too time consuming but I...

I loved seeing a Hobbs horse win at Cheltenham. Such great memories of his horses running there in the days when we used to go there.

Had I studied it properly I would have also read that it was disqualified after winning on the flat in heavy going because of a banned substance!

Yes. I noticed that it had won on heavy.

Just backed Lavender Hill Mob at the last minute after reading the write up on the race card and thought he was better than his price suggested. And wasn’t even concentrating on the race in running. I needed that!

I’ve got lots of hardback books, many of which I’ve never actually read. I’ve just obsessively bought racing books for decades. I do love them but I’ve got to an age where I have to think about clearing them out. I’d hate the thought of my daughter just throwing them out. The only one that I...

I was going to make a point of backing front runners with the current soft going everywhere and I like backing horses that have been off the track for a long time so I’ll definitely put my three pennies on that one!

The episodes with Robert Carlisle really stick in the memory, don’t they. Much as catchup tv is great I do sometimes miss looking forward to watching a programme when it’s on ( although I did record just about everything back then and have hundreds of videos to prove it; no Cracker though so I...

I used to read Hugh McIlvanneys articles when he wrote for The Observer and I’ve got his book on boxing. I stopped buying the Observer when their racing section got so small it used to take me several attempts to find it and they also dispensed with Eddie the Shoe who was great at finding the...

Kaliane Bradley, author of The Ministry of Time, joins John and Andy for a tour of Monkey King: Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en, the sixteenth-century fable widely regarded as one of the most important Chinese novels ever written, newly translated by Julia Lovell. The Monkey King's powers...

Loved that series! ( it was on at teatime on Fridays!)

Isn’t part of the enjoyment of betting having to work out, without inside information, when a horse is going to win? Although I’m saying that as someone who only bets in pennies!

Thus far I’ve backed Valiant King, Onesmoothoperator( because I’d hate not to be cheering him on at the finish if he was going well) Chevalier Rose ( no hoper but drawn 5 which is a good draw and had been a good horse at one time) and Royal Supremacy ( probably won’t stay). I have a Willie...

Looking at his race record I assume it was the race that he won last year. This is a cruel game at times. RIP

Knife through butter. Unbelievable.

I had 5 pence ew on Scylla! One of the American commentators said how speedy she was.