Day to savour

Required by the day job to be in St Andrews on Friday night, reporting the latest example of governmental hope over experience in the Northern Ireland power-sharing talks, I was determined still to make it to Champions’ Day at Newmarket. Sir Percy’s first appearance since the Derby, a cracking contest for the Cesarewitch and the prospect of a renewed duel between two outstanding two-year-olds in the shape of Teofilo and Holy Roman Emperor for the Darley Dewhurst Stakes looked like providing the perfect Flat finale before most of us turn our attention to the jumping game.

Hence a 2.45 a.m. reveille to drive to Edinburgh and check in 11 boxes of TV equipment at 4.15 for a 6.15 flight. Hope began to wane after BMI kept us one hour 50 minutes in the check-in queue (no, nothing to do with security, just incompetent processing) and although we still just made the delayed flight there was worse to come on arrival back in London before the final leg.

Mrs Oakley, herself just back from a trip to Turin, was not only in need of the car but also had a duty or two in mind. A little matter of the nine for dinner that evening. With that faint gleam in the eye and knowing which side my bread is buttered, a tactical decision was required. It became Newmarket on the box. But while there is no substitute for live racing, for watching the on-edge prancing in the paddock, for hearing the thud of hoofbeats and the crack of the whip, for seeing close-up that ‘didn’t I do well?’ gleam in the eye of the victor as the saddle is pulled off his heaving flanks, it has to be said that the Channel Four team run it pretty close, mixing amuse-gueule reminders of past clashes with sagacious in-running commentary and shrewd post-race analysis.