The turf

Cramming too much in is always a mistake. It was just one broken jar of tahini paste, requested by Italian friends along with the pork pie, the Marmite and two bottles of Amontillado as items unobtainable in Sardinia, but boy what damage it had done after my holiday suitcase spent three hours in the care of British and Italian baggage handlers. The sherry survived but, having separated itself into separate streams of oil and orange goo, the tahini paste had oozed malevolently around, insinuating itself into every crevice and tainting almost every garment, probably wrecking for ever the rather snazzy pair of Cambridge blue trousers purchased by Mrs Oakley in her latest optimistic attempt to make me look trendy. Mrs O, who fortunately does not allow me near washing machine or ironing board for fear of resulting havoc, was not amused at having to spend the first two days of our week’s holiday as full-time laundrywoman. Next time she will pack.  

Back for Newbury last Saturday I found much of the racing world up in arms over the way the authorities too had allegedly crammed too much in. Fixtures rejigging meant that Newbury, which regularly attracts 25 runners for its Weatherbys Super Sprint, was competing with crowd-pulling events at Newmarket, York and Chester. With 120-plus riders required, trainers complained about being unable to find suitable jockeys and bookmakers whinged about racing putting too many of its shop window highlights into Saturday programmes. Top jockeys moaned, too, because moving feature races from weekdays to weekends trims the number of top contests from which they can cream off lucrative percentages. I am with the courses on this one: if they reckon they can get big enough crowds on the day then good luck to them, and if some of the lesser lights among the riders thereby get a chance of boosting their earnings it will help both to develop talent and spread some of racing’s rewards where they are most needed.