The Turf | 17 May 2008

Nobody ever does racing-speak as well as the Irish. After his Munich recently showed improved form to win at the Curragh, the Irish trainer Eddie Lynam declared, ‘He works like a real machine at home — but until today he raced like a washing machine.’

I, too, woke up last Saturday with my back feeling as though I had been put through several cycles of an industrial-sized washing machine — the legacy of a youth misspent throwing javelins instead of reading improving books like Raceform — and if there is a time I don’t appreciate being forced to do my...