In the spirit of making the best of an inconvenient situation, here are ten silver-linings to Saturday’s early start at Kelso Racecourse…

The ancient festival of Samhain, marking the end of Summer and the beginning of the cold dark Winter, symbolising the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead, has existed for 2,000 years – but it meant precious little to me in the mid-1980s…

According to Stephen Brusatte, a palaeontologist from just up the road at the University of Edinburgh, the dinosaurs were doing just dandy before a six-mile wide rock hit the planet 66 million years ago. But I wouldn’t bet on it…

Credit to racehorse trainer Andrew Balding who, on being asked what he thought of his sister’s appearance on the BBC Celebrity Traitors series, replied “I’m ashamed to say I haven’t had a chance to watch it…”

According to the publicists at Chepstow Racecourse, this weekend’s Welsh Racing Festival marks the start of the jump racing season “proper”. Which of course is a matter for debate…

Some people say that this blog is “nowt but hot air” – a derogatory comment designed to leave the author feeling deflated. But I’m not having any of it, because this weekend we intend to breath fresh life into Britain’s expanding jump racing audience.

Among the hidden expenses of running a racecourse is the cost of removing dog faeces from the car park bins, amounting to roughly £562.50 per annum based on weight alone, without including the man hours required for handling the waste on site…

The Kelso groundstaff team will now be pitched into a final against Newbury and Newmarket. You might call it a case of “David vs Goliath and Goliath’s big brother”…

A raceday is about being in the moment, feeling the tension and appreciating the atmosphere. It’s exciting, energising, vital…

A self-financing enterprise which delivers entertainment, hope, economic activity, jobs and a tax dividend: it’d be easy to mistake horseracing for a goose that lays golden eggs…