We’ve enjoyed a beautiful Summer here in the Scottish Borders. The laws of probability suggest that it can’t last – so if you’re part of the 99.83% of the UK population that hasn’t been locked down here for the past couple of months, I’m sorry that you missed it…

At Kelso Racecourse we love our customers, but we don’t ‘luurve’ our customers.

Which is why we’re not planning to follow the lead of FC Seoul, the South Korean football team, who positioned sex dolls in the stands to make up for the lack of a crowd while playing behind closed doors.

The difference between the two nations is actually very small: both are advising the public to be cautious and to stay at home where possible; both are planning to review restrictions on the movement of people from 28th May; both (I sense) would like to be in a position to allow more businesses to open in early June.

Buried within the guidelines is a line that says “Alcohol is not permitted”.

I suppose there has to be a first time for everything, but it occurred to me that such an instruction might just be incompatible with racing at Kelso.

Many people in racing, including some of the ground-staff at Kelso Racecourse, returned to work this week for their own safety.

In addition to Racecourse Managers who have broken ankles by falling off ladders at home, I’ve heard of racecourse staff who have suffered serious burns as a result of mishaps in the kitchen and children of racecourse staff who have broken arms through the negligence of daddy-day-care…

Horseracing gets to parts of the rural economy which other lubricants can’t to reach…

When we no longer receive those vital stimuli from the people around us, do we become less brainy? Well, speaking from personal experience, I suspect we probably do.

The lovely thing about ‘optimism bias’ is that it allows us to revise our expectations after each defeat.

So readers of this blog, for example, will be familiar with the feeling of losing money on a hopeless tip. But despite that weekly disappointment, many still allow themselves a small punt on the possibility that the next selection might be a winner…

We’ve started to line up prizes for the Ladies Day best-dressed competitions and we’ve decided to introduce a new category for those whose costumes have been fashioned by their own fair hand.

I’ve taken my bedroom curtains down already and have started running up a very fetching three piece suit in Hawick tartan…

Last night I broke cover in order to buy some milk. For the first time in forty days and forty nights, I noted that Sainsburys in Kelso had a stock of loo rolls. Two whole pallets full.

Like Noah’s dove, heralding the end of the flood, I returned home with a four-pack in my beak…