As the mares rolled up the finishing straight, bathed in the twilight rays of Kelso’s first fixture of the season, a joyous crowd of cheering faces glowed amber.

Having waited eighteen months for an opportunity to attend the races, the spectators weren’t for leaving early – which is a good job because a mid-programme hiccup meant that the Racing TV Mares National Hunt Flat Race was delayed by more than 20 minutes, by when the brightest parts of the track were those illuminated by the headlights of the ambulance.

If you’re reading this blog, the chances are that you have a favourite horse. It might not be a racehorse, it may not even be a real horse – but I feel pretty sure that you’ll have one…

I am a dunce, or so I was told numerous times at school.

Only now, having visited the newly opened Great Tapestry of Scotland exhibition in Galashiels, I don’t feel quite so bad…

We don’t usually like to use flood-based metaphors at the racecourse for fear of tempting fate, but it’s difficult to get away from the fact that Facebook was awash with comment this week after Gillian Meikle announced the retirement of husband Brian from his post as Head Groundsman…

It is with huge sadness, this week, that I have to report the death of the Kelso Poop Fairy…

While it’s too early to call the end of Summer, the days are definitely getting shorter, the temperature has dropped and the wind has increased a few knots – next week it will blow children across the Scottish Borders back to school for the beginning of the Autumn term…

There’s an aphorism which could be applied to this blog: ‘Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn’.

Admittedly the winning is infrequent and the learning frequently useless – which makes me wonder whether it wouldn’t be more appropriate to advertise the weekly epistle with the slogan: ‘Often you lose, occasionally you learn something that you’ll probably forget before you have a chance to tell your friends… possibly even before you reach the pub.’

After months of training and highly competitive selection events, we’re already midway through the longest two weeks of the year: a fortnight of running, jumping, screaming and shouting – not to mention quite lot hanging around, just waiting for things to happen.

No, this week’s blog is not about the Olympics…

There was much excitement in Berwick-upon-Tweed this week when the town’s harbour welcomed passenger cruise ships for the first time in its history.

Who knows, if sea levels rise, perhaps they’ll be able to cruise up the river to the races at Kelso…

With more than 50 million repeated plays, the most frequently performed song on the planet is an accompaniment to the Disneyland boat ride: It’s a Small World.