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.

I frequently receive feedback from readers saying, “I had no idea where you were going with this…” which is pretty much the thought that I have most weeks when I sit down to write…

A cynic might say that all those racing johnnies are daft. But a cynic, according to the words written by Oscar Wilde for one of his characters in Lady Windermere’s Fan, is “a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

The majority of Scottish schools broke up for the summer holidays earlier this week, meaning that Scottish pupils will miss out on One Britain One Nation Day – billed by the Department for Education as an opportunity to learn about ‘our shared values of tolerance, kindness, pride and respect’.

But hey – there’s plenty of other things Scottish kids could be doing besides learning about tolerance and kindness…

My television set is almost permanently tuned in to Racing TV, so it’s been a while since I watched a decent film. When they eventually get around to augmenting their excellent live-streaming service with a few feature films, here’s a list of twenty racing themed movies that I’m looking forward to watching…

In June 1975 Barney Curley executed one of the most famous gambles of all time, on a horse called Yellow Sam at Bellewstown. It was a moderate race and any large bets would have stuck out like a sore thumb, so Curley arranged for an army of men to place smaller stakes at SP (the starting price) across hundreds of betting shops away from the racecourse.

Sunday, Monday, Happy Days,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days,
Thursday, Friday, Happy Days,
The weekend comes, the racegoer hums,
Ready to go racing with you!