I’ve previously claimed, in this space, that I worship at the Chapel of Steeplechasing and that horse racing is my religion.

It’s not true of course…

Almost one in four adults in the United Kingdom will place a bet on the Grand National on Saturday, attracted by the romance of the World’s most famous steeplechase and the prospect of picking a winner at long odds.

Normally I’d tell you which horse to back, but it doesn’t seem much of a challenge – so instead I’m going to give you the winners of the first six races on the card…

The team at Kelso Racecourse really know how to have a good time, so when I heard that we’d booked The Balancing Ducks as part of the entertainment on Ladies Day I was intrigued and immediately looked them up online…

There’s a multitude of reasons why horses develop large public followings – the flashy brilliance of Desert Orchid, the perennial pre-eminence of Red Rum in the World’s most famous race, the sweet name and high-quality hurdling of Honeysuckle.

With eight Kelso victories to his name, it’s little wonder that Big River has such a large fan-base within the Scottish Borders, but his fame has spread much further than that…

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Cheltenham Festival: the very best horses, fantastic facilities, electric atmosphere, beautiful setting, scintillating competition, etc, etc.

It is, without doubt, the best event in the entire calendar – like Christmas and all my birthdays rolled into one, only with more guests. Nobody looks forward to the Cheltenham Festival each year more than me but, never mind extending the meeting to five days, isn’t it time we thought about staging it somewhere a bit further north?

There is something to be said for the Perspex screens that retail workers stand behind, although they’re not very practical if one is moving around – so I’m beginning to think that laboratory-style glasses would be a great idea for crowded spaces.

I can imagine them selling well in the car park at Cheltenham next week: “Lucky heather mister? Cross my palm with silver and I’ll tell your fortune darlin’… and if you make it one of those nice crisp polymer notes, I’ll throw in a pair of goggles…”

The phones are ringing off their hooks with people trying to book tickets (which is marvellous) and I think that the ITV rigging team might be building a new racecourse (which is even more marvellous); I just hope they finish before tomorrow and that they leave some of it standing when they leave on Sunday…

Some changes are more welcome than others. This week we’ve witnessed the transformation from Winter to Spring in the Scottish Borders, the end of restrictive Covid regulations in England (but not yet in Scotland) and the first land war for more than seventy-six years in Europe…

There’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong type of racing.

Today, with Storm Eunice approaching, we thought we might take the first steps at Kelso towards the ‘White Turf’ racing model that’s been pioneered in St Moritz since 1907. There, in the Swiss resort on the southern slopes of the Alps, an innovative Clerk of the Course decided it might be a bright idea to lay out a track on the snowy surface of the lake…

We like to talk about the romance of the turf: a sport woven from fanciful dreams that, for many in the Northern Hemisphere, start each year on 14th February. Because Valentine’s Day is the first day of the Thoroughbred mating season, the optimum time to coordinate a meeting between a mare and stallion if you want to breed a foal soon after 1st January – the official birthday of all Thoroughbreds.