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…

New research, involving the dating of fossils from North America and New Mexico, indicates that dinosaurs were thriving in advance of the asteroid strike with giant species wandering the plains including: Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Edmontosaurus, and Ankylosaurus, as well as the shovel-beaked Kritosaurus, the three-horned Torosaurus, and the armoured Glyptodontopelta.

Contrary to theories suggesting that giant reptiles were already evolving, Brusatte asserts that the catastrophic shock that resulted from the asteroid rapidly extinguished 75% of Earth’s species including nearly every dinosaur lineage except beaked birds. This created the necessary conditions for the evolution of more versatile forms of life including mammals like dogs, horses and humans (nice creatures which neither shed their skin, nor lick their eyeballs, except in the most extreme examples).

As far as I understand it, Dinosaur life wasn’t so great. There are no fossil records that indicate any form of gambling in the Cretaceous period – no gaming chips, playing cards, racecourses or betting shops. Which is not a world I’d have been happy to inhabit. There were no distilleries either, so no Scotch whisky, no Rum and no Edinburgh Gin, all of which sounds a bit dull.

In particular, we might discern, there was no Edinburgh Gin Handicap Steeplechase being staged at Kelso, in a verdant quarter of the Scottish Borders.

And this is why I’m so grateful that a whacking great rock collided with our planet and changed the course of evolution. Because now we can marvel at the breeding of beautiful Thoroughbred racehorses like Elvis Mail, who is seeking a hat-trick in the £50,000 Handicap Chase this weekend. The stunning grey (everyone loves a grey) has never finished out of the first four in thirteen visits to Kelso, his form at the track reading: 4,1,3,1,2,2,2,4,3,1,1,3,1.

Having won the Edinburgh Gin Steeplechase in 2023 and 2024, Nick Alexander’s eleven-year-old takes on eight talented chasers with younger legs including Whistle Stop Tour, Snipe, and Famous Bridge – whom he beat in the same race last year on identical terms by 3 lengths. But Elvis Mail is no dinosaur – a true favourite with the Kelso crowd, there will be many hoping that Elvis performs again.

One of the pleasures of studying Thoroughbred pedigrees is that talent doesn’t just run in a family, sometimes it gallops. Elvis Mail’s dam has produced two further Kelso winners: Ginger Mail and Lester Mail, the latter being our selection for Saturday in the first race on Kelso’s seven race programme, The Stay For The After Party Maiden Hurdle.

It’s not too late to attend; tickets will be available at the entrance, and the gates open at 11.30am. Come racing and see how things evolve.