The ancient festival of Samhain, marking the end of Summer and the beginning of the cold dark Winter, symbolising the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead, has existed for 2,000 years – but it meant precious little to me in the mid-1980s.

All-Hallows-Eve as it became known to Christians in the 13th Century, or Halloween as it is better known now, might have been celebrated by American kids as they went about trick-or-treating – but begging sweets off the neighbours wasn’t something that children were allowed to do where I grew up, still less playing tricks on people if they refused.

I can’t say that I feel terribly deprived; at least we had proper chocolate biscuits in those days – instead of the Club and Penguin bars of today which are sold with a “chocolate flavoured coating”.

I’m told that things have always been a bit different here in the Scottish Borders, where the tradition of “guising” involves wearing a disguise to go from house to house, telling jokes or stories, or even singing songs in exchange for confectionary. Fewer tricks, more entertainment.

Even so, I live in a spooky-looking house and I don’t expect many visitors. A little while ago, on leaving my driveway, I saw a young lad with his father standing on the road outside. “We’ve never seen anyone come out of there,” the man said, “my son thought it was a witch’s house.”

“No, not witches.” I replied, “Only ghosts.” And for some reason they seemed particularly anxious to move on.

Anyway, not-withstanding all the sweets that I suspect I’ll be left to eat myself, the biggest treat of the weekend is the bet365 Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby – where our selection for the weekend is The Real Whacker. One of the advantages of growing up in the 1980s is that children were allowed to go into betting shops. Or at least, if we weren’t technically permitted into betting shops, we weren’t prevented from entering them – so while I may have been deprived of trick-or-treating, I did get to place bets on outstanding steeplechasers like Wayward Lad (winner of the race in 1983 and 1985), and Burrough Hill Lad (1984).

The Charlie Hall was a good trial, in those days, for the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day – with the winner going on to complete the double in all three of the above years. In a race which has witnessed many multiple winners, Wayward Lad became the first horse to win the King George VI Chase three times – going one step better than the first horse to win it twice, whose name happened to be… Halloween.

How spooky is that?