THERE is absolutely no doubt that of all the people at Ascot Saturday for Champions Day I had the best moment.
No. It was not Aldaary landing a right old punt for my Sun Racing selections or Oisin Murphy being crowned champion jockey.
My moment came with Hall of Famer Lester Piggott, and in the most unlikely of scenarios.
So the other day Hot Diggity Dog scored at Newcastle while I was working on Sky Sports Racing with Seb Sanders, the former joint champion jockey.
It’s fair to say Seb and I have a bit of banter when we can. People seem to enjoy it.
Anyway, Seb had never heard of Perry Como, who most intelligent people know sang Hot Diggity in the 1950s. I could not believe this.
Not knowing Perry Como is like not knowing The Beatles or Frank Sinatra.
So back to Ascot, and Lester pulled me to one side and said: “I can’t believe Seb hadn’t heard of Perry Como!”
I responded: “You know Perry Como?”
Lester replied: “Yes of course”.
Now talking to Lester Piggott is an honour at the very least. But I never, ever thought we would be discussing Perry Como on Champions Day.
Sweet dreams are made of this. Thanks for watching ‘Longfellow’.
I have a few other little stories this week. I spoke to Andrew Balding the other day when he was nicely clear (no longer) in the Trainers’ Championship.
I said to Andrew: “There’s the Champion”.
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With a wry smile, he said: “As much chance of me being champion as you Broadcaster of the Year!” He had a point.
Speaking of trainers, I let out Ed Dunlop in front of me in his car in Newmarket the other day.
Now I’m used to trainers not always answering my call, so I thought I’d test the handler.
I called him on his car phone, and saw him look down to see who it was.
Fair play to the old boy. He answered. Respect to Dunlop!
Murphy’s win at Ascot was at the expense of William Buick, who would have been champion if the trainers who clearly had been told to give him rides had done so about two weeks earlier.
If the same people ditch their usual riders for all of next season there is no doubt Buick will be the champ.
Anyway, Buick has been riding extremely well and his boss Charlie Appleby seemed to enjoy the battle.
Buick missed out to Oisin Murphy by just the two winners
Appleby quipped to me: “We all got into the battle.
“One night William was riding and we all got together as a family in front of the TV with popcorn to watch the championship action unfold.
“We called William and told him we were settling down for racing’s equivalent of Strictly (Come Dancing)!”
In other news, Newcastle will now be the home of the All-Weather Championships.
At face value this is a good move, as Newcastle is a fairer track than Lingfield and the prize money will be good.
But the former fact is the issue for me. Racing at Lingfield is exciting due to its unpredictability. Horses fly home late more often than not
Now while purists won’t like that, for a once-a-year crowd it makes for thrills.
Newcastle won’t offer that, and viewing is far less attractive compared to Lingfield which was compact and the crowd could really get involved.
This was always going to happen, but the atmosphere will never be as good. I feel very sorry for Lingfield.
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