Already Saturday and the end, for me at least, of a long week. We started with our totting up and banking a small profit after a successful Arc weekend and finished today with another small profit thanks to Alcazar which I backed at 12s when it was confirmed on Tuesday for York on Friday. One of Alcazar’s syndicate owners, called to say he was swerving lunch with me in London, because of the Alcazar entry. He said that Ed thought the horse was decent, but that it might need some cut and did I think it might rain? I got a note on Friday saying it had touched 950-1 in running, before winning at 9/2. Huzzah.
Most of Monday and Tuesday was taken up by the 142nd reading of the Memsahib’s eulogy for her father’s funeral on Wednesday. There were actually many more readings than that; I could feel myself becoming a demented Lee Strasberg character. “Again! More inflection”… “Once more and stop mumbling”; “Project darling! Project” Inevitably, of course, Madame delivered the eulogy beautifully and the entire service went swimmingly, movingly and with due regard for the great man.
Thursday was up to London for a Guild dinner, where we stayed in an AirBnB off Cannon Street. There was nothing about this hovel that suggested any connection with civilised living. It stank thanks to the extraction system of the next door Subway sandwich place; Harry’s Bar was on the doorstep, which was handy if you yearned for the sound of humans, and peace and quiet would probably be achieved on the Sundays when the building site next door, wasn’t under construction at 6:30am. It was dark, dingy, and everything felt sticky. I suspect it was a shag-pit for Mr Brown from Accounts to meet Doreen from HR, on Wednesday lunchtimes, for an illicit 2 hours of sweaty thrusting.
Appalling.
Friday was a racing lunch at The Garrick, which was jollier than Wednesday, better food than Thursday, and immeasurably cleaner. It was the first time I felt relaxed for a week. Nothing quite lifts the soul like seeing chums enjoying themselves together, in a beautiful building.
That all aside, my eye was taken briefly by a couple of things I spotted during the week;
The European Parliament, has ruled that words such as “steak”, “burger” or “escalope” should not be used to describe meat alternatives. If approved by the European Commission, the proposed EU law would follow similar legislation that bans words including “milk” and “butter” on labels for plant-based dairy substitutes. Finally… an EU law which actually makes sense!
“We are engaged in an intersectional struggle Trans and Palestinian Liberation are a united front against colonialism” said The Bash Back Group to explain why they had trashed a Brighton conference venue hosting the Feminist FiLiA Conference 2025. Trying to explain to anyone from the Trans community that if they were to get shouty in Saudi, Kuwait, Qatar, Libya, and many other Islamic countries, the penalty would not be a slap on the wrist… if they could find a wrist any more!
And for those concerned that Universities fail to offer practical courses designed to give students a credible background for their chosen career path; the synopsis of a new undergraduate course at the University of South Carolina states: “The central objective is to unravel some of the sociologically relevant dimensions of the fame of Lady Gaga”
Meanwhile, on telly, I’ll be hoping that I have unravelled some sociologically relevant outcomes of the following races for the benefit of my bank account…
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