I have followed horse racing since I was a little kid. I inherited the love of the sport from my father, who like me was a (generally) unlucky small punter, who just liked the atmosphere of the races and the excitement achieved when your knowledge and understanding of the form resulted in a winning bet. I remember being taken to the races at Bendigo and Ballarat years before I was old enough to bet. At Dad’s funeral I learned that my cousins, all a few years older than me, had also learned to love the horses and a bet from him. As with most people who try to follow racing somewhat seriously, I have steeped myself in reading histories, watching old films and videos, collecting various memorabilia, and studying the complexities of it all. If you want me to, I can bore you silly for an hour or more with a discussion of the class system as it used in Australian racing, and how it doesn’t always appear to be what it seems at the surface. Anyway. As with any sport, it’s easy