International rescue
Mrs A has been away for one of her long weekends (more like short weeks) to see her sister Sue in the Tenerife. This coincided with The Derby meeting. Taking a beady form line from Mrs A ’ s previous weekends ’ away, I priced myself up at unbackably short odds for many hours of uninterrupted racing, football, cricket and other televised sports viewing. However, Epsom ’ s notorious camber has caught out many a heavily backed favourite. Even those with track experience can find trouble not of their own making. Incidents happen on Tattenham Corner and up the home straight that make domino-toppling world records look like Sunday parlour games. The interference started early. Daughter No 1 had been in lockdown for weeks, preparing for AS exams which she finished on the Thursday. She asked if she could have some friends over on Friday night. A gathering in which she and her pressurised teenage friends could shake out their academic stresses. This had two related impli...