Cover of the Rolling Stone

Anyone who had lunch here two Sundays ago - plus many who didn't - will be aware of the quasi-prowess of James Dowsett in musical matters. To further this awareness of his art, I have pleasure in passing on the address of a website which some of you may care to visit: www.mid-life-crisis-band.com . If you go to the Photo Gallery and call up the photographs, you'll find some corkers which will definitely be worthy of inspection. In an ideal world, of course, you'd study all 3 dozen or however many there are, but if you're pushed for time it might be helpful to know that the ones to concentrate on are:- 11, 14, 15, 26, 27, 30, 31, 32. Now that's what I call rock and roll! (And sweat). In the film '24 Hour Party People' (one of my favourites) Tony Wilson / Alan Partrige comes up with a great description of jazz: 'It's the only show where the players have more fun than the audience'. It has, of course, been pointed out that Channel Four Racing can be added to this list, but I think now that one can probably put Midlife Crisis into this category too: if the audience at one of the band's concerts really do have as much fun as Jim appears to be having, then it would be a truly world-class show. Have a look for yourself and see what you make of them. I'm hoping to go to one their concerts soon, and am relishing the prospect.

I took some pictures of Jim at our lunch, and another living legend whom I've been privileged to photograph recently has been Mark McStay. We've got one great shot of him in the vault because we were sent a tremendous photograph of him in his role of King Of the Dancefloor in de Niro's, and to this I can add a couple of photos of him networking at the July Course last Friday. We went up there for the evening, not because we had a runner, but because our French friend Alix Choppin, who is soon to return to her native land, was having a farewell picnic in the car park.

It was a very good picnic, and made more brahmatic by the fact that McStay was next door, featuring in a picnic, if not quite hosting it (I think that was done by Stephen Hillen). Inevitably some of his acolytes - eg Jamie Spencer (who strangely enough didn't seem to have managed to get any rides that evening) and Ted Durcan - graced the event, but Neil Callan and Pat Cosgrave were conspicuous by their absence. That may turn out to have been a big mistake careerwise on their parts, and I wouldn't be surprised if they are both looking for a new agent before too long. The only absentee from Alix's picnic was our thoroughbredinternet.com colleague Geir Stabell, the Globeform guru, who was actually at the races that evening, but couldn't quite fit in a visit to Alix's camp, what with all the horses to be assessed and William Buick to be interviewed (before racing). Still, I'll catch up with Geir before too long so that I can thank him for all the excellent Globeform info he's been sending me. Ourselves, we only slipped into the races for one race, but that was a thrill because we saw the lovely Classic Punch (Persian Punch's Mozart half-brother) grind out another great win. What was extra special about this was that we were watching the race next to the connections of the runner-up New Beginning, and it was a pleasure to see the spirit of the sport exemplified: they were just so excited and proud that their lovely horse ran such a game race in finishing a close second to a mighty horse. As all proper sportsmen know, it's not about winning or losing, but about competing with honour. And that's just what New Beginning had just done.

We saw another mighty horse on Sunday because Marco Botti and Lucie Cechova hosted a pedigree club outing at Green Ridge Stables, which included not just a really good and fun dinner, but also an inspection of this year's Italian Derby winner Awelmarduk, a really strong and solid colt. He is trained by Marco's father, but has come to Newmarket for a change of scenery while it's so hot in Italy in the middle of the summer. Whether or not he will have a race while he's here isn't clear. The only omission of the evening was that we didn't take a stroll out the back into the trees which run down the side of Southfields, which would have given us the opportunity to inspect the pair of Jim's underpants which are nailed to a tree just outside Marco's yard. But in every other respect it was a perfect evening, and the contribution of man of the match Paolo Benedetti was a particular boon. Lucie gave us a real feast, and she has become a real challenger - to Alix and to Lisa-Jane - for the title of the person whose house I most enjoy visiting.

A very welcome visitor here today was Roger Vicarage, who has a share in Anis Etoile. It's always good to see him and his family, and this morning he excelled himself by coming armed with a magnificent tome, a bound collection of the issues of 'Racing Illustrated' from the second half of 1896. He's kindly lent it to me, and I'll have my nose in it throughout August any time that time permits. I've just finished Ed Hotaling's superb biography of the late black jockey and, later, trainer Jimmy Winkfield - who rose to the top of his profession in his native America, in imperial Russia and in France - and, as that resume probably suggests, I can bore anyone on that subject for hours, but this book contains an even greater treasure trove of historical interest. I'm in the process of becoming a Peter Temple addict, but his thrillers might have to wait a while while I absorb all that I can from Roger's book.

Another publication to give me pleasure this week was the latest Winning Post, not just from studying it as usual, but more particularly because of a letter from one of the readers, Ronnie O'Raighan (surely not the former President of the USA?) of Euroa, Vic. I hope you'll forgive me for blowing my own trumpet, but I'm just so proud of this I can't keep it to myself. At the end of a very sensible and erudite letter explaining why it is completely fatuous to compare champions of different eras (because the standard of horses is rising all the time, as demonstrated by race times), Ronnie throws in the observation, "In conclusion may I say I think John Wathen-Berry's report is the best of its kind in any publication in the world - may he long continue.". Hear, hear!

Anyway, now we're off to Sandown tomorrow, where Jill should run well. We've then got Brief on Saturday at Windsor: he's a course and distance winner there so races can work out for him at the picturesque Reay's Meadow venue, but that can't be guaranteed at a course where horses who get out in front and bag the stands' rail are often hard to pass, so we'll just hope for the best. Possible runners next week are Lady Suffragette, Marvin Gardens, Millyjean, Imperial Decree and Jack Dawson, but what will run where depends on various factors - most obviously the dreaded eliminator - so we'll cross next week's bridges when we get to them.

So I'll just leave you with one thought. If you're in the Cambridge area in the near future and you pass a man singing to himself 'We've got a lot of little teenage blue-eyed groupies who will do anything we say/ We've got a genuine Indian guru teaching us a better way/ We've got all the friends that money can buy so we never have to be alone/ And we keep getting richer - but we can't get our picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone', it'll probably be Jim.