30,000 lb of bananas - but no photos

Mmm. No photos attached to recent postings as yet. That's not very good. I'll have to drop a few hints (such as this) and see what happens. I have, of course, been shown how to put them up myself, but of course that's like getting some kid and telling how to put on a saddle and bridle and how to jump on the horse and take it for a canter across the Heath, and then having him just do it. The best one could hope for is that he wouldn't attempt it, because it is far easier seen than done. (Editor's note: stop whining and simply come and ask me to upload the pics for you).

We've had a few bangings around the place today, because John Harkness ("Jinx", of Pebbles fame) and Paul Morris ("Gorgeous") have been in the other half of the yard doing some repair work to ceilings and roofs (rooves?) in preparation for Paul's dad Dave ("Little Dave") moving his string of around eight horses in there early next month. Dave's been across the street in Hackness Villa Stables for I'd guess about fifteen years, but he's about to sell that and is moving into the ten boxes which Jane Chapple-Hyam vacated a few weeks ago when she found she needed more space than was available here. Jinx was upbraiding me for having let the premises get so run down, but when I told him that the reason was a combination of stupidity and laziness, he realised that there weren't many charges he could lay against me that I hadn't already laid myself. I've been telling Dave that I expect him to send out a deluge of winners in the near future - and I'll watch the markets to see when it's about to start - because he has Jinx, Paul and Nigel Walker riding out for him just now; I've said that if he can't win a few races with their assistance, then his horses really are very, very poor.

It'll enjoy having that team in the stable. It's been good to see Jinx around since he reappeared in the town last year. Possibly one would call him an acquired taste, but he's a man I respect. He left Clive Brittain a year or two after Pebbles retired, and worked for Luca Cumani in the late '80s when I was there. I hadn't seen him for years until he started work for Willie Musson last summer, and he has been with Dave for a month or two now. This morning I saw another of Luca's former lads whom I hadn't seen for years and years: Jock McAleese. He was riding a horse for Giles Bravery, his presence doubling the size of Giles' string. It's strange that I hadn't seen Jock for so long, because I would presume he's been living in Newmarket all the time, but I doubt I'd have laid eyes on him for fifteen years. Perhaps he's been in prison, although what he'd have done to get locked up for that length of time is hard to think. I'm sure that Richard Sims will remember Jock as the most unforgettable person he's ever worked with, while other people who worked there at the time will remember Jock as one of the two most unforgettable people they've ever worked with.

I was talking with another former colleague when Jock amazed me by riding past, as I'd fallen in with Stuart Jackson after coming off the Cambridge Road all-weather. I'd had a really enjoyable gallop on Mattie Stokes, following Gemma on Lady Suffragette for a mile, and Stuart had been up before us in Geoff Huffer's string. I caught up with Stuart walking home, and remarked that, for a man who decided he was too old to ride out half a dozen years ago, I've been seeing him in the saddle a lot recently. Of course we've got Cliff Rimmer riding out at 73, or possibly 74, but for normal people there's usually a finite length to one's career in the saddle. Stuart surprised me by telling me that he'll be 67 later this year, which is astonishing, as he's riding really well and full of confidence. He said he'd been riding Cockney Rebel, Geoff's good Val Royal colt who won a nice two-year-old maiden first time out last summer on the July Course and then, I seem to remember, ran placed in one of the big sales races, but recently he'd told Geoff that the horse, who apparently is a handful, was getting too strong for him, and needed a younger rider. So Geoff had got Michael Tebbutt to in to ride him, and the horse had reared up in the yard the first morning, thrown Michael off and he'd injured his shoulder. Jason Weaver was galloping him today, which was a surprising and pleasing sight. Stuart was instead on a very nice unraced In The Wings colt owned by Usk Valley Stud, the type of solid and strong, and feisty, horse that looks like he'll be a decent horse in a few months but who one knows at first glance is still currently unraced. If I'm up to riding horses like that, and riding them as well as Stuart, in the second half of my 60s I'll be very happy.

Riding out here seems to have been a lucky charm, because Kirsty Milczarek rode a winner on her only ride later in the day when she had been here last Thursday (pictured above on mattie Stokes), and then Tom Greenway rode a winner on Monday after his schooling session for us on Saturday (here with Lady Suffragette). Kirsty's winner was for Neville Callaghan. It was backed from 12/1 to 15/2, so I bet she was relieved that it won: no doubt she'd have been made aware of any errors she was deemed to have made had it been beaten. Tom Greenway's winner was for his boss Richard Ford at Market Rasen. In both jockeys' case it was their first ride since being here, which was nice. Kirsty is due to ride Millyjean for us at Lingfield next Tuesday. We've unfortunately, just when I thought 'the virus' had been and gone, got some more horses with 'flu, but again I think that the horses who have it have it, and the ones who don't don't. (If that makes sense). The difference between the healthy majority and the few who are poorly seems clear cut, so hopefully Millyjean, who seems very well, will still be in that state in another six days. Certainly Bilkie proved yesterday that he's in good health, because he ran a nice race on his resumption. It was the best he's ever run on the flat, so let's hope he can remain problem-free and will be able to build on that effort.

The day before Millyjean is due to run we will have, I think, our first Pedigree Club meeting since Leslie's death. Ruth has sweetly invited us to continue meeting in her house and to make use of Leslie's library, and I am very keen that we do. It has become apparent since Leslie's death that the gatherings which he hosted had become an important part of his life over the past year, as they had been for us. That's so touching, because of course he was the teacher and we were the students, so the sessions were far more for our benefit than for his. It was an honour to be invited to his funeral on Monday, the congregation at which was largely composed of people who had been close to him for many years. It was a very emotional occasion indeed. Will Edmeades gave a lovely eulogy, in which he recounted his first meeting with Leslie. Will was assistant trainer to Peter Walwyn in the early '80s when Leslie came to the stable as Lord Howard de Walden's racing and stud manager, to inspect Lord Howard's horses. Will said that, although he was only a small amount of years younger than Leslie, he was very much in awe of and "star-struck" by the visitor, who held probably the best and most senior and respected position in the bloodstock world at the time and who was clearly a lot of rungs farther up the ladder than he was; but that Leslie straightaway treated him like an equal, and they hit it off from the start and became close friends. I think that most people in the church would have spoken off a similar experience. It said a lot that so many of the people there were those who had formerly worked under or for Leslie, and to see the devotion which he had inspired in his subordinates. It was a special moment to meet Patrick Lennon, the former long-standing Plantation stud groom who, apparently, left the stud when Leslie retired because he said he couldn't face the idea of working there under any other manager; and to hear a very moved Sue Vary, who was the long-standing stud secretary under Leslie's managership and who has likewise moved on but who continued to help Leslie, read out a beautiful poem in the church. He was clearly a man who went through life treating people well irrespective of their place in society -and there aren't many people one can say that about - and it was a privilege and an inspiration to have known him.