Well, how did I get here?

Now that I've resumed writing this blog, I ought to make sure that I churn out the chapters reasonably frequently.  Particularly now that Emma has done such a good job of creating the new website www.johnberryracing.com from which one can reach it.  So what's been happening?  Plenty actually.  I don't think that it would be fair to say that Championship Horse Racing is actually happening yet, but I've been in touch with the organisers and the BHA on the subject, and it does appear to be the case that both bodies are keen that, if it takes place, it should be as inclusive as possible.  Which is terrific news.  (And not surprising, certainly from the BHA's point of view, as our overlords have been practising what they preach with the recent significant prize-money boosts having been directed towards the lower tiers).  So you might yet be hearing every Thursday night from the bravest animals in the land, Captain Berry and his band.

With my having recently written an obituary of the still-born child Street Racing - or so I thought - I was rather taken aback a few days later to read in the Racing Post that it might yet live.  It seems that I was correct to surmise that it wouldn't happen in Oxford Street, but we are told that it may come to pass up the Champs Elysees.  Time will tell, and I won't be holding my breath; but seemingly the dream lives on for the time being.  If so, we might soon be reading about the street-racing industry.  What's prompted that observation?  Well, I still struggle with what I was brought up to regard as 'the sport of kings' (even though I probably prefer 'the king of sports') being described as 'the racing industry' - but I have at least come to terms with the fact that that is what it is now generally held to be.

But, even resigned as I am to the fact of 'the racing industry', it had still never occured to me that I would one day be hearing about 'the point-to-point industry'.  But that day has dawned, as I heard the phrase used on TV the other day.  Still, I suppose it could have been worse: I could have heard reference to 'the pointing industry'.  As my health and strength return and as the weather improves, my state of mind is regaining its usual positivity.  But I fear that 'the pointing industry' might have sent me into a relapse.  'In terms of the pointing industry' would have finished me off altogether.

One might, though, say that the biggest story of the week was the latest installment of the Racing Post's expose of bloodstock scams.  The paper did an investigative overview of the sales-scene towards the end of last year, which inevitably delivered less than it had promised because of the understandably general reticence towards saying anything that wasn't unsatisfactorily vague.  Like City Racing, this all went quiet until last week - when the paper weighed in with another chapter.  This, though, turned out to be coming from a different angle: scams potentially committed against, rather than by, bloodstock agents.  All in the interests of balance, I suppose.

What I particularly enjoyed about this was Oliver St Lawrence finding himself in a restaurant in Madrid.  I always enjoy it when people find themselves somewhere.  Ideally you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack, and you may find yourself in another part of the world.  And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile.  And you may find yourself in a beautiful house with a beautiful wife.  And you may ask yourself, "Well, how did I get here?".  But, otherwise, finding yourself in a restaurant in Madrid and asking yourself, "Well, how did I get here?" is OK.