Two more horses with quadruple gear combos. Angola had the tongue tie, cross-over noseband, winkers and nasal strip. I much prefer cleanskins, because the horse must have problems that the trainer is trying to correct. Four problems seem to be more than enough, but it obviously all worked as the horse won as it liked. But I could never back it. Helenus, the sire, was as mad as a cut snake and was forever trying to toss off his nose roll, if not trying to jump over the running rail. It didn’t stop him winning a derby, but I much prefer my stayers to be in the Bart mould – nice and relaxed. No excuses then if they lose.

The other one was Olly I Am, with an extremely rare combination of bit lifter, cheekers, ear muffs and winkers. I was intrigued to work out how you could combine a bit lifter with integrated cheekers and I’m still not much the wiser. It kinda looks like a nose band in there but there’s so many straps it’s hard to work out what’s what and how the noseband lifts the bit. But that buckle looks a bit ominous! The horse burst out of the blocks but collapsed in a heap in the straight.

A losing day, my first for some time. One winner (Amaethon) and two losers (So Hasty and Taddei Tondo). If I was an each-way punter I would be well ahead. Such is life.

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