“I believe Sam is the right man to ride Long Run and that won’t change."

There are many reasons why people enter the precarious world of racehorse ownership.

Trevor Hemmings, who was born on June 11, 1935, boasts a classic rags to riches story. Brought up in Woolwich Arsenal, south east London, where his father worked at the Royal Ordnance factory, Trevor was sent to Lancashire as a five-year-old during World War II and began life as a bricklayer’s apprentice after leaving school aged 15, before becoming involved in the Pontins holiday business.

As he looked forward to the biggest day's racing in the racecourse's history to date, the developer of Ffos Las said today that progress had already far exceeded his expectations.

The eight-strong partnership is fronted by Newcastle-born and Carlisle-based Ian Robinson, 48, who founded Our Friends In The North in 2003. Robinson is CEO of a marine telecommunications company in the northeast and is joined in the syndicate by his wife, Gillian. They are both Newcastle United season ticket holders.

It seems fitting Downton Abbey, the major new all star drama series being screened on ITV1 every Sunday at 9pm, was filmed on location at Highclere Castle. For the family home of the Honourable Harry Herbert may well have seen him realise early ambitions of becoming an actor.

 

There were jubilant scenes on the final day of Royal Ascot 2008 as Her Majesty The Queen’s Free Agent came from a seemingly impossible position to win the Chesham Stakes, bringing her total number of winners at the Royal Meeting to 20 and ending a blank period that stretched back to 1999.