10-1 Lady In Dubai can be the start of a big week for Varian

It is my birthday this week and let’s just say I am getting on a bit. It is always funny when I watch these young lads on the racing channels who often say they don’t remember this horse or that horse from the last century and I think blimey they are the horses who got me into racing in the first place.

One of my favourites in my youth was a horse called Half A Year, who won the St James’s Palace Stakes for Luca Cumani back in 1987 and even before then Cumani was one of my racing heroes. I still root for him and this week his hard work might come to fruition if Postponed wins his second King George at Ascot, even if his name is not on the license anymore.

These days everything is about speed - we are not allowed to wait for and take our time on anything. We all love fast food, fast transport and fast internet connections. Taking our time is frustrating and the same is the case with racehorse training. All anyone seems to want are quick, readymade speed horses and the art of training a horse to peak as he gets older is virtually redundant.