An uneasy peace at increasingly infamous Saturday meeting

Who knows who started it. Most people were still in groups, chatting, laughing, drinking. It had been a pleasant evening so far, thousands of racegoers basking in the warm evening sunlight that spilled across the Surrey countryside. But in front of them – and the entire grandstand – a feisty, headstrong brunette and a tough, determined-looking young man were about to become embroiled in a very public spat.

The scene, Lingfield racecourse, which has been under the spotlight in recent weeks owing to a spate of altercations at their Saturday 'Hooves and Grooves' racenights, including a fight between 20 men seven days earlier.

Of course, when the brunette in question is three-year-old filly Helfire, her adversary 5lb claimer Charlie Bennett, and said spat more a difference of opinion as to how to get down to the start – cool, calm and collected, or excited and sideways – it isn't going to merit quite the same focus.