A Year of Free Love: it was a living nightmare unfolding before my eyes

Tony Linnett, an ordinary punter with a lifelong passion for racing, has not only realised his dream of owning a racehorse, but also written a book about it called A Year of Free Love. In an exclusive extract he describes the filly’s disastrous debut at Kempton.

May 1, 2018

It had been a relatively calm and untroubled voyage of just under seven months from the Tattersalls Book 3 Sale to Kempton Park racecourse. I suppose it hadn’t been a very long time to wait, but my daily anticipation of this moment made it feel that my first visit to Tom’s yard [trainer Tom Clover] was an event from the distant past.