All's shipshape and Bristol fashion for the man in the camel coat

If ever a racing man could be said to have made an item of clothing unmistakably his own, then surely it's Nigel Twiston-Davies and that ubiquitous duffel coat. More understatedly than Rich Ricci and his tweed suits, less rakishly than Henry Cecil and his Gucci loafers, Herefordshire's finest has rescued the iconic apparel from the clutches of Michael Foot and a gaggle of spotty undergraduates and returned it to its former glory.

Where once it was the outerwear of choice of Field Marshal Montgomery, now it paces the battlefields of the British Turf on the back of one of the sport's most distinguished generals, offering welcome reassurance to the foot soldiers in the Silver Ring that their hard-earned cash is being honestly and straightforwardly deployed.

It’s not to everybody's taste, of course. The trainer's wife Vick is no better than dubious about the appeal of the duffel, even the new one supplied by the yard sponsor. “I'd better not say anything,” she finally offers on the subject, “although I'd have to concede it smells slightly better than the old one.”