Clever Dick gets his lolly even though famous plot goes down

Cartmel, which staged its final meeting of the year last Monday, will always remind me of my friend Dick. For 30 years or more he never missed a meeting there.

A stalwart of the press room for several decades, Dick was a successful punter, a fine tipster, an astute judge of the form book and as streetwise a character as you would be likely to meet.

He was always smartly dressed and his main task on the racecourse, or rather the one he was paid to do, was to return the starting prices in the days when there was a certain flexibility about the job, when there was no adhering to fixed rules together with an associated paper trail as is the case these days.