Richard Hannon: my Royal Ascot team and why racing needs a big week for Frankie

Lockdown has been a stiff test of endurance for all of us, but we have counted the cost in our own different ways. For Richard Hannon the Elder, the absence of his isolated racing pals led to six weeks of solitary mornings and, he insists, an equal period of teetotalism. Now, however, he is back in the game, a few pounds lighter, content in his favourite armchair with a glass of Italian white in hand and an eager water treadmill salesman dangling on a hook.

Richard Hannon the Younger, meanwhile, is nowhere to be found, although whether that elusive tendency changed at all during lockdown is another matter. While father entertains visitors in the owners' room, son is on the move somewhere, perhaps marshalling the massed ranks of entries that have to be made, or concluding the post-work debrief with his generals.

"I call him 'shoe leather'," grumbles Richard snr, in recognition of the impressive mileage the urgent 44-year-old covers in every hectic day, albeit in rubber-soled trainers. He's eager to help, but pinning him down for the illumination of Racing Post readers is a question of artful strategy.