'Lester said loudly: 'What do you want to ask a stupid question like that for?''

I often wondered why racing journalists retired. After all, they were getting paid for enjoying their hobby and 'work' consisted of not much more than asking endless questions and writing down the answers.

I found one reason when the press were allowed back into South African racecourses a few weeks ago. Realisation hit me like a thunderclap. My reactions were no longer sharp enough to cope with the Lewis Hamilton style of driving that characterises Cape Town motorways. At 76, I was an accident waiting to happen.

And it was an accident that started my journalistic career. I spent the first five years of my working life training to be a chartered accountant, the first three largely devoted to studying The Sporting Life in the mornings and spending the afternoons in the betting shop. It took the threat of the sack, and twice going bust as the office bookie, to put me back on the path intended by my parents.