Lewinsky a tantalising prospect as work is stepped up

With no racecourse action since Glorious Goodwood, it’s a waiting game for my diminished string of syndicated horses.

I have shares in five thoroughbreds who remain in training with Hugo Palmer from the nine that started the season in the spring. The retired four, having been struck by injury or apathy for the job in hand, are still very much alive with new career paths of varying degrees of prestige ahead of them, but it’s back to the gallops to assess the chances of those still focused on their original calling.

The Newmarket training grounds in August are a wonderful place to be and, with Hugo’s two-year-olds firing, there is energy and confidence in the air at Kremlin Cottage. What always impresses me is the organisation and discipline of sending out such a large stable of horses on a work morning, no detail missed by the trainer despite the dynamic complexity of everything that’s going on in the operation. It’s a perfectionist’s aim at knowledge and precision in a world of unpredictability and chaos and to observe it up close is one of the great privileges of racehorse ownership.