Outsiders threaten victory on both sides of pond until familiar agony arrives

My daughter was messing about with my wife's phone the other day and started using 'Siri', of which I am sure many, if not most, Racing Post readers have become aware. What a remarkable but disturbing bit of kit – a 'virtual assistant' which answers your questions.

As I passed Grace, she said: “Siri, pub!” and I beamed with pride. I have taught you well, I thought to myself. She was seemingly using the device to locate her nearest public house – and Siri presented her with a list of all the local hostelries, with details of how far away they were, etc.

I am sure – before social services threaten to intervene – that the lure of an outside play area was the reason my four-year-old was searching for pub options, rather than a craving for Stella Artois, but there was still something I found unedifying about seeing her being guided by an Apple robot. Is this really what we've become? Reliant on robots?