Paddock picks add to a perfect sporting day out – but no guarantee of success

I remember watching the racing on a Saturday at the pub my grandma and grandad ran. I’ve always preferred jumps over the Flat and remember the buzz about the place when Cheltenham came around each year.

It was a trip to Wetherby at Christmas time when I was in my teens that really got me hooked on racing though. I went with my dad and a few of his mates – I just loved the whole experience, from meeting everyone in the morning and discussing tips, watching winners come in and horses getting pipped to the post. It was a perfect sporting day out in my eyes.

Seeing the horses walk around the paddock before a race has always been one of my favourite things to do. I went to Carlisle with a couple of university friends and we went straight to the paddock before the first. We were all unsure of who to back until we saw this giant of a horse – it dwarfed every other horse on show. We all backed it, and it refused the first fence. That summed up our day really, we had no winners between any of us!