A rough day for punters at Pontefract - but at least openness from track officials gives us half a chance

What a fun sport horseracing is, with its ability to make you feel on top of the world for a time and then have you wishing the earth would open and swallow you soon after. The point of this column is to suggest there are good ways and not-so-great ways to deal with the inevitable rollercoaster and also that openness, lauded in this space last week, is one of the qualities that can help you through.

On the day after Royal Ascot ended, Pontefract staged a Sunday Series fixture which seemed to go swimmingly. Norman Gundill, the Yorkshire venue's popular MD, tells me: "Owners, trainers and TV people were euphoric about the state of the track." Importantly, every race looked very much as standard for Pontefract in summer, the field flowing around the inner rail and finishing up the far side in the straight.

Eight days on, though, and Monday's fixture had a very different look. The drama began in the opener, in which Serena Brotherton on Unplugged switched right across to the outside rail at the turn for home, covered much more ground than anything else and won tidily.