A week of regrets - but I fear we'll all have even more of them in 20 years

It's been a great week for philosophising in the Racing Post, thanks to our series of interviews under the heading 'If I Knew Then . . .', in which famous folks have mused on "regrets, lessons learned and mistakes made".

Sir Mark Prescott, Henrietta Knight, Richard Hughes, Mick Channon and Ruby Walsh have jointly shouldered the responsibility for thinking up those hard-won learnings, which is a much harder parlour game than you might think if you've never tried it.

After all, what worthwhile insight have you gleaned from your time on this planet, eh? As soon as you start to put it into words, nearly anything can sound trite, and that's in the ideal circumstances of your own head, with no consequences. Now imagine Peter Thomas is on the other side of the table, nudging his voice recorder towards you, one sardonic eyebrow raised.