Forget pace maps, I'll be studying sires and jockeys this season

With my 16-year-old son taking his GCSEs next month, I keep having flashbacks to when I was sitting my exams and how I was always told to show my workings. It was pretty easy to pick up a few marks for doing just that, but that doesn't help you when you're trying to find the winner of a horserace because you can do all the work you want but you only get judged on whether your horse passes a stick stuck in a field in first place.

Yet when the Flat season starts, all you tend to hear about are convoluted theories about draws, pace and ground, while the actual ability of the horse is often put to the back of the queue.

I've made it clear that I have no interest in the draw anymore and haven't for about five years, so there is no need to retread that old chestnut again and instead I've got the dreaded pace maps in the cross hairs this season.