How a morning cuppa with John Francome made me question racing's accessibility

When I sat in John Francome's kitchen one morning last week to interview him as part of a forthcoming Racing Post series, it was as if my life had gone full circle.

It was our first meeting and as he made tea and coffee we mused about our mutual affection for dogs. He then asked me how I got into the sport.

I explained how my television was programmed to turn on automatically on Saturday mornings and, given Channel 4 was on in the evenings, I would wake up with the Morning Line. At that point I was an oblivious passenger, swept along with the weekly racing circus without a clue what was going on, but I soon became hooked.