It won't be long now until this great sport of ours is back and better than ever

It won't be long now until the last one is loading for the sprint maiden at Windsor on a Monday night. No doubt whatever I backed will appear to be a good two lengths in front as the line looms, but it turns out to be yet another optical illusion and the horse hogging the nearside rail is clear. That angle at Windsor has caused me more agony than my dodgy knee over the years.

It won't be long now until they are coming out of the Dip at Newmarket. Pinatubo will probably be leading, unless William Buick would prefer to sit and make punters suffer before making it seven wins out of seven. There is something that makes the spine tingle about an unbeaten juvenile reappearing at three in the Guineas. Everything is on the line. That minute and 40 seconds or so is often sprinkled with stardust.

It won't be long now until Franny Norton is whizzing around Chester. He won the Cup there last year on Making Miracles. An apt winner given he came out of stall 16. It is like watching Nadal at Roland Garros, he always plays the right shot at the right time. We might have lost the big May meeting but it won't be long until we are back on Merseyside.