Solving the mystery of weird terminology is all part of racing's magic

In the age of the immediate and instantly accessible, the hard-to-grasp acquires a value close to the priceless. I don't care if you Google things until your fingers bleed because all you will ever get is a range of facts – many of rank dubiety.

If you seek wisdom or knowledge then you, like every preceding generation since Eve crunched into the apple, have to go through the process of steadily learning what things mean and how they came about.

Racing is priceless for many reasons but one of its shining glories is that it retains a gentle obscurity. You have to make an effort to understand what the hell is going on. Just as you do in life.