The homeless former Royal Ascot-winning stable lad who racing forgot

A desperately sad sight just off Newmarket's high street this week provided a striking contrast to the vast sums of money being spent just down the road at Tattersalls.

Brian Kirk served the local racing industry as a stable lad for the best part of 20 years and led up a Royal Ascot winner in 1980, but he has been sleeping rough for the last two and a half years and could be found this week in the doorway of an empty soft furnishings shop.

Kirk, who shares his pitch with his friend Carol Griffin and her Border Collie Yash, says: "I've spent Christmas on the streets for the last two years. It's getting damp now at night but you're out of the rain. If we're ever kicked out of here, there's nowhere else to go."