These are my all-time favourite racehorses - and none of them was ever an 'it'

Ours is a house full of horses. There are now so many that some have to live in the loft. I've been told I'm allowed no more, unless the circumstances are exceptional. Over the coming years there may be a few exceptional circumstances.

National Racehorse Week has got me thinking about my favourites, so many of whom are recalled and revered on the walls of our little abode. There are no portraits of trainers or jockeys, except for where one of the latter is sitting on a horse, for it is the horses who are the true stars of this sport.

Not everyone agrees, but I really don't think we should refer to a racehorse as 'it', although I sometimes make that mistake myself. Frankel, Phar Lap or Secretariat could never have been depersonalised as an 'it', nor Red Rum, Kauto Star or Denman.