It’s well worth leaving land of nod to catch Winx on live television

There are no borders when it comes to our enjoyment of racing, nor to our appreciation of a superb thoroughbred, as the wonderful Winx showed on Saturday. This, of course, was not always the case.

These days almost every major French Flat race is shown on At The Races, Racing UK or both. Back in the 1980s and 1990s that was certainly not the case.

Special were those editions of Sunday Grandstand when a Longchamp, Chantilly or Deauville Group 1 was shown. The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe was always granted a decent slot before and after its Channel 4 transfer, while a window was also invariably found for the Prix du Jockey Club. To see other races was not so easy.