The Oaks

Which has always been a good race for me, 40/1 and 10/1 winners in the last decade alone.

However, here's a story from Oaks day 1994. The previous year we had gone to the Derby, right at its nadir, with dwindling crowds and little fanfare, prior to its move to Saturdays. It had drizzled all day, we hadn't sniffed a winner, and Anne was fed up. On the way out of the course I stopped at a burger bar for a shot of cjd, and Anne started moaning. The burger bar bloke went "nag, nag, nag", which phrase immediately entered our private lexicon.

The following year we decided to skip Derby day and go to the Oaks instead. In the pouring rain. But at least Frankie got Balanchine home with a brilliant run up the stands rails, so we were all in slightly better spirits. The late, great Clement Freud had a horse running in the final race, and it's name was of course "Nagnagnag". The only problem was it was drawn on the wrong side of the course, indeed from a stall from which no horse had won a sprint for over 20 years. Still, Tim and I decided we couldn't let the name go unbacked, especially at 10/1ish.

As we massed our guns on the lawn, all around us we could hear blokes saying to their wives, girlfriends, kids - "nag, nag, nag", like a rumbling howl of a comedy routine. The horse was backed down to 6/1 through the sheer weight of fivers from hen-pecked husbands, despite it having no chance at all.

So when Nagnagnag flew clear, the collective roar of his name and communal giggling afterwards remains one of my favourite racing memories.

As for today there's quite a few I'd give chances to, but a good maxim with fillies is to only back them at long prices, so I'll be cheering on Snow Fairy and Meeznah.

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