MY PLACE ON RAILS WITH HERO BARNEY

Simon Nott is back behind the scenes at some of his old stomping grounds

Windsor May 13

My last visit to Windsor was in 1999 working for Dave Phillips. I repped for him here too, but I think I did his money for him so it was probably just the once. I was going to do so again, on a New Year's day, I was wild and reckless then, let's just say I was very pleased to wake up and find out that it was 'off'.

I came here before that - before I ever worked in the ring - and had a 'pony' each-way on Tyrnippy with Victor Chandler's Bill Tye on the rails, The MDM Thoroughbreds horse got beaten into second by Eternal Triangle. I didn't feel too bad though, I watched the race next to my hero Barney Curley who I was seeing in the flesh for the first time. I'm pretty sure he was on the winner too, but of course it was always hard to tell with Barney!

If I'm honest, it wasn't particularly busy this evening. Not totally unexpected. Back in the day Dave Phillips used to give the early season ones a swerve. I don't remember if it was because they started early like today, but they weren't a lot of cop but fabulous in the height of summer. There was a thriving Silver Ring in those days too, now a car park. Still, there were several bookmakers in evidence to take bets from the punters that had turned up tonight. It was nice to see familiar faces from the West Country betting rings too.

On to the racing, well, you'd not have to look any further for ride of the day, week, month, even year, than Oisin Murphy in the first race. His mount, Hugo Palmer's He's Got Game stumbled badly, almost pecking and unshipping his jockey leaving the stalls. Simply staying in the saddle was a feat in itself. But no, Oisin still fancied winning the race, nursed his mount back into contention then came with a late run to lead in the last strides delighting the punters who had supported the gelding into 7/4 making him favourite.