At £1 a shot for every ‘how’s retirement going’ I must have amassed enough coins to gazump Amo Racing’s supremo Kia Joorabchian at the autumn yearling sales.

My routine reply is that it’s going splendidly, a never ending gap year. However, it is in the bleakest days of winter, that I experience the odd pang for an All-Weather day out at Wolverhampton, Southwell or Lingfield – probably not Newcastle; 9 ½ hours in the car can take the gloss off a nine-race card.
The overwhelming temptation on a miserable day in January is to ignore the call of the ‘Great Outdoors’ and huddle round the wood bu...