THERE is nothing like a general election to make me turn to TV box sets and music radio to avoid round-the-clock opinions of recovery, water charges and hospital trollies. I am pretty impatient at the best of times and am constantly irritated when politicians proclaim, in a moment of contrived humility, “I am/have been/would be proud to serve the people of ….” This always sounds to me like either, “You are actually bloody lucky to have me representing you” or, “I’m thankful to have the job because I am not sure what else I could do”.

There is a school of thought that you will not like in a horse what you do not like in yourself and maybe I am suffering a similar fate with politicians!

I met somebody recently who believed that it is actually advantageous to read less news. Thanks to instant media coverage people constantly bombard themselves with information and fill the memory bank with facts that have really very little value in the greater scheme of things. The focus should be on absorbing consequential information that is still significant a week, a month or even a year after it has become available. This thinking could apply to our industry as well.

Flat stallions for example can rise and fall in popularity in a matter of days depending on whether something catches the eye in a spring maiden. I often see breeders change direction during the breeding season as some stallion or another shows signs of being the next Galileo.

My younger colleagues in Goffs can tell me daily which stallion is hot and which is not, but they have never heard of Devon Loch or Dick Francis. If only Twitter did history.