Gossip, whispers, rumours, the great game thrives on it.
On Friday several leading bookmakers suspended betting on the Juddmonte International after word seemingly went round that all was not well with Ombudsman.
He'd worked in Newmarket on Friday morning and our man Graham Clark was there and covered the gallop for us. I called him. He was non-plussed. No word from Clarehaven and a few hours later he was again included in every row on Oddschecker.
Then there's the desire to be the first to latch onto the next big thing. It's huge, particularly in the National Hunt game. There are numerous, fascinating, accounts on X that bring news of the latest exports from France heading to the big jumps yards, a few weeks later there are updates with both the new trainer and owner.
There’s footage of wide-margin point-to-point winners who have been snared either through the sales ring or privately.
