“Are you a filly?” demands the paddock ring attendant.
“I’m a gelding,” pleads the groom of Involvement ahead of the Coral Glorious Stakes.
The lady manning the pre-parade to paddock has been the unsung hero of Glorious Goodwood week and deserves an immediate pay-rise - I hope someone from the racecourse is reading. There may be murmurings of races off late (particular kudos to Ciarrai Abu for delaying Thursday’s proceedings in dramatic style) but it’s not for a lack of trying - we’d be running far later without her unshakeable steadfastness that runners do need to see the paddock in a timely fashion.
“What’s been the worst bit?” I ask her.
“Getting them all in there on time,” she sighs. No further questions, your Honour.
Enfjaar demonstrates a game attitude to fend off the favourite Opportunity in the Glorious Stakes and is welcomed back like a hero by connections.
“I want to pat him!” exclaims the smallest member of the owners’ group, with the determined resolve of a toddler. Strokes aren’t allowed but he’s snuck into the winners’ enclosure for the photo, smiling merrily.
It might be good to firm on the track but the winners enclosure is swiftly becoming soft, heavy in places given the amount of buckets of water thrown over the last five days and we lose one of the camera operators to a particularly boggy patch. It’s becoming the survival of the fittest and I’ve eaten way too many pastries for that game.
In an effort to stretch my legs, I head down to the rail for the Coral Stewards' Cup – big sprint handicaps might not get me excited from a betting perspective, but it’s hard not to have the pulse raised by twenty-eight horses thundering past. There’s a mass of people trying to get to the front, wielding stacks of betting slips and desperately trying to identify their runner heading to post.
As always, the rail pays dividends as I stand next to a group of ladies, who are having a lovely time, bottle of wine in hand. They’re admiring the view from the parked cars on the far rail, where groups are supping champagne and picnicking from their boots.
“They’re dead man’s shoes, those spaces,” says one woman. “It’s one in, one out.”
Never mind one in, one out – Evening Saigon makes it a magnificent seven for Wathnan Racing over the course of Glorious Goodwood week, defeating Stratusnine in a photo-finish.
Wathnan’s Richard Brown sums it up: “We plot these and work as a team, and when these results come off, it is just fantastic for Wathnan and what Wathnan is all about.”
Hamad Al Jehani is visibly delighted. He’s had a great week with two winners and it shows on his face.
“It is really important for us and a really important race for the season,” he says. “I am very happy, and thanks to James for giving the horse a great ride.
“It is not easy to be competitive with the best trainers in the world, but we try our best. I think we are building in a very good way, with great help from the management. Hopefully, we will improve year by year and can get Wathnan into the winner’s enclosure more and more.”
Going back to the press room for one final time, I run into some Northern compatriots, chewing the cud over a final pint before a long journey home.
“They’re queuing for six free strawberries in a punnet,” one says. “It’s absolutely staggering.”
I think it’s absolutely glorious.
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