As a keen race fan, I am always looking forward to going to Ascot - can you believe it's only 178 days away? - and no matter what I will be having a bet on Ascot 2020.
Royal Ascot it is one of the biggest race days of the year, and I always get really excited about it. I don't know if it's because as a kid it's the first day that I was allowed to put a £1 bet on. I remember the first time I walked into a bookmakers, the look of all the men peering into the days racing post scouring all of the day's races looking for who they were going to build their accumulators on, the smell and fog of everyone smoking (which you used to be allowed to do), the excitement of picking (what was generally going to be a loser) a horse and then writing it on a betting slip and passing it to the old man to add to the handful that he already had. Maybe it was an accumulation of all those things and next year I will get to do it for the first time with my eldest.
Of course, it will not be the same. The bookmakers are now clean as surgical affairs and of course they are mainly large franchise ventures now, my daughter won't be allowed to come in and pore over the races and runners, the smoke won't be there (because that's against the law) but the same old boys from almost 30 years ago will still be there; we may of lost a few over the years but it is still the same crowd.
Do you remember the first time you made a bet? Was it your old man or your mum taking you into the betting shop or did you have the pull-out from the tabloid with all the favourites that their pundits had picked sat in the middle of the pages pulling you in with the larger type font and odds?
No matter what your first memory was of having a flutter, I guarantee it was definitely a life-defining moment; it didn't matter if you won or lost, it was just a great laugh that you had. It was also a bit of a moment of manhood like the first time you had a beer in a pub - you walked with a bit more swagger, stood a little bit taller and felt, yes this is me and I have done it.
