THEY say rules are made to be broken, and I doubt there’s a jockey riding who hasn’t indulged in some form of punting over the years, if only for a side bet in the weighing room through boredom.” The words come from the opening page of Graham Bradley’s autobiography, infamously titled The Wayward Lad, and their veracity has not really been challenged. The context is the episode when a young Brad was caught placing a bet in the silver ring at Cartmel on a day he was riding, but not in a race where he was due to take part in, and the subject of his coup was a raging-hot favourite in a bad handicap which half the north of England could, and did, spot.

Brad got a two-month ban for his sins, which he likened to having his hands cut off, only with saltier language, and liberal use of CAPITAL LETTERS (sic). He will always remember the date that verdict was delivered, as it came just two days after he had ridden Bregawn to win the 1982 Hennessy Gold Cup.