HE’S not everyone’s cup of tea, is Geoff Banks, gifted his position in the bookmaking hierarchy by the cunning of his legendary father, the late John Banks, who had a deserved reputation as the sharpest man in the British betting ring in the sixties and seventies. Many see Banks as something of a caricature of his old man, displaying the same swagger, but inhabiting a world which has long waved goodbye to the colour and the cash which characterised the betting jungle a quarter of a century ago.

That’s not to say that Geoff isn’t trying to turn the tide, and while his occasional turns on Channel 4’s Morning Line are seen by some as a victory of style over substance, he tends to provoke a reaction. That was the case when he appeared with Ruby Walsh up on the show prior to the 2014 Hennessy at Newbury, generally making a nuisance of himself, and not always looking clever with his questioning, but his perseverance got a wonderfully angry response from Walsh, and was genuinely entertaining telly as a result.