The last week of Christmas racing has been as busy as usual and thrown up plenty of black type updates, including five new stakes winners, for upcoming yearling sale.

While looking for an image of Snippets to go with our celebration of Snippets long form story before Christmas I was drawn to the back of my storage cupboard and there in a remote and dusty corner was a pile of Stallions books and 2001 gave me what I needed and also some serious food for thought.