Racing has provided light relief for Peter Borg-Neal, a charming and embattled publican

As one might imagine, Peter Borg-Neal, who owns Oakman Inns, a group of 28 pubs including Ascot’s famous racing inn, The Royal Foresters, has had some sticky moments this year.

Quite apart from not being able to go racing with friends, or to sponsor the occasional Ascot race, his year has been overtaken by keeping his pubs open and safe.

A keen racing fan, he became interested after watching meetings at Goodwood from the adjacent Trundle Hill in the early 1980s. But it was almost 40 years before he moved on to a financial interest and became a member of Kennet Valley Thoroughbreds, run by Sam Hoskins, who convinced him to take a share in Sir Busker, racing’s Mr Consistency.

After winning on the day after racing’s restart, the horse, trained by William Knight, won the Silver Royal Hunt Cup at Ascot and went on to finish runner-up in the Bunbury Cup, Clipper Logistics Handicap at York and Celebration Mile at Goodwood before, perhaps running the race of his life, to finish fourth in Saturday’s QEII at Ascot.

During a tricky year, Borg-Neal’s racing successes have provided light relief because there has been little time for relaxation.

A leading player in the hospitality world, he has regularly appeared on TV and radio providing a robust defence for the industry. As such, he recently appeared on BBC’s Question Time, in the course of which he demanded a public apology from Matt Hancock who he claimed had abused Public Health England statistics.

Referring to the Health Minister’s implication earlier in the week that Covid was spreading again almost entirely due to the hospitality industry, Borg-Neal spoke of “Government shenanigans”.

“Shenanigans?” said Fiona Bruce, blissfully unaware that she had just cost Borg-Neal’s great mate, Mike Clare, the Deputy-Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, a large donation to Tring Rugby Club, one of the 16 clubs whose under-12 teams are sponsored by Oakman Inns. Clare created the bed company, Dreams, which he sold for millions in 2008. Some of that windfall he placed in the Clare Foundation, which does charity work in Buckinghamshire.

When Clare heard that Borg-Neal was going on Question Time last month, he saw an opportunity for a bit of fun that could also do some good, and he set him the challenge: mention the word “shenanigans” and he would donate £2,000 to Borg-Neal’s favourite cause.

Sportingly, for two mentions of the word, Clare doubled the donation, in the mistaken belief that Bruce had been convinced to repeat it by the ever-charming Borg-Neal.

If the shoe fits

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For the want of a shoe, the horse was lost. And so on and so forth until we lose the rider, the message, the battle and the kingdom.

For the want of a nail, the 2.10 at Lingfield a fortnight ago was all but lost when Michael Blanshard’s mare Accomplice arrived at the start having, in racing parlance, “spread a plate”, or, to the man in the street, with her shoe hanging on only by a couple of nails (instead of the normal six or seven).

In Flat races on the turf, you must start with four shoes (for safety reasons) and normally, if you lose one on the way to the start, there is a farrier at the stalls whose job it is to replace any that are lost.

On the all-weather, however, you can run without all four shoes because the surface grips a bit better, but, either way, you cannot run with a shoe which is half-on and half-off.

At Lingfield, there was no farrier at the start and Accomplice, who clearly loves Lingfield more than any other living creature (she has won there four times, three times this season) arrived at the one-mile start with this footwear problem.

I am not sure her jockey, David Probert, has been elected an honorary member of the Worshipful Company of Farriers yet but employing its motto (vi et virtute – by strength and virtue) he took the shoe off with his own bare hands, hopped back on and, ultimately, won the race by half a length.