It's a pleasant coincidence that this year the Oxford and Cambridge boat race should fall on my father's birthday. He would have been ninety-eight, but he died thirteen years ago. It was an event he enjoyed immensely, for he was part of that peculiarly Cambridge medico-athletic milieu; it is also frequently referred to in the work of his favourite author, P.G.Wodehouse. He ran for his college, played hockey and swam, and had the distinction of being the oldest contestant in the swim through Cambridge, an event that died out, partly because of irrational fears about the cleanliness of the Cam, partly because a new generation of feebler swimmers, used to the artificially high temperatures of indoor pools, could not be persuaded to take part.
Today there is not a great deal of interesting racing. I go for:
Haydock 330: Salut Flo
Haydock 435: Llama Farmer