Sunhats and a hat-trick

THE horses started living out for the “summer” last month. I’ve just brought them in for the night

— I know, aren’t I soft — and now type this listening to what is promised by the Met Office to be the first of 24 hours of rain. Without wishing to go all Daily Express, that’s a month’s worth in a day.

This, on top of the already slightly soft ground in Gloucestershire, means there are those who are understandably concerned that Badminton may be cancelled. I trust you are reading this, bathed in golden sunshine, on the estate’s hallowed turf, scoffing at the suggestion that the view and sport you are enjoying, champagne in hand and hamper at your feet, might not have been. Rather than wondering what to do with your now free weekend.

And I hope I am on the H&H tradestand, meeting readers at what is set to be one of the greatest Badmintons ever now that Oliver Townend has set himself up for a Rolex Grand Slam by winning in Kentucky. Well done that man, and all luck to him for the hat-trick.

From Badminton to Royal Windsor — as indeed the Duke of Beaufort went in 1944. This is one of my favourite stories from our 75 Royal Windsor memories (preview, p28). Alan Smith’s 1977 book The Royal Windsor Horse Show has it that two Red Cross nurses, having hitched a lift with the Duke, had nowhere to stay on arrival and were consequently accommodated in the castle. This sounds delightfully unfeasible and absolutely wonderful in equal measure.

Sarah Jenkins, content director