David Parkin finds a winner at the races and starts to feel less bitter

I FIND going to Ladies Day at the Ebor meeting at York Racecourse one of life’s guilty pleasures.

A beautiful setting, some of the best flat racing on offer – and most people go and stand in a tent talking rubbish with a bucket of champagne at their feet.

Ok, well that’s what I did yesterday, and I wasn’t alone.

It’s a bit like a visit to the Western Terrace during a Test Match at Headingley. You know you shouldn’t enjoy it as much but you do. Grown men dressed as bananas having a bit of rough and tumble, stag parties dressed as nuns getting a cheer as they emerge from every stairwell in the stand, and boisterous spectactors attempting to make ‘beer snakes’ with empty plastic pint glasses despite the best efforts of the over-officious stewards.

Ah, the great Yorkshire summer.

Maybe I didn’t look hard enough, but I thought many of the women’s outfits at York were elegant and despite the number of people attending, I didn’t see any fights break out or drunken behaviour.

I’ve never been, but people tell me Royal Ascot can be a bit rough at times at the end of a long day’s racing and drinking.

Ladies Day at Aintree’s Grand National meeting is where the newspapers have a field day with their photos of some eye bulging outfits.

The most disturbing site was a life size horse, constructed entirely out of Yorkshire produce, complete with a bicycle made of Yorkshire rhubarb made by York Racecourse Hospitality to celebrate the racecourse’s commitment to using regional produce and its role as the start of the second day’s racing during the Grand Départ of the Tour de France next year.

I thought the horse looked like one of the exhibits in that Bodies exhibition of dissected human bodies.

Cabbages have never been more scary.

Under genial chief executive William Derby, York is a well run operation that looks as good as it ever has. This week it attracted some of the world’s top owners and trainers and their incredible horses.

I literally had a grandstand view of things on Wednesday as a guest of Chris Booth, managing partner at law firm Pinsent Masons.

Pinsents sponsored a race, and the talent in the box was as good as out on the Knavesmire with some of the region’s top entrepreneurs and executives on great form.

I put a bet on veteran Yorkshire entrepreneur and major race horse owner Sir Robert Ogden’s horse Martin Chuzzlewit.

Unfortunately the horse came nowhere. The only winner was 78-year-old Sir Robert who was attending the meeting with his new 36-year-old Brazilian wife.

:::

“IS it your birthday?” asked a colleague when I walked into the office on Monday morning.

It wasn’t, but waiting for me on my desk was a brightly wrapped parcel containing some very tasty homemade brownies.

Attached to them was a business card from Carmel Harrison, the regional public relations representative for the Institute of Directors.

“David, need sweetening up?” was written on the card. Given I’m quite bitter it was an appropriate question.

I’m not really into sweet things, but it was quite a nice touch given my rant here last week about the role of the IoD in the region.

I met Carmel and regional director Suzy Brain England for a coffee this week. While I doubt either of them liked what I wrote last week, they focused on the future of the IoD, rather than the past.

And while I stand by everything I have written, I also accept that their plans for the organisation are being formulated and extend beyond purely focusing on professional development courses.

While people always remember critical comments, I’d much rather be writing positive things about organisations in Yorkshire.

I’ve had my rant, now let’s give the IoD time to find its rightful place in the region once again.