JUDGED by his social media time lines, retired Capetonian racing fanatic Brian Finch has made it his mission to see the Seven Wonders Of The World, and any number of other wonderful things like the Flower Show at Hampton Court, Wimbledon Tennis and the village of Newmarket, one of the racing world’s seven wonders.
It is said that Brian has bruised shoulders, they’re forever bruised because he’s rubbing them with celebrities! Just recently the intrepid traveller was seen tipping his Top Hat at Queen Elizabeth herself in the winner’s enclosure at Royal Ascot; this week he posted on Twitter a photo of himself with Gai Waterhouse, the famous trainer and herself racing royalty from Australia.
Brian and South African trainer Alec Laird were guests of the Jockey Club at the Darley July Cup meeting at Newmarket on Saturday and his camera was active again snapping a photo of Laird, Steven Jell and Ka Ming Ma, who works for trainer Richard Gibson in Hong Kong and is on holiday in the UK.
Laird is in the UK to check on Jessica Slack’s filly Smart Call, who is stabled at her mother Mary’s Abington Place and Jell told: “Alec is here for a week and I will be taking him to Wimbledon for the Men’s Final.”
Earlier this week Jell had also taken ‘Ming Son’ a former employee of Mike de Kock, for, as he explained “strawberries and cream, and Pimms”, just to put “some culture” into the man from Hong Kong.
We pointed out that if Pimms is considered a yardstick for British culture we’ll be cancelling our immigration plans, but Jell did mention that champagne will be the preferred drink when he and Laird visit Centre Court.
