The afternoon was filled with me first catching up on some correspondence from my accountant, and then using the Racing Post website to study the full videos of recent races, specifically those sent out from Simon Paulson’s stable and ridden by Jimmy Shilstone.

They’d been very clever, I thought.

In the past three weeks, Simon Paulson had had eleven runners, not including the two at Catterick the previous day, and seven had been ridden by Jimmy Shilstone. Two of those had been winners and, of the other five, I reckoned that one was a definite fix, and maybe one of the others was also suspicious. But proving it would be nigh-on impossible. Indeed, it was only the look of panic in Jimmy’s eyes when I’d confronted him after the first race at Catterick that had made me truly certain that something hadn’t been right.

The race I was pretty sure had been fixed was a Class 4 two-and-a-half-mile handicap chase held at Newcastle during the previous week.

Unlike at Catterick, where the last seven furlongs are mostly downhill, at Newcastle there is a stiff rise from the start of the home straight all the way up to the finish line. Hence, races tend to be run here at a slower pace, and often the contests don’t get going in earnest until near the end, as everyone is trying to hold something in reserve for that final climb.

Everyone, that was, except Jimmy Shilstone.

The video showed he had set off on the favourite at a tremendous gallop, leading the field by eight lengths or more by the time they passed the winning post on the first circuit. As he turned into the home straight for the second and last time, he had still been leading by two lengths, but his horse soon paid the price for that fast early pace, fading badly over the last four uphill fences in heavy going to finish third, some ten lengths behind the eventual winner.

Shilstone had also had a ride in a later race on the same day, but for a different trainer. It was another handicap steeplechase, this time over two miles, and one reserved for novice chasers—young horses that hadn’t won a steeplechase prior to the start of the current season in late April.

I watched that video too.

On that occasion, Jimmy had ridden a completely different style of race, starting slowly and only making his run for victory up the concluding hill. And it had proved successful, with him catching the long-time leader some ten strides from the finish to win easily, with his hands down.