Last weekend’s Epsom Derby classic horse race brought back my memories of Willie Carson, who won it four times as a jockey.

I was his ghost writer in the early Seventies for a national newspaper. He was always great fun with an infectious laughter, but serious when he had to be.

He was also a royal jockey, riding for the late Queen Elizabeth II, who had a great passion for the sport and for racehorse breeding in particular.

Carson, now 81, was born in Stirling, Scotland, but was an established flat race jockey living in Newmarket and married to his first wife Carol when I visited him to offer him a paid column in The Sun newspaper for which I would interview him and then write the column under his name.

It is called in the business ‘ghost writing’.

I was then a partner in a race-writing business called Ayres and Newbon. Michael Ayres had been the national newspaper racing tipster in the early 70s and we wrote two books on the sport.

Over The Sticks was the first definitive book about National Hunt racing with Devon publisher David and Charles and sold really well.

The second book on flat racing, Under Starter’s Orders, did not! They are still available on both Amazon and eBay,........

© Birmingham Mail Sport