The record of the Pipe family suggests we should never be surprised at their winners but Madison Du Berlais's Hennessy victory, with the stable out of form, was a rabbit from the hat. Certainly, it caught some of the Newbury staff unawares and when a beaming David Pipe presented himself in the sponsors' box, he was initially refused a celebration drink as he did not have the correct wristband.

“But I've just won the Hennessy,” Pipe said, quite reasonably. “Yes, sir,” the barman responded, digging a deeper hole for himself. “I'm sure many others on the racecourse have won on the Hennessy, too.” Fortunately, Newbury management did recognise the hero of the hour and Pipe's glass was soon brimming with appropriate bubbly.

It has been a testing time for Pipe since the glory of winning the Grand National. David Johnson, his principal owner, has been badly hit by the recession and cut back his horses so sharply that Timmy Murphy, his retained jockey, has been obliged to cast his net wider than usual.

Pipe, Murphy and Johnson could soon be sharing the big time again, though. Our Vic is reported by the trainer to be “right on course” for the King George VI Chase, in which he was runner-up to Kauto Star last year. “I was looking at a picture of that recently,” Pipe recalled with a slow smile, “and it was before we put blinkers on him.”

With the headgear applied, Our Vic became one of only two horses to win at both Cheltenham and Aintree in the spring. Murphy's confidence in a repeat could be judged on a recent morning at the Cotswold yard of Nigel Twiston-Davies, where he now rides out regularly.

Twiston-Davies, bullish as ever, was discussing big-race targets with his jockey, Paddy Brennan, and the Ryanair Chase was mentioned. From an adjoining room, where Murphy was polishing his boots, an Irish voice chimed in: “You're not having that one...”

Newbury and their marketing team could hardly have done more to enliven the racecourse during the Hennessy meeting but their conspicuous triumph was a revolutionary racecard that guarantees showing the runners for every race, with colours, on an individual spread.

Its minimalist style did not please all the tweedy types who congregate at this fixture but, for serious race-watchers, it was a huge advance on the unwieldy page-turning of old. Kate Walthew, marketing manager at Newbury, deserves credit for the initiative.

There is no nicer man in racing than Peter Beaumont and he proved it again on Monday. Late in proceedings at the Derby Awards lunch in London, Beaumont took a call from his North Yorkshire yard telling him that Jodami, the best horse he ever trained and a daily light in his life, had been put down.

Rather than upset any other guests, or burden them with his emotions, Beaumont said nothing of the loss. “I just drank a little more whisky than I should and had an unhappy ride home on the train,” he said. “It was a complete surprise but I couldn't tell anyone, it wouldn't have been fair to spoil the day.”

Beaumont is 74 and has had surgery on his hip and heart, but it was only four years ago that he gave up riding Jodami himself. Latterly, the old horse - the last northern-trained winner of the Gold Cup - “looked after my foals and yearlings” and his feat of winning three Irish Hennessys is commemorated by a bar carrying his name at Leopardstown.

Pity poor Cottenham, the Cambridgeshire village entrusted with staging one of two point-to-point fixtures last Sunday - the earliest start to a British season. Not only did the weather turn evil but the vicinity was choked with cars attending a quite different sporting event.

The next village, a mile down the road, is Histon, whose FA Cup tie against Leeds United kicked off 15 minutes after Cottenham's first race. “Considering all that,” Cathy Scott, the meeting secretary said, “people were remarkably resilient.”

How fitting that a treble for Oliver Sherwood on Tuesday should bring up 500 winners this calendar year for the 28 trainers now using the famous Mandown gallops at Lambourn. There was some disgruntlement when the Jockey Club took over the downland management two years ago but Sherwood, a Lambourn stalwart, was unfailingly supportive. The result of the investment has been renewed life and increased success in a training centre that had been declining for a decade.