Queen Alexander Stakes, which at 2miles, 5 furlongs and 159 yards is the longest British flat race.

Rubstic, the only Scottish trained National winner

Stalls - between 1986 & 2006 7 Derby winners came out of stall 10.

Tryptich.....Brilliant filly and mare who, as a result of an accident, died all to young.

Unseated....no jockey likes it

Vita Nova - inmate of Henry Cecil's yard, highly tried in the latter part of 2011 finishing ¾ adrift of Blue Bunting in the G1 Yorkshire Oaks among other efforts.

Kept in training at 5 and won a Listed race at Goodwood in May. Might take a Group 2 (or better) over 12f somewhere down the line this season.

Whistler, a top sprinter of the fifties and a decent stallion to boot.

DLXXX - Black Caviar's racing weight in kilos, about 20 heavier than Denman at his optimum weight.

Yarmouth's narrow oblong track

Zeebrugge....even before my time, 1920s British bred horse.

Ascot...Royal meeting starts today

Bloomsbury - 1839 Derby winner, one of two horses to win the race in a snowstorm, the other being Hermit in 1867.

Hermit's snowstorm was better than Bloomsbury's but I can't find a picture of it so here is a painting of the 1839 finish complete with a sadly inferior snowstorm.

You'll be lucky to find a photo that early and even if you did it would probably consist entirely of what looked like snow. The first worthwhile commercially viable camera only came around 3 years earlier and produced what are known as Daguerrotypes.

Ceiriog Valley ....Paul Webber trained horse a few years back.

Dress code, greatly revised this year for Royal Ascot.

Euro 2012 In-Play At BetVictor.com Handicap

Fascinator, not headgear you'll find on a horse but two legged fillies and mares have been banned from sporting it in the Royal enclosure at Ascot this week.

Grandstand, the new one at Ascot

Honour Bound.....and wasn't Frankel brilliant today. When he retires to stud, they ought to mate him with donkeys to give the future opposition some sort of a chance.

Inkling....back to the thirties for this one.

Jersey stakes opens the Ascot card today

Kelso - 1957 US colt, subsequently gelded.

5 times US horse of the year 1960-1964 (no other horse has won this accolade more than 3 times) and assessed 4th best thoroughbred of the 20th century by Blood-Horse magazine.

Kind, Frankel's very proud mum.

Brian Lee....good lightweight jockey some years back. Rode a lot for Jack Calvert.

Manet, Edouard - 1866 picture (or painting - a synonym for picture) of The Races At Longchamp.

I saw a print of that only recently and a lovely, if somewhat jaded, very large early 19c print of the changing room at the Derby with all the jockeys sitting round.

Despite the poor condition, the guy wanted £200 for it.

I have a pair of prints from the originals painted at the time, of huntsmen painting the buildings at Melton Mowbray. The saying "Painting the town red" came about as a result of that event.

Nearullah