Roy Rocket

We have turned the tables on our obituary and feature writer John Berry, who doubles as the master of Beverley House Stables and Newmarket's unofficial weather man. A terrible singer, he gave up the possibility of a life as a theologian to train racehorses. How did you become involved in racing in the first place? I was lucky enough to grow up on a farm in Scotland where we had horses and ponies, and with parents passionately involved in racing, with the Sporting Life on the table every day and...

Roy Rocket, the one time co-record holder for the most number of wins at Brighton, has died. He was 11. That's the style in which I would normally start an obituary, for a horse or human who has left their mark on the racing world. I wouldn't normally be writing an obituary for a middle-of-the-road handicapper. And I wouldn't normally be writing at four o'clock in the morning, but Roy wasn't normal, he was special, and he died yesterday. And when something terrible has happened, for days afterwards my brain...