Tattenham Corner

Clare and her seven inches of Willie The BBC racing presenter Clare Balding, who got into a well-publicised spat with the Times columnist AA Gill when she made her debut on Twitter earlier this year, is clearly enjoying herself in the fast-growing social networking medium. This week she was tweeting about civil partner Alice Arnold's trips to the bingo and she was on fine form yesterday during the BBC's coverage at Ascot, posting a picture of her and co-host Willie Carson (the happy couple as she described them) before she revealed a little more than perhaps the ex-jockey would have liked. "Just to be clear about the photo, Willie is standing on the box," she tweeted. "It is engraved underneath as follows . . ." with a link to her twitpic which stated: "This is the extra seven inches you asked for." Sports personality favourite back on the Beeb Tony McCoy, the bookmakers' favourite to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, will enjoy some well-timed exposure on terrestrial television this week. The jockey will appear on the network's Inside Sport show on BBC1 on Tuesday night, giving his insight into professionalism in sports and whether the top stars actually enjoy what they do. McCoy is to be part of a show featuring Usain Bolt, Ryan Giggs and Roger Federer. Botica gets quick return on his investment Aussie Nevan Botica enjoyed an impressive return on his first investment into British racing when I Love Me took a £200,000 Tattersalls sales race on her racecourse debut at Newmarket last Saturday. The Andrew Balding-trained runner is now being aimed at another valuable pot, the £300,000 Tattersalls Millions Fillies' Trophy, at the same track in a week's time. Perth-based businessman Botica bought half a dozen horses at the Tattersalls sales last autumn "on a whim", but despite being new to British racing is a big name back home as he is a champion owner in trotting. Dora finds father Black is in the black When Betfair's stock market float goes through, joint-founder Andrew "Bert" Black will benefit from an even bigger boost to his personal finances. But his eight-year-old daughter Dora has just latched on to her father's wealth and recently asked him "a question that I had been ducking all summer". Black writes on his blog that Dora asked him why her school friends were saying that her father was the 80th richest man in the country. He replied that was not correct and that one newspaper list said he was the nation's 300th richest man. "So 300 people are richer than you? That's loads. Can we go now?" responded Dora. Hills reveals the secret to finding more winners While the gambling tales of legendary trainer Barry Hills come fairly frequently in Robin Oakley's interesting and thoroughly researched biography Frankincense and More, insights into Hills' punting methods are dispensed less readily. The book chronicles many of the touches landed by Hills over the years, starting off with Frankincense in 1968, whose victory in the Lincoln helped him to buy a stable. But one observation from Hills stands out, the trainer believing that one of the best ways of identifying future winners is to watch the runners pulling up after the finishing line. "You'd be amazed the numbers of winners you can find," he says. Will Oliver be just champion second time around? Followers of racing are well used to the marketing-driven initiatives such as Discover Racing, on which £10m was reportedly spent, and jumps racing's Order Of Merit which – despite their cost – appear to attract little extra interest in the sport. One venture that failed to materialise, perhaps to the relief of many, was the Sovereign Series, where the top international horses would be expected to be like Formula One cars and run every couple of weeks in Britain. But despite the series' failure, Karl Oliver – who was involved in the marketing team – was last week named as chief executive of the new £3m Champions' Day venture. What might be in a name? Those with a dirty mind might be attracted by the prospect of naming a horse for sale at the Goffs yearling sale in Ireland this week. The colt is by the stallion Whipper out of a mare named Foreplay.