20 NOVEMBER 1959, Page 40

The Beautiful Horses

That time we went to Suffolk Downs to see The flattened gallop of the thoroughbred, The Mornimg Telegraph was what 1 had To help me bet, on past and pedigree.

But you declared that racing forms were rot. Before each race, rapt at the paddock rail, You valued every horse from nose to tail, And bet upon the pleasure that you got.

Although our ways of betting differed greatly, Our wins and losses showed a strange con- formance.

Maybe I knew, reading each Past Performance, The quality you praised when they were stately.

Still, it was I who changed. That day, like Moses, You led me to a place where I have settled, Where horses graze on clover thickly petalled, Beautiful winners, collared with pink roses.

for R.W.