Royal Ascot: If you want to get ahead get a hat

Sometimes one invests very effectively if only by accident. This happened to me in 1967 since I had been guided two years earlier to acquire a bowler hat, then a compulsory adornment for articled clerks at my employers, Cooper Brothers and Co - this has of course morphed in to PwC nowadays. Acquainted with the essential truth that it is Lock and Co for hard hats (and soft hats are acquired at Herbert Johnson) I decided to buy a top hat given the various occasions which I knew were coming along. My grey topper cost £7. You may therefore imagine my surprise occasioned the other year when I learnt that, second hand, it is worth £300+. It is in good working order since Lock and Co have a very high standard of workmanship.

I am sorry to say that yesterday's good value investment at 20/1, Power Blue, got run out of the places that pay by finishing fifth. This is of course the application of The Law Of Sod which warns that if something can go wrong it will.

Today's sporting opportunity arises with Devil's Advocate, currently 10/1, in the 3.05 Ascot. At a guess, 7/1 would be closer to the mark.