I don’t know what it was that initiated my love for the Thoroughbred;  maybe it was Walter Farley’s Black Stallion books, or Margurite Henry’s stories about the Godolphin Arabian and Black Gold.  Either way, my horse-craziness was pretty focused from early on.  My favourite racehorse growing up was Norcliffe, winner of the ’76 Queen’s Plate, a son of Buckpasser – the likely inspiration being that Buckpasser, through Man o’ War, traced back to Matchem who was the Godolphin Ara