Leading Sire will be Cooper's next racing romp. But do we want to see the beautiful bounder who first appeared in Riders nearly 30 years ago turned into a skirt-chasing octogenarian?
I have spoken before of my love for Jilly Cooper she is such a hero of mine that, when she phoned my previous place of work to speak to a colleague and I spoke to her just to put her through to a colleague, my hands were practically trembling; my palms damp, in best Taggie O'Hara style. So despite my disappointment that Jump! didn't match up to her finest (Rivals, Riders, Polo, if you're interested perhaps it was the exclamation mark that turned me off Jump!, Score! and Wicked!), there's still a part of me which is (in Cooper idiom) in heaven at the news that she's currently embroiled in researching her new novel, which will be set in the world of flat racing.