The Eddie Soens Handicap at Aintree again, so it must be the first race of the season for us. I was joined this year by Pete Sutton who is joining the team and wanted some training on how to use the kit in a race situation.

Typical Aintree weather - cold and VERY windy, but fortunately the tripod was remarkably stable.

Our only problem on the day was our usual grumble about riders not wearing their numbers so that we could read them. Many of them wore tops over their jerseys due to the cold weather, and consequently covered their numbers up. Call me simple if you like, but I would have thought that in a short race the riders would know that their tops will be on for the entire event. So why not put the race numbers on the outside?

Here are a few images from the final film to highlight the good, bad and awful!

This part of the picture (above) shows a small group whose numbers are all clear. As you see, the original quality is very good although I have reduced it in size a great deal to fit in here.

Picture number two is of a few riders in the middle of the bunch. As would be expected, most of the numbers are readable with just a few difficult ones which need some sorting out.

Still, the top riders would be OK as they know exactly what to do, right? WRONG. This final clip shows the first few riders across the line.

The winner, Tony Gibb - race number completely covered.

Second placed rider Dean Downing - number mostly obscured and impossible to read.

Third and fourth placed riders were OK.

Two hours after the race had finished, the judges were still trying to identify every rider by a process of elimination. They have more patience than me - I would have given up! It should not be necessary to go through this rigmarole after standing in the cold for a couple of hours.