“Having only arrived in February last year it was pretty daunting,” recalls Varma, 36. “Even though I’d been helping my predecessor, Andrew Tulloch, on race-days for 10 years, that had only involved arriving a couple of days before, getting through the three days and leaving.
“It takes time to get to know the track and the people at any racecourse but my head groundsman, Mark Aynsley, does not need a huge amount of interference from me and I’m inheriting something in a good place.”
A bit like a referee in football, if a clerk of the course is getting publicity it is generally because something has gone wrong.