'Gangsta' Hood is hanging with the US boyz

"I have to keep my ear to the ground because of the home punters' interest in the European brigade. They want to know how our team have travelled, how they have settled in, whether they have eaten-up, whether they have dehydrated, and their general well-being and if connections think they are there at the top of their game.

"We need a vibe from trainers and owners as to whether they fancy their chances."

He will also be compiling the odds for his company about the contestants, with the unpatriotic knowledge that if our band does well it will cost Hills and the other big home bookies a small fortune.

It means getting up to watch the first European horses working on the turf and dirt in the shadow of the imposing twin towers at 5am, before the American runners come out. Then he returns to see the second batch of raiders from abroad go through their paces up to 11am.

English trainers turn native once they get across the pond, according to Hood.

"There they are, totally casual compared to their Royal Ascot get-up, with baseball caps and bomber jackets emblazoned with the names of American football teams. Getting a comment out of someone like trainer Luca Cumani over here is like getting blood out of a stone, over there you can't stop him talking.

"Then there will be 'Team Coolmore' of Magnier, Tabor, O'Brien and Kinane wandering around the back stretch and the likes of former British handler supreme Michael Dickinson who now trains in the States, looking up all his compatriots and voicing hopes for his runners.

"At 'Clockers Corner' on the track there will be the usual gaggle of stopwatch clickers doing a post-mortem on times set by fancied hopes in their homework before the big day which will attract a crowd of 100,000 plus.

"Racing journalists from our national press will be chasing stories, hoping for a scoop in an attempt to justify the expense their newspapers have incurred sending them out there."

Hood has to be a good judge of form, so who are his big three from Europe to take on Uncle Sam's finest?

"I think Giants Causeway will love the style of racing out there and will get into a head-to-head with them in the Classic. Then

Petrushka has got an outstanding chance in the Filly and Mares on Turf race, as their females are really no great shakes.

"You could also fancy Noverre in the Juvenile, although their style of jumping and running might just catch him flat-footed."

The former Wellingborough schoolboy has, however, had little luck betting out there. Some time back he happened across old Irish riding mate Frank Lyons in a convenience store.

Lyons had started training and told him his Desert Stormer would win the Sprint. It won at 50-1.

Did Hood back it? "At that price? Did I hell!"

But worse was to come at a subsequent Breeders' meeting. He had a go at the Pick Six, a wager similar to our Jackpot, where you have to nominate the winner of six races. The first five won and it was all down to Sharp Cat in the Distaff. She was just beaten and cost him a prize of £140,000.

The following year she won five races on the trot. "The bitch!" he observed, switching to 'gangsta' rap.