BEFORE hitting 50 next year, former SNJ news editor Sandra Ashenford has compiled a bucket list of 50 goals to achieve before her birthday.

The aim is to do one every week.

List item no 42 - spend a day at the races.

MOST of the items on my list have been new experiences but spending a day at the races is something I have done several times in the past, and hope to do many more times in the future.

But, as it happens, my plans to spend New Year’s Day at Cheltenham Racecourse with spouse, daughter Antonia, and spouse’s brother and his family were scuppered by illness.

Daughter number four had been poorly for a few days, and several hours out of doors in doubtful weather didn’t seem like a good idea.

So my brother-in-law and his clan went without us and cheered me up over missing the day out by losing money on every single race.

They followed the practice of choosing horses to back because they liked the name, which is very unscientific, but sometimes very successful.

Obviously not, though, on this occasion.

I love the atmosphere at Cheltenham Racecourse but some of my happiest memories of the place have nothing to do with race days.

It was at the Centaur, the racecourse’s extremely impressive events venue, that at the age of 42 I became the first person in the entire history of my family to graduate from university.

But even more exciting than that was the project I was part of for 18 months after my graduation, which involved working with local school pupils disillusioned with education.

The brief was to re-engage them with the learning process, and the racecourse was our base.

It was a fabulous project, and I learned so much about what motivates children to learn, or disengages them completely, and I have carried the experiences with me into all the teaching I have done since.

Among the team were two jockeys.

They inspired the young people with their incredible bravery, humour and infallible ability to shake off life’s setbacks – like a broken back – and to face whatever the future held in store.

I will never be able to ride like they can but I would love to be at least a tiny bit as inspirational.