I like to think her complaints were directed at my colleague Frank Keating, because I am with Clare on this one. It's horses for courses, to coin a phrase. When you have on your team a gem such as Clare, brought up with horses (possibly by horses, as I once had occasion to observe), who knows the ways of these infuriating beasts better than most, why try and turn her into Lady Isobel Barnet? Or Danny La Rue? Play to her strengths. If you picked Andy Cole for England, you wouldn't want to play him in goals, would you? (Actually, you probably wouldn't want to play him up front either, but let that pass.)
Clare is clearly happier mucking out stables than getting done up like a dog's dinner to sip Pimm's on the terrace. So let her spend her time mugging up on those 24 races, put her in jeans or jodhpurs, and tell her to concentrate on finding us some winners. And as for us putting pressure on her by criticising her outfits, I for one should be happy never to write about fashion again as long as I live. It is the BBC who force you into it by taking it all so seriously.