This is the time of year when any trainer with a decent juvenile owned by the Maktoum family tries not to answer the phone.

No two private schools are exactly the same, but some are more different than others, as Tim Walker discovers when he visits Bedales and Wellington College

Big lessons for growing companies. Kate Hilpern reports on a thriving family firm where the succession issue, unlike the product, isn't crystal clear

London Maori leader

Princess Michael of Kent yesterday denied making a racist insult when she lashed out at a group of prominent black New Yorkers dining at a table next to hers because they were being too rowdy.

Nick Skelton jumped another two flawless clear rounds, this time on the nine-year-old grey Russel, to win the Grand Prix on the closing day of the Royal Windsor Horse Show here yesterday. He defeated teh 21-year-old Robert Whitaker, who might have thought that he had gone fast enough to win on Qualite had Skelton not been immediately behind him in the six-horse jump-off.

A rare dead heat left Ireland's Billy Twomey, on Anastasia, and Britain's Guy Williams, on Loro Piana Hamlet, as joint winners of yesterday's Land Rover Grade A Jumping at the Royal Windsor Horse Show. Both finished clear in the jump-off in the same time of 44.45sec.

THE QUEEN'S Christmas message took on a new look yesterday when she used the traditional slot to give a report on her year, writes Jonathon Carr-Brown.

Should journalists accept hospitality from the likes of Al Fayed?

LAST SUNDAY the gun control network was again advocating "tighter gun control" ("Hunting with guns makes a comeback", 5 December). It was misleading information from such pressure groups that persuaded Parliament to ban legally held hand guns - which had no effect on armed crime. Statistics show that less than 1 per cent of legally held handguns were used in armed crime. Nearly 18 months after the ban, criminals can easily get handguns, yet our Olympic medallists are not allowed to own or shoot even a .22 pistol in this country.