ONE item which has run and run over the last few weeks is the story about Robert Wood - the Bolton man who invented the New Century Racing Plate for racehorses.

The picture, right, of the farrier shaking hands with a man in a top hat on a race course brought forward suggestions that the "toff" was either Lord Derby or Lord Rosebery.

Eagle-eyed Mike Cresswell of Harwood remembered this Looking Back picture from 1937 when Lord Derby presented medals to members of Lancashire County Constabulary at a big parade at Knowsley Park to celebrate the coronation of George VI and Queen Elizabeth, left.

When you put the two pictures together there seems little doubt that the mystery chap was, indeed, Lord Derby.