Dettori, Piggott and McCririck are familiar names - but most high-street shoppers know little more about racing

Follow the A307 and Sandown is less than five miles away. By taking a right at Hampton Court Palace and continuing along the A308, the journey to Kempton is only fractionally further. Even Epsom is no more than ten miles from Kingston upon Thames, a popular town that is surrounded by racing. It is very much not, however, a racing town.

Proof of that comes in a series of conversations, some of them extremely brief, on a midweek afternoon. Post-Christmas shoppers flit between department stores, market stall holders shout their latest bargains and a busker informs passers-by that wherever she's gone, there ain't no sunshine. There also appears to be little enthusiasm for racing.

As polls go, this one is not particularly deep but over two hours of asking random strangers questions about racing – primarily if they have any interest in the sport – the answers reveal worryingly little connection with the nation's second biggest spectator sport.