Dashwood: Rich Ricci banking on a Cheltenham bonus

While the famous Fatcatinthehat is, sadly, a non-runner this time, his stablemate Faugheen has, rather appropriately, been tipped as “a banker”.

Mipim off the menu for Tchenguiz Two

Mipim, the property world’s annual champagne-guzzling ‘networking’ jamboree in the South of France, won’t go with quite the same swing this year.

As the waiters of Cannes stockpile Stolichnaya and truffles ahead of tomorrow’s super-prime invasion, Dashwood brings the sad news that Vincent Tchenguiz, the property tycoon known for hosting wild parties on his yacht, the Veni Vidi Vici, in jollier days gone by, won’t be weighing anchor this time.

Brother Robert, too, sends his regrets.

“Cannes can wait,” says a source close to Vincent T, who tells Dashwood the Consensus Business Group chairman has bigger fish to fry back in London.

Fair enough. If Dashwood was elbow-deep in the biggest-ever damages suit against the Serious Fraud Office, we’d give Mipim a miss too.

Balls shows the scale of his ambition

It is a source of endless amusement to chancellor George Osborne that his Opposition sparring partner, Ed Balls, hopes to pass his Grade 8 piano exam before he turns 50.

Comparing his rival’s economic performance to his piano-playing ambitions, the chancellor recently joked: “I think it’s probably best to keep going.”

Osborne may mock, but Dashwood can reveal that Balls is inching closer to his musical career goal.

After being forced to postpone his Grade 3 piano exam because it fell on the day of the Autumn Statement last December, he has a new date booked in for “early next month”. “So no clash with Budget day,” says a spokesman.

Let’s hope the shadow chancellor’s Bach – that’s the Allegro in G, according to the Grade 3 syllabus – proves better than his bite.

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harriet.dennys@telegraph.co.uk

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