Mick Hume on Zidane and horses

Those of us who have long argued against the Pavlovian notion that violence on television leads to violence off it have been dealt a blow. Weeks after the world watched Zinédine Zidane head-butt Marco Materazzi, jockey Paul O’Neill was caught “doing a Zidane” on a racehorse called City Affair. Like Zidane, O’Neill said sorry but blamed his victim for provoking him. So what did City Affair whisper in his ear? Something about having a face like a horse’s butt? My friend Ed Barrett, writer and equine lip-reader, suggests it was “Your mother is a terrorist horse”.