SOME uplifting news ahead of next week's Epsom Derby meeting. The late Sir Clement Freud, father of PR man Matthew and part of the Freud media clan, is to be remembered with a race. The Investec Sir Clement Freud Memorial Stakes will be run on Saturday 6 June on the same card as the Derby itself. The Racing Post, for which Sir Clement wrote a droll weekly column right up until his death, is also publishing a book of his collected writing, called Freud On Course.

Here's a little gem from the book: "I once mentioned to the head man at Ascot that I much admired the white stretch limo in No. 3 car park that regularly bounced up and down when the engine was off, and from which I had heard a pleasant female voice say, 'It has been a business doing pleasure with you,' as an elderly man crept out of the rear door.

"Was it, I asked, part of the service at the royal meeting, or had private enterprise stolen a march? Also, was I, as a box holder for many years, eligible for a discount?'"

Feel the Virgin-BA difference

NOW that Virgin Atlantic admits it won't make money this year, will its bean-counters finally start getting tougher and, dare we say, more organised? Some say Virgin is still a tad too easy come, easy go in such areas as checking that agents have applied the right pricing on tickets. Mundane, but financially important stuff. British Airways, on the other hand, is keen as mustard on such issues — much to the annoyance of some agents. If the airline catches an agent underpricing a ticket, it makes them quickly pay the difference out of their own pocket.

* DAVID Elias is continuing to fascinate in death as he did in life. It now transpires that the buccaneering financier and fuel credit-card king — who built himself a multi-million-pound fortune and was the employer of Ernest Saunders after the ex-Guinness boss came out of jail — apparently left personal debts of an eye-watering $400 million when he died recently. How he managed to run up such a sum is a puzzle. He died in Singapore and his executors have been left with a giant-size headache.

The great avocado mystery

THEY can't both be right. Marks & Spencer is celebrating 125 years, and claiming it introduced the avocado to the UK. Sainsbury's is celebrating 140 years … and claiming it introduced the avocado to the UK.

* COULD this be a sign of the bottom having been reached? Having sold Foxtons for £370 million just three weeks before the market slumped, the estate agent's founder, Jon Hunt, is back buying again. He's purchasing MacMillan House in Kensington High Street for £17 million.

* BUT steady on. Manish Chande, who has just raised £300 million with fellow veteran property entrepreneur Martin Myers for their Mountgrange Real Estate Opportunity Fund, says: “We are not at the bottom, but when we see the rate of decline falling, it will be interesting. I think it will be later this year.”

* GOLLY, things are getting desperate in the normally ultra-secure world of major law firms. Clifford Chance, no less, has set up an appeals body for partners axed as part of its global restructuring. The Lawyer magazine reports that Simon Davis, a commercial litigation partner, will head the committee, which will be five-strong in total. In theory, this star chamber will act independently of the firm's management. Feelings are running deep at the firm, amid allegations that some of those losing their jobs do not deserve to go. A source is quoted as saying: “The selection is not based on performance. People aren't being asked to leave because they aren't good at their jobs. This means a process that is fair is necessary. That's why the firm has set up the appeals function.”

* MEANWHILE, at CMS Cameron McKenna, there is uproar over the City firm's decision to slash its redundancy terms from two weeks' wages for every year worked, plus three months' pay to one week for every year, plus three months. What's especially galling is that the firm has chosen this moment to lavish £350,000 on a new business centre, complete with corporate branding, in its City head office.

* SAD watch. Gerard Khoshnaw, commercial disputes partner at lawyers Nabarro, says his two luxury items on a desert island would be a radio and a BlackBerry...

Still loyal to Lord Lucan, 35 years on

OLD loyalties die hard. The largest-ever Tory donor, now defected to Ukip, and IG Index founder, Stuart Wheeler, recalls for City Spy the case of his pal, Lord Lucan.

Wheeler, like Lucan, was an inveterate gambler. They were both members of the same club and, says Wheeler, he last saw “John” playing backgammon two days before the “incident” in 1973 that led to his disappearance. The “incident” was of course, the suspected bludgeoning to death of Lucan's nanny Sandra Rivett.

Does Wheeler think Lucan may still be alive? “A friend, Michael Stoop, lent his car to John. John later wrote a letter to Michael. The contents of that letter have never been revealed, but I know Michael thinks he's dead and that he died just after the incident.”

* JUSTIN King of Sainsbury's has another feather in his cap. Marketing Magazine has named him again as its Top Marketeer in Britain in its annual Power 100 survey. Marketing hails King for “having achieved the perfect positioning for Sainsbury's during the recession”. The top five is completed by Simon Clift of Unilever, the appropriately named Jill McDonald of McDonald's, Tesco commercial director Richard Brasher, and Roisin Donnelly of Procter & Gamble. Steven Sharp, marketing director of Marks & Spencer, trails King in 14th place. Surprisingly, marketeers at Rupert Murdoch's News International merit two places in the top 50.

* AND who has been axed from the Marketing Power 100? Marketing magazine names five senior marketeers who have either departed or been shown the door at HSBC, Eurostar, British Airways, B&Q and John Lewis. Ouch.