Friday, August 18, 2006

Curate's egg

Five days since I last rambled. Seems like only yesterday; seems like a year ago. Well, we've had three runners since then, with mixed results. With unmixed results if one thinks in terms of winning or losing, because none of them won, but I don't think like that. One has to be satisfied with small triumphs if one is to keep up the task of running to stand still.

Monday was a nice day. Rem ran another good race to secure the each-way money with third place, and it was a pleasure to spend the day with John Nelligan and David Morrissey, who flew in from Shannon for the day. This was the first time that any of the A N Other Partnership had seen her run in the UK, and I was so pleased that she ran well for them. This was to have been her swansong, but she can run again at Yarmouth on Monday before heading home. Jamie Hamblett rode her so well that he can keep the ride against senior jockeys at Yarmouth. We've been lucky this year to have plenty of good apprentices to call upon, Kirsty Milczarek (whose record for the stable now stands at two wins and two seconds from four rides) being the most notable.

Tuesday was also a very pleasant day, in almost every respect. The only fly in the ointment was that the raison d'etre for another enjoyable daytrip to Brighton was to run Jack, and he barely raised a gallop at any stage of the race. If I'd had pre-race doubts about his soundness it would have been like watching a train crash (and knowing that someone dear to one was on board), because he ran so badly he had to be in the process of breaking down. However, I'd gone there confident that nothing was about to give way, and couldn't believe that he could go amiss just from cantering to the start and then making a half-hearted start to the race, so I was more perplexed than fearful as he just cantered round behind them. Still, it was a relief to see him walking around completely sound and virtually untired afterwards, and a semi-relief to have George Baker tell me that he feels the horse is still a racing prospect, but just one who doesn't want to gallop downhill on hard rough ground. I can sort of understand that, but to see Jack not wanting to pick up his bridle in even the early stages takes some understanding. He seems completely unharmed by his outing, so I think we should just run him again on a more horse-friendly track (ie anywhere else) and see what happens. He'll either run a hell of a lot better or go straight into retirement. We'll see. Anyway, it was, Jack's race aside, a fun and sociable trip. And it was warm, dry and sunny in Brighton, which doesn't seem to be the case in Newmarket very much at present.

One amusing (to me, anyway) post-script to Jack's race was that when I went into the weighing room after racing to collect the colours, my eye was caught by a Health & Safety notice which said that if trainers or jockeys spotted anything which might be dangerous to horses, they should report it to the clerk of the course. Following George's post-race verdict, I was tempted to accost Geoff Stickels with the words "The track".

Wednesday was good too, more or less. If Mozie Cat's trip to Yarmouth could have ended a few minutes after the race, I'd have regarded it as an unqualified success. She was perfect pre-race. Walked onto the truck well in the morning, travelled sweetly, rested at the races unconcerned, took the preliminaries well, went more or less straight into the stalls (once the blindfold was applied) and ran a promising fourth. So that was great. Unfortunately she then took the cherry back off the cake by refusing to go into the wash bay, refusing to leave the stable yard (until she had been blindfolded) and refusing to go back onto the truck (until I got on her). Then when we got home, she decided she didn't think much of my idea of ending the day by loading and unloading her a few times, just to remind her that it isn't voluntary. She thought it was, Tim and I said it wasn't ... etc., etc., etc., ... but thankfully after ten minutes or so we got her walking on and off perfectly, so all was well that ended well. She isn't the finished article yet in any respect, but I think she has the makings of a nice horse and, on balance, Wednesday was a good step forward towards that goal.

I finished Garp on the way home from Yarmouth - as if the stress of running Mozie hadn't been enough heartache for one day. What a book, what a writer. So, by the end of the day, I felt like how Richard Sims feels at the end of an adsellathon. I'm pretty sure, by the way, that I've now got Dickie sussed out on this blog: he appears to be posting under several aliases. Veteran Dickie-watchers will conclude that he is surely Westtip, but I suspect that one or two of the other correspondents are he too. What I can't work out from the postings, though, is whether he is a very bad speller or a very bad typist. Or both. Does anyone have ideas?

So to the future. Rem Time and perhaps (eliminator permitting) Timmy at Yarmouth on Monday; By Storm (without Kirsty - suspended - sadly) at Brighton on Tuesday; Hold That Tiger aka Chilly Cracker at Folkestone on Wednesday. These provide something to look forward to, as does China Pearl at Yarmouth the following weekend. But the big event is tomorrow, when Desiree contests the hacks' Grand National at the July Course. This involves her being groomed for four hours, being led around the parade ring for three minutes, and going home. Be there or be elsewhere.

Oh yes, and James has got his jacket back - but that's a full posting in itself, so I'll save that for a future date.

No comments: