Sunday, August 13, 2006

Rain, rain, rain

What a wet weekend! The past two nights all we've heard is rain, rain, rain. Such changeable weather is the last thing the BHB wanted in the first few weeks of 48-hour declarations, because a swag of non-runners is hardly the best way of convincing punters and racegoers that this has been a change for the better. If Brief's race yesterday hadn't been at Newmarket, the change from good-to-firm to soft would have seen him a scratching but, as it was Newmarket and virtually no travelling was involved, it made sense to let him run. Sixth of eight was as much as we could have hoped for under the circumstances, and the outing will have done him no harm. Amazingly it stopped raining for most of the afternoon, so the day turned out quite pleasant, as we certainly weren't disappointed with the run under the circumstances. One memory to carry away from the day was the win of Barry Hills-trained English Ballet in the following race, the Sweet Solera Stakes. She's a big, strong chestnut daughter of Danehill Dancer, and she could add further lustre to the list of recent winners of this race, which includes Soviet Song, Maids Causeway and Nasheej.

I'd like to echo Montreal Moonbeam's approval of the quality of the recent postings on this site, so thank you to all concerned. It's nice that the Aga Khan's studs are so well represented, with Alamshar and Sinndar making some good contributions. It's been an interesting week for Sinndar, most notably for his first steeplechase success as a stallion. Yes, that's correct, notwithstanding that his oldest offspring are only four. At Sedgefield of all places, although I'm sure they won't mention that in his stallion brochure. They'd be more likely to mention that the runner-up was by Warning out of Reprocolor (dam of Cezanne); fair to assume neither was bred with a beginners' chase at Sedgefield in mind. I can't ever remember a four-year-old winning a steeplechase this early in the season, although I'm sure old-timers will recall the four-year-old steeplechase which I'm told used to be run at the Cheltenham March meeting. I would be more than surprised if that were ever reinstituted!

So to the forthcoming week. Rem Time should run well at Wolverhampton tomorrow. I certainly hope she does, because - airlines permitting - it will be the first time any of the A N Other Partnership will have been present for one of her races in England. I'm looking forward to the day, as I am to Tuesday and Wednesday. I know I won't enjoy Tuesday, because I will be as nervous as hell when Jack makes his resumption after a 15-month injury-induced absence from the course, but I'm looking forward to the day anyway. I really enjoyed my ride on him this morning and can state that I have no worries whatsoever about his current soundness, but still I'll be so worried. Wednesday will also be a worrying day, because I've already grown very fond of Mozie Cat and believe that she has a good future, so I very much hope she runs a promising race and that she enjoys it. I'll be disappointed in her and in myself if things go badly.

More immediately, it's now only nine minutes to the 5.15 at the Curragh, which is a two-year-old fillies' maiden. It contains a Danehill ex Offshore Boom (ie full-sister to Rock Of Gibraltar) and a Storm Cat ex Cee's Song (ie half-sister to Tiznow). Both are owned by Mrs Magnier; the former trained by O'Brien, and the latter by Wachman. You see what we're up against? As Scobie Coogan said so memorably in Emma's piece in the Racing Post last week, it's like playing brag against a man with £20 billion when you've got a tenner. You just can't beat them, but you can at least watch them, so I'm off to sit in front of the TV. Bye.

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