I can't forget

This has been the week in which we've seen the bloodstock market go through the roof. Do we welcome this? I don't think so. To the Rothschild family, who've enjoyed Group One success this year with Notnowcato and who evidently feel that they'd like to try to breed another top horse, the best of luck. The prices for Magical Romance and Spinning Queen are colossal, but they are two lovely fillies/mares and they should make wonderful additions to an owner/breeder operation. I hope that they do. To the new breed of 'traders' who appear to have decided that the bloodstock business is a good alternative to the stock exchange, less good luck. Horses aren't commodities, and we should be treasuring them, loving them and using them to try to win races and breed racehorses, not to try to make some money at the expense of some greater fool farther down the line.

Mind you, I suppose we could be accused of not making much of a go of trying to win races, because it seems like an age since we've won one, but we are still trying. Honest. I really enjoyed galloping Mozie Cat and Cheveton (as the Most Welcome two-year-old is now officially called, though we know him as Harry) this morning, and feel that they both give us a chance of getting back on the score-sheet at some point. Mozie sooner than Harry, I feel. If we're lucky, Emma will put up a photo of Harry galloping this morning somewhere here (either on this blog, or in the Horses section of the website; or both) and he's certainly striding out well, but he still needs to get a bit fitter and a bit stronger. He will. Timmy is also going nicely, and moving well (for him), so he should run well if he ever gets into a race. To top off a nice morning today, I rode the Polish Precedent filly for the first time, and she was good. David has been driving her around town on long reins, and he's done a good job. Once I'd got the filly used to being ridden, Martha took over and they went off for a walk with Ben Bhraggie and Timmy, and all seemed to go well.

Yesterday was a less nice morning. Not only because it was grey and damp, but because we had a horrible accident hanging over us. Fortunately, later in the day word seeped out that the victims, Colin Nutter and the two-year-old he was riding, both look like living to tell the tale, but that is just by the grace of God. Despite the fact that the line of traffic had stopped to allow Sir Mark Prescott's string across the Bury Road at around 6.50 am, a drunk driver, who it seems was being pursued by the police, overtook the line of stationary cars and ploughed through the string at speed, throwing Colin and his mount high in the air. Horrific. I'd say that we got there about fifteen minutes afterwards, when the road was closed and the scene illuminated by flashing blue lights, and it was terrible just to discover the aftermath. Thank God they're both alive and not critically injured. I hope they throw the book at the bastard.

Thursday afternoon was also a sad occasion, when we bade farewell to Shirley Scott, whose husband Jimmy, as many of you will know, is Michael Stoute's long-standing travelling head lad. She and Jimmy have been good, kind friends to so many people in this town and around the world, myself included, and it seems so hard to accept that someone who until the last few months was so very much alive can just die at 53. It is, of course, hardest for Jimmy to accept this, but I hope that over the weeks and months his grief will lessen so that the happy memories outweigh the sorrow. We're with you, mate.

To happier topics - I had a special experience on Wednesday afternoon that I would recommend to anyone. I noticed that the Cambridge Arts Picture House was showing 'Leonard Cohen - I'm Your Man', which was a three-line whip for me. Although my sleeping patterns are getting back to normal, a matinee, rather than evening, show was the only feasible option, so that's how I spent a couple of mesmerizing hours on Wednesday. A trip to the cinema in the afternoon is always a special treat, being one of a very small audience always adds something (I was one of nine in the movie theatre), and it was just great. Basically, the film revolves around a concert in the Sydney Opera House in January 2005 where various really good singers (eg Jarvis Cocker, Rufus and Martha Wainright, Nick Cave, Beth Orton, Teddy Thompson etc.) sung his songs, accompanied by superb musicians; the songs are interspersed by clips of the singers explaining why they revere the maestro, and of Leonard musing on his life and works. Wonderful. To hear Nick Cave enthuse about how hearing 'Songs Of Love And Hate' revolutionized his Wangaratta adolescence was so moving, as were the various clips of Bono ("When I listen to his songs, I am humiliated and humbled") and The Edge expounding his merit. If it wouldn't be too sybaritic, I might go to watch it again next week. General consent would be that Jeff Buckley's rendition of 'Hallelujah' is the all-time great Leonard Cohen cover, but I'd say that Nick Cave's 'Suzanne' is right up there. As is his 'I'm Your Man'. As is Jarvis Cocker's 'I Can't Forget". And Teddy Thompson's 'The Future'. And ... But for really special moments, the master singing 'Tower Of Song" (of course), takes the biscuit. I'm not going to tell you why, because foreknowledge would spoil the moment. Just watch it.