From Flemington to Cheltenham

This is a first. I'm blogging in Godolphin House, the nerve-centre of thoroughbredinternet.com. If I were American I'd say it's on the corner of Avenue and High. Emma's down at Cheltenham and, although we have two laptops (well, I say 'we', but they're both Emma's), 'we' only have one power cable, which has obviously gone to Cheltenham with one of the laptops. So I have only limited laptop use at home in her absence. I wrote my Winning Post report on the laptop in the lorry on the way back home from Plumpton yesterday and that took an hour and used more than half the charge in its battery, so I've walked over here for the afternoon to use the machines here and to plug 'my' laptop into a powerline to re-charge for the afternoon. And while I'm here I can, in addition to blogging, write a grey panel. I'll have to keep my head down, though, because Simon Thompson, the site's proprietor, feels that there is already too much jumping coverage on the site - and how could I write grey panels this week that don't revolve around the Cheltenham Spring Carnival? Hopefully I can get Bronwyn onside by mentioning that the jockey who has just ridden the first winner (D.Condon) has ridden in a Melbourne Cup. And I think I can even provide a link between the first winner and this coming Sunday's HK Derby, so if I'm careful I can avoid attracting the wrath of Simon.

But the main thrust of this posting will naturally be our lovely trip to Plumpton yesterday. I was so proud of dear little Lady S. She did everything right and, although completely outclassed by the 1/5 winner, she came home best of the rest after putting in a very polished round of jumping, topped off by a dour run home up the final hill. As on the flat, it looks as if stamina will be her forte, and she is getting more and more professional all the time. Tom Greenway rode her very nicely and will retain the ride, but sadly he might have to be an absentee next time, as the likely next outing for her will be to Towcester, a track which, on yesterday's evidence, should suit her, on March 29th, the same day that Mattie is due to have his first run, and the race for her that day is restricted to lady riders. So if anyone can think of a good lady jumps rider who can ride at the minimum weight, please let me know.

It was such a pleasant outing yesterday. Plumpton is a lovely track, and never better than on a perfect spring day, which is what we had yesterday. The forecast band of rain hasn't arrived, so spring continues. It was my first visit to a jumps meeting since the awful day last May when Ngauruhoe was fatally injured at Wetherby, and it was a very nice way to reintroduce myself to the sport.

We've got a tipping competition going in the stable for Cheltenham, and I think it may be sewn up already, because I'm sure that someone has the 40/1 winner of the opener. I haven't the lists of selections with me, but I think that when I see them on my return to the yard they will confirm that Steve McCormick holds already what could be an unassailable lead. When he sent me his picks on a text, he said that he was planning to put the competition to bed on the first day - and I thought that that was tongue in cheek! Still, there's a long way to go.

One could make that same remark about Ben Bhraggie and Anis Etoile, regarding their progess towards their debuts, but each took a big step along the road this morning when their preparations resumed. We'd brought them back from Kerry's farm on Friday, where they'd enjoyed the wonderful break that horses always have when staying there, and today they were both ridden for the first time this preparation, Hugh riding Ben and Martha Anis. I think those riding arrangements will be fairly long-term, as both partnerships look very good. I accompanied them on Lady Suffragette, and it made for a thoroughly pleasant stroll during which both youngsters behaved impeccably. Ben in particular has done extremely well over the winter - which he needed to as he was shaping as the ultimate ugly duckling - and I'm far less bearish about his prosects than I was. Probably a big factor was that he benefitted from some treatment from Carol Whitwood the last time he was in work, and he has started to develop properly now thanks to her work.

That'll do for now as they must be going down for the Arkle (in which I've selected the Giant's Causeway five-year-old Jack The Giant - and wouldn't there be a grey panel in that?) so I must head across the road to the bookies to watch (Steve extend his lead, no doubt) ....

... Back from the bookies after a typically exhilarating Arkle. Stupid of me, I should have brought the lists of the selections with me so I could keep a track of things. I think I got it wrong, and that it's Tim Phillips who picked Ebaziyan in the first. He sent me a text just now to check that I had received his list of selections, which suggests that his is the list which is 40 points clear. This is going to be a very exciting week ...

... Ah, Sublimity. Why did I pick Straw Bear? So inconsistent. But Sublimity: that's great. I'm so pleased to see John Carr win the race. Cliff and I met him a few years ago on our trip to Perth, when Bold Cardowan ran there in his only novice chase (he ran so badly, jumping as if the fences were six-foot walls before being pulled up before halfway, that he never ran in another). John had brought a couple of horses over. I don't think either of them won, although he did have a horse trained by Ted Walsh on his lorry which did win, although it broke down so badly in the process that I fear it would have been put down shortly after its return to Ireland. I didn't know much about John Carr at the time, but I've kept a close eye on his horses since then because so friendly to us. On a lovely summer's day, he insisted we join him and his friend for a drink in Perth that evening after racing: I didn't feel at all like doing so after the dispiriting experience of watching Bold run so badly, even though Joe McCarthy predictably hadn't in any way made me feel that the expedition had been a fool's errand and he, Cliff and I had ended the afternoon with a lovely jovial high tea in the excellent lads' canteen. However, it would have been rude not to accept John Carr's invitation, and I'm glad that we did go down to the town, because he was great company and we had an excellent evening. And now, several years later, he's trained the Champion Hurdle winner, and I'm really, really pleased for him. And he's trained it with Sublimity. At the request of a trainer in Macau, I made inquiries about the possible purchase of Sublimity in probably April or May 2004, to which Bruce Raymond (the owner's racing manager) told me that his connections had, at that time, no plans to sell him, but that they probably would do so if a really big offer, ie several hundred thousand, was made. I passed this message on, with the suggestion that the horse would probably end up in the Horses-In-Training Sale in the autumn and would then most likely be purchasable for a hell of a lot less. That was indeed what happened, but the purchaser turned out to be John Carr, for whom the horse won a Listed race at the Curragh first time out the next year. And now, a further two years on, he's won the Champion Hurdle. Which is just really nice.