Au revoir, notre cherie

I had a very interesting day yesterday. I had been delighted the previous day to receive an invitation to be a guest on the following afternoon's At The Races coverage of Yarmouth, because that's something I really enjoy doing. So I was able to spend yesterday afternoon chatting away to Jason Weaver, discussing the day's races as well as chewing over a few topics such as our shared memories of working for Luca Cumani in our younger days, our thoughts on Manduro's great win on Sunday at Deauville and on the Australian sprinters who have graced our turf this summer, and on the prospects of some of the more obvious Melbourne Cup contenders. The irrespressible Matt "Harsh but Fair" Chapman was in the booth (which meant that we didn't have to say very much!) which added to the general banter, and if any of the viewers enjoyed the show as much as I did, it will have been a successful broadcast. I watched Makybe Diva's second and third Melbourne Cups in the At The Races studio discussing on air the afternoon's (ie night's from a UK point of view) sport with Dave Compton, so fingers crossed I may be doing the same thing again in November. It isn't quite as good as being there, but it's the next best thing.

An interesting afternoon was then followed by an interesting evening, as James Willoughby addressed our Pedigree Club in Leslie Harrison's studio. James had done this once last year while Leslie was still alive, and it was great that he paid us another visit. We're familiar that some horses/families/lines are better suited to dirt than to turf, or vice versa, and James gave us his views on the emergence of a third type of specialist, those horses who perform best on polytrack, which is obviously becoming a big topic in America as more and more tracks are replacing the dirt on the main track with polytrack or something similar. Predictably, James has analysed the reasons behind the various preferences and the factors which influence them, and it was good to tap into this knowledge; and to be entertained greatly, because anyone who has seen him presenting the sport on Racing UK will know that he supplies erudition and wit in equal parts. He'd preceded the talk with a tour of Luca Cumani's evening stables inspection, so he'd had a full afternoon, and I didn't envy him his drive home - I think he lives somewhere the other side of London - after what turned out to be a post 11pm conclusion to the discussion.

I hope that we'll be organised to turn in early tonight, because yesterday was the third late night on the trot, after Alix Choppin's leaving party on Monday (where Jamie Trotter and I quinellaed Fashions On The Field, being the only two men to - more or less - adhere to the stipulated dress code of Black Tie) and Emma's birthday party on Tuesday, which took the form of her cooking a huge dish of (surprisingly palatable, even for someone whose natural preference would be meat and potatoes) paella and inviting 25 or so people here to eat it. The guest list had been pretty much the same as that chez Alix the previous evening (and not dissimilar to that at the Pedigree Club last night), although when I say chez Alix I'm not being completely clear, because she held her party in the Highflyer Car Park in Tattersalls (as she had done plenty of work on Tattersalls' behalf during her time with Barnes Thompson / thoroughbredinternet, permission was easily granted, with the fact that her erstwhile landlord John works for Tattersalls being another factor in that respect). Why there? Easy - it provides a natural arena for petanque. Unfortunately for me, the deep gravel there puts quite a premium on accuracy, so I found the game less easy than on my only previous attempt at it on the Severals, but that did not detract from the fun. She and her sister Caroline, who had come over from France to help her organise her departure for her homeland, gave us all a great evening, which the sadness of knowing that one of our dearest friends was about to leave the country couldn't spoil. France's gain - and more specifically the FRBC's gain - is Newmarket's loss, but happily it's very much a case of 'Au revoir' rather than 'Adieu'.

Anyone reading this in the UK will know that summer, which more or less arrived about two weeks ago, seems already to have departed, which is a bit hard to swallow. Malcolm Peacock and his side-kick, two excellent men who were a pleasure to have working here, did eventually complete their drainage operations in the field - well, they actually completed it very expeditiously, it was just getting the work started it that took so long - which seemed a very successful operation, but ominously yesterday's torrential rain has already sown the first seeds of doubt in my mind as to whether it's been a worthwhile project, with a signficant amount of surface water now lying on the ground over where the drain runs. (And over where the repaired telephone cable runs, repaired after it was sliced in two during their excavation). I can't believe how lucky Jason and I were to have a warm and sunny afternoon at Yarmouth yesterday, because there was a huge amount of rain here in both the morning and the evening. Yesterday's rain was badly timed from my point of view, because Tom Greenway was going to drive down from Cheshire today to give Jack Dawson another jumping lesson, but unfortunately the steeplechase fences at the Links are currently on a rotivated strip of plough, which provides a very good surface during and after dry weather, but one which it is unwise to use after signficant rain. So today's schooling session has been postponed until Sunday - weather permitting - by which time we should have had two runners. Both should run well if they run: we know Jill has escaped the Elimator's axe, but we'll have to wait until tomorrow morning to find out if Lady Suffragette is to get a run at Bangor on Saturday. The advantage the flat has over jumping is that on over jumps one has to wait until the day before racing to find out if one's horse has got in, whereas on the flat, thanks to 48-hour declarations, one knows two days in advance. I know that different people have different views, and that the majority of trainers appear to think that this advantage does not outweigh the undoubted disadvantages resultant from nowadays having to declare two days in advance of the race (compared to the previous situation of declaring the day before, other than for Sunday's racing for which declarations have always have been taken on the Friday), but that is not an opinion which I share.

And just before I sign off, I must salute Matt Williams for the lovely recommendation of this site in Trading Post eight days ago. That brought a big smile to my face, and I'd like to think that there are a few new readers as a result. I enjoy writing this blog and Emma (I hope) enjoys maintaining the rest of the site (incidentally, a few nice new photographs have gone up on the Photo Gallery within the past week), but if nobody ever looked at it, it would be a rather pointless exercise. Good on yer, Matt.