A lovely day at the Curragh

Big relief - our much anticipated trip to Ireland was a success. Not a huge success, sure, but a success, because all ran smoothly, the filly ran bravely and creditably, and she achieved the primary target of finishing in the top ten, which was what was required to make it a profitable excursion. In fact, the €3,750 she earned for running ninth was more than she collected for winning at Yarmouth! I haven't received the transport bill yet from the BBA, but eleventh or worse would have seen a four-figure loss for the weekend, whereas ninth of tenth meant a four-figure profit. So every place counted.

I had genuinely approached the race on the basis that, as long as we had realistic prospects of making the top ten, then it was worth going. And that, I thought, was a fair assessment of Imperial Decree's chances. However, unbidden expectation started to build when we found that Spotlight in the Racing Post had tipped her and made her joint-favourite. She was, in my view, always going to be vulnerable dropping from seven furlongs to six, especially as she had taken time to find her feet when winning over seven, and especially as a big field and very sticky going would make making up ground hard. We - Emma, Aisling and I - got to the Curragh around 10 am, and were very pleased to find the filly looked relaxed and not seeming to have lost weight in transit. Leaving the stable yard, we bumped into Willie Supple who very kindly, seeing that we were at a loose end, invited us to his house for breakfast. While perusing the Irish Field there, we were stunned to find our filly tipped in that paper too, so the unwelcome weight of expectation gradually started to mount through the morning. The hospitality of Tattersalls Ireland, who laid on a great welcome for connections in a large box on the top floor of the stand which provided a superb view over the Curragh, helped to keep the nerves at bay, and the bulk of the Principes were able to while away the time before our race in comfort and style. I say the bulk, because there were a couple of hard luck stories which had led to late scratchings: John Nelligan had been hit by a recurrence of back trouble, while Liam Richardson - and how unlucky was this? - had presented himself at the airport in Belgium that morning for his Dublin flight, only to be told that the flight had been not delayed but cancelled. Unbelievable. That was terribly unfortunate, but it was good to see the rest of the team, and fair play to Tattersalls and to the Curragh entertaining all connections so well. Anyway, the time for our race duly arrived, and mission was accomplished: in the money. Of course we were all harbouring hopes, encouraged by the media, of collecting a larger share of the prize than we did, but the fact that we didn't does nothing to detract from the fact that Imperial Decree ran very well and very bravely, and that Wayne Lordan - to whom many thanks for his perseverance - rode her really well. I was very proud of her as I believe were all of her connections, and I think and hope that we all went away with the same thought: how lucky we are to have a sound, genuine, talented filly, competing with honour in a big race. I'll leave the last word to Wayne Lordan: "She's a smashing filly".

The best horse at the Curragh on Saturday was not, of course, competing in the Tattersalls Sales Race, and it was a real thrill to watch New Approach, who fully deserves his favouritism for next year's Derby, stretch out to extend his unbeaten record in the Futurity Stakes, sponsored by Coolmore in honour of New Approach's sire Galileo. He's seems to be Jim Bolger's latest star, but the Coolmore team also showed us a good one, as Queen Of Fame, a member of Danehill's last crop, won on her seasonal reappearance, Wayne Lordan wearing the second colours on her. Kieren Fallon wore the first colours on Diamond Necklace, the increasingly exposed grey Unbridled's Song half-sister to Shamardal who showed many of the signs of a horse who is looking unlikely ever to win a race. The day was finished with the usual post-race parade of stars, as Aidan O'Brien and Dermot Weld both had some of their magnficent (but unidentified by us) horses subjected to pretty strenuous work-outs by some of the country's best jockeys after racing. Watching that was an interesting end to a lovely day at the races, one on which we were reminded of just what a friendly welcome one always receives from the Irish racing community, and as we bid farewell to our filly we headed for the airport very content.

I hope that we shall be able to come home from Huntingdon this afternoon similarly satisfied. As if Jack's first steeplechase wasn't enough to worry about, we have Lady Suffragette in the following race. Both should run well, but we'll be wiser come 4.30. I'd rather have run Lady S in the novice handicap hurdle at Cartmel on Saturday but, surprise surprise, we had the lack of stabling bringing racing's silliest rule into play and, when she should have been carrying saddle-cloth 13 and 11 stone 1lb in a 14-runner field on Saturday, she stayed at home while eleven runners contested the race. It has meant that she has instead to contest a tougher race today, but at least it's more convenient. That, of course, isn't the point - but one has always to try to identify every cloud's silver lining.

The good thing was that I didn't have time to be too irritated on Friday when I learned that Lady S had been eliminated again, because we had a full morning - which included Chris Dwyer coming in to gallop Racie Gracie, who performed satisfactorily on a murky Railway Land - followed by a full afternoon, courtesy of Steve and Kerry Oldfield, thanks to whose invitation we enjoyed lunch and tea on the July Course. That made for a very pleasant afternoon, which confirmation of Millyjean's limitations in the claimer didn't spoil. Three winning selections from seven races given to the assembled company by Steve Smith-Eccles was a good achievement (and unprecedented?) and contributed to an interesting and enjoyable afternoon.

I'll just finish by sharing with you one final thought which we took home with us from the Curragh. At any big race day in the UK, Gerry Chesneaux is someone one is always likely to see. His omnipresence in England, of course, guarantees his simultaneous absence in Ireland, but I was pleased to discover that he seems also to be a big factor on racecourses over there, as it appears that he has cornered the market in soft porn on Irish racecourses. The stands at the Curragh are decorated with some lovely photographs, including a great, really big, one of lovely Alamshar outpointing the great Dalakhani in the 2003 Irish Derby, but few of the photos are as eye-catching as the ones which Gerry seems to have been able to hang on the walls there. I noted that, to save confusion, he omits the final 'x' from his name in the title of the 'fashion' - ie soft porn - side of his empire, but he has to be congratulated on the sights at which he gives male Irish racegoers the opportunity to ogle. We haven't been doing too well as regards illustrations on blogs over the past week or two, but I hope that this might be put right here, because it goes without saying that, in the interests of conscientious journalism, I had to take a couple of snapshots. They are very worth seeing.