Thanks to the stalls team

Big relief! Jill passed her stalls test today, albeit by the skin of her teeth. What saved us I think was that she didn't do anything wrong, but for what seemed like ages she just did nothing at all. We'd got her in a routine at home where she was going in freely. Stalls rug on, Yarmy would lead me forward and she'd just go in. This time the rug went on, but nothing happened. Pushing her does more harm than good, so as the seconds were ticking a blindfold seemed the best (only) way of clutching at straws. So on it went; and she still just stood still. And then - and all power to the starter and stalls handlers - the suggestion was put forward that I hold her tail. It just shows that you never stop learning with horses. Maybe to some people this would be the obvious thing to do, but it wouldn't have crossed my mind, and even if it had I wouldn't have predicted what would happen next with the certainty that the stalls handlers showed. It was easy for me because Jill wasn't jumping around at all, so I just had to turn round and one of the stalls handlers passed her tail up to me. "Keep hold of that - don't let it go, whatever you do - and we'll push her in; she definitely won't kick us if you're holding that". So I kept hold of it - more than kept hold of it, in fact, because I pulled on it too to provide extra leverage - and one stalls handler got each side of her; they locked hands together, got right in behind her, and pushed. And it was exactly as they'd predicted: she just walked in, albeit providing none of the momentum herself. Once she was in, that was it, because she could stand in there all day, so I just sat and chatted for a bit, thanking profusely all concerned - including Yarmy, of course, who has been excellent with her, a real help - for their heroic efforts. What I'd equate it to would be needing par on a hole of golf, but having a few swings at the ball before you finally make contact - but being creditted with a par because, starting from your first connection with the ball, that's what you got. So all was well that ended well.

Other than the uncertainty for a minute or so about whether we were going to pass or fail the test, it was a very pleasant excursion. Obviously one canters down to the start and then back up again afterwards, so it's always a pleasure to have the rare thrill of riding along the famous Rowley Mile - as most of you will know, horses more or less never use the racecourse in training, and there is something special about riding up that hallowed (and I don't think that's misusing the word) stretch of grass. (Fingers crossed I'm going to canter up it again tomorrow, which I'm really looking forward to, but we'll save that for the next chapter). It was a busy testing time, because there were four horses having tests, which was rather jolly. All passed: one trained by Michael Quinlan, one by Geoff Wragg (Alpes Maritimes) and one by Clive Brittain (a very nice strong two-year-old filly called Dubai Power, or Dubai Something anyway). Jill was the naughtiest, Clive's filly was a little awkward, and the other two were very good. Yarmy was helping with Alpes Maritimes as well as with Jill. And the icing on the cake was that it's a beautiful day. At Salisbury yesterday I jested that, on October 3rd, it was nearly the nicest day of the year, and today was even better. It was a beautiful dawn, and it's only got better since then. Can we have a few more please?

On the subject of Salisbury yesterday, it was a very pleasant, if unproductive, trip. All we took out of it were a couple of positives: the longer distance route is definitely worth exploring, and we think blinkers will bring a bit of improvement. Micky had suggested that Brief had got rather complacent, and Darryll confirmed this yesterday, making the blinkers suggestion unprompted. So we can look forward to next year with a couple of aces up our sleeve. Plus a third, because his handicap mark is becoming more attractive all the time. He's still in good shape physically, but I suspect we might run short of options for this year - but if we have to wait until next year before having another shot at getting everything to fall into place, then that's not the end of the world. The only slightly unsatisfactory thing about the race was how far behind the rest of the field Brief got in the early stages - he must have been six lengths behind the second last horse after a furlong - but I don't think that's a sign of anything amiss (I usually question whether there is something wrong with a horse who doesn't jump off smartly), rather that Darryll took my exhortation to ride him with confidence too much to heart.

So that was all very nice, because Salisbury's a lovely place to be when the weather's nice and the company is good. I had an extra bonus too, because the first race featured the first runner saddled in the UK by Jeremy Gask. Some of you may have read of his appointment to succeed Simon Earle at one of Britain's strangest training establishments. He brings to this job a wealth of experience. I first got to know him when he worked for Mark Tompkins in the mid-90s, at which time he did me the huge favour of introducing me to the music of Paul Kelly, and since he's been home he's established himself as a first-rate trainer in South Australia. The last time I'd seen him prior to yesterday was chez Tidmarsh at Cambridge (NZ) in 1998 when he was in New Zealand for the ready-to-run sale at Karaka, and I was there on holiday, and it was great to see him again. He packed in training a year or two ago, and I'm not sure how he's ended up where he is now. He's been in the UK for seven weeks and his family are due to arrive shortly, so let's hope that it's a happy and successful venture for them. It will be if he's allowed a free hand, and the fact that his runner yesterday was wearing plates on his all four of his feet (previous runners from the stable have generally competed bare-foot) was a positive sign in this respect. I was very pleased to see him yesterday and hope to see plenty more of him over the coming months and years: and if he's training plenty of winners, then that will be great, and just the way it should be.

One nice touch to that piece of serendipity was that it transpired that Jeremy's runner was taken to the races by Wally Irvine. I'm sure that that name will ring a few bells for having been a jockey in the West Country, primarily for Ron Hodges I think - I seem to remember him riding the steeplechaser Charcoal Wally, although with the coincidence with the names that could just be my memory playing tricks on me - but I only knew him latterly when he was in Newmarket working for Godolphin or David Loder (I can't remember which, but they were basically the same thing anyway). I hadn't seen him for a few years, so was very pleased to bump into him yesterday. He's back in the south west, living in Dorset, and making a living as a horse transporter. He said he'd been in this stable earlier in what pretended to be the summer, picking up a horse from Dave Morris, but that I hadn't been around when he was here. And that brings us to the final nice aspect of yesterday: Dave's youngest son Ben had his first ride, in the concluding amateur race at Nottingham, on old Surdoue. The combination didn't cut any ice, but they got round happily enough so that was a start. Ben's an excellent little lad whose riding has really come on over the past year. He rides his father's horses every day, and gallops for Sir Mark Prescott (as does Jeff and Lydia Pearce's very good son Simon) on Tuesdays and Fridays, and I'd like to think that yesterday's ride will be the first of very many for him.