Nearly surprised!

Well, we've got the result we've been hoping for: a dead-heat in the jockeys' premiership. What was really nice was that it seemed as if both hoops were genuinely pleased to be sharing the title with the other, rather than holding it outright. They are two admirable professional jockeys who have played hard and played fair, and it would have been a shame to see either come out of the slog empty-handed (well, they'd have had plenty to show for the year whether winning or finishing second in the title race, but you know what I mean). I really didn't want Seb not to win it because he'd never won it previously, but I didn't want to barrack against Jamie, so a draw is great. Good on 'em both.

Wolverhampton last night was gripped with championship fever. Even Cornelius Lysaght was there. (No sign of Julian Muscat, but then you hell hadn't quite frozen over, either - and there were no Group races on the card). But I won't remember last night's Wolverhampton fixture for hosting the penultimate scene in the championship drama: I'll remember it for my nearly being surprised there. I've basically reached the stage where nothing surprises me - I actually reached it years ago - but I came very close to being stunned to discover on my arrival at Wolverhampton that Imperial Decree was a non-runner. I always have my phone switched off while driving, but Emma had had hers on in the passenger seat, so had taken a call from Cliff telling her that Eddie Ahern was not riding because he was too unwell to do so - although in all likelihood he was merely too unwell to face the prospect of heading from Musselburgh, where he'd ridden that afternoon, to the black country on a cold, dark, damp night for one long-priced ride in a low-value all-weather race on a horse trained from a small stable he gets one ride from every several years, because his unwellness didn't preclude him from fulfilling his engagements at Musselburgh (for Luca Cumani et al.) yesterday afternoon or at Doncaster (for Saeed bin Suroor etc.) today. But just how unwell he was or wasn't isn't germane to the story in hand - yet again I'm going off at a tangent. Anyway, Emma had checked in the paper and we'd seen that Stephen Donohoe (who'd ridden the filly, very well, on her debut) was available, as was Rab Havlin (who had galloped her on the Heath, and who had been offered the ride on two of her previous starts, including her most recent one, but hadn't been able to take it because he was elsewhere). Anyway, I was thinking that when we arrived at Wolverhampton I'd call John Nelligan, managing partner in the Principes Formation, to fill him in and to ask which of this pair he'd like to ride, or whether he'd like one of the several other good jockeys who were there and free. As it was, I came close to feeling very surprised when, on arriving at Wolverhampton an hour and forty minutes before the race, I discovered that John had sent the course a fax to say that, because Ahern (who is the leading jockey at the track) couldn't ride, the filly was to be scratched because of no suitable jockey being available, as the syndicate didn't want to settle for a rider whose course record was less impressive. This wasn't the course of action which I would have suggested, but that was academic because (a) once a horse has been scratched he or she cannot be re-instated and (b) what the trainer would do isn't really relevant if the horse's owners would like something to be done differently. This latter point is something which many observers do not appreciate (and seemingly many trainers do not appreciate either, judging by stories I have heard from bemused owners bemoaning their trainer's actions - and getting, predictably, no sympathy from me for being stupid enough to patronize a trainer who would put his own interests/wishes ahead of those of his clients). It was just really strange and, although I would say that nothing surprises me, it certainly wasn't the train of events that I would have predicted at the outset of the day. Anyway, I'd had enough of the outing pretty soon after that - although I did just check with the stewards that I wouldn't be fined for this unusual withdrawal - so I didn't hang around to savour the ongoing Sanders/Spencer drama, especially as I didn't want a load of jockeys whom I regard as very competent querying me about what they would, after discovering that the filly had been scratched because of no suitable jockey being available, justifiably regard as my apparent implicit criticism of their ability.

Looking ahead, we could find ourselves runner-less next week too because it will be touch-and-go whether Bangor shafts us with its lack of stables again. Lady Suffragette is something like number 25 in her race and the safey factor is 20, so you'd think that she should be fine - but of course the stable yard is small there, as we found out to our cost in the summer and, if the novice hurdle is divided (which seems likely) the maximum field for our race could be as low as 12, which would make our participation very dubious. You know my views on the rule which brings this restriction into play, so there is no point in my repeating my explanation of why it is such a bad one. Anyway, she either will run or won't run next week, but if she does miss out she should be able to run somewhere - Leicester, Fakenham or Market Rasen - the following week. And then we have Polly to look forward to at the end of the month. I galloped her again today and really enjoyed it. Fingers crossed she'll provide us with a bit of fun to help us through the winter.