A great day's racing

Gosh, if we have three more days as exciting as today it will be great. Wasn't Katchit's success something to bring joy to the heart? He's just such a brave, professional racehorse. The brahma of the race this end was that I watched the race with Sebastian on my lap; as I started to bellow at the television from the last turn onwards, Sebastian vacated his seat in panic pretty smartish but, as I sat back afterwards exhausted by my cheering, he perched himself on the arm of the sofa and gently pawed my hand, as if worried that I might have had a fit. Cats, you see, can't appreciate the best qualities in a racehorse - qualities which are pretty much shared by the runner-up Osana, another thoroughly admirable racehorse - and he had no idea what the fuss was about.

One really nice post-script to Katchit's win is that that I have a pen friend - ie friend whom I've never met but with whom I correspond by email - called Graeme who lives in Queensland. He owns a British-bred mare called Cherine, who is from the Doubly Sure family, whom he bought a few years ago and brought to Australia in foal to Kalanisi. He is obviously aware that Kalanisi's stud career has subsequently, from a flat point of view anyway, proved a big non-event, but he knows about Katchit and has seen tapes of some of his races. One might expect someone from Queensland, where there are no jumps races and races much beyond a mile are few, not to think very much of this, but I knew that he really admires Katchit. After the race I sent him an email, which I expected him to find when he got up in the morning, just saying that I doubted that he'd be able to see the Champion Hurdle, but if he could see it he'd enjoy it; and that, if his filly Grager (who is now a two-year-old trained in Sydney by Gerald Ryan and who has had one run before going shinsore) proves as brave and genuine as her paternal half-brother, she'll be a champion. Anyway, I received a reply from Graeme within ten minutes: he'd listened to the race on the radio on the internet at 2.15 am, and was so excited. The distance or discipline at which Katchit is excelling aren't relevant: he's proved that Grager's sire can throw a great racehorse.

And on a similar note, I got great pleasure from the result of the last race. You'll have worked out that I was cheering for Ashkazar so when something loomed up to sweep past him up the run-in I wasn't very pleased - until I realised that the winner is a son of Gold Away, the stallion in foal to whom Minnie's Mystery was tested in foal last week. Even if you are breeding for the flat, a sire proving himself able to throw good National Hunt horses is a plus, not a minus: as Graeme understands with Kalanisi, the qualities needed to make a horse special are mostly the same irrespective of the type of race he is running in.

I always organise a stable tipping contest for Cheltenham, which I take quite seriously. (I say I organise the competition, but I haven't organised the prizes yet: I like to wait to see who's won before deciding what the prizes are). I'm pleased with my performance of ending the first day with two wins (Garde Champetre as well as Katchit) but I think that we all have our backs against the wall other than Gemma, who posted a great piece of tipping: three of the six winners, at SPs of 17/2, 10/1 and 4/1. We're all going to have to pull our fingers out if we're going to overhaul her. But tomorrow's another day ...