Craven week reflections

Our day at Newmarket was lovely. The sun shone, God was in His heaven, and it was easy to believe that Leslie was up there with Him too, looking down on us. So many of the former Plantation Stud hands who worked under him were present, along with a really good crowd of people whose lives he'd enriched in other capacities, and it was a very special occasion. Kirsten Rausing had been able to arrange a very good, large box on the fourth floor of the main stand, and that was a perfect meeting place for people to come to and go from throughout the afternoon. An added bonus was that the box contained, in addition to many nice people, Lord Howard's scrap books, in which he had assembled photographs of all his winners, with hand-written notes alongside them all. It was a real privilege to be able to leaf through them and be prompted into trips down memory lane by pictures of some of the trainers and jockeys of yesteryear who trained and rode his horses, such as Ernie Weymes, Frank Morby, Richard Pitman, John Francome, Tony Kimberley, Clive Eccleston, Taffy Thomas and Alan Bond, and by the hand-written notes alongside beautiful photographs of such as Lanzarote, Kris and Catalpa.

Our best turned-out duties were exciting. We selected the Barry Hills-trained Spinning Lucy, who looked lovely. There were actually several whom one could have selected, but for me Spinning Lucy was the one: presented in a minimalist fashion (you'd have guessed that that remark would apply to the one who appealed most to me!) she just looked in wonderful condition as she sauntered round the ring as content as could be. In one sense it is awkward because so many of the things which can affect one's judgement are beyond the lad's control - for instance there was one horse whom we discarded straightaway because her paddock sheet had slipped back from the recognised correct position towards her rear, but that is something which is the fault of the man who saddled her, ie the trainer, and over which the lad has no control - and one could say that a horse being relaxed and unruffled, as opposed to edgy and sweaty, is out of the lad's control. To a large extent this is true, because it is up to the trainer to ensure that the horse enjoys racing and approaches a race in a calm state of mind, but at the same time there are some lads who are natural horsemen and some who aren't, and I'd say that when a horse walks around the parade ring in a calm and content manner that is a compliment to the lad as well as to the trainer because, in addition to having been taught by the life which the trainer has arranged for her to enjoy racing, she obviously has trust in the lad and feels safe in his company. And this lovely Spinning Lucy quite clearly felt very happy to be walking alongside her lad, and to me he was a very deserving winner - and none of my co-judges disagreed. She duly ran well, but not as well as the really impressive winner Infallible, who won with ears pricked in the style of a filly who will run very well in the 1,000 Guineas. It was lovely that Leslie's race should have been won by a really good horse, and her owner/breeder Mrs Thompson must have been very proud as she received from Ruth Evita's Nell Gwyn Stakes trophy, which Lady Howard de Walden had very kindly and very fittingly given as the prize for this race.

I had a little chuckle to myself during our selection process. One of my longest-standing friends, Roy Fowler, is now travelling head lad to Marcus Tregonning, who had a runner in the race. When I saw Roy walk into the parade ring I went over to say G'day, but afterwards I thought to myself that it might then be slightly awkward to award his stable's representative the prize: fortunately she was actually one who didn't figure on any of the judges' short-lists, so that got us off having to worry about charges of rigging the contest.

Another old friend, albeit one of not nearly such long standing, into whom I was very pleased to bump this week was Ray O'Brien, an Irish jump jockey who lives in France. He is currently serving a four-day suspension, which he used to give himself a short holiday, coming to Newmarket for three days during sale week when there would be sure to be a lot of his Irish friends in town. He called into the stable this morning to say G'day and it was really good to see him. He'll be back in Lamorlaye by now, ready for his three booked rides at Auteuil on Sunday. Going to the races at Auteuil is something I'm very keen to do before too long, so if we manage that at some stage this year perhaps the next time I see him will be in his adopted homeland.

Our most immediate trip to the races will be to Great Leighs on Sunday, which has finally been given the go-ahead to stage its first (private) meeting. As the public facilities are so unfinished, the great god the Health and Safety Executive has yet to pass it fit to be open to the public, so the only way they can race there currently is to have it as a private function by invitation only. I'm so pleased that we are invitees, and I'm really looking forward to being present at this historic occasion. After that, our next trip to the races should be to Folkestone on 1st May, where we are currently planning to have three runners: Polychrome, Imperial Decree and Filemot. That will be a day to look forward to.

Lastly, before I head for the bath, I'll just indulge myself with a few Breeze-up Sale reflections. We headed there yesterday evening for a couple of hours nosing around, definitely as spectators rather than participants, and Tony Fordham came along too to enjoy the evening. It was very interesting, and again reinforced in my mind that it's probably the last type of sale at which I'd wish to buy. The prices were, by and large, impossible to rationalize. I know that if one were frightened of losing money, one would never buy a horse: but there is the world of difference between buying a horse and knowing that one has a fair chance of seeing the horse's value drop by a four-figure sum over the next few years, and knowing that one has a huge chance of seeing his value drop by a six-figure sum in the first year. Horse after horse was going through for one, two, three or four hundred thousand, without having any obvious claims to being of Stakes class. There were horses being sold that one knew that, if by some miracle they were to win a Group race this year, they would fetch less at the end-of-year sales as a Group winner than they fetched as unraced yet jarred up youngsters yesterday. Madness, sheer madness.

The horse we were most interested in seeing was Emma O'Gorman's filly by Invincible Spirit ex Elba (pictured), and thus a half-sister to one horse whom I bought and trained (Desiree) and a niece to another (Seaside). She's actually a three-parts sister to Desiree (Desiree being by Desert Story, and Desert Story and Invincible Spirit both being sons of Green Desert - with a further, academic, similarity being that Desert Story and Invincible Spirit are both out of mares who finished second in an Oaks, if one is happy to describe the Prix de Diane as 'the French Oaks' - which I'm not, preferring to describe it as the Prix de Diane). This filly was very nice and, although at 150,000 gns she fetched a lot more than I expected, I believe that she will do well for her new owner Malih Al Basti. I certainly hope so, because I met him afterwards and found him to be an extremely nice, knowledgeable and enthusiastic man - so fingers crossed she can bear his colours as creditably and bravely as did his lovely filly Nasheej, who beat Confidential Lady in the 2005 Sweet Solera Stakes and went on to win the May Hill Stakes and the Fred Darling Stakes, and to run third to Speciosa in the 1,000 Guineas and to Nannina in the Coronation Stakes. He tells me that she is now in foal to Street Cry, so that should be a lovely foal for him to look forward to.

I have compiled a short list, drawn up from the few horses which we saw sold, of horses which I think will prove to be very bad buys indeed, and another of horses which I think will do well and will come to be regarded as, relatively anyway, well bought. I don't think it would be fair to the purchasers of the horses on the first list to make that public - particularly if the people were buying the horses on other people's behalf - but included among the horses which I thought might prove satisfactory purchases is a filly by Acclamation ex Finicia, who was sold by one of the few people from whom one could buy with maximum confidence (Emma O'Gorman is also in this elite group), namely Con Marnane of Bansha House Stud. I'm going to keep a look out for this filly and will be very pleased if she does indeed do well, and I'm also going to be on the look-out for a colt by Dr Fong ex Fairy Queen whom Mark Johnston bought for 20,000 gns; he too could prove a good buy. I should restrict my observations to that, lest I get myself into hot water, but I might also add that, on the very slender evidence of the few lots which I saw yesterday, I'd rather buy a Breeze-up horse from a European than an American consignor; and, if I were a Breeze-up horse, I'd rather be prepared by a European than an American consignor.