Spring is in the air

We had a very pleasing start to our season yesterday when Polly ran at Folkestone, our first Turf Flat runner of the year. I think that would be our sixth runner all told: she'd run once on the all-weather, Run From Nun had run three times on the all-weather, and My Obsession had run once over hurdles. I think that's the lot - apologies if I've overlooked anyone. It'll be a blank year if all our runners do what Polly did - finish fifth - but a good year if they all do what she did - run very well. For the majority of horses, winning a weight-for-age maiden is beyond their capabilities, but they still have to run in three of them before they are eligible to run in races for horses of their own class; so all one can hope for is that they run well and genuinely when they do run in these maidens, and Polly certainly did that yesterday. She's a dear little filly, very straightforward and honest, so let's hope that we can now place her to win a race at some point later in the season. If she always tries as hard as she did yesterday, when she galloped dourly to the line on very taxing ground, that shouldn't be an unrealistic assignment.

The trip to Folkestone had two other pleasures. One was my first meeting with the part-owner in whose colours Polly now runs, James Daly, and the other was seeing Tom Townsend. I'd been confident from our telephone conversations that I'd find James good company, and so it proved; so fingers crossed he, Alix and I can all find racing this filly together a pleasurable and rewarding experience. But the highlight of the day had to be seeing Tom. He'd been very ill over the winter, nearly dying, and that's left his mark on him as he's clearly lost weight, but the really nice thing is that he's definitely on the way back: he has a really good, healthy colour in his cheeks and his trademark smile is firmly in place, so fingers crossed yesterday will prove to be the first of many times that I pass the time of day with him on racecourses this season as he travels the country in his role accompanying Stuart Williams' horses to the races.

The other highlight of being at Folkestone, a very nice course, yesterday was the fact that we were at the races in pleasant weather. It was a warm, sunny day, albeit rather breezy (and the very soft ground was a reminder of how wet it has been up until very recently) so, with the sights of daffodils on the roadside intermittently throughout the journey and of lambs in the field as one turns into the racecourse, it was easy to savour the joy of springtime. We knew it was springtime too this morning as we rode over to Racecourse Side. Gemma, Jamie, Desna and myself had just walked across Hamilton Road on Jill, Brief, Imperial Decree and Belle Annie, prior to those four horses all galloping very satisfactorily on the Cambridge Road all-weather, when we passed a group of pedestrians in earnest discussion: Henry Cecil, Jane McKeown, Jimmy Quinn, Michael Marshall (previously best known as a good apprentice with Ian Balding a few years ago, but now Henry's assistant), Ted Durcan (well-tanned after a winter in Dubai), Tom Queally and Rupert Chennelles (who appeared to have appointed himself to the task of annoying Henry for the morning). Even more than lambs and daffodils, that was a sign that spring is in the air.