Bank Holiday weekend - it had to rain!

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday was very warm and sunny; today it has rained for hours and it's considerably colder. It being a Sunday, the horses get to chose how much exercise they do (which is usually quite a lot, as they play around even more than normal if they've missed their usual morning ride) because their frolicking in the field is their only outing. I didn't put them out until early afternoon, waiting for the rain to ease off, and the delay made them even happier to be out when eventually they were. Rain doesn't bother horses - although it does bother humans - and I received a good reminder of how little horses are fazed by it when eventually I did turn the day shift out: they frolicked and rolled. And in the case of Brief Goodbye, Jill Dawson and Anis Etoile, they rolled and rolled some more, loving the wet ground. It's great to see them so well, particularly in the case of Brief, who ran another tremendous race yesterday, finishing an honourable second over fourteen furlongs in the last race at Newmarket. He looked to pull up from that race very well, and today's display of well-being in the field has merely confirmed that impression. He's provided all involved with him with so many lovely days, and yesterday was another one of those. I'd say two miles will be his go in the future, because he saw out the race really well yesterday, and ran the type of race where you just come away feeling so proud that your horse has run so well - rather than regretting that finishing second means that you haven't won.

It was a really pleasant afternoon at Newmarket, further enlivened by the opportunity to see some really nice horses. The winner of the two-year-old maiden, Alkahfif, looked a potential star when making a winning debut. By Royal Applause from the Danehill mare My First Romance, he has bags of scope and, while he's bred just to sprint (by a sprinter, he is a half-brother to two Queen Mary winners) one could see him ending up a contender for next year's 2,000 Guineas, if that isn't too fanciful. I always have a soft spot for members of this family, because I remember his dam as foal and yearling at Woodditton Stud when I worked there. Born in 1992, she was one of the early Danehills, and was the daughter of one of the stud's permanent boarders (Front Line Romance, who was very bad-tempered) and grand-daughter of another (old Bottom Line, who was very nice). All these horses were owned by Jerry Sung, whose trainer Michael Jarvis trained My First Romance, who achieved nothing as a racehorse - which was disappointing, because she was a lovely strong foal - but who has subsequently proved herself a wonderful matron for Bearstone Stud, who have bred three Royal Ascot winners from her (Zargus, winner of the Balmoral Handicap, being the third, in addition to Queen Mary heroines Romantic Myth and Romantic Liason); I'd say that Alkahfif will go to the Coventry Stakes with a good chance of becoming her fourth.

One wouldn't want to do it today in such wet conditions, but yesterday evening provided idyllic barbecue conditions - even if it did become a bit cooler than ideal at dusk - and this proved a very pleasant way of ending a very nice day, as Larry and Iris McCarthy, plus their friend Rachel, stopped off here for a couple of hours before heading back to London. A barbecue can provide the stimulus for getting very drunk, but I found the perfect solution to that problem: Gemma appeared and started making cocktails, which proved to be a guarantee of sobriety, because it transpired that cocktails aren't very nice. Mind you, other people seemed to think otherwise, but to my mind it's a given that when a recipe contains only ingredients which I don't like - how about tequila, lime juice and cranberry juice for an appealing trifecta? - it's a given that what it produces will also be something which I don't like. So I feel great today - although whether I will still do so after a few more hours in the rain, including when we are up at the racecourse with Imperial Decree, is debatable. Being rained on, though, would be the least of poor Neil Pollard's worries: I received a message from his agent yesterday afternoon that he was in hospital having X-rays on a suspected broken collar bone, having had a fall riding out in the morning. He's down for Imperial Decree but it sounds as if he won't be on her: I left a message at the racecourse with Liam Jones' valet asking if he'd like to ride - he's in the race before ours (the last) but is not engaged in ours - so I'd guess he'll be on board. And if he enjoys the ride as much as I enjoyed galloping Anis Etoile yesterday morning, then all will be well.