Some things to look forward to

You'll have worked out that last week was a busy one, with no new chapters added to this blog. So I'd better now recapitulate on what's been happening. We've had three runners since I last posted. Ethics Girl's trip to Goodwood was satisfactory. She performed with credit in what looked quite a decent race, as you'd expect a race at one of the country's best racecourses to be. This was the first time I'd been to Goodwood since reading David Hunn's history of the racecourse, so was particularly keen to savour my surroundings; and as it took place on a beautiful sunny autumnal day, that was very easy to do. We then ran Filemot, who ran well on her first run back from a spell to finish sixth, beaten only two lengths. This was the first time that she's finished a race strongly, so it was very satisfactory and boded well for the future. Our most recent outing, though, was less pleasing. Fed up with being forever eliminated with Run From Nun, I entered her in a maiden race feeling that, with her in good form, she'd have to run adequately even if she couldn't quite manage to sneak a place; and, if that happened, her rating might be raised, which would help her to get into a more suitable race. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men! I thought it might be a good idea to book the season's leading apprentice, David Probert, who has been riding plenty of winners and who still claims 5 lb. Sadly things didn't work out, as he lost an iron on leaving the stalls and spent the first 80m of the race shifting around on her back, leaning down to use his hand to guide his foot back into the stirrup. Inevitably, she was at the back of the field by the time he had righted the situation and, in a five-furlong all-weather race on a turning track, that was that. She did run on to pass two or three, but never looked likely to do better than that. So that was a completely purposeless and rather demoralizg exercise. It was also an interesting illustration of the disadvantage less established riders face: when one's horse receives and inept ride from an apprentice, one is tempted to berate oneself for having booked an apprentice - which is of course very unfair on the lad, because one receives plenty of inept rides from senior jockeys too. It's just a fact of life that a certain proportion of one's runners will have their chances hugely diminished by the rides whomever one uses, and there's no point in worrying about it. You can book the best jockey in the world and things won't necessarily work out ideally, as has been demonstrated on umpteen high-profile occasions.

Other than our runners, the yearling sale was the big focus of our attention. It's nice to go to a sale aiming to buy a horse, and that was exactly what I did last week, as the aim was to buy a filly to increase Tony Fordham's racing interests, which hitherto have comprised Struck Lucky (who should be making her debut shortly, I hope). I'd decided that it was likely that demand would drop markedly as the sales season went on, so we shouldn't consider Parts One and Two of Tattersalls October Sale, and should concentrate on Part Three. Therefore, using firstly the catalogue and then physical inspections, I formulated a list of seven yearlings which I thought would make satisfactory purchases on the first day of Part Three (last Thursday). The aim would be to bid on them in turn until one fell within budget, in which case we'd be the buyer. Which of the seven will turn out the best (or least moderate) is, of course, unknowable at present, but the point is that there will be numerous nice horses who emerge from the sale, plus numerous poor ones, and I was reasonably confident that any one of these seven horses would have a reasonable chance of falling into the first category rather than the second. Anyway, below are listed the horses in the order in which they went through the ring, just in case anyone would like to take a note of them and tell me in two years' time that I either identified some duds or some good prospects (I'm certainly going to keep an eye out for them):-

Grey filly by Doyen ex Makhsusah, by Darshaan - bought by Rabbah Bloodstock to go into training with Michael Bell;

Bay filly by Orpen ex Mistic Sun, by Dashing Blade - bought by Paul Cole;

Chestnut filly by Halling ex Papabile, by Chief's Crown - bought by Peter Doyle to go into training with Richard Hannon;

Grey filly by Refuse To Bend ex Questina, by Sternkoenig - bought by Bobby O'Ryan to go into training with Dermot Weld;

Chestnut filly by Mark Of Esteem ex Serriera, by Highest Honor - bought by us;

Bay filly by Barathea ex Fine Detail, by Shirley Heights - bought by Dominic Ffrench-Davis;

Bay filly by Tiger Hill ex Good Mood, by Devil's Bag - bought by Rae Guest.

Those are seven horses whose progress I'll be following. It will be interesting to see how many / if any of them make the grade. And, if so, which ones!

So keeping tabs on these horses as they went through the ring made Thursday a full but enjoyable day. I like omens, and we'd had a good omen at the start of the day when during first lot we'd passed very close to a muntjak deer while we were cantering around Bury Hill All-Weather, and that had sent me out feeling confident. And as this was the day when Filemot ran nicely (I didn't go to Nottingham, leaving Hugh and Martha to handle on-course operations) that was the icing on the cake. Since bringing the Mark Of Esteem filly home, I've had no reason to regret the purchase. Fingers crossed she'll prove herself to have been well bought, even if she's unlikely to prove the best bargain her breeder Louise Parry has ever sold: that honour is very unlikely ever to be wrested from the Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Saoire, the only Classic winner ever bred in Wales, whom Louise sold as a foal to Larry Stratton for 2,000 gns.

More recently we had a visit on Friday night from Jason Hathorn, Ken Gibbs, Richard Jones and Tim Trounce, four of the six members of the All Points West Partnership which owns Ex Con. They have been patient and understanding well beyond the call of duty, because they have had to wait forever for Ex Con to get within sight of ever doing anything, but the nice thing is that he now looks to be nearing his debut, which has been pencilled in for 27 days hence. He confirmed his well-being with a gallop up Long Hill on Saturday morning with Kadouchski, which they watched in a golden dawn. So finger crossed things continue to run smoothly with him and we can take him to Stratford next month. In the interim I hope that we might have had five runners, starting with To Be Or Not To Be at Great Leighs on Thursday, and then continuing with Ethics Girl, Filemot, Take Me There and Struck Lucky. It's nice to have something to look forward to!