After the frost

Well we're still during the frost really, but I couldn't resist the temptation to use a Henning Mankell title. And, anyway, we are after the frost which mattered, i.e. last night's one which meant that our trip to Warwick didn't take place. Ex Con is entered on Sunday at Plumpton, but my instinct is not to run him there, even if racing does somehow or other take place. It's hard to see how racing could take place there, bearing in mind that the course is partially frozen and thus unraceable now, and that there is a succession of further frosts forecast between now and then; and as Sandown, another south-eastern track, has more or less given up hope of staging racing on Saturday. However, stranger things have happened, especially at Plumpton, the track which gained notoriety by abandoning because of frost on the Monday of Cheltenham week two seasons ago when racing would have been perfectly safe and feasible. (I must admit that I did not go there that day, but it was hard to see how the track could have remained frozen on a mild and sunny spring day, and I was happy to accept the opinions of the two sensible local jockeys who walked the track a few hours before racing ought to have taken place - Colin Bolger and Mattie Bachelor - and who declared it 100% frost-free). Anyway, this Sunday is Plumpton's big day, Sussex National Day, a day which the executive will be as keen to see happen as they appeared unkeen to see that previous one take place; and that, along with past experience, is enough to make me feel that, if the decision to race is taken, it might not necessarily be the correct one, so my gut instinct would be not to ask Ex Con to gallop twice down the hill there on a surface (and a gradient) which I suspect will be one on which I would never even ask him to canter at home.

So our year ends with a whimper, notwithstanding the fact that we had previously been enjoying a minor roar. One man whose year has ended with a roar, though, is Chris Dwyer, who gets my nomination for Trainer Of The Year after today's racing at Lingfield, where his pretty moderate charge Wind Flow won his sixth race of the year. To win six races in one year with Wind Flow really is virtuoso training and, coming on top of winning five races, including a Listed race, in the same year with Mia's Boy, should make Chris a moral for such an award. However, I'd be amazed if he's even on any short-list, which probably tells us more about the decision-making process and the judges for these awards than it does about Chris' feat.

In another respect, our year has ended not with a whimper but with silence, because that has been the noise emanating from BHA HQ following my request for confirmation that the photo-finish was read correctly at Leicester on Sunday and that the apparatus was aligned correctly. If you've seen the race you will understand that this is not an unreasonable query - but to anyone who hasn't it might be worth my pointing out that, without exception, everyone to whom I have spoken on the subject has said something along the lines of, "I couldn't believe it when I heard you were only third, because it looked as if you were definitely second". Anyway, the prediction from the girl at the BHA that someone would call me back about this the next day (Tuesday) has proved incorrect, and sadly today (Wednesday) has brought no word either. As tomorrow is New Year's Day, I think it likely that no word will be forthcoming then either, but who knows what Friday will bring?