Looking backwards with pleasure and forwards with trepidation

I'm writing this on the eve of a long-awaited event: the debut of Anis Etoile, who joined the stable as an unbroken yearling nearly two and a half years ago. She has been a real trial of the patience of her owners, the Tri-Nations Partnership, as the members have endured news of set-back after set-back, but finally she seems ready to run. She's in the bumper at Fakenham tomorrow, so let's keep our fingers crossed that everything runs smoothly. With a horse who has demonstrated fragility, one is always worried about what might be around the next corner (one worries enough with the seemingly trouble-free ones!) but she seems fit, sound, and healthy, and has been working well, so we can now head nervously to the races.

I'm pleased that William Kennedy is able to ride her. On a Bank Holiday one never knows which jockeys are going to be available and, while it's not a major issue as there would have been other good jockeys free if we'd had to look elsewhere, I'm glad that he can ride; and I'm sure that anyone who saw him ride his 50/1 winner at Aintree will understand why, because he is a good man to have on one's side. That victory was merely one of several to have given me pleasure recently. I was delighted to see Liam Treadwell, whom I recall riding out here when he was still at school, ride the Grand National winner, while a very happy result was the combination of John Ryan and Jerry O'Dwyer landing a Listed victory at Kempton the same afternoon. Another pleasing result from Aintree was success for Newmarket of the Lucy Wadham-trained El Dancer in the big novice hurdle. Lucy's stable had recorded a rare Flat win (she very rarely has a Flat runner) earlier in the week, so that was a really good week for them. We've just had one runner since I last blogged: Take Me There was unplaced at Fontwell, but it wasn't a disastrous run as he found the ground a bit too firm for his liking but didn't come to any harm. We had already established that he doesn't like soft ground, and now (unsurprisingly, bearing in mind that he is quite a heavy horse) it is plain that he doesn't like it too fast either, so we shall try to keep him to ground that is close to good.

I didn't go to Fontwell as I was in France at the time, having left Hugh and Martha holding the fort for three days. Our friend Michael Tidmarsh was visiting, which was a real pleasure, and he and I headed across the Channel, accompanied by Anthony and by Finn, Michael's youngest son who is a year older than Anthony. Both fathers and both sons really enjoyed the trip. Driving was definitely the right way to do it, because it made it a real adventure, allowing us to enjoy the ferry crossing and the tour down through the French countryside to Paris. The boys get on so well together that the long time spent in the car (the longest stretch was the battle through desperately heavy traffic on the M25 and M11 on the way back home from Dover on Thursday afternoon) passed easily for them, and among the breaks in the journey which we enjoyed was a visit to Chantilly racecourse, which is always a site worth seeing. We had two full days away; we spent one of them at Eurodisney and the other in central Paris. Irritatingly (but amusingly in retrospect) we found the Eiffel Tower (the trip up which was to have been the high point of the tour, figuratively as well as literally) closed because of a strike, but the day was still very well spent, including as it did visits into Notre Dame and up the Arc de Triomphe, plus a boat trip along the Seine. Michael has now headed back to Australia, and if his memories of the trip are as happy as mine, then he will be looking back on it with real pleasure.