End of season

We've made it to the end of another Flat season. The season, of course, actually ends on 31st December and the new one will start on 1st January (which the keepers of statistics seem unable to take on board) but we still think of the season as being the traditional one. We haven't got much to show for having reached the end, other than the fact that reached it we have: we're still here - and that's the main thing. And the sun's shining. Doncaster today is usually run on a heavy track, but today it's merely soft, which is sure sign of a relatively benign autumn.
Watching the blue skies over Santa Anita on the television last night, while the rain beat down on our roof, prompted the thought that, while it might never rain in southern California, it frequently rains in western Suffolk, but happily today dawned bright and sunny. And the day has remained thus, which is very pleasant. This was particularly fortunate because our friend Ebonie Macleod, who has been over here on secondment from Darley Australia for a month, was due to head home (she'll now be in the air as I write)
so this morning was the last chance for her to get a good view of Newmarket Heath. Ebonie had to leave for the airport at 7.30, but there was time for her to come out to watch a few horses before she went, so she and I headed up the Bury Road in her car while Aisling and Gemma headed up there on Kadouchski and his two-year-old half-brother Frankieandcharlie. Heading up there at dawn in the summer would mean that one saw horses everywhere,
but at this time of year there aren't many horses galloping, the majority of horses going out instead to do routine canters up Warren or Long Hill. The Limekilns weren't being used, of course (although they were in use up to the end of last week, which was another sign of a dry autumn) but we had a look at them anyway (as the photograph at the head of this chapter illustrates) while waiting for our pair to arrive. There were a few other horses and people down there.
William Haggas appeared there to watch two of his charges whom we saw heading towards the gallop (picture number two) while two Jeff Pearce's team were heading away. Luca and Sara Cumani, the latter fresh back from her trip to Melbourne, were there, accompanied by Luca's very good assistant Ed Walker, to see three of their horses work (picture number three), and our pair arrived just after that trio (picture number four). Jimmy Quinn was also up there (picture number five), waiting for some of Henry Cecil's in-form string
(and we can particularly say 'in-form' after last night's Breeders' Cup victory of Midday) to arrive, which they did as we were leaving, as did some of William Jarvis' horses, followed by a solitary horse from Michael Stoute's stable. There must also have been some of John Ryan's horses up there too: we didn't see any, but Mick, John's father, drove out of the wood, stopping only to remind me that there is a dress code on the Heath. (I've made it to the end of the season without jettisoning the shorts; whether we get beyond today with them remains to be seen).
We just about had time to watch our two come up Railway Land (picture number six) and Luca's horses come up the Al Bahathri (picture number seven) before heading back towards town. By this time the sun was starting to peek over the top of Warren Hill (picture number eight) - but it was also time for Ebonie to head off to begin the long journey home. The New South Welsh weather over the next few months is almost certain to be considerably more pleasant than the British, but even so she can take some picturesque final memories away with her.
And I hope that this little photo-essay might be of interest to some people for whom the splendours of morning work on Newmarket Heath are a rare treat, rather than a daily occurrence. It's good to have a visitor to appreciate them with, because otherwise it is easy to take them for granted and thus fail to appreciate them as fully as we ought.

I made it through to the end of the Breeders' Cup races last night. Just about. For the last couple of races, I realised in advance that I was likely to have nodded off before post-time, so I set the alarm on my phone for a minute before the off time for each race. Thus I was able more or less to see all the action - and I felt less bad about my lack of wakefulness when, this morning, Adam was asking me about the results and, on my asking him why he hadn't seen the races, he admitted that he had fallen asleep on the sofa before the first race and slept through the lot! This evening might be similarly testing, if not more so. At least I did have a semi-decent amount of sleep last night, because I didn't watch the Australian racing live, instead taping it to watch later in the day. Ebonie appeared here at 3 am to watch it, and bizarrely I happened to be out in the yard walking the dogs when she arrived. I'd just got up to check that the video and television were working properly, and as the dogs stirred when I did so it seemed prudent to take them for a walk: they tend to subscribe to the lavatorial version of the old polling day dictum of 'Vote early and vote often'! Happily, my pre-emptive strike ensured that the house remained an Edgar-free zone while I enjoyed my final bout of sleep of the night.