More winter waffle!

Another very photogenic day means, I'm afraid, more waffle. I've another dozen or so shots which I can't resist putting on display, so again I'm going to have to pad the text out a bit to accomodate them. It's been a bit colder today. I think it was supposed to be about minus 6 last night and I believe that the daytime high has been minus 1. There has, of course, been an element of thawing, but that's only where the sun has shone on things: in the shade there has been none. But still it's felt pleasant, with the air being dry and there being no wind. And of course with the sun shining. Again the snow has helped with light in the mornings at a time of year when we don't normally have very much, but even so the visibility wasn't perfect when we started riding, as my action shot from the warm-up canter shows - and that's despite my having the inestimable assistance of being on board Ex Con who, as a very placid and sensible horse, makes a perfect mobile grandstand from which to take pictures. Even in the picture which I took when we were trotting down alongside Railway Land sand to get down to the start of the Al Bahathri the light wasn't great (at around 7.20 I'd guess) but by the time we headed back towards home up the gallop things were better, as this backview of Gemma and Douchkette confirms. What was very good, though, was the footing (as that same photograph also confirms): the heathmen really had excelled themselves today because every canter had been well harrowed prior to 7am. The surfaces were in faultless condition and, while galloping up the Al Bahathri, one would never have known from the feel of the surface that meteorological conditions were anything other than perfect. In fact, it was only after we'd cantered down the first sand that, having found that canter to be in perfect condition, I was emboldened to head to the Al Bahathri; and, stopping to check with a heathman (even though I was within ten metres of the heathman when the conversation took place, I'm not certain whom I was speaking to because it was still quite dark, but I think that it was Richard Conway) that I would indeed find that gallop both in good condition and open when I got there, I was informed that the harrowing of the Al Bahathri had been finished by 6.15, which really was a good effort. And the only reason why we trotted down next to the Railway Land sand (which is no longer a sand, having been converted to Polytrack two or three years ago) rather than cantering down it was because it was at that time having its second harrowing of the day. Anyway, 10 out of 1o the whole Heath team today; if it was in my nature to misuse the English language, I'd say 11 out of 10.

The only dicey area of terrain we've encountered today was, of course, in Exeter Road, the gritting of which is never high on the council's list of priorities. On all four lots today we led the horses down the road and got on them around the corner in Rayes Lane, after which point there were no worries about slipping. When we returned from first lot we found that, although we'd deemed Exeter Road unsafe for horses, our neighbour Don Cantillon considered it safe for bicycles, as the fourth photograph of the chapter shows. Even Don, mind, must have been slightly cautious because he was bicycling solo, rather than with his terrier Chip running alongside on his lead. The next lot saw us up Warren Hill and the sun came out from behind the low clouds at about the same time, leaving the snow-covered Heath bathed in glory, which was lovely (see above). When we got back from that lot, we found that another Exeter Road trainer, Willie Musson, was being even bolder than Don, having his string ridden out of the yard and down the ice-bound street (having laid some grit down on the ice outside his gate beforehand). This went off without any problems, even for the horse in the picture, Stawell Gift, who, being Australian-bred, surely isn't bred to handle icy conditions! He does look a trifle discomfitted by conditions, but he's doing very well even so. He's being ridden here by a very good lad (Pawan Nagaraju) which helps, while George McGrath (mentioned in yesterday's chapter) is just behind. I wanted to work him into this chapter just to make things clearer: George, I suppose, might be referred to as George McGrath jr, as he is the son of the George McGrath who is most famous for having won the 1973 Irish Sweeps Derby on Weaver's Hall and the 1984 Irish 2,000 Guineas on Sadler's Wells. Stawell Gift, incidentally, is an addition to Willie's string whose progress I will be most interested to follow. A very well-named gelding (he's by Dash For Cash, and the Stawell Gift is a professional short-distance running race, which is held in Stawell in Victoria's western district) and I hope that Willie will be able to place him as well as did his previous trainer Peter Moody, who sent him out to do what one might say that he was destined to do: win a race at Stawell. I know that one might say that if Peter Moody, one of the leading trainers at Caulfield, were to run a horse in a maiden a Stawell, a very low-grade track, it would be disappointing if the horse didn't win, but chosing that a particular horse should win at a particular track and then having the horse do so is definitely easier said than done!

There were plenty of horses around when we went up Warren Hill, including some from the other side of town, which is as good a recommendation as one could get of the safety of the horse-walks. We had three of David Simcock's horses precede us up Warren Hill Polytrack (as seen approaching it in the seventh photograph in this chapter) and we then saw Marco Botti's string heading up Long Hill Polytrack as we were on our way in (eighth photograph). These were followed up there by some of James Fanshawe's horses (seen walking towards the canter in the ninth photograph) who would have come down the Fordham Road horsewalk, which similarly must have been in good condition. The man at the back of James' string, the ex-Richard Hannon apprentice and now part-time Raceform race-reader Mark Denaro (who is such a dead ringer for Olivier Peslier that it would never now cross my mind to call him anything other than Olivier) wins the best-dressed prize, courtesy of what looked like a really good blue skiing jacket which I would say would have kept all the cold out. Not that the cold really needed to be kept out because once the sun had been up a while conditions were really pleasant, despite the technicality that the temperature was still below zero. We went to the Al Bahathri last lot and it was positively summery (not that the amount of snow in the bushes and trees down the side of the Bury Road in this photograph of the backview of Adam trotting home makes that easy to believe!). Adam's on his regular mount Ben in that photograph, and afterwards we put him on the famous Oscar, which was great as it now means that all four yearlings here have now been ridden. That's good because it's all been achieved without drama, thanks largely to the good work of both Adam and Hugh. We didn't take him out of the box for obvious reasons (as the surface of the yard is very icy, it would not have been wise to let a horse have his first ride on it in such a condition, even if the horse was behaving as sensibly as Oscar has been doing). Instead Adam just rode him around the box (pictured) and the horse is ready to go for a ride now any time that conditions are suitable. I'm glad to have got them all ridden before the Christmas recess, so well done to Adam and Hugh in making this possible.

So that was another surprisingly straightforward and productive morning - even if the flowers in a tub down in the yard might struggle to agree with that assessment in their coffin of ice!