Fortuitous

There is often confusion between the words 'fortunate' and 'fortuitous'. The former derives from the Latin word 'fortuna', meaning 'fortune', while the latter derives from 'forte', meaning 'by chance'. Being struck by lightning is fortuitous, but it is certainly not fortunate. However, many occurences are both fortunate and fortuitous. One such happened yesterday. William Kennedy had run me the previous evening to say that he could call in on his way to Huntingdon to school any horses who might need a jumping lesson. I, therefore, had agreed that we would meet him at the Links at 10.30, so Adam and I headed up there with Douchkette and Kadouchski. What happened next was both fortunate and fortuitous, because on arrival I was most pleasantly surprised to find that Mattie Batchelor happened independently to be there too (as, indeed, were three other jockeys, Leighton Aspell, Colin Bolger and Adam Pogson). Mattie, of course, had ridden Douchkette when she ran at Kempton 11 days previously, so he was very happy to jump aboard her so that the two horses could school together, rather than have William take them over the hurdles individually. As these two photographs show, the pair of half-siblings set off happily together and jumped pleasingly.

So that was very satisfactory. Fingers crossed the two horses will both now run at Leicester next Wednesday and I would imagine that the jockeys who rode them yesterday will ride them then. While I would obviously be very happy to have William on board all our jumps runners, I'm very pleased that Mattie too has now joined our team or riders because he's a good jockey who, like William, does not receive the patronage that his merit ought to justify. His greatest claim to fame currently, of course, is as the rider of Lord Oaksey's lovely Carruthers - and if he's good enough for Lord Oaksey, then he's good enough for anyone. We love Carruthers, particularly out of respect and affection for his owner/breeder and out of admiration for his sire (Kayf Tara), so I wasn't surprised to overhear Emma grilling Mattie to check that the all is as it should be with the great horse. It seems slightly hard, but not impossible, to believe that Carruthers might one day win a Gold Cup, and there wouldn't be a dry eye in the house were that to happen. Not in this house, anyway.

So that was yesterday morning. Yesterday afternoon went similarly satisfactory because She Is A Cracker ran a nice race at Huntingdon. While it would be wrong to get too carried away with the performance of a horse who finishes out with the washing, she raced and jumped with aplomb up with the leaders for two thirds of the way in a race that was probably a bit good for her before finding the heavy ground too taxing - and that was no surprise after the Racing Post Spotlight had told us that she is best suited by a sound surface. She's come home fine so we can look ahead with anticipation: sound, genuine horses who jump as well as she does are always ones whom one can train with optimism. It was cold and raining hard when Hugh and I arrived at Huntingdon so I can't say that I was relishing the afternoon's activities, but happily the rain eased off and by the time her race was run darkness was the worry rather than wetness. But we're working towards spring and a 4.20 start time is now very feasible, even if my camera struggles a bit with the parade ring shots when visibility is as murky as it was when she was walking around the pre-parade ring at 3.50. Nevertheless I'll reproduce the photograph because it's a rare example of one of our horses wearing a paddock sheet: in general I practice what I preach, and what I preach is that paddock clothing should not be allowed other than in very inclement weather because the point of the paddock is to allow race-goers to assess the horses, not to admire owners' and trainers' sheets. However, she is clipped right out - I prefer just to trace-clip horses as it's warmer for them that way, but she arrived here like that - so I thought that she could wear a sheet to protect her from the elements. And very smart she (or, rather, the sheet!) looked too.