Day one

Well, that was all very exciting, wasn't it? It was thrilling racing right from the start, although I have to confess that I missed the start. I finished up in the yard at around 1.30 and then sauntered back into the house, believing myself safe in what I thought was the knowledge that the first race at Cheltenham is always at 2.00. Luckily, I fortuitously happened to turn on the television before heading to the kitchen to make myself some much-needed lunch, and was confronted by the sight of a field of hurdlers haring around Cheltenham. My first thought was that Racing UK, which seems to show as many repeats as UK Gold, was taking an extremely lazy way out by leading into today's racing by showing, for the thousandth time, one of last year's races - and then I realised that it was live and that the first was actually off at 1.30. So luckily I did see the second half of the race. It was very exciting, even if those who had lumped on the Irish banker Dunguib probably didn't enjoy it very much: it was hard to tell if Dunguib's ride was prompted by over-confidence or over-cautiousness, but it was easy to conclude that he was ridden as if he was significantly better than his opponents and that such tactics did not maximise his chances of winning the race. Whether he'd have won had he been ridden more conventionally is, of course, far from guaranteed. (And I must say that I had the same thoughts about Kerrin McEvoy's ride on Denman on Saturday, and that I think that that colt would have been beaten however he'd been ridden). Anyway, Dunguib still ran very well, and so did lots of other horses today, who between them provided us with an afternoon of splendid sport - from which special mention must be given to the 12-year-old A New Story, who won today's Cross-Country Chase, whose most recent previous win had come in 2005 and who had suffered 49 defeats in the interim. There's a lesson in the (sometimes) benefit of perseverance in that story; and it's easy to think of all too many owners and trainers who would have sacked the horse long before today and who would thus have missed out on a Cheltenham Festival victory.

One thing that gave me particular pleasure today was Binocular's Champion Hurdle victory, and not only because he is in my under-performing Twelve To Follow list. The extra pleasure came from the fact that we had enjoyed seeing his beleaguered sire Enrique at the Haras du Hoguenot in Normandy last month. One has to respect Enrique hugely for the fact that he is still performing normal stallion duties and getting on with his life, because he has quite a lot to put up with. Unlucky in his racing career (I thought that he'd have won the 2,000 Guineas with a more enterprising ride) he now looks far older than his 14 years, primarily because he suffers from bad arthiritis in both his hind fetlocks, in particular his off-hind, in which he is permanently and seriously lame. Furthermore, he only has one eye, having lost his right eye three years ago when, in a freak accident, he got a splinter of wood stuck in it when he was turned out in his paddock. Seeing him, therefore, was quite humbling - because he copes with so much so uncomplainingly - and I was consequently delighted to see his son win the Champion Hurdle. Not, of course, that Enrique himself can have derived any satisfaction from the result. (I have, incidentally, decided to illustrate this paragraph with the photograph which, of all the ones I took, makes his disabilities least obvious - so, if you look at him and can't see too much wrong with him, don't be fooled).

Anyone who was at Cheltenham today or who watched it on television will have known what a lovely day it was, and conditions were similarly spring-like here. I really do think that we can say that we've turned the corner now, not so much because of the nice weather we've had over the past few days but, more particularly, because several of the locals seem to have come out of hibernation. And that's as good a guide as any amount of swallows. The former journeyman jockey Eddie Guest, who rode work for James Fanshawe for several years but who has been with Michael Jarvis more recently, appeared back in Michael's string last week (pictured above) which was encouraging. Dominic Gibson is another former hoop who has also recently reappeared. He used, of course, to ride out for Geoff Wragg for many years, but has joined William Haggas' stable since Geoff's retirement. Dominic had been conspicuous by his absence over the winter, but he's been back in the saddle for a couple of weeks now. I ran into him this morning in a group of three of William's horses at the bottom of Exeter Road as they returned from Racecourse Side (he is seen at the front of the string, enjoying the sunshine ahead of Liam Jones plus William's very good French lad Pascal). I'd guess that at least one horse of this bunch is a good horse - perhaps William's Lincoln favourite who, like most Lincoln favourites, is a horse I've never heard of and whose name I can't remember - but I would say that he won't be the best horse I've seen today, as 15 minutes previously we'd walked away from the Al Bahathri as the Champion Stakes winner Twice Over headed towards it to have what I'd guess might be his last gallop here before flying out to Dubai to contest next week's $10,000,000 Dubai World Cup.

The best sign of summer, though, has been the fact that Robin Trevor-Jones of Ouija Board fame has appeared on the Heath this week. Robin was always one of the triumvirate who accompanied Ouija Board to the winner's enclosure after her many great victories, the other two being Lord Derby and Ed Dunlop - and to the uninitiated it was always hard to tell who was the owner, who was the trainer and who was the travelling head lad. Anyway, Robin spends the winters - where? - in Barbados? - cleaning tack ? - but he was at the bottom of Warren Hill yesterday and at the bottom of the Al Bahathri (pictured) today, so surely spring is here at last! You'll notice that Robin is smiling for the camera, which was very kind of him because he was simultaneously saying that he guessed that I only wanted to take his photograph so that I could stitch him up. And he was, of course, right.

By the way, I've remembered the name of the lady who owned and trained Mac Vidi: Pam Neal (I think). Any further recollections on the subject of that wonderful old horse and his trainer would be much appreciated.