Right rain?

We've spent the last several weeks scanning the weather forecasts to try to foresee a time when it would be dry enough to run these jumpers who seem to have been struggling with the wet tracks. Finally, spring has arrived and so we have felt that it was drying up enough for them to go to the races. And then ... well, of course, we had Douchkette and Ex Con entered up, but it seemed so springlike that I had actually started to hope that it would resume raining, because otherwise it might be TOO dry! I should be a farmer being that hard to please - but now their races are looming and it has indeed rained, which should be perfect ... but of course it's rained too much! So Douchkette will stay at home tomorrow rather than head for Fontwell, and we've just got to hope that the forecast bright, breezy day tomorrow does indeed eventuate, so that we won't feel that Plumpton will be too wet for Ex Con on Monday. I actually probably wouldn't mind however dry it was for Douchkette, but with Ex Con it definitely isn't a case of not wanting it soft and therefore wanting it firm: he's a big, heavy horse and galloping three times down the hill at Plumpton on firm ground wouldn't do him any good at all. So the traditional spring recipe of sunshine and showers will do very nicely, thank you. They've had (plenty of) the showers over the past couple of days, so now all we need is the sunshine. We'll see.

I actually found it slightly hard to take the extent of the rain on board until I watched the racing this afternoon and saw that both Uttoxeter and Lingfield had been hit by serious deluges: Cheltenham had the rain yesterday, but we didn't, and we more or less didn't have it today either. We had some light rain overnight, but that was it. But elsewhere it has clearly been significantly wetter. Our (more or less) dry day today was lovely again, and again I managed to organise a Saturday morning so that I spent one lot out on the Heath on foot, which was really nice. Tony Fordham and I went up to watch five horses (seen in the first photograph cantering down the warm-up canter on the outward journey, led by Batgirl and Asterisk who are then shown coming back along the gallop together) have a gentle gallop along the Cambridge Road all-weather gallop, and that went very smoothly. I can't say that we are rushing towards the new turf Flat season, so the work the horses are doing remains very untaxing. As such, it isn't really informative as to what the horses might or might not be capable of, but it's just good to see them clearly thriving on it, gradually becoming a bit fitter and stronger, enjoying it and staying sound (so far). Long may that situation continue!