Guineas week

We've had a couple of runners this week and we have another one tomorrow, so it's been and is being a busy time. Monday's runner, Batgirl, was particularly good because she belied her astonishing SP of 150/1 in a 5-horse race to run third. (Well, she'd actually been 150/1 in a 6-horse race, which then became a 5-horse race when one filly refused to go into the gates; so, as there was a resultant 5p in the pound deduction, we probably ought to describe her as a 142.5/1 shot in a 5-horse race). I'd been relatively chipper about her chances until I read in the race-book that she had "shown no promise" in her two previous races. Mind you, I did think that that assessment was unjustifiably harsh, as I'd thought that she'd run quite well the second time - although maybe I'm easily pleased. Or maybe I was watching the wrong horse. Or maybe the assessor was watching the wrong horse. Or maybe Timeform was watching the wrong horse, as might well have been the case judged on its summation of her in the current annual of "small filly" - if I had to sum her up in two words, I'd say "big filly". Still, it would be a less interesting world if we all saw things the same way. Anyway, she posted a very nice resumption, doing everything right and plugging away bravely in the posse who collectively gave vain chase to the 1/6 winner Party Doctor, the 109-rated horse who understandably showed his rivals a clean pair of hooves.

I had a very enjoyable trip to Wolverhampton with Batgirl, but I wasn't present at Lingfield the following day when Douchkette ran a fair race to finish sixth in a competitive handicap. I was, instead, in the At The Races studio on Tuesday as I had another enjoyable stint on the International Review Show. We had four Group One races from Randwick to discuss, plus three Group races from Longchamp, plus the two international Group One races from Sha Tin. From a British point of view, of course, the main interest at Sha Tin was in Presvis, but I couldn't help thinking, or saying, that the main talking point was the seemingly half-hearted ride given by Darren Beadman to the favourite in the QEII Cup, Collection. One never likes to be too overtly critical for fear of litigation (although, realistically, an Australian jockey riding in Hong Kong isn't going to pay much attention to what is said on a British satellite TV channel) so I was relieved to discover the following day that the stewards in Hong Kong had opened an inquiry into Beadman's ride. So, just as with the perceived promise of Batgirl's run at Newmarket last autumn, maybe I wasn't seeing things after all!

Mention of Presvis reminds us of how much we read about how much luck his style of racing requires, and also about how he only seems to win with Ryan Moore on board. (Ryan Moore's record on him is five wins from eight rides, whereas the horse's record with all other jockeys is one win from 10 runs). What we always forget, though, is the identity of the only other jockey to have won on him: Luca's former apprentice Michael Murphy, son of the former National Hunt jockey and some-time trainer Mick. Michael's a nice lad and a very decent rider and, while it's hard to see him getting on board anything of Presvis' calibre in the immediate future, he's still race-riding, and I was delighted to see him ride a winner for Chris Dwyer a couple of weeks ago. He's done some travelling overseas (I think he's worked in both Australia and America) but is back here now, working for Des Donovan, in whose in-form string he is pictured here recently, behind Robbie Hooper and Tim Bailey.

In Newmarket, the main event this weekend is obviously the racing, but during the week the most notable occurence has been, sadly, Greville Starkey's funeral. To add to the community's loss, this week also saw the death of another former jockey, Mick Miller, whose riding career peaked in the late '70s and early '80s when he was riding for Geoff Huffer, who was training for Cheveley Park Stud at the time. Mick rode the Ayr Gold Cup winner First Movement (1981) for that team, so it was nice more recently that he should have spent time working for Geoff again during the latter's most recent spell in the training ranks, when he sent out Cockney Rebel to win the 2,000 Guineas three years ago. Mick had finished riding out by that time, his last riding job being for John Gosden, for whom he worked for many years, riding several very good horses in their homework, including the Prix de l'Abbaye winners Keen Hunter and Wolfhound. I fondly remember galloping with him up the Al Bahathri one morning while he was still working there. Andy 'Oddjob' Brown and Lynsey Knocker were at the time in the process of getting their breaking and pre-training operation off the ground (which now operates so successfully in Hamilton Road and whose graduates include Extreme Conviction, who was a yearling en route to Jeremy Noseda's stable when he arrived there). Andy was still working for John Gosden at the time of the gallop, and when they were pre-training a decent handicapper (whose name I can't remember, but who went on to do quite well for David Elsworth, if my memory serves me semi-correctly) they asked Mick to gallop him for them one day. I provided a workmate. Again, I can't remember which horse that would have been, but I do remember enjoying the gallop - and I also remember enjoying Mick's company on that day and on numerous occasions subsequently. He was a very nice man indeed and he is sorely missed.

I won't be watching the 2,000 Guineas tomorrow as I'll be en route to Doncaster at the time, as tomorrow sees the debut of First Pressing (seen here enjoying the afternoon sunshine with her mate Silken Thoughts earlier this month). She's a lovely filly, a real pleasure to train, so I'm really looking forward to seeing her run. Even the most superficial analysis of ten-year trends makes it plain that victory for her would be a surprise, because winning two-year-old debutant(e)s from this stable are as commonplace as snow-balls in hell. Go back to 1996, though, and we did have two two-year-old first-starters each finish second on debut (Seaside and Largesse) so a decent run isn't impossible. It's a hot race, though, so let's just hope that she acquits herself well, enjoys the experience and comes home safely. If she does that, then I'll enjoy the day and I hope that her very nice bunch of owners will be able to do so too. And if her half-brother Lord Zenith could put up a bold showing in the 2,000 Guineas, then that would be further cause for pleasure.

"I do"

We had a very pleasant trip to the races yesterday. I was hoping that Anis would run a bit better than she did (she finished last) but I wasn't too disappointed by the result as expectations weren't huge and she did only finish just behind a lovely (but badly behaved) horse called Playground (who is pictured walking along behind Anis in the parade ring) who is owned by the Queen who possesses a lovely pedigree, being by Montjeu from the good mare Phantom Gold. Facing a small field of young horses with pedigrees such as that - and such as that owned by the runner-up Mataaleb, who is a Dalakhani half-brother to the Dubai World Cup winner and very good (but now deceased) stallion Almutawakel - one can't expect too much. Furthermore, apart from galloping too slowly, Anis did everything right, being very composed both before and after the race; and she seems today to have taken the race very well. She's been so fragile in the past, hence her being so lightly-raced, but the evidence of yesterday appears to be that she's now ready to withstand regular racing. So we'll now just enjoy racing her and hope that we can place her to advantage at some point in the future. She'll certainly be able eventually to face considerably weaker fields than the one she faced yesterday, and under considerably more favourable conditions, so it is not unreasonable to remain optimistic. Certainly she looked the part in the parade ring - even if this photograph of her and Iva isn't entirely representative as it makes her look the biggest horse in the world, which she isn't.

It was an interesting day of racing all round yesterday - and a good one for one of my favourite stallions, Sulamani. He had a winner at Leicester, Exemplary, and he also had one of my favourite horses, Dazinski, win for him at Ripon in what the Racing Post tells me was the style of a legitimate Chester Cup contender. I was at Yarmouth a couple of years ago on the day when Dazinski became the first winner sired by Sulamani and I've always enjoyed following his progress since then - both on the racecourse and on the Heath, under his regular rider Steve Avery, Mark Tompkins' assistant who is pictured on him a few weeks ago (about to dismount - don't worry, he doesn't generally sit on a horse in quite such an unorthodox position!). Among the other victories which I was pleased to note yesterday was the win at Punchestown of Cuan Na Grai, one of the horses featured in the excellent documentary on Paul Nolan's stable which was shown in Britain just before the Cheltenham Festival. He seemed a lovely horse who kept being unlucky, so it's really nice to see that he has now won a novices' chase at a big meeting for his connections. The trainer can use part of his percentage to pay the fine which he had picked up earlier in the meeting, a fine (for scratching another of the programme's featured horses, Joncol, an hour and a half before he was due to run, once it had become plain that the track had become firmer than would be suitable for the horse) which has to go down in the annals as one of the most unjust ever levied. It's not often that one can say this, but that really would never happen here!

On the subject of racing's administration, I note that it now appears to have become compulsory for jockeys to be described by their christian name, or nickname if they have one, rather than by their initial. This (presumably RFC-inspired) convention has recently snuck in: I have recently noticed changes to the descriptions of those who, when christian names were being used on a voluntary basis, preferred to be known under the traditional system, for example our W. T. Kennedy, or N. Callan or L. Dettori. The only exception appears to be A. P. McCoy, but I suppose that a jockey can have a right of veto when he has ridden as many winners as McCoy has done (although L. Dettori's change to Frankie Dettori would appear to contradict this). It is an odd one, though, because we seem to be using nicknames, rather than christian names, in some cases: hence we have Frankie Dettori, rather than Lanfranco, and Richie Mullen (pictured here in John Fretwell's lime green colours, a few seconds after winning the two-year-old maiden at Leicester yesterday on Drawing Board) rather than Richard. I'm rather discomfitted now to discover that W. T. Kennedy, whom I have always called William, is now Will, and the whole thing has left me to ponder how this would have gone down a few years ago. Very few people could either spell or pronounce Myrrdin (probably including me), so how would Taffy Thomas have been described? And what about Kipper Lynch? If someone gone into the weighing room and called for John, Kipper definitely wouldn't have realised that he was the one being sought. And if J. D. Smith (pictured here in Michael Stoute's string a couple of weeks ago) were still race-riding, would we be hit with the surprise of discovering that his name is Joseph? And what about Adrian Nicholls, who had previously ridden as Adrian T. Nicholls, on the basis that he (apparently) is generally called Trotter (but wasn't allowed to ride under a nickname) but who now has been re-registered as Adrian, a name by which apparently he is rarely addressed? Call me a stick-in-the-mud if you like, but it was so much simpler when they were merely known as V. Ordinary and F. Hopeless!

Tomorrow we are off to Wolverhampton where Batgirl will have her obligatory third maiden run before being allowed to contest handicaps. I don't think that I will be breaking any inside information rules by saying that, with a 109-rated horse in the field (yes - that isn't a misprint: there is indeed a horse in Britain who has run often enough to qualify for a handicap rating - this horse has actually run five times - and who has shown form that equates to a mark of 109, and yet who has managed to avoid ever winning a race) I am not expecting her to win. But she's a nice filly, she's got to run somewhere and someone has to run against this hotpot, so let's hope that she can run a nice race tomorrow and we can then work out what to do with her thereafter. It would be a truly memorable event were she able to turn over the favourite - but even were that to happen, I think that this weekend would still be best remembered as the one on which Australia's most eligible bachelor relinquished his title. Yes, the redoutable Richard Sims said "I do" around 3.30 yesterday afternoon in the church in Mansfield in Victoria's High Country - and, on behalf of Richard's many friends in the UK, I'd like to wish him and Ellie (pictured together early last year, in the company of Richard's brother Robert, centre, and of Michael Tidmarsh, left) every happiness together. I'm told that it was a lovely occasion (one which I was very sorry to miss) and I truly hope that that happy day has set the tone of their future.

Here comes the sun

This is a very exciting time of year because there are always a few young horses starting out on what we hope will be productive campaigns. One such is Anis Etoile. She is now five and won a bumper last year, but she definitely comes into that category because when she runs at Leicester tomorrow it will be her Flat debut. That really will be something to look forward to, as the day has been a long time in coming: when she arrived here as a yearling in October 2006, the aim was to have her running on the Flat in 2007, and we are now in April 2010! Another horse whose campaign got under way this week was Christy Ring, who made his debut in a bumper at Kempton on Wednesday. Christy Ring (pictured above on the Heath recently under Conor Ryan) is the same age as Anis Etoile, but hasn't spent nearly as much time here as she has done because he spent his first two years in training with Godolphin. He's a nice horse and ran a very promising debut under Richard Johnson (pictured, cantering him to post) even if it was less pleasing than the optimists who backed him into a short-priced favourite would have hoped. He has plenty of speed and I am sure would have a decent future on the Flat, but he showed enough promise at Kempton to say that he should definitely be able to win under National Hunt rules as well.

The forecast is very good for tomorrow which should make the trip to Leicester even more of a treat, with the temperature set to get close to 20 degrees this weekend, a figure we have understandably yet to reach (or approach) this year. The past couple of weeks in general have been lovely. Surprisingly enough, we have still been having ground frosts overnight, with the nightime lows twice this week having dipped to zero, but we've more or less had days of unbroken sunshine, with the temperatures getting into the low teens, which has led to some spectacular mornings on the Heath, as these two pictures show. The first is of a rear view of Michael Jarvis' string heading onto the Severals, while the latter shows some Godolphin horses on the walking ground on the side of the Heath at the back of Beech Hurst. No doubt we shall be having plenty of people complaining that it's getting too dry, but we spend more than enough time in very wet conditions, so a couple of rain-free weeks are to be savoured - and the one thing one knows for sure when one gets a dry period during the spring is that we certainly aren't going to go entirely without rain until September!

Just before I retire to bed, I should add belated congratulations to one of Newmarket's younger riders, Lewis Walsh, who recently rode his first winner, partnering Secret Asset to victory in a decent handicap at Wolverhampton. This was a great training triumph by Jane Chapple-Hyam, because Secret Asset was formerly a notoriously difficult horse whose faults including having very bad barrier manners, and this race, his first for Jane, was his first run for something like 500+ days. So that was very good - and Lewis did very well too, because he rides the horse at home (and is here pictured doing so earlier this week, with the horse wearing his trademark hood) which I presume isn't a particularly easy job, and rode him very nicely in the race too. Most recently Lewis rode a second for Jane (to whom he is apprenticed) today, so he fully deserves this little slice of praise.

The present and the past

It's been a busy week - hence the lack of action on this blog - but it's also been a good one. No week, of course, is entirely good, but on balance this one has been excellent from this point of view. We've had two runners and both have provided very pleasing outcomes. First we had Douchkette (pictured returning to the unsaddling enclosure after the race) at Kempton on Wednesday. By finishing fourth, she didn't collect any prize money, but she did provide cause for optimism, something which, despite the fact that she's always shown an element of promise in what she's done at home, had been hard to take from her previous four runs, two on the Flat (last year) and two over jumps (this year). But it now seems as if a mile (or perhaps a touch farther) on decent ground (or Polytrack) seems to suit her, so I hope that now, emboldened by her bold showing on Wednesday, we can now justifiably travel forward with optimism.

Our second runner of the week came yesterday, when Ex Con provided a massive amount of joy to all connected with him by scoring at Bangor in very gritty fashion. After his run at Wincanton three weeks ago, it was very easy to approach yesterday's race very hopeful that he might win, but even so we've seen plenty of horses for whom one can justifiably expect victory but who fail to salute - so the horse still has to go out there and win the race. Which, happily, is exactly what Ex Con did, hugely assisted by a typically excellent ride from William. It was a very exciting and very tense race to watch because, as it was run at a sedate pace, the field remained tightly bunched for almost the entire duration, to the extent that all the runners bar one were still tightly packed after the second last hurdle. Ex Con (pictured both before and after yesterday's race) had lost his chance at Wincanton with an error at a jump, but of course in a race such as yesterday's a horse is at much at risk from an error by one of the other horses as by himself; but William's safe handling of him meant that he enjoyed a very smooth passage in what could potentially have been a messy race, neither making any significant mistakes himself nor copping any interference from any other runner. A daring move to switch to the inside to make his challenge approaching the last hurdle, plus a magnificent leap at that jump, then proved enough to seal a brave and tremendously exciting victory, much to the delight of his supporters. The only sad aspect was that his band of supporters was smaller than it ought to have been, on account of the suspension of air traffic: two of his part-owners, Richard Jones and Kevan Leggatt, had found themselves marooned (in Spain and New York respectively) - a fate which, at any other time, might have been not displeasing, but under the circumstances I suspect that it might have been considerably harder for them to detect the silver lining to the cloud. But, all in all, it was a great day. It would actually have been a pleasure to go to Bangor almost irrespective of how the horse had run because it's a lovely track in a beautiful part of the country (which deserves to be complimented on providing a racing surface in very good condition yesterday) and yesterday was such a lovely day that it would have been hard not just to enjoy being there and travelling there. And the icing on the cake was that Ex Con's victory proved to be the first leg of a double for William (he later scored on the Paul Webber-trained Tribe, on whom he is pictured returning to the winner's enclosure) which I was very pleased to see as he is a top-class, very professional and industrious jockey who deserves much more patronage and success than he currently enjoys. (Which is something I may have mentioned a few times previously!).

On the subject of top-class professional jockeys, saddest news of the week from a racing point of view was the death of Greville Starkey, who has to rank as one of the greatest jockeys of the second half of the twentieth century. It was disappointing (although not, I suppose, unsurprising) that the Racing Post let itself down by remarking that he will possibly be best remembered for being beaten in the 1986 Derby on Dancing Brave; my retort to whomever wrote that would be, "You've got a short and very selective memory, laddie!" and also to point out that that ride was no worse than that put in by the excellent Michael Rodd on Faint Perfume in yesterday's AJC Oaks, a ride which I am sure will not be cited in Rodd's obituary (which I hope will be written in about 60 years' time). (Although I suppose that poor Greville will indeed end up being most remembered for that ride if the Racing Post keeps telling us that that is what he is remembered for, such is the power of the press to produce self-fulfilling prophecies). To my mind, though, if Greville is synoymous with one Derby, it is with the 1978 version, where his strength and daring enabled Shirley Heights to win a race in which the victor arguably should have been Hawaiian Sound. Greville's victories that week also included the Oaks on Fair Salinia, his victories that month also included the Gold Cup on Shangamuzo and his victories that summer also included the Irish Derby on Shirley Heights and the Irish Oaks on Fair Salinia - and if that run of success sticks less prominently in the mind than his being caught out by Dancing Brave (on whom he had previously won the 2,000 Guineas and would subsequently win the Eclipse, let us not forget) becoming unbalanced during the run down Tattenham Hill, then that mind has surely to belong to a very negative and jaded person. Another race whose memory I savour was the 1981 St. James's Palace Stakes, a race I was lucky enough to watch in person, in which Greville and the 2,000 Guineas winner To-Agori-Mou beat King's Lake and Pat Eddery in a driving finish, thus providing a fitting post script to the Irish 2,000 Guineas (after which team Ballydoyle had hammered a few extra nails into the sport's coffin by taking the unprecedented step of bringing lawyers into a stewards' enquiry to ensure that King's Lake, rather than To-Agori-Mou, was declared the winner). I can't remember exactly, but I'm sure that Greville would have copped a fine from the Ascot stewards for his Harvey Smith-style 'V-sign' salute after the line, but we all knew and appreciated what he meant. The best tribute to Greville I have read was written by Richard Dunwoody in yesterday's Daily Mirror, in which Richard recalled the awe which he felt when, as a 14-year-old schoolboy working for Paul Kelleway, he was honoured to ride work alongside Greville on the Heath. Richard's respect for Greville was clearly massive, as was mine; and I used to feel similarly pleased to be able to salute him in the mornings as he rode out for Michael Stoute in the latter stages of his working life on horses such as the Japan Cup winner Pilsudski.

On the subjects of deaths, it would be remiss of me not to salute two other Newmarket stalwarts how have passed away recently. I did not know Bobby Middleton, Harry (and later Geoff) Wragg's long-time head lad, but I knew Ken Atterton very well. We have a picture on the wall of Ken holding the first winner to carry my colours, Witchway North, in the winner's enclosure at Fontwell 16 years ago. Ken, who must have been well past retirement age even then, was working for Hugh Collingridge at the time (and actually hadn't long stopped riding out at that stage) and he fitted perfectly into Hugh's stable, because Hugh is blessed with an easy-going nature and sense of humour which generally enables him to tolerate various eccentricities with which less amenable employers might struggle. Hugh has some wonderful stories to tell about the diplomatic incidents caused by Ken at the races (including the one when Hugh was summoned to the stewards' room at Nottingham to be told that his employee Mr Atterton had used some "old soldier's language" on a gateman who had upbraided him for being late in leaving the racecourse stables - at which point in the enquiry the said gateman piped up with, "Old soldiers' language, sir? He called me a f**king old c*nt!"). Anyway, Ken was one of racing's truly great characters. I would guess that he might have drunk more alcohol in his lifetime than anyone else I've ever met and it is a miracle that he lived for as long as he did. I remember going over to Bury hospital one evening at least ten years ago with Colin Casey and Cliff Rimmer, because Ken was in there and was meant to be very ill. When we asked for him at reception, we were stunned to be told, "He's gone" - so it was a massive relief a few seconds later to discover that that didn't actually mean (as we'd thought) that he'd died, but merely that, against the advice of the unfortunate doctors, he'd discharged himself (presumably much to the relief of the nurses). We tracked him down to the Exning Road Club (where else?) and found him savouring a glass of Scotch there. By the look of him, you'd have taken odds on that he wouldn't have lasted the night, but he lasted more than another decade, and that alone tells you what a tough man he was. They don't make them like Ken, or like Greville, any more - more's the pity.

Shorts out

Yesterday was Grand National Day, a day which became even more special because it was the first day this year which I deemed warm enough to dispense with longs and replace them with shorts. I had long trousers on for the first couple of lots, but I'd been dropped several hints during those exercises, the final hint coming from Chris Wall as I rode back in on second lot. The glorious weather had tempted Chris into the saddle, somewhere one does not see him very often, from whence he remarked that "your shorts can't be far off now?". I replied that I thought that they were about 20 minutes off, and duly donned them on my return to the stable. So that was a lovely milestone to reach in the march towards summer - and let's just hope that this weekend's lovely conditions are the sign of things to come, rather than a temporary aberration.

We've actually had a few glorious days in a row now, which is nice for Aisling as they have coincided with her return to the saddle after her winter in Dubai. She's pleased about this and so am I, but Gemma seems the most pleased: she and Aisling are best friends and, to mark the reunion, the two Angels have been observed riding around together holding hands (see above). At least they haven't been doing so on the canter, as thankfully is demonstrated in this second photograph which I would imagine that James Fanshawe, were he asked to provide a caption, would name, borrowing the title from the famous 'Snaffles' picture, 'The finest view in Europe'.

Someone else who would probably enjoy this view would be Andrew Hickman (or 'Knickers', as Jamie Trotter would address him). Andrew (pictured riding in Neil King's string the other morning behind the trainer and former Aintree 'People's Race' winner Clare Twemlow) had starred in one of a pair of memorable brahmas at Doncaster Sale on Wednesday. I hope that that Doncaster Sale will be most memorable for us as the one from which our exciting new inmate Alpen Glen arrived. But, whatever she does or does not go on to achieve, it will always be remembered for being the one at which my Racing Post was stolen. (Well, it wasn't really my Racing Post because Emma had bought it, but - fortunately - she had already read it prior to the theft. I hadn't but, and had been carrying it around the sales complex in case I would have a chance to skim through it at a quiet moment). Anyway, I put it down alongside a line of boxes while I inspected a filly, which inspection could have taken not much more than a minute - and when I turned around to pick up the paper again, it was gone! Amazing. And the area was virtually deserted. Whoever had picked it up must have seen me put it down, sprinted up behind us and sprinted of with it. Disgraceful - and such a thing would never happen in Tattersalls!

Anyway, that was one brahma - and one in which Andrew didn't feature (apart from in my mind, which wasted a bit of time in running through the theoretical likelihood of such a crime being committed in Brightwells, the auction house of which Andrew is an employee). Anyway, Andrew was the star of the second brahma. Not content with marching around the DBS complex like a walking sandwich board resplendent in his 'Brightwells' jacket (and matching voluminous 'Jack Cruise' tweed cap), he came up with the great wheeze of plonking himself down in the auditorium right in front of, and with his back towards, the camera which was showing the sale-ring action for the close-circuit TV and for the web, so that effectively the world was being shown the horses being sold in Doncaster sale-ring with a view dominated by a Brightwells' advertising hoarding. Very clever! I'd give you an illustration of what it looked like, except that I didn't take any photographs while at the sale, and when I snapped him the next morning walking onto the Heath at daybreak, he was wearing a different (and logo-less, as you can see) jacket.

I did actually photograph one horse from the sale, but I didn't photograph him there. Seeing in Darley's pre-sale ad in the Racing Post that there was an UNBROKEN two-year-old colt, Australian-conceived but American-bred, by Redoute's Choice from a UAE 1,000 Guineas- and UAE Oaks-winning full-sister to Lujain, I could not fail to prick up my ears. Anyway, Marie Sullivan, who organises the equine comings and goings in Darley, was kind enough to allow us to go up to Woodditton Stud a couple of days before the sale to have a look at this horse - who, as you can see, is rather handsome. Paradoxically, his good looks played a significant part in dissuading me from sticking my neck out and my hand up when he came to be sold: common sense said that, with his pedigree and looks, there was no way that Darley would have given up on him without breaking him in unless the Darley veterinary team had unearthed a strong reason to believe that he was not a racing prospect. So, tempting though it was, I didn't try to become his new owner. Whether my decision to sit on my hands was or wasn't wise will become clear in the fullness of time - and if he pops up somewhere winning good races at some point in the next couple of years, I'll be kicking myself. But it was interesting to see him, and particularly interesting for me to revisit Woodditton Stud, where I worked in the early '90s in the property's pre-Darley days when it was owned by Mr Yong and when the stallions Sayf El Arab, Superlative and Damister stood there. The stud has changed quite a bit since then (for the better really, as it is in immaculate condition) but it retains its wonderfully rural atmosphere, and it duly provided us with sights of half a dozen fallow deer, a muntjak and an owl, which were lovely.

Easter

The highlight of Easter in these parts has been the fact that we've had Anthony staying with us. He can, of course, be quite a hard task-master, and he does like keeping us up to the mark: in particular, he does like to spend quite a lot of time giving Hugh hints on how to make things run smoothly in the stable, as this photograph shows. I found myself under similar pressure from him on Saturday afternoon, when we had decided to cycle over to the other side of the Heath and visit our friends Colin and Eileen Casey, and also Paddy and Nan Broderick. Anthony fetched his bicycle, but when I went along to the shed I found that mine had a flat back tyre, which obviously needed to be pumped up before I set off. A couple of minutes later, therefore, I emerged, ready for action, to be greeted by the sight of a stony-faced boy leaning over his handle bars asking in a very unamused fashion, "How long does it take to fetch a bicycle out of a little shed?". He's a dear little boy, but I wouldn't want to work for him! Anyway, he seemd very happy with things in general (not least with the smooth running of his Easter Egg hunt, for him and his friends, in the yard on Friday afternoon) and even managed not to find too much fault with how the horses were going. There is a horse here who was reared, broken and pre-trained by his mother, so naturally he had to bring her out to cast his eye over her (pictured) - and I think that even she passed muster, so we must be doing OK!

Otherwise, there's been some interesting racing to enjoy. A highlight for this property was the debut of a third of Dave Morris' string at Yarmouth this afternoon. Dave has just the three horses in work at present, of which two (Cragganmore Creek and Sleep Over) have been racing over the winter. The third is Cragganmore Creek's hitherto unraced four-year-old Lujain half-brother (pictured cantering up Warren Hill under his trainer a couple of weeks ago) who rejoices under the unlikely name of Chez Vronny. There is a theory in racing which says that a good horse will not have a bad name and unfortunately it would be hard to be confident from Chez Vronny's debut this afternoon that he is ever going to be up to disproving this maxim. However, he showed a glimmer of ability, travelling well for two thirds of the race before weakening badly over the final 400m, and I am suspect that in the fullness of time Dave, a very good trainer, will be able to find a winning opportunity somewhere for him.

Other than that, some of the more interesting racing this weekend took place, you may be surprised to hear me say, in the Czech Republic. We have a very good team of riders here at present. Of the full-time staff, Hugh and Steph (pictured last week on Rhythm Stick and Silken Thoughts) are both extremely sound both in and out of the saddle, while Rodney (pictured, below, recently on Ben Bhraggie) is a very experienced rider, having apparently ridden several hundred winners in India in his younger days, mainly in Bangalore. We've got the Angels, of course. (Well, we will as of Wednesday have both Angels again, Aisling having been in Dubai for the winter, but she and Gemma will be a regular team in the mornings - much, presumably, to James Fanshawe's delight - once again from Wednesday onwards, which will be great). Furthermore Adam, a long-time friend who rode successfully as an apprentice for Neville Callaghan before he and I worked together in Luca Cumani's stable in the late '80s, is kind enough to come in to help us out for the odd lot in between his main role overseeing his three lovely sons. On top of all those, we also now have the valuable daily assistance of Iva Milickova, a jockey from the Czech Republic - and thanks to the wonders of the internet, I was able to watch her rides in Prague yesterday afternoon. She has ridden over a hundred winners in her homeland, but only rides there occasionally nowadays as she lives in Newmarket now. She has been working for Michael Jarvis (and is pictured here on one of his horses) but will shortly be moving to work for Jane Chapple-Hyam, for whom she had a few race-rides last autumn. That is likely to be a sensible move: for obvious reasons, the race-riding prospects of any female jockey in a stable in which the vast majority of the horses are Arab-owned (as is the case in Michael Jarvis' stable) are inevitably going to be very bleak. Hopefully she will still be able to fit in a daily lot here around her work in Jane's stable, which would be very good news as she is a big asset and perfectly complements what is currently a very good team all round.

In the immediate future, I have another At The Races International Review show slot to look forward to tomorrow. It was, of course, Golden Slipper Day at Rosehill on Saturday, so there will be plenty to talk about. Over and above enthusing about Crystal Lily's excellent win in the Slipper, I am sure that I will get verbal diarrhea eulogising over the wonderful Shamardal filly Faint Perfume and the superstar mare Typhoon Tracy, so that, as always when I am working on ATR, will be something for me (if no one else!) to enjoy.