Great excitement

There's great excitement in this corner of the world because Jenny Dawson makes her debut at Windsor tomorrow. It's been a long time coming because she arrived here as a September yearling and is now a June four-year-old. I'd like to think that she'll prove worth the wait, even if I'm not expecting much from her run tomorrow: she's been a very slow developer and that development is far from over as she's still far from the finished article and far from the horse which in time I think she will have become. She's not very big (as this photograph, taken on a wet morning in the spring, shows as in it she makes Gemma look like a giant, which is far from the case) but she is at last starting to look like a little athlete. Anyway, she has at last reached the stage where she's done enough to have a run and to come on for it, so we might as well get her started out on the long road towards becoming a seasoned racehorse. Her never-to-be-forgotten elder half-brother Jack made his debut for us at Windsor (he'd had three unplaced runs for his previous trainer, Jeremy Noseda) - ridden, funnily enough, by the Melbourne Cup- and Cox Plate-winning jockey Greg Hall - and, although he was unplaced on that occasion, that outing proved to be the start of a very rewarding career for the horse from this stable. Jenny is unlikely to cut much ice tomorrow, but let's hope that tomorrow she too can set out on a journey to ultimate success in the red and white colours of the Premier Cru.

It looks set to be another lovely hot day tomorrow, with the week seemingly set to be as glorious as this one has been. I love this hot, dry weather as it really is a pleasure to get out on the Heath on mornings such as the ones we've been having. I think that the person who is getting the best of the summer, though, is David Hayes' employee Lizzie Jelfs, who remains in town with Nicconi. She's clearly industrious because she's been kind enough to step into the breach to help out with two of the other overseas visitors. Toby Coles had been riding Gold Trail in the run-up to Royal Ascot, but that partnership seems no longer to be intact and Lizzie has been taking that lovely chestnut gelding, who is seemingly being set for the Nunthorpe Stakes, out as her first horse in the mornings prior to riding her own charge Nicconi. I've been finding that my first arrival on the Severals in the mornings coincides with Gold Trail's (pictured) - and then, after riding Nicconi, Lizzie's been ending her mornings by taking over from Carl O'Callaghan, who I presume has gone back to America for a while, on Nicconi's intended July Cup rival Kinsale King (again pictured). I don't think that you could ask for a better morning, could you? Riding three horses in perfect weather, all of them Group One winners this year and (the icing on the cake) all seeming really lovely horses to deal with. It's a pleasure just to watch them.

Toby salutes

Peter Temple is not the only friend who deserves a pat on the back this week. Newmarket's newest trainer, Toby Coles, has also just posted a memorable milestone, having saddled Littlemisssunshine, his sixth runner, to become his first winner at Brighton a couple of days ago. Toby is not only Newmarket's newest trainer; he is also its most dapper. One can't see his tie in this photograph - but, believe me, it'll be there. In this picture, taken maybe three weeks ago, Toby is riding past his former workplace, Sir Mark Prescott's Heath House, from whence he proceeded to work for Ed Dunlop. He then headed overseas, to America initially I believe, but he appeared back on my radar on Cox Plate Day last October: I was watching ATR's coverage of the Cox Plate, and walking around the Moonee Valley mounting yard next to the Murray Baker-trained Nom Du Jeu was a man who looked very like Toby - and was almost well enough dressed to be Toby, which basically ruled out 99.9% of employees of Kiwi strappers. I sent Toby a message on Facebook to ask whether this man was indeed he, and sure enough it was. Nom Du Jeu's stablemates included a horse who might have been named with Toby in mind (Harris Tweed) and after that horse's Melbourne Cup preparation had been and gone, Toby headed back to the UK to get a training operation off the ground. Anyway, it's off the ground, it has its first run on the board - and let's hope that that's the first of many because Toby is a man whom I would very much like to see succeed because, in addition to being a very nice man, he is a diligent, industrious and conscientious horseman. And, as I only discovered a few weeks ago, we come from the same town, Hawick in Roxburghshire - and even attended the same primary school (Lilliesleaf). I'm amazed that I didn't previously know that, but I do vaguely remember the name of Toby's father (Bobby) as being a resident of the Borders when I lived up there (which period probably ended around the time of Toby's birth). And, funnily enough, as of last Saturday, Bobby Coles is more than just a name to me, because he appeared in the saddling boxes when we were getting Ethics Girl ready for her race at Newmarket and introduced himself, which was a very decent and friendly thing to do.

Although we probably don't really approve of concertina-ing (is it acceptable to use 'concertina' as a verb?) words together in horses' names, one has to smile at the name of Littlemisssunshine because of the wonderful film whose name she shares - and, as there are 18 letters in that name, they all have to run consecutively without any breaks if the film's name can be used for a horse. So that's fine. Which brings me conveniently on to the observation that Jonny Lesters Hair and Whipma Whopma Gate both contested the same race at Carlisle yesterday. Some people might find nothing remarkable in these names, while others may find it more of a struggle to appreciate their elegance. Beauty which nobody, though, could fail to enjoy is that which has been coming with the mornings on the Heath recently. The only pity, of course, being that one has to make quite an early start to see them at their best - but in general they are worth it! Long may this glorious summer continue.

Truth

I read in today's Racing Post that viewing figures for the BBC's coverage of Royal Ascot were down. I trust that this is not a cause for concern, because I thought that it was a very good show. I didn't actually see that much of it, though, and therein, I feel, lies the problem: Royal Ascot lasts for five long afternoons, and it's asking a lot to find more than a handful of people who have the time to watch television all afternoon for five consecutive afternoons. Furthermore, it is hard to sustain maximum interest in a meeting which lasts for five consecutive afternoons, when there is so much else going on and when the best racing takes place on the first day. In my case, I found the cards (or part of the cards) at Newmarket and Lingfield more engrossing than the action at Ascot on the Saturday, because we had runners at both those meetings while we were not represented at Ascot - and it would be a poor sort of horseman who was more interested in a high-class race in which he had no involvement than in a low-grade event in which he was represented. So I still haven't seen any of Saturday's Ascot races, which is shocking bearing in mind that they included the Golden Jubilee, which was surely as interesting a sprint as one would ever find, particularly from this point of view as it contained several horses whose build-ups we had been following, including the impressive American-trained Dubai Golden Shaheen winner Kinsale King (who finished third and who is pictured here a few days before the race under his brahmatic trainer Carl O'Callaghan).

We'd also had a runner on the Wednesday, Ex Con (pictured in the parade ring before the race) running at Worcester. I think I'd predicted that he'd enjoy that, but I was wrong: for whatever reason, he didn't. He didn't give his running and finished very tired. I haven't offered this up to the BHA as an official excuse for a poor run because I think it's rather too nebulous a statement to be used as a concrete reason reason for under-performance, but I can forgive any jumper for running disappointingly on as perfect a day as last Wednesday was - perfect for humans, that is, but not for horses, because a day of unbroken sunshine with a warm wind makes for ennervating conditions and ground firmer than any jumper should ever be asked to race on, even one like Ex Con who is suited by a fast surface. Summer jumping is, presumably, here to stay, and by and large it does appear to work. However, it is worth reflecting that it is not an ideal sport, any more than summer rugby would be (or, for opposite reasons, would winter tennis or winter cricket). English summers are notoriously variable in the the conditions which they supply, as last Saturday's racing on the July Course on a day which was anything but an idyllic summer's day reminded us, but perfect summer days such as last Wednesday are not ideal for a form of racing in which heavy, bulky horses race over long distances - it looks lovely, as this photograph shows, but the horses probably find it harder than the humans to appreciate the splendour. Where this leads us I don't know, but it is worth thinking about occasionally. Anyway, Ex Con's disappointing run aside, it was a pleasure to be at Worcester - and not least because I was able to enjoy quite a lot of the BBC's Ascot coverage on the television in the canteen, James Sherwood brahmae an' all. As with last year, I can't but chuckle over James Underwood's pertinent reflection that one has to deduce from the BBC's coverage of Royal Ascot that the corporation views the meeting as the white man's Notting Hill Carnival - but the coverage is none the worse for that.

If Ex Con's run at Worcester was disappointing, what can I say about Hotfoot's non-run at Newmarket? I'd have been devastated had I not had a good preparation for it, that preparation being Keep Silent's non-run at Southwell a couple of weeks previously. Again our filly walked straight into her stall, stood there for quite a long time - and then freaked out when spooked by the antics of the miscreants who were behind her refusing to be loaded. Again the trouble was caused by horses who oughtn't to have been there but, unlike at Southwell, there was no point in my getting cross with officialdom; if anyone deserved to incur my wrath, it was the trainers who had sent two unschooled horses down to the start to upset the others. Again it was just so bloody frustrating to take a quiet, well-behaved filly to the races and have her unable to run because of her being frightened by the bad behaviour of other people's horses. Hotfoot isn't always as wet as this photograph (above) of her walking around the parade ring shows, but she is generally as well-behaved as it implies. Very annoying. Kirsty Milczarek, after unsaddling the horse she had ridden for Luca in the race, was kind enough to come over to us to say that we'd just been very unlucky and that it really wasn't our filly's fault; and that is the way I feel, but unfortunately what's done is done and we'll now just have to repair the damage, which obviously includes taking a stalls test, which, assuming she passes, will then get us back to square one of having an unraced horse ready for her debut. Still, at least the rest of the day, including getting from A to B on time on what was quite a tight schedule, ran smoothly enough, with Ethics Girl running adequately first up and Keep Silent putting the Southwell debacle behind her with a well-behaved and adequate display at a pleasantly sunny Lingfield in the evening - even if the handicapper wasn't impressed by her run, dropping her rating from 38 to 36 despite the fact that she met all her rivals on considerably worse terms than she would have done in a handicap and nevertheless managed to beat some of them. That's an odd one, but again there's no point in agonising over it - especially as it's academic anyway as all horses rated below 45 run off 45 in any handicap irrespective of how far below it they are rated!

On a final note, this chapter has to end with salutations to our friend Peter Temple, whose outstanding novel 'Truth' has today won the Miles Franklin Prize. It sometimes seems that most Australians are in the UK at present (another visitor we've had to the town this week has been Cranbourne trainer Nikki Burke, seen here on the Heath yesterday with Lord Huntingdon, enjoying the sunshine which happily has returned to the UK after the unpleasantly unseasonal weekend) but there are some still in their own country; and one of those is Peter, who was in Sydney tonight to receive his award. I've mentioned 'Truth' before on this blog, but it's worth repeating what a tremendous novel it is. I haven't (as far as I know - I don't actually know what the other novels on the short-list were) read the book's rivals for the prize, but even without having done so I can say that 'Truth' deserved to win, because it's hard to believe that any of the others can have been as good. I tend to be wary of literary prizes. With the Booker Prize, it's not a case of having, like England, been taught wisdom by disaster, more that I've been taught wisdom by boredom, that wisdom being never to read any book which has won the Booker Prize. That prize has been on my mind recently, having just finished the massively worthwhile task of working my way through Colin Dexter's 12 Inspector Morse novels. I finished the last one, 'The Remorseful Day' in floods of tears on Sunday, and my copy of that novel has on its cover a quotation from one of its reviewers which poses the rhetorical question, "Why isn't this author ever on the Booker shortlist?". Well, I can answer that question: because he writes books which are a pleasure to read. Peter does the same, and so evidently, unlike the Booker Prize, the Miles Franklin Prize is judged along sound lines - as anyone who reads this year's winner will have the pleasure of discovering. So don't say you haven't been told.

Off the wall

I'm still buzzing after today's Royal Ascot action. Tremendous performances in every race. The finale, the Windsor Castle, was, predictably, relatively low-key, but it was still nice to see a very professional Pastoral Pursuits colt win for the respected Richard Fahey/Paul Hanagan combination. The highlights for me had to be that two of the winners (Goldikova and Canford Cliffs) are in my XII to follow and, while Nicconi and Gold Trail didn't give us quite as much to cheer about, my favourite two-year-old Elzaam (pictured on Warren Hill last month under his regular rider Martina Cachova) ran a blinder when just touched off by Strong Suit in the Coventry. On the subject of two-year-olds, it was strange to see money for Wesley Ward's Windsor Castle Stakes contender Metropolitan Man: he had been one of the horses whom Jackie Panizza and I saw on our ride on Sunday morning, and he certainly didn't make a good impression on me then. In fact, I was surprised to discover today that he is a colt rather than a filly, because there's not much of him.

When mentioning our visitors previously, I omitted to record a very pleasant group of people who came to the stable yesterday morning. We received a delegation from the Swedish Jockey Club, headed by the senior stipendiary steward Lars Tiberg and also including the Club's former president as well as the ex-jockey Hans Inge Lindulf. I took them (seen here on the Limekilns) on a tour of the Heath, the highlight (or lowlight) of which was that we bumped into the man who was formerly Sweden's (the world's) oldest apprentice, our very own Darren Williamson (Squeak) who currently adorns Luca's string, in which he was riding down Warren Hill. Unsurprisingly, Squeaker (pictured here annoying Luke Dittman, who has coincidentally decided to return to Queensland) gave Lars, who has given him numerous fines and suspensions (mostly for repeated infringements of Sweden's relatively stringent whip rules) in the past, a predictably cheeky greeting! Squeak, by the way, seems to widespread surprise (and localized dismay, particularly among the female sections of the Bedford House Stables workforce) to be getting his feet quite well under the table. He galloped a Breeders' Cup winner last week (Man Of Iron) while the most recent time I saw him heading over towards the gallops on racecourse side, he was on recent Zetland Gold Cup winner Forte De Marmei. Luca must be getting more tolerant in his middle age!

Continuing the theme of off-the-wall people, it might interest some readers to know that another of our heroes, Richard Sims, has followed up matrimony by landing a part in a movie. I'm sure that Woody Allen would have found a use for our Dickie, but he's actually in a racing movie, the film (which I think is going to be called 'The Cup') which is being made about Media Puzzle's Melbourne Cup victory in 2001. Dickie plays Beekeeper's strapper, Beekeeper being the Godolphin-trained and Kerrin McEvoy-ridden fourth place-getter in the race. Some of you might never have marked Dickie down as movie star material, but apparently it's a bit like the story of Sean Connery being spotted on a building site in Edinburgh. Dickie was, so it seems, walking down Swanston Street, barking into his mobile phone (presumably selling an ad) - and he was spotted by the director, who took one look at him and decided that he seemed to resemble the archetypal Godolphin employee. Have a look at this photo and you'll see why. Anyway, Dickie's signed up to the method acting school, so if you hear him referring to some incident involving Beekeeper or Saeed bin Suroor, don't be fooled - he means the actors who play them, not the real people. The whole thing, incidentally, has got me wondering where they found unbranded thoroughbreds to play Media Puzzle and Beekeeper etc., but I'm sure that there's a simple answer to that one. Dickie'll probably be able to provide it.

Another off-the-wall character who has loomed large on our radar recently (as always) is our neighbour Dave Morris. You might have noticed that his mare Sleep Over (owned by the Duke Of Beford and, like Anis, a five-year-old maiden) was among Anis' opponents on Sunday. This provided much pre-race banter about which would beat the other - so imagine the general delight and amusement when Anis, flying home from the rear, passed one of her rivals two strides from the post, that rival, of course, being none other than Sleep Over (pictured in the parade ring with Dave, dwarfed by the mare, about to throw Paul Hanagan aboard). Dave's still chuntering about it!

On a more serious note, another off-the-wall character on everyone's radar at present is Harry Findlay. One could write 10,000 words about the situation, but I think I'll just sum it up by saying that I hold the opinion - shared, I believe, by most but not, intriguingly, by the President of the ROA - that he's been extremely harshly treated. I think that the BHA's disciplinary committee made a rod for its own back by giving out what has to rank as an extremely lenient punishment last year to Nicky Henderson, so it is inevitable now that when it hands out more severe punishments for seemingly lesser offences it will find itself open to criticism. It's just a pity that Jack Logan isn't around to write his former column in the old Sporting Life, because I'm sure that he'd have had something pertinent to say on the subject.

Finally, just so that we don't end on too down-beat a note, I should draw your attention to one of the more amusing recent snippets from the Racing Post. Someone (and I'd hazard a guess that it might have been Nick Godfrey) wrote a very good 'Googling a runner' item the other Sunday when the Roger Ingram-trained handicapper Buxton ran at Brighton: "A spa town in Derbyshire, Buxton is the gateway to the Peak District National Park. It boasts Poole's Cavern and St. Ann's Well, fed by the spring whose waters are bottled and sold. Famous Buxtonians include author Vera Brittain, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Dave Lee Travis, and musician Lloyd Cole, who may have acquired perfect skin from taking the spa waters". Excellent! Two of our favourite off-the-wall characters, the Angels, have clearly taken this to heart as they've been spotted swigging Buxton water on several recent occasions. It's worked too, because this pair of Lloyd Cole fans has been at Royal Ascot today and both, apparently, fared very well in the fashions of the field competition - which is no less than you'd expect, with their perfect skin complementing their immaculate attire.

Ascot looms

I've rather got behind with any post-race thoughts from our recent runners as I've been spending too long away from home. But I'm back at the ranch now - where else when James Sherwood is going to be entertaining the BBC viewers this arvo? - so can catch up on the loose ends. Our two most recent runners both finished behind the place-getters, but in a relatively pleasing way because both were staying on at the finish. In Henry Cecil's outstanding autobiography 'On The Level' (a follow-up to which we are surely due, as it was written about 30 years ago) he relates that he is never too bothered about taking binoculars to the races as he doesn't really mind not seeing what happens in the first half of the race (the book, of course, being written in the pre-closed-circuit-TV era, in which one was reliant on binoculars and/or the jockey's report to know what had happened during the race) because all that he needs to see is whether the horses run on strongly up to the finishing line. So, on that basis, both Batgirl at Yarmouth (pictured under Tom McLaughlin before the race) and Anis Etoile at Doncaster (pictured under Iva after the race) ran satisfactorily. Admittedly, to describe Batgirl's run as satisfactory we do have to overlook the fact that she was outpaced in the first half of the race, but even so her performance wasn't too bad. All we need to do now, of course, is to find races for them where they can run on strongly into first position, rather than into sixth or seventh!

My trip to Yarmouth when Batgirl ran was actually only one of two outings I made to our (fairly) local course last week. I was lucky enough to have two enjoyable days on At The Races last week, the first being on the international review show on the Tuesday and the second being Zoe Bird's side-kick at Yarmouth on the Thursday. I always enjoy the chance to ramble on all afternoon so both slots were enjoyable - for me, if not for the viewers. This was the first time I had worked with Zoe and I very much enjoyed doing so: like all the other ATR presenters alongside whom I have worked, she is very professional, which makes my job a piece of cake. There was some interesting racing both days at Yarmouth, with a little extra bonus for me coming when I was asked by the absent Jeremy Gask to saddle his sprinter Street Power (pictured under Adam Kirby), a task I was more than happy to undertake because I very much admire this lovely horse, who boasts an outstanding wins : runs ratio. He wasn't able to boost further his percentage, but even so he ran a very creditable second behind the progressive young sprinter Deacon Blues, whose stable (that of James Fanshawe) appears to be coming right back into form just in time for Royal Ascot.

With Royal Ascot starting today, we've plenty of great racing to enjoy. I'm spoilt for choice as regards horses to cheer on in the Coventry, with my favourite two-year-old Elzaam being opposed by Samuel Morse (who is in my XII to follow) and Strong Suit, who won Silken Thoughts' race at Newbury. The St. James's Palace and Queen Anne are both vintage editions, while of course we'll have Nicconi (pictured enjoying his breakfast on Sunday) and Gold Trail to support in the King's Stand. They'll both have plenty of supporters from their homeland who have come over here for Royal Ascot, and as usual I've been lucky enough to catch up with some of them. One particularly fortunate meeting was with Mark and Jackie Panizza, whom I met, along with a group of their compatriots, in the Bedford Lodge on Saturday evening. They are from Bunbury in West Australia, where Jackie trains a small string. When it became clear that Jackie would be up for enjoying the Heath on horseback, I signed her up to ride out the next morning and good old Keep Silent gave her a lovely introduction to Newmarket Heath with a canter around Bury Hill all-weather. It was actually a great exercise all round because it gave us a real pre-Ascot taster with some of the American horses passing us by, as well as the Aussie contingent and a few Godolphin horses. As both our mounts were very well-behaved (I was on my hack Ex Con), we were able to enjoy a further bonus, quarter of an hour spent chatting with Gary Portelli as he stood on the side of the Heath waiting for Gold Trail to return from a long trek; both he and David Hayes, whose welcome went well beyond the call of duty when we called into Abingdon Place afterwards, have proved themselves splendid advertisements for the Australian training fraternity while they've been here. I'll be wishing both of them all the best this afternoon as they try to take yet another King's Stand trophy down under. Meanwhile, our best chance of a winner this week probably rests with Ex Con (seen here schooling up at the Links yesterday under William Kennedy). Unsurprisingly, he won't be at Ascot: Worcester tomorrow should be more to his (and my) liking.

Could've been worse

Mixed results from our runners last weekend. As mentioned in the last chapter, Silken Thoughts' run at Doncaster was very pleasing - in fact, pretty much everything about a very happy outing was very pleasing. That wasn't the case two days later at Southwell, however, because things didn't go at all according to plan there.

The Renewal Partnership, the syndicate put together by Jason Hathorn to race Silken Thoughts, includes Iris (pictured here in a post-race de-briefing with Micky Fenton and Jason) and Larry McCarthy, whose colours were most recently carried previously by dear old Brief Goodbye and are now borne (with a different cap) by Silken Thoughts. Brief was ridden to most of his wins by Micky Fenton, who used to ride him ever so well, so it was lovely to see him sporting the same jacket on Silken Thoughts. She ran a very pleasing third on only her second run, and Micky is pictured here riding her into the unsaddling enclosure, led in by Steph. The post-race scenes at Southwell last Sunday, though, were far less happy. I don't often become irate, but I was really annoyed by what happened there and I'm afraid that I vented my spleen on the starter. Keep Silent is basically a very well-behaved horse, but she forced herself out of the front of the stalls, under the closed gates, before the stalls had opened and thus was a non-runner. This debacle was consequent to what I viewed and still view as a very bad decision by the starter to force a horse who was, in my opinion, in no fit state to race and who clearly didn't want to race, to race. (Please excuse that very badly cast sentence - but I hope that you know what I mean). Gay Jarvis, Michael's wife, tells me that, in that 10-runner race, their runner was the first to be loaded and spent ten minutes in the stalls waiting for the race to start. We didn't spend quite so long in there, but even so we still spent a long time waiting for the last horse, who to my untrained eye had looked lame walking around the parade ring and who was doing her utmost to protest that she didn't think that she should have been racing that day. Eventually the poor horse was forced into her stall - at which point Keep Silent, who had been standing as good as gold for ages, seemed to become startled by the hullabaloo and jumped forward as if the race was off - which meant, as the gates were still shut, she jumped forward and down, shooting straight out through the front. Incidents like this can be very dangerous to both horse and rider (as those who remember Lester Piggott's near-fatal accident with Windsor Boy at the Epsom Spring Meeting the week before Fairy Footsteps' 1,000 Guineas will remember) but happily Keep Silent (pictured before the race) was unharmed, while Iva was relatively unscathed, having merely bruising on her leg and a damaged hand (which caused her to miss the ride on Jane Chapple-Hyam's 2009 Royal Ascot winner Judge The Moment at Pontefract the following evenign) from where she had been pulled under the gate by the horse. This to my mind was an incident which should not have happened because I felt that the decision to spend so long forcing this one particular horse - a horse who to my mind should not even have been at the races - into the stalls was a bad one; and without that decision the incident would not have happened, because the field, including Keep Silent, would have been halfway around the track by that time. Anyway, I went, by my relatively tame standards, mad!

It could have been worse, I suppose. Horse and jockey both lived to tell the tale and I wasn't fined (as I suppose I could have been) for abusing the starter - nor for abusing the stipendiary steward whose attempts to pour oil on troubled waters were initially not very successful! I ought to emphasise, by the way, that what riled me so much was not that we were held up for so long waiting for one last horse to be loaded, but that we were held up for so long waiting for that one particular horse to be loaded: had it been any of the others, I wouldn't have felt that we had any grounds for grievance. And, just in case you think that I'm over-reacting in saying that that one horse should not only not have been forced to race, but should not even have been allowed to race, once the race was off she was the first horse off the bridle and was ultimately beaten over 40 lengths - which, as she had won her most recent race and was racing off only a 4lb higher mark, suggests that my amateur pre-race diagnosis that she had something wrong with her probably wasn't far off the mark.

Good horses

Our trip to Doncaster on Friday with Silken Thoughts, who finished a creditable third, was very pleasant indeed, so let's hope that today's outing to Southwell with Keep Silent is equally satisfactory. Sir Mark Prescott entered six for this low-grade handicap, so it's fair to assume that the one on whom he relies ought to be very hard to beat - notwithstanding the fact that the horse was never sighted in his three qualifying maiden races! But I hope that we shall run well. The filly certainly seems to be in good form, as this photograph of her cantering with Aisling around Bury Hill AW a few days ago suggests. The horses whom Aisling has ridden regularly have generally done well, including La Gessa, another grey Largesse filly owned and bred by Henry and Rosemary Moszkowicz, so let's hope that this filly today can show that she can maintain this happy sequence.

Wasn't the Derby exciting? I'm really pleased that Workforce won, both because it's lovely to see a top-class horse posting a top-class performance and also because I'm very happy on behalf of the horse's lad, Paul Grassick. Workforce first came onto my radar about four or five months ago when I passed Paul on the Heath one morning and he pointed the horse (whom he was, as usual, riding) out to me and said that he believed that he would be a Derby horse. I've enjoyed regular sightings of the horse since then, and I was delighted to see Paul's judgement and faith proved so very correct yesterday. I'm also pleased by the result because it has allowed King's Best, a lovely stallion (pictured) whom I had the pleasure of inspecting last year at Haras du Logis, to achieve the unprecedented and remarkable distinction of producing the Derby winner and the Japan Derby winner in the same crop.

It was good that Workforce won the Derby because he was one of the few horses (possibly the only horse) in the race who hadn't previously given cause for belief that he was some way removed from the highest class (if one assumes, which I think is fair enough bearing in mind how much the horse did wrong in the race, that he didn't give his true running in the Dante). So that's great: it's always lovely to see outstanding gallopers in action and, while we might not have Sea The Stars around any longer, Workforce and Fame And Glory (pictured before last year's Derby) both did enough at Epsom last week to suggest that they deserve to be regarded with similar respect. I suspect that Sea The Stars' connections might now be rueing their premature decision to retire their champion, knowing that they have denied the horse the opportunity to prove just how good he really was. Were all three horses to line up this summer at weight-for-age over 12 furlongs on good ground, whom would you back? See what I mean: it's hard to answer that one with confidence.

Derby week

Yesterday's chapter said all that needs to be said about the Hatchfield Farm business, which stands out as the major episode of life in Newmarket during the current week. However, there's plenty on otherwise. We've had Anthony for three days, which was as brahmaful as ever; and it is, of course, Derby week, which is a week of great excitement in all stables, irrespective of whether one is involved in the racing at Epsom or not. I don't think, though, that Anthony will be losing too much sleep over the Derby as he remains among the unconverted as far as the magic of our sport is concerned. We had an illustration of that yesterday. Larry Stratton, the bloodstock agent, was here in the morning. He had been chatting to Anthony while the latter was eating his breakfast. I came into the dining room with Peter Corbett, who had come to watch Jenny Dawson (pictured yesterday leading Destiny Rules along the canter, and in whom Peter has a share) work, and I said to Anthony, "Would you like to come up to Warren Hill with Peter and I to watch Jenny work?". Anthony indicated that he would prefer not to, at which Larry, clearly surprised, exclaimed, "No? You don't want to go up to the Heath to watch the horses work? But you've just been sitting here telling me that you like racing!". To which Anthony, cool as you like, explained, "I meant car-racing."! On that basis, I'd say that, rather than send Anthony up a chimney as they used to do in the old days, I could hire him out to the Racing For Change quangoes and they could use him as a guinea pig: convert him and they'll have cracked it! Give him his due, though: he is very good at mooching around the yard 'supervising', as the above photograph, taken during today's lovely sunshine, of him de-briefing Hugh (who is really good with him) and Silken Thoughts in advance of that filly's run at Doncaster tomorrow evening, shows. That filly, incidentally, has done everything right since her debut three weeks ago and should go to the races in good form, having done her final canter under Hugh this morning in the sunshine up Long Hill (pictured here, the filly on the left).

In weather such as these photographs show, it is a pleasure to get out of bed in the mornings and head outside. I was very glad that I had my camera in my pocket when I rode onto the Severals just after 6.00 this morning, with Don Cantillon's string of three topping off the splendid sight the trees in the morning sunshine. Mornings like this are what we spend the winter (and spring and autumn) dreaming about, so we might as well revel in them while they are here! It wasn't like this at the start of the week, though, with some heavy rain on Saturday and then a decent band of rain passing over the country on Tuesday. Yesterday dawned very foggy as the rapidly-rising temperatures caused the rain-soaked grass to steam - and visibility was not at all good as I went to Railway Land on Ethics Girl shortly after 6.00. John Gosden's string was working on the Limekilns at the same time and the horse who particularly caught my eye as he emerged from the fog to cross the Norwich Road after his gallop was William Buick's mount, a big, strong dark bay colt with a white face. My Racing Post today (whose highlight, of course, is the photograph of Anthony et al. in protest mode outside the FHDC offices before last night's Hatchfield Farm meeting) tells me that that was Showcasing, a colt I have always liked and whom I like even more now. He has to be a big danger to the Aussie and HK raiders in whichever Royal Ascot sprint he contests. Nicconi, who looks to be strolling around the Heath as if he has lived here all his life, is the most obvious chance for the King's Stand, but his compatriots (pictured here, the former on the left) Alverta and Gold Trail looked extremely well and content when Anthony and I cycled down the Bury Road to pay them a visit on Tuesday's damp afternoon. More immediately, we have Epsom to looming, with Workforce being the Derby contender of whom I have seen most. I even saw him at Lingfield last week: around the time of the last race, I was surprised to see Michael Stoute's truck drive into the box park and to see Stuart Messenger, Paul Grassick, Allon Gur, Neil Varley and Steve Carroll emerge from it. All became clear when Workmate and two stable-companions followed them off: they were to spend the night there and gallop on the all-weather track in the morning. Workmate, generally ridden by Paul Grassick, has been easy to spot on the Heath recently in his crossed noseband and I'd be very happy to see him win the Derby - while Sariska (pictured here, back in the winter, under her lad Ian Smith), whom we see every morning and who looks really well (and probably looks more supple than she did for most of last year), would be another nice local winner were she to beat Fame And Glory in tomorrow's Coronation Cup.

Never mind the horses, though: the best sighting of the week has to have been a Lancaster bomber! On the drive to meet Anthony's mum in Hitchin at the start of his visit, I drove, as usual, past Duxford Air Museum, which is a wonderful place. Monday was a public holiday so there was plenty going on - and, unless I'm mistaken, that included a Lancaster bomber flying. I thought I saw one airborne as I approached Duxford and, as I drove away along the A505 towards the pet crematorium, I saw it turning round to begin an approach to land. I was so excited as it was going to pass very close to the road. I didn't have my camera, but a phone was to hand, so - probably breaking every rule in the book - I managed to take a photo in which it just appears. In this photograph it doesn't look very close, but I reckon it was only about 100 feet away, which was great. 'Shooting' it wasn't easy as, not only was I going around 45 mph in one direction while it went faster than that on the left-side (ie not the driver's side) of the car in the other, it was also passing through the smoke from the crematorium's chimney, which meant that it kept coming into and out of sight; so that, allied to the shutter-delay on a phone's camera, meant that, poor though this photograph is, it was a relief to have captured it at all. And, having done so, I can ask the question of anyone who is more clued up than I am: is this indeed a Lancaster?

Grown man cries

At the (very foggy) start to today, I don't think that I realised that there'd be tears in my eyes twice today. It's a cliche to say that something is enough to make grown men cry, but in my case it's not much of a statement because I cry easily. Certain works of art in particular - whether written, painted or filmed - bring out the soft side of me, but today's reasons were different. Firstly we had Sir Mark Prescott's tribute in the Racing Post to Anthony Gillam, who died on Sunday. Anthony Gillam's participation in life, tragically, ended four years ago, when this true gentleman sustained injuries in a fall out hunting which all but killed him. And now his life has ended too, and the world, in particular the racing world, really is the poorer for that. This really is one of those instances when it is true to say that we should not send to know for whom the bell tolls, because it genuinely does toll for all of us: all of us who are involved in the sport of racing have been slightly diminished by his passing, because our sport is significantly the poorer for the fact that he is no longer one of those charged with its smooth and just running. I only wish that I'd known him better than merely as an acquaintance whom I liked and respected, to whom I looked up, while I had the chance. Carpe diem.

The second set of tears came this evening in Forest Heath District Council's offices as the 14 members of the planning department voted unanimously to reject Lord Derby's application to develop Hatchfield Farm. While I haven't put anything like the time or energy into the campaign that was devoted by Rachel Hood and others, the Hatchfield Farm issue has still been a major presence in our lives. It had seemed too much to hope that it would be knocked on the head completely tonight (and realistically it might still not have been, because there is always, of course, the potential for an appeal) but when, seemingly out of nowhere, the momentum came to throw out the application - after excellent speeches from Richard Fletcher, Hugh Anderson and William Gittus, the councillors, headed by Warwick Hirst and Andy Drummond, one by one outlined the reasons for their opposition - suddenly built up and a vote was called - which was carried, 14 to none. It was a very moving moment. So that's great. Whether it will end there, of course, remains to be seen, but so far it is very much so good.

One would hope, incidentally, that Lord Derby, if he wishes to retain any semblance of respectability, will not appeal the verdict. He has repeatedly been quoted as saying that he would not do anything to harm Newmarket, and has only been putting forward his scheme because he believes that it would not be detrimental to the town. If we give him the benefit of the doubt, we can accept that he has, hitherto, said that because he believes it, and thus has not been lying. However, if he sticks to his story, I'm afraid that he will only be doing so henceforth without credibility. As one councillor put it this evening, in almost these exact words, "No sane person would assert that this development would not be detrimental to the town unless he was set to benefit financially from it". That, on top of the fact that so many local people have put so much time, money and effort into making their opposition public (for instance, you can be very sure that the likes of Henry Cecil, Michael Stoute and Luca Cumani would only absent themselves from evening stables three days before the Derby if they felt very strongly about the issue) must surely make him question his assertion that his plans are in the town's best interests. As a former officer, he must realise that when a soldier believes himself to be the only trooper on the parade ground marching in step, there must come a time when he should question whether it is not, in fact, all the others who are in step, with him the only man out of step. For Lord Derby, surely such a time is now - so it would be very disappointing indeed if it were to turn out that tonight has merely seen a battle won, with the remainder of the war yet to be waged.