Angels aloft

We've had an illustration of the perils which can await the horseman around every corner because we had the drama of two flying Angels earlier this week in an incident that was not even remotely predictable half a minute before it happened. I had a very pleasant start to a Monday morning by following the two Angels down the sand canter on the other side of the Cambridge Road, heading towards the Links. I was able to enjoy the view in comfort because I was on my hack (Ex Con), but my pleasure at the view turned to horror as I saw a pair of large dogs up ahead, two quick-moving ice-bergs to the Angels' Titanic. Both Angels were riding very sensible horses, but there's only so much one can expect even a sensible horse to tolerate, and having a pair of large dogs run at a horse while he's going up the canter is probably as good a way as any of ensuring that that horse does a 180-degree turn in the blink of an eye. Sure enough, the leader (Kadouchski) did just that, and Gemma had little option but to fly through the air (very gracefully, I might add). It looked for a second or two as if Aisling might be OK - but then her mount reproduced Kadouchski's manoeuvre, and Aisling reproduced Gemma's. She reproduced it as closely as one could get, too, because she landed on Gemma, the sight of which, although not funny at the time, has proved one to savour once it had become clear that no lives had been lost. We know that the Angels like to do things together (as this photograph taken earlier this year suggests) but this was a true brahma. What, of course, as potentially less brahmatic was the fact that whether the Angels were hurt was not the only worry: the two horses were galloping homewards, with the most obvious option open to them being to shoot out into the heavy Monday-morning traffic on the Cambridge Road. Thankfully, they didn't do that, instead over-shooting the gap in the hedge and continuing on down to the bottom of the field by the cemetry, where, as luck would have it, a couple of Heathmen were cutting a hedge, a task they were kind enough to interrupt to the catch the horses. So that was fine, and the Angels have got off with nothing more than a stiff neck (Aisling) and a seriously bruised leg (Gemma). But it could so easily have been so much worse - as, I think, all three of us would have told the dogs' owner in no uncertain terms had the eejit been anywhere in sight, which he wasn't.

The above story is a classic illustration of my point that you go through life and the difference between a good result and a bad result is merely whether luck is on your side or not. Obviously we were unlucky to have two loose dogs there, but basically the difference between landing and being bruised and landing and being badly hurt is just luck, while the difference between those horses being caught unharmed and being killed on the road (and possibly killing some motorists in the process) was again just the toss of a coin. But, while we know that, it's best not to dwell on it too much or we'd never get back on a horse - although it might be worthwhile for dog owners to dwell on it the next time they're going to let their dogs loose on the Heath, or for hurrying motorists to dwell on it the next time they're kicking on along the roads around the town.

I had a further illustration of the vagaries of luck on Monday. I'd been ruminating about the difference of being an in-form trainer and an out-of-form trainer (and there isn't a difference, really, as you're still the same person, but on different days) so I checked on the 'Signposts' page in the Racing Post to see the 'Hot' and the 'Cold' lists - and my point was illustrated perfectly. Top of the Cold List was George Prodomou, a nice man who trains a couple of miles off the A11 between Thetford and Attleborough. George had had umpteen consecutive losers to have attained this eminence on the list - but it was merely the toss of a coin which meant that George was on a losing run of 50 or whatever, rather than a losing run of zero, because it can only have been by tossing a coin that the stewards at Lingfield on Saturday night could have decided not to demote Corr Point in favour of George's horse Tower, who had lost at least a length when hampered before rallying to be beaten by a diminishing half-length at the line. It was a strange decision which I would imagine would be reversed if Tower's connections were to decide to appeal, but it meant the difference of being top of the cold list or a trainer in form. I had, incidentally, no vested interest in the result, but I'd have liked to have seen the placings altered, not just to see justice done, but also because I'd have liked to have seen Saleem Golam ride what I think would have been his first winner since starting work for John Gosden a couple of weeks ago. Sal has struggled since dead-heating for the apprentices' title with Hayley Turner a few years ago, but he's a good rider and a hard-worker. It appears that, rather than try to eek out a living as a pure freelance, he has started riding out for John Gosden, a move for which I applaud him. John is very good to these battling hoops because he always has a handful in his string (in which Sal is seen here last week, behind his colleague Duncan)) and I'd guess that he pays them a decent wage over and above giving them the odd ride. The currently-injured Rab Havlin springs immediately to mind, as does (currently) Nicky Mackay and (previously - before he went to Australia) David Kinsella, and it won't do Sal any harm to be in that good stable either, particularly as he had a couple of race-rides on nice horses for John last weekend.

We have three busy days ahead of us so I mustn't waffle for long, because I'll have to organise myself for running six horses, spread over four meetings, over three days, which is quite daunting. Douchkette and Ex Con (pictured relaxing on Sunday with Ethics Girl, both horses getting their energies back after their races last week) will get the ball rolling at Stratford tomorrow, with Silken Thoughts running at Glorious Goodwood (great excitement!) on Friday, and Saturday seeing Destiny Rules and Alpen Glen heading up to Thirsk and Batgirl doing down to Lingfield in the evening. It'll be tiring, physically and mentally, and I'll either end up feeling elated or deflated; I suppose the fates will just have to toss a coin to decide which outcome it shall be. I came home from Windsor on Monday night happy enough. Hotfoot (pictured nearing the start before the race) ran a nice race to be sixth, doing everything right before, during and after the race. She wasn't good enough for that decent maiden company, but she's shown that her heart's in the right place and she's done enough to suggest that she can make her mark in the right company in the fullness of time. I went down to the start again with her but really there wasn't much for me to do this time other than stand around like a lemon and take a few photographs on a warm but overcast summer's evening. Still, it's better to be over-cautious and take precautions which one then finds aren't needed, than to be too gung-ho and stand helpless in the stands watching chaos break out half a mile away. And I do rather like going to the start of a race: it's very instructive to see how a particular horse copes with things down there, over and above it just being a very interesting thing to do even if one has no particular interest in any one of the runners. The added bonus at Windsor is having to go through a flock of 100 or so geese to get there, birds which fortunately never seem to interfere with the races but which just add extra charm to what is a lovely and deservedly popular racecourse.

Days at the races

As you might have worked out from the previous chapter, we only had five runners during the period in which I went to the races on six consecutive days. The reason for this anomaly is that, with runners on Saturday to Tuesday inclusive and then on Thursday, I took Alpen Glen to Lingfield on the Wednesday. As this photograph of her surveying Side Hill in the morning sunlight suggests, she's a sweet, intelligent mare with a kind disposition. However, she's also prone to finding things a bit stressful and, for one reason or another, I've found it keeps her and my life simpler if I don't do too much fast work with her at home. She's my first ride every morning (we go out quite early when the Heath is still quiet, and sadly we are now already far enough past the longest day for mornings to be starting to be a bit gloomy when we set off, which is rather a depressing thought at a time when the summer holidays are only just starting) and is generally a really nice ride, so I thought that, rather than put her under pressure at home, I'd give her a racecourse gallop as the finishing touches to her preparation for her seasonal debut. It would have been perfect had it been feasible to do this at a meeting when we had a runner, but Lingfield AW was the obvious venue, and after racing on Wednesday, when we didn't have a runner, was the obvious time. So I took her down there, was delighted with her conduct before, during and after our solo gallop around the track, and have decided that she can resume at Thirsk next Saturday. She's a lovely mare who has, on her best form, a lot of ability. She also has questions to answer as she clearly lost her form badly towards the end of last year, so it's going to be an interesting project - but it's a project which I wouldn't be undertaking unless there was some realistic hope of a happy outcome. We'll see.

While my mind wasn't really on the racing at Lingfield becauase I was more concerned with my own post-racing business, it was an interesting card. I found the 12-furlong maiden particularly interesting. We were initially accustomed to thinking of AW racing as the second-class variety, but currently its maidens appear the strongest of the lot. This is understandable with the turf tracks being very firm: people with good horses about whom they feel protective seem understandably to be thinking that the Polytrack surface might be the safest option. This maiden was a case in point as it contained some real blue-bloods. Obviously not all of the blue-bloods can or want to gallop (a three-year-old colt by Kingmambo out of the Oaks winner Eswara seemed happy enough to finish last, about one and a half furlongs behind the winner, acting as if he believed himself well enough bred to go straight to stud without the need to prove his credentials by winning races) but some of them could, most notably the winner Zigato, an Azamour half-brother to the mighty Sariska. I was very pleased to see this lovely colt win, not least because I was able to share in the pleasure which the victory gave to his lad, Glenroy Brown. As I've mentioned in the past, this blog isn't a tipping column, but one useful betting system is often to follow any horse which Glenroy looks after. I recall him looking after a very good horse when he worked for Jeremy Noseda (I think it might have been Sixties Icon, but I could be wrong about that) and he now seems equally adept at unearthing useful prospects in John Gosden's stable. I'm sure that we'll see more of Zigato, and I'll be very surprised if a two-year-old which Glenroy rides every day (a Galileo half-brother to Showcasing, pictured above) doesn't turn out to be very good too.

I paid rather more attention to the racing at Yarmouth on Monday, the day when Jenny ran. This was just as well because I'd had the call-up to help Luke Harvey on At The Races. Usually my tipping is lousy on the TV, but this time I managed to find four of the six winners (there were seven races, but I didn't have to report for duty until after Jenny had run in the first) which was just as well: I had made rather a major blunder early in the show, so thereafter felt that I had some considerable need of redemption. Thankfully Luke saved me from drowning in my own stupidity so I almost got away with my mistake, but I might as well own up. One's used to seeing a two-year-old seller on seemingly every card at Yarmouth in the summer. There was only one two-year-old race on the programme. I did the form on it properly, working through the runners alphabetically. Having studied the credentials of the first one, a seemingly unremarkable colt trained by John Jenkins, I then came to the second one, a gelding trained by Bill Turner (who seems to have a runner in every Yarmouth two-year-old seller) who had already been beaten in a seller. Stupidly, I thus got the notion into my head that this race was a seller, and that notion stuck there. Although I subsequently found that most of the runners had already shown promise in maidens, my initial misconception had taken root, and rather than re-think the initial premise (or read the title of the race) I merely kept shaking my head and mumbling to myself, "Mmm, I'm surprised that he's dropping this into a seller quite so quickly". Anyway, the show began and Luke kicked off the pre-race analysis by discussing the favourite, a Barathea filly trained by John Dunlop who had followed up an ordinary debut in a Newmarket maiden with a very promising staying-on third place in a maiden at Doncaster. My comment was something like, "Yes, this is a very promising filly who ran really well last time in a maiden race at Doncaster, which ought to mean that she's a good thing here. I must say that I'm surprised that John Dunlop has dropped her into a seller so quickly, but the strange thing about the race is that there several horses here who have shown promise in maidens and one could make exactly the same comment about them too". Thank God for Luke's quick thinking! I'd clearly thrown myself out of the aeroplane without a parachute, but Luke was kind enough to reach out and pull me back on board before I plunged to my doom, turning to camera and saying in a matter-of-fact way (but emphatically enough for even me to pick up on it), "This race is, of course, a median auction maiden ...". I'm well accustomed to being embarrased by the consequences of my own stupidity, but this occasion took the biscuit. So you'll understand why I was thereafter more than anxious to tip a few winners!

Things picked up considerably at Yarmouth thereafter, one of the more memorable aspects of the afternoon being that three good apprentices rode winners. One of these has featured on this blog previously - the hugely promising Adam Beschizza, who rode the Chris Dwyer-trained Rough Rock very well to beat Kieren Fallon in a photo-finish - while the other two were Harry Bentley (apprenticed to Gary Moore) and Sophie Silvester (apprenticed to Jeff Pearce). The latter (pictured here in the winter/spring, with Simon Pearce on the horse behind her) won the closing apprentice handicap on Count Ceprano, who must now be a popular horse within Jeff's stable, having been ridden by the stable's other apprentice, Jeff's and Lydia's son Simon, to victory at Newbury ten days previously. So that race was a good one for the little enclave of stables at the bottom of Warren Hill, especially as the runner-up was the John Ryan-trained Clearing House. I see plenty of this horse and his workmate Weeza as they are usually on the Heath when Alpen Glen goes out: the ever-industrious Iva and her colleague Lewis Walsh ride one lot for John before starting in Jane Chapple-Hyam's stable at 6.30, and this is the pair of horses whom they ride. It was rather a shame for poor Lewis as he missed riding Clearance House. Iva obviously wasn't eligible to ride in the race, but Lewis (who usually rides the horse in the mornings while Iva rides the filly, as this photograph of the pair on Warren Hill one morning last month shows) was, but sadly he was meant to ride a horse for Jane in the race - and by the time that Jane's horse was scratched, Alan Bailey's apprentice Natasha Eaton had been engaged for Clearance House. But that's racing: luck is either on one's side at the time, or it isn't.

Luck wasn't on Ryan Moore's side today as he found that he had elected to ride the wrong horse in the King George at Ascot. It would have been hard, though, to ride against a horse on whom one had won the Derby last time out, whoever the alternative might have been - and especially when that Derby winner appeared to have thrived greatly since his famous victory. It's been one of the pleasures of the summer to see plenty of Workforce, pictured here under his lad Paul Grassick four days after the Derby, and he really is a mighty horse: I'm sure that on better ground we'll see him regain his former dominance, assuming that he hasn't taken any permanent harm from racing on what was clearly a very firm surface today. One can't, though, take anything away from the brilliant, record-breaking Harbinger though, a horse who has occupied a special place in my affections since the Sunday last autumn when I caught him when he was loose on the Heath. My one concern on that occasion was that he might have tried to cover the filly I was riding as he approached (Destiny Rules) - after today's victory, I should perhaps have encouraged such a union, rather than prevented it!

Hot!

With Robin Gibson having kindly given this blog such a good wrap in Sunday's 'Surf & Turf' section of the Racing Post, it should have behoved me to put finger to keyboard sooner than this. However, I think that I have had a good excuse: prior to today, I had six consecutive days of going to the races, a sequence which I'm sure that I had never previously attained. Basic and essential administrative tasks, never mind indulgent and inconsequential diarizing, consequently went on the back-burner for a while.

Happily, the six days of sport were largely satisfying ones, the five runners yielding two wins, a pleasing third, a pleasing fifth and only one poor run (courtesy of our podgy little girl Jenny, seen here under Iva in the parade ring at Yarmouth on Monday); while the trip to the races without a runner (of which more in the next chapter) was also a good one. The upshot of this good form was that, when we went to Sandown yesterday, we did so bearing a Racing Post which had this stable at the top of the 'Hot Trainers' list. That is a very pleasant place to be - particularly if one doesn't go there often, this being the first time I'd been there since 2005. Five runners in the previous two weeks had yielded three winners, and 60% was a figure high enough to secure the top spot. Ah, though, the transience of success! Lest one get carried away by the supposed achievement, it is worth remembering that when we have our next runner (on Monday), the figure will have dropped to 40% - and when we have our next runners after that (probably three days later), the figure will almost certainly be down to 33%. Et cetera. And, of course, it's only two weeks since we were on the 'Cold List', a tundra which we are sure to revisit sooner rather than later! The irony, of course, is that one doesn't do anything different to get on one list or the other: sometimes things just fall into place and at other (more frequent) times, they don't.

The brief stay on the Hot List has, ironically, coincided with a spell of weather less hot, with my meteorological nadir having come at Bangor on Tuesday, a race-meeting which was memorably wet. The climate remained mediterranean here that day, but the evening at Bangor was extremely wet and progressively colder. The members of the All Points West Partnership, plus Hugh and I, got soaked before, during and after Ex Con's magnficent victory in a race which featured an extra obstacle: what one might describe as a 'water splash'. It was really rather spectacular when the horses galloped unexpectedly through a large puddle between the first and second hurdles, and again on the second circuit, sending sheets of water flying around them. I've seen Flat meetings called off for less, but happily the participants at Bangor adopted an admirably old-fashioned attitude to what was only really a minor hazard and there was no talk of abandonment. This extra obstacle was far from the only memorable aspect of the victory, a saga in which, for once, the fates seemed to conspire in our favour. A host of horses were jocked up in the previous day's paper, but surprisingly only six were declared. This number dropped to five when the favourite was scratched on the morning of the race, leaving Ex Con as favourite and Danny Zuko, trained by my one-time colleague and housemate Donald McCain, as second favourite. On my arrival in the weighing room at Bangor, I ran into Donald, whose first words, as he surveyed the torrential rain beyond the window, were, "Ours needs it like a road" - whereas Ex Con, although he doesn't like soft ground, doesn't actually like firm ground either, so the conditions for the first race - ie ground somewhere between good and good to soft, albeit with a lot of standing water on the surface - were pretty much ideal for him. Had his race been a couple of hours later, the race would have been run on soft ground and the story might well have been very different. As it was, though, things worked out just perfectly and Ex Con (pictured looking very pleased with himself both before and after the race) had little difficulty in providing Rhys Flint (in another change to my predicted riding arrangements, poor Peter Toole having been hurt in a fall while schooling for Charlie Mann that morning) with what he described as "the easiest winner I've ever ridden". It was a very, very pleasing day.

One could make the same comment about Sunday, which saw Douchkette gain a well-deserved victory over hurdles in the very competent hands of Danny Cook. I'd never previously met Danny Cook, but I had admired his winning big-race ride last season at Haydock on one of my favourite horses, Our Vic; having now met and used him, I now approve of him even more because he gave the filly a very polished ride, providing a perfect example of the principle quality of a top-class sportsman, ie the ability to make something difficult look easy. Douchkette is a wonderfully tough, genuine and enthusiastic filly, but she isn't very good, she isn't a natural two-miler and she isn't an easy ride - but Danny's very cool ride made her look all of those. If, however, he deserves plenty of plaudits for her victory, Adam deserves even more because he does a great job with the filly on a daily basis. There's no harm in her, but she is a lively ride (as this first, pre-race, photograph suggests) who I am sure must try his patience at times; but, typically, he invariably rides her calmly, quietly and kindly, so I hope that it was with great pride that he led her back into the winner's enclosure (pictured). Danny Charlesworth (who wasn't present) and Hetty Charlet (who was) can also take pride in the win because they bred the filly and, while this was only a fairly weak selling hurdle, I hope that they were able to concur with the philosophy of the late, great Arthur Stephenson that 'little fish are sweet'. I certainly was able to do so.

As regards our other runners, Jenny has been alluded to above. She 'needs to lift', as our antipodean cousins might say. Let's hope that she can. If she needs inspiration, she can surely find it in her contemporary Ethics Girl (pictured in the parade ring at Sandown yesterday) who ran her usual creditable and brave race to finish fifth in a very competitive handicap, despite not having the run of the race. Silken Thoughts, happily, is shaping as if she might be setting herself up to be a similarly professional galloper. It's early days with her yet, but her run at Lingfield on Saturday evening, only the third start of her young life, was very creditable. Cathy Gannon's verdict afterwards was admirably concise - "You've got yourselves a lovely filly" - and I don't think she was referring merely to the filly's ability. So far, Silken Thoughts' form is good and so is her enthusiasm - and, as Ethics Girl has shown, putting the two together can make for a lovely racehorse. Let's hope that, like Ethics, she can add physical resilence to the list of her qualities because, if she can, she looks sure to provide the Renewal Partnership with plenty more fun and excitement. It was, incidentally, just as well that she did run so well, because her efforts salvaged what was otherwise a debacle of an outing. We weren't that far down the road when we received news that the M25 around Dartford was at a standstill, news which prompted me to drive via the western side of London, thus adding 35 miles to the journey but probably knocking a similar amount of minutes off it. However, that news wasn't the first setback of the trip, because I'd already realised that I'd left home without a shirt, being as usual attired in T-shirt and shorts, intending to change at the races. Nor was the news of the traffic problems the last hold-up, because the truck went amiss during the journey, not badly enough to prevent us from reaching Lingfield, but badly enough to ensure that it couldn't be driven home later that evening. Happily, though, this potential problem was solved by the kindness of Chris Wall, who allowed the filly (pictured before and after the race) and us to return on his horsebox, Chris' foreman Bill Lord kindly driving us home in comfort and style. So that was good - as was the fact that, by a miracle, I happened not to be wearing one of my usual shoddy T-shirts, but a smart, almost clean one with a collar, which meant that, in the informality of a summer's evening meeting, I didn't stick out like a sore thumb despite my oversight. I had that morning dressed relatively smartly (by my standards - even if Emma's observation "Good of you to dress up" seemed loaded with irony) as my morning tasks included acting as tour guide on the Heath to a party of young (well, even younger than me, if that's possible) bloodstock enthusiasts, organised by the Next Generation Committee of the Thoroughbred Breeders' Assocation. As I love Newmarket, love its history and love the sound of my own voice, it had been a pleasure to provide this group with a brief explanation of what was happening on the Heath during morning work. And the fact that the assignment meant that, although attired not nearly as smartly as Hugh in the final photograph, I wasn't too scruffily dressed at Lingfield in the evening came as its unexpected bonus!

A couple of tips?

This isn't a tipping column, but I'll pass on a piece of 'inside information' which some of you might view as a tip. I'm expecting Silken Thoughts to run well at Lingfield tomorrow evening but her jockey Cathy Gannon will only be on her because Tom Queally, the jockey originally booked, got off her shortly after declaration time yesterday in favour of taking the ride on Hard Bargain in the same race. That has to be a tip, doesn't it? (Even if we accept that, on form, Major Art should be very hard to beat). I don't, incidentally, mind at all about the altered arrangement because it was made totally with my blessing: Tom's agent Keith Bradley is the nicest and most helpful jockeys' agent (well, he probably shares that title with Laura Way) and he, predictably, did not tell me that Tom would swap rides, but very politely asked if I might sanction such a change, telling me that the change would not happen unless I were happy to give my permission. As, from our point of view, it meant swapping one good jockey for another, giving permission was no problem, so the change was made. Has Tom taken a better ride? Well, the 'inside information' here is that I really don't know. All shall be revealed.

On the subject of jockey changes, I have to make an update from the preview I gave yesterday: Douchkette (who has managed to find herself in what looks an extremely weak race) will be ridden on Sunday by Danny Cook (3) rather than William. This came as quite a surprise as William was here this morning to school Keep Silent (pictured, left) in a schooling session in which Gemma was kind enough to give the novice a lead on good old Ex Con (pictured, below) - and the last words he said to me as we parted at approximately 7.30 were, "See you on Sunday". However, his agent Dave Roberts had other ideas as he rang me two and a bit hours later to tell me that William would be at Newton Abbot on Sunday, not Stratford. Again, this is no problem because William can do no wrong in my eyes: he's my favourite jumps jockey and goes well beyond the call of duty in helping us to prepare the horses for their races (witness his presence on the Links this morning, which had entailed him making a long journey early in the morning to ride one horse for twenty minutes, and then a long journey home again - and he'll most likely be here again next week to do exactly the same). Under the circumstances, I'm certainly not going to complain that William has, yet again, proved harder to book for a race-ride than one might expect. Still, being free for schooling mornings but unavailable in the races is rather an unusual state of affairs: most jockeys are only too happy to take the money for riding the horses in the afternoons, but try getting them to come in for nothing to work the horses in the mornings! And has Dave Roberts made a good choice on William's behalf? (I don't even know what it is that he is due to ride at Newton Abbot, other than that I think it is a horse trained by Jonjo O'Neill). Again, we'll have to wait to find out.

Looking ahead

It was great to return to the winner's enclosure last weekend. Now we need to ensure that the wait before our next visit isn't so long. We've got a few runners coming up, so we can live in hope. First off will be Silken Thoughts at Lingfield on Saturday evening, while Douchkette goes to Stratford on Sunday. Jenny will be heading to Yarmouth on Monday, while Ex Con is due to run either at Bangor on Tuesday or at Uttoxeter on Thursday. And Ethics Girl goes to Sandown on Thursday. Cathy Gannon has been booked for Silken Thoughts, and Iva rides Jenny and Ethics; while over jumps William will ride Douchkette and will be on Ex Con if he runs at Uttoxeter, while Peter Toole will ride him if he runs at Bangor (in a conditional jockeys' races). It would be very hard to predict victory for Jenny, but one would hope that all the others will have some sort of chance. We'll see.

Looking farther ahead, we can anticipate the winter with extra relish thanks to the arrival of a lovely horse from last week's Tattersalls' July Sale. This is Alcalde, who has proved himself a good horse in his three seasons in Mark Johnston's stable. He's won three races and been placed a few times and I hope that he has the makings of a very nice hurdler. He's certainly by the right stallion in that respect, because the record of sons and daughters of Hernando going over jumps is extremely good, thanks to the likes of No Refuge, State Of Play, Cape Tribulation, Songe and One Gulp. If Alcalde (pictured at Tattersalls) has inherited the same lovely nature and big heart that is possessed by Ethics Girl, another Hernando four-year-old, he'll do more than alright. And if he is typical of his great Lanwades Stud family (that which has produced many distinguished other Al...s, such as Alborada and Albanova) he'll do even better. I rode him home from Tattersalls last Thursday and he was grand: he'd obviously never been through the streets of Newmarket, but he was so bold and willing that he just walked on smartly and fearlessly as if he'd been patrolling them all his life. He can have a few weeks' of relaxation first before doing anything, but one reason for being less sad when the time comes for summer to end will be that we'll have the excitement ahead of us of seeing what he can (or can't - it's always wise to temper optimism with a dash of realism) do.

Just before I close these dispatches, I ought to mention two people. Firstly, our friend Tony Morris, who is to be saluted on being a very worthy winner of the Devonshire Bronze at the recent TBA Awards Dinner, this trophy being awarded to someone who has made a very signficant contribution to British breeding. Most winners, obviously, make this contribution by breeding horses, but Tony's contribution has been to write about the horses and their breeding both eruditely and entertainingly for a long time. Tony (pictured on his birthday last year) was formerly the Sporting Life's chief bloodstock writer, and has more recently occupied a similar role in the Racing Post since that paper's inception. It would fair to say that he has both inspired and educated a generation of bloodstock enthusiasts and for that reason, while he isn't wrong very often, he was very wrong indeed when saying that he'd done nothing to deserve his honour.

The second man on my mind is another Devonian, George Windsor. Anyone who has followed racing for a while will have seen George in a winner's enclosure after a big race because he was travelling head lad during Henry Cecil's golden years. I first properly got to know George in the mid-'90s when he was head lad for Julie Cecil in Southgate Stables and when I trained in the adjacent property. He stayed in Southgate when Julie retired and Nick Littmoden moved there, but more recently he has been working for Jeremy Noseda. This year he took Awesome Act to America when he won the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct and Formosina to Ireland when he won the Railway Stakes at the Curragh. Sadly, George isn't at all well at present, but God willing he will recover. Last Saturday morning we found ourselves circling in the trees at the top of Railway Land while an ambulance collected an injured rider from the Al Bahathri, and it was plain from the length of time which the gallop was closed that the injury was serious. It transpired that George was the unfortunate victim (while his mount was even more unfortunate as he was fatally injured in the fall) but the good news which I received in the evening when I rang Jeremy's foreman Dave Bradley for news was that, although he has broken a vertebra in his neck and, I think, some ribs, George has suffered no spinal cord damage and so should in time make a complete recovery. He's obviously got a long time of pain and discomfort first, though, so all we can do is to wish him well in his convalescence.

The Rodd Squad

What with all the jockeys whose names made their way into the last chapter, I ought to mention the great one who showed up here last week: the Melbourne Cup- and Cox Plate-winning hoop Michael Rodd. He and his wife Cara are two of a party of six Aussies who are currently on holiday in the UK, and it was my real pleasure to spend some time with them last week on the Newmarket leg of their tour. The trip was organised by Michael's long-standing friend Barry Wallace and his wife Sue (seen on the left of this photograph). Barry has an interesting background. He was apprenticed at Hawera in his native New Zealand to Brian Deacon, who I believe was also responsible for Greg Childs (of Sunline fame), Gary Stewart (of Bonecrusher fame) and Jim Walker (of Veandercross fame). He subsequently became foreman in Melbourne for Angus Armanasco and Rob McGuiness at Caulfield before being a trainer in his own right, at Flemington from the mid-'80s to the early '90s and subsequently in Sydney at Rosehill. This touring party which he and Sue have currently arranged consists of a great bunch of people. I think that they enjoyed July week in Newmarket, and I know that my enjoyment of July week was greatly increased because of their presence. They are shown above posing with Jenny Dawson (of course, bearing in mind that she has some Aussie part-owners) in her day-yard, while a further brahma was added to the visit: one of the group, Clive, apparently had had a bet that he would get on a horse while he was in Newmarket. I am sure that this was a bet which he had expected to lose - but, once I'd found out about it, he was sure to win, as this photograph of him on the long-suffering Panto shows! Michael is, of course, more often seen being led into winner's enclosures (such as in this photograph, taken at Ballarat last year) but he clearly hasn't forgotten how to lead a horse either. All in all, it was just such a pleasure to spend some time with some really nice people - and some distinguished ones too, because not only has Michael been hugely successful (22 Group One wins so far is a massive total for someone who has probably only been riding for around ten years) but another of the Group, Bill Burt, was part-owner of one of the greatest Cox Plate winners ever (Dulcify) as well as of a VRC Derby winner (Redding). Not that you'd know it: meeting Michael you'd struggle to believe how successful he is, because the streak of ruthlessness which is generally required to make it to the top of any profession, but particularly jockeying, is impossible to discern in him.

Michael's compatriot Damien Oliver was also in town last week (obviously, as he rode Nicconi - pictured below, with his compatriots Alverta and Tye Angland in the background - in the July Cup). Michael had been in Britain for a short period last month as he'd ridden Gold Trail in the King's Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, but he'd only made a brief visit as he'd ridden the Queensland Derby winner three days before that race and had then gone home straight afterwards. Damien made his British assignment less fleeting and he duly fronted up in Luca's yard to ride out on Thursday morning, when he managed to find just about the only morning of the month in which a bit of rain fell. By my reckoning, Luca has at least five horses in the stable who could be regarded as potential Melbourne Cup horses, so I don't know if we should take it as a tip that Drunken Sailor (pictured above) was the horse aboard whom he slung Damien. Mind you, the horse was a beaten favourite at York yesterday so I wouldn't be rushing to nominate him as the stable's selected just yet. Purple Moon remains my selected as he's in my XII To Follow, although I don't know whether the plan is for him to have another crack at the race in the 2007 edition of which he and Damien were collared by Michael Rodd and Efficient in the dying strides. No doubt all will become clearer as the summer progresses.

Great leap forward

The title of this chapter doesn't refer to the fact that we took a great leap forward yesterday by, courtesy of Batgirl's good win at Nottingham, getting ourselves of the Racing Post's dreaded 'Cold List' - nor does it refer to that mighty win, by which Batgirl gained her wings. No, it's meant sardonically, but we'll come to that later.

Batgirl's win was so pleasing, not least for the fact that it enabled Tony Fordham to see his colours carried to victory for the first time. Throughout my training career, I've been fortunate to enjoy the patronage of some wonderfully supportive patrons. Tony definitely comes very strongly into this category, so it meant a great deal to me to repay part of the debt of gratitude which I owe him by saddling him a winner. I don't like to use the word 'pressure' (the former WWII fighter pilot and Australian Test cricketer Keith Miller summed it up when asked about the pressures of sport: "Pressure? Pressure is when you've got a Messerschmidt up your arse") but, when training horses, there are times when you find yourself facing what seem like tough decisions (some of which you get right and some of which, inevitably, you get wrong) and there are times when things just go wrong; and such times are much, much easier to bear when you are training for patrons who make it plain that they retain faith in your judgement. Anyway, it was a real pleasure to see Tony's colours in the winner's enclosure; and, leaving that aside, it was great to see Batgirl there, because she's a wonderfully characterful filly who, like (supposedly) all chestnut fillies (equine and human), has a mind of her own - so it was great to see that mind relishing the satisfaction of a race won, because I genuinely believe that, even if her victory didn't necessarily mean quite as much to her as it did to her human connections, she had enjoyed showing her rivals a clean pair of heels - which is just what one would have expected from parade-ring inspection, because (and I'm trying to be objective here) she stood head and shoulders above her rivals in both physique and condition beforehand, which I hope that you might understand from the imposing impression of her which these photographs give.

Part of Batgirl's individuality is that she lets you know when she doesn't want to do something. This is expressed each day after exercise, when you'd struggle to get her to go straight back to her box after being hosed down. Once scraped down, she marches briskly to whichever part of the yard she deems to have the most grass (or, as at present, the least dust) and only deigns to return to her stable once she's had however long she deems to be her due quota of forageing. Trucks, saddling boxes (and I duly had to saddle her outside again yesterday, but there's no harm in that as an alfresco dressing didn't do Starspangledbanner any harm on Friday, as this photograph shows) and starting stalls are other enclosures which usually prompt her to take a pause for thought before entering. She'd been very slow to be loaded at Yarmouth last time, so yesterday I went down to the start to lead her in - not that I'd do anything which the stalls handlers wouldn't do, but simply because she's accustomed to following me around. It was rather nice when I got there, as it turned out that Batgirl and I were spending the day surrounded by my former Luca Cumani workmates: Adam led her up, and the stalls team included three of our erstwhile colleagues, Mark "Bruiser" Dunwooody, Peter "Maxi" Taylor and Bobby Robertson. Happily, she walked straight into the stalls and the whole starting procedure was as straightforward as she found the race, the only blip being that one of the jockeys fell off shortly after the start.

It was good to see so exemplary a starting process (the U.R. aside) because I'd also been at the start for our other runner of the week (Hotfoot at Windsor on Monday) when the stalls' procedure was worse than chaotic. Iva had seemed rather surprised when I'd said that I was planning to go down to the start, pointing out that there wasn't much I could do there, but it turned out that we were both very pleased that I did so: Hotfoot (pictured) found herself standing in the stalls for what seemed like an hour, but probably was only around seven or eight minutes, as all hell broke loose around her. Two runners were scratched for refusing to go into the stalls (one of which broke Robert Havlin's ankle when she reared over) and a third all but refused to go in (before losing all chance by rearing as the gates opened) - and a couple of the others who had gone in less unwillingly were desperately unruly once in there. So our poor filly, who had had a bad experience on her first public appearance, was given a second baptism of fire. Happily, frightened though she was by the pandemonium around her, Hotfoot kept her cool and stood still throughout the inferno, and I think that having two friendly and familiar voices to reassure her - Iva leaning forward to scratch the top of her head and my standing in front of the stalls, putting my hand through the bars to rub her nose and hold onto the cheekpiece of her bridle whenever she did start to get restive - helped to ensure that all was well that ended well (from our point of view, if not from poor Rab's). I can't sum the whole debacle up better than by repeating my words to the starter, Robbie Supple, "Robbie, this is no criticism of you whatsoever, but that was a bloody shambles". Which it was - but I'm not sure what we can do about it, other than hope that fewer badly schooled horses will be sent to the races in the future. But that might be asking for miracles.

Now for our great leap forward. One would like to think that a generation of horses better schooled for the stalls might one day be a great leap forward, but as it is we've got to content ourselves for now with the Going Stick. I've been in favour of this innovation, seeking its findings and using them as a tool to try to guess what underfoot conditions are going to be like. However, I don't think I'll be taking it too seriously henceforth after my pre-Nottingham investigations. I was very uncertain whether to run the filly there yesterday, because she's a big, immature and cumbersome filly and I had doubts as to whether she'd be effective on what seemed certain to be a very firm surface. However, the course's bulletins suggested that the surface would be a well-watered "good to firm" track, so run we did (thank God!). Anyway, my assessment, once I'd walked the track before racing, was that the back straight was good to firm and the home straight (up which Batgirl was due to race) was firm, albeit smooth and with a good cover of grass. And, academically, the unwatered and unused section of the track down the back straight was hard. But God only knows what one could have concluded from the Going Stick's evidence. As you probably know, the Going Stick measures resistance on a scale of zero to 15, the lowest (ie heaviest) reading one would normally see being around four and the highest (ie hardest) being around 11. Yesterday's reading was 7.4, which one would usually think of as slightly softer than good! The previous Saturday, when the going had been "good to firm (firm in places)", the reading had been 7.5. This was the fourth time in the past twelve months when the reading had been 7.5, the other three occasions being when the official goings had been "good to firm", "soft", and "good to soft (soft in places)". Yesterday's 7.4 had been registered twice over the past year, when it had been "good to soft (soft in places)" and "good to soft". On 2nd June, the going was "good to firm (good in places)" which suggests that it was less firm than it was yesterday, and yet the going stick reading on that day was half a point higher than it was yesterday. I could go on forever citing similar non-sequiturs, but I think that you probably get the point: just as the Aboriginals might list influenza, Christianity and alcohol as gifts from the white man which they really needed, so might we be wondering whether racing ought to consign the Going Stick into the category, along with Racing For Change, of great and expensive leaps forward which might not be all that they are cracked up to be.

Lastly, I can't end my review of our week's runners without making a comment on the riding arrangements. Dane O'Neill (seen later in the afternoon yesterday in search of a double, leading the field in the 14-furlong handicap on the John Dunlop-trained favourite Dream Spinner, who ultimately finished last behind Montparnasse, who is shown in the second picture being eased down after the post) was in the saddle and he - as one would expect, because he is a top-class jockey - gave her an exemplary ride and gave us a very sensible summation afterwards. I was pleased to have provided him with a winner because I like and respect him and I'd never used him previously, an omission which I'm very pleased to have put right. However, one has to feel a twang of sympathy for the jockeys who have ridden her in her previous races, none of whom have done anything wrong and any of whom would have won on her yesterday. In particular, Tom McLaughlin, who had ridden her at Yarmouth on her previous start and who would have been in the saddle yesterday had I known that his 28-day ban had ended. I only discovered half an hour before our race that not only was Tom back from his ban, but that he was at Nottingham and without a ride in our race, so I sought him out to apologise and explain. He took it well, although had the conversation taken place after the race and he'd realised that he'd missed a winner, he might have been less phlegmatic! Furthermore, Iva, like Tom, had done nothing wrong on the filly when riding her to be third at 150/1 at Wolverhampton and last at Newmarket over a mile under conditions very different from yesterday's flat six furlongs - but then jockeying is no different to the rest of human life in that being in the right place at the right time (ie on horses on the days when it transpires that the trainer has put them in the right race, rather on the days when he's got it wrong) is the key. Even poor Richard Mullen, who was kind enough to come over to us with congratulations after the race, would have had cause to rue his misfortune had he known of it. After I'd decided on Thursday morning to run the filly, my first move had been to see which jockeys were at Nottingham and, having perused the list, my second move had been to call Richard's agent, only to find that the phone was engaged; and when I re-dialled immediately afterwards, I got through only to be told that he'd just got off the phone from accepting the ride on Alan Jarvis' runner in the same race. Had I made my call one minute earlier, Richard would have been the winning jockey yesterday, but that's the story of life: fate either decrees that you're in the right place at the right time, or it doesn't. You can understand why Napoleon maintained that the key quality which he required in his generals was being lucky!

Strange street

Ethics Girl didn't win at Leicester yesterday, but (predictably!) I was very pleased by her run. She ran a good second, beaten on merit but displaying plenty of merit herself. She's such a lovely tough professional (as I think is shown by the look of determination on her face in this photograph as she comes back in off the track after the race) that taking her to the races is always a pleasure. And Iva rode her perfectly, which was great because it's always easy to accept finishing second if one is clearly just beaten by a better horse; harder to swallow if one feels that one might have had the superior animal, but the inferior jockey. Not, of course, that, viewing all a horse's qualities and not simply his/her ability in the narrower sense of the word, I would contend that there are many horses superior to Ethics Girl, of whom I think the world, but I would have to concede that the mare, Bollin Dolly, who beat us yesterday is probably in her own right similarly special. Her owner/breeder Sir Neil Westbrook must be ever so proud of her because her victories over the past couple of seasons place her in an elite band of mares who have won races after having had a foal. And what was particularly nice about Bollin Dolly's win yesterday was that it came a couple of weeks after her foal (who is now two and named Bollin Harry) had made his debut. That's excellent, so one certainly can't begrudge Bollin Dolly her victory. So, all in all, yesterday's trip to Leicester was another pleasant and interesting outing - and again it would be wrong to write a report on it without highlighting the good state of the track. The weather has been very hot and dry for a while now, so producing acceptable ground must have been easier said than done, but Leicester's surface was a nice, safe one, albeit obviously one which would not have been of any use to any horse who isn't suited by fast ground. I walked the track with Chris Dwyer (whose charge Miss Polly Plum, pictured right of shot, finished third in the penultimate race) before racing and we both came away happy with what we'd seen.

To move from the positive to the negative, it would be wrong to end last week without alluding to events in our street. Sadly Exeter Road now boasts one fewer trainer than was the case at the week's start, Jonathan Jay having relinquished his license. It's been a strange summer for this strange street, what with the recent unexplained (and tragically fatal) fire in the house attached to Don Cantillon's stable and now the sudden disintegration of Jonathan's empire. No doubt we shall hear more details of both incidents in the fullness of time. Whatever the full story, I suppose the one lesson from this week is that we've been reminded that running a training business is easier said than done. Which makes it all the more remarkable and praise-worthy that I've been able to hang on to (some small part of) my sanity for all these years.

On the subject of sanity, our little friend Squeaker continues to pop up. He seems to have settled into Luca's stable, as the fact that he is the regular morning partner of a good horse (last year's Breeders' Cup Marathon winner Man Of Iron, a lovely horse who is pictured here with our hero nine days ago) suggests, and I enjoyed a pleasant dinner with him in the Golden Lion on Monday night, catching up on a few brahmas. That was one of two consecutive nights out for me: on Tuesday I had the pleasure of being entertained in the Jockey Club by Paul Roy and Nic Coward, who on behalf of the BHA were kind enough to host a dinner for around ten successful trainers, a handful of prominent local bloodstock identities, and me. That was very interesting - and comforting too because it made it clear that, even though racing's well-documented financial woes are not going to be at all easy to solve, our leaders are clearly doing their best to find a solution. The problem is, of course, that in racing's politics as in all other types of politics, things rarely happen swiftly and negotiations are rarely made public until they have been completed, so onlookers can lose sight of the fact that the problems are actually being addressed. However, I was happy to come away from the evening confident that racing's problems are at least being tackled, and being tackled by sensible people who take the task seriously; and one can't really ask for more than that.

Finally, I'm disappointed that nobody noticed my 'deliberate error' a few chapters back of saying that Media Puzzle won the Melbourne Cup in 2001 - 2002 it was, of course. That chapter contained a further inaccuracy (or it was true at the time, but has now been rendered untrue) because Richard Sims is no longer Beekeeper's strapper in the movie: he has been downgraded to playing the part of the strapper of Hatha Anna, another Godolphin runner who fared less well in the race. No doubt there'll be further brahmas to come out of that one - but not before, I hope, Hotfoot has finally made her debut. Her debut Take One (to use a film-making phrase which Richard would, no doubt, appreciate) was aborted when she played up in the stalls at Newmarket a couple of weeks ago, but she passed her stalls test with flying colours nine days ago (and is pictured here on a very balmy Newmarket evening about to take it, with our old friend Yarmy being kind enough to lend a hand) and is now set for Take Two tomorrow evening at Windsor. Fingers crossed for no debacles this time.

Easily pleased

I've always counted it as an advantage that I'm easily pleased, but I'm beginning to worry that perhaps it's not quite such a good trait as I'd thought. I've really enjoyed my last two trips to the races, but I'd say that a trainer more single-minded in the pursuit of success might have come home rather less gruntled with two runners finishing out of the frame. I seem to have reached the stage where I'm happy as long as the horses get round. This is a stage which, if I were a jumps trainer, might have something to recommend it - but as most of our runners are on the Flat, I feel that perhaps I really ought to be considering raising the bar a bit. We're continuing to have lovely weather, and Windsor last Sunday really was a lovely place to be. My satisfaction with the course was more or less guaranteed when I walked the track prior to racing: the meeting came after a hot, dry week, and yet the groundstaff had produced ground which really was close to perfect for that, the second day of a three-day fixture. Jenny duly finished last, but that had been anticipated, and all in all it was just a pleasure to be there with those of her syndicate who had been able to attend to watch her belated debut. The preferred post-script, of course, will come if she steps up on this moderate debut effort in the future, and we now should not have to wait too long to find out whether that is going to be the case. But, all in all, it was lovely to see her conduct herself so well on her first raceday outing and so clearly to enjoy all that went on - even if it would have been more lovely had she beaten a few.

The trip to Worcester with Douchkette on Wednesday could be said to have fallen into the same boat. The filly finished seventh so I shouldn't have been pleased, and I'll certainly say that I would have enjoyed the trip a lot more had she won or been placed. However, she too did her best and ran bravely and honestly on a lovely racecourse on a lovely day, so one can't be too upset, can one? As her best form on the Flat is at a mile, one can't be too shocked that she seems to find that the minimum National Hunt distance of two miles rather stretches her stamina. However, she did so much right in the race - apparently the betting-in-running market had her at 2/1 on the home turn - that we've been emboldened to try her over hurdles again. Let's hope that she can win a race because she deserves to: she's a lovely, very genuine and enthusiastic filly and if she can't win, it certainly won't be for the want of trying, on her part or ours.


Another lovely four-year-old filly who truly deserves to be described as genuine and enthusiastic is Ethics Girl, who is due to have her second run of the year at Leicester tomorrow afternoon. She seems in good form so I'm looking forward to running her. Her chance tomorrow is not obvious, but she's so genuine I think that we can rely on her to try her best and perform with credit even if she finds that some of her opponents are just that bit sharper than she is. So you can see what's happening: I'm already working my way round to her finishing out of the money and my still coming home pleased!


What has also (hugely) pleased me recently is the continuing illustrations which I've been receiving of the saying that a friend in need is a friend indeed. We've been very busy in the stable of late, the result of several factors one of which being that poor Hugh has been unwell. (Happily, Hugh seems well on the road to recovery and his illness has been nothing more sinister than a very bad chest infection brought on by his industriousness and unwillingness to take any time off work through sickness until it was absolutely unavoidable). Anyway (and here I'm making my excuses to all those who've noticed that I've been even less sociable and communicative than usual over the past couple of weeks) we've been bloody busy - but thankfully everything has continued to run smoothly thanks to umpteen people who've gone well beyond the call of duty in making themselves available to help. I'm not going to embarrass them by naming them (and they know who they are anyway) but all I can say is that I've been overwhelmed by thepeople who, knowing we've been under a bit of pressure, have unprompted come forward with help and offers of help to make sure that the stable still runs smoothly and that the horses get worked. We've already established that I'm easily pleased, but even if I were virtually impossible to please, I'd be pleased by that. Thank you all very much.