Good evening

Yesterday was such a lovely day, and one all the more special for the fact that I hadn't expected us to have a winner. I was expecting Frankie to run well and would have been slightly disappointed had he failed to make the frame, but I really did expect the favourite Forever My Friend to win at odds-on. Forever My Friend's debut at Aintree three weeks previously, when arguably a little unlucky to be beaten a head by Anis Etoile's relative Seedsman in what I had thought was quite a decent bumper, meant that it would have seemed unrealistic for us to go to Stratford yesterday anticipating victory, even if second place did seem a justifiable aspiration. But Frankie managed to beat the favourite - and beat him well, by five lengths, and more or less unpressured. The big thing in favour of fancying Frankie's chances in advance had been the fact that I had never seen him tired - and the really exciting thought is that I still haven't, because he really didn't have a taxing race at all. So that's all good. One couldn't really ask for more from a debut - particularly as he really was the model pupil throughout. He travelled really well to the races, quietly and coolly, and all the time that he was there he just looked as if he was having a really interesting and enjoyable time. Even after the race he wasn't at all stressed, and it just couldn't have been nicer. The icing on the cake was that it was Gus' first trip to the races as well as Frankie's, and he too took everything in his stride. Mind you, Frankie had every chance to have an enjoyable day: the drawback of being in the 9.00 at Stratford was that we didn't get home until half past midnight, but the benefit was that we didn't leave home until nearly 4.30 (I was very keen not to arrive until after racing had started so that we wouldn't be caught in the pre-racing traffic which can cause such delays through the town) so he was able to have a relaxing afternoon playing in the field with his mates before leaving. And, as these photographs show, he certainly enjoyed that.

I was so pleased that William was on board Frankie (pictured being eased down shortly after the line and then returning to the winner's enclosure in the dusk) yesterday as he'd missed out on our two previous National Hunt winners this year (Alcalde and Kadouchski). He's our jockey and is very valued as such, and there's always extra pleasure in a win if he's part of it. I was also very pleased, incidentally, that Sara was able to be present, because she's ridden Frankie on umpteen mornings this year and I know thinks the world of the horse. And we've now had perfect post-script to the win in that it has proved to be the first leg of three consecutive victories for William: wins in three consecutive races, rather than just on three consecutive rides, because, having won the last race at Stratford last night, he won the first two at Uttoxeter this afternoon. For a man who doesn't get the opportunities to ride large quantities of winners, that's great, with SPs of 13/2, 7/1 and 7/1 making it a 339/1 quick-fire treble. Also in double form today was the Newmarket-based conditional jockey Matt Crawley, who won consecutive races at Fontwell this afternoon for two of our best local trainers, Chris Dwyer and Rae Guest. And while I'm remarking on wins which I was pleased to see, I must observe what pleasure I've had on my two most recent National Hunt racedays to see two of Ethics Girl's rivals from the winter winning over hurdles: Phoenix Flight won at Market Rasen when Kadouchski ran there a fortnight ago, while yesterday saw Carter, who won four staying handicaps on the AW during the first two months of this year, winning the penultimate race at Stratford - where, incidentally, the ground was still good to firm despite extensive watering being augmented by some solid rain during the week. That, though, was no problem because, as usual at that track, the racing surface had been well maintained and seemed to provide safe underfoot conditions. I'd thought that Jezza might make it a treble for Ethics Girl's winter rivals at Uttoxeter this afternoon, incidentally, but he was surprisingly beaten at odds-on in the novice hurdle there.

Next stop now Chepstow tomorrow, where Silken Thoughts (pictured walking home through Rayes Lane nine days ago, ridden as she normally is by Hugh) will try to take some inspiration from Frankie's great win yesterday. She's in a 16-runner handicap in which there appear to be several in-form contenders, so it certainly won't be a pushover, but she's a very nice filly and she's well, so I think that she should run well. Mind you, I think that every time she runs and she's still a maiden after eight starts, but she tries hard so I hope that one day my hopes for her will turn out to have been justified rather than merely optimistic! We have had one good omen for her in that, with Frankie seemingly having been inspired by sharing the Al Bahathri with Frankel in the run-up to his win, she found herself sharing the Heath this morning with Newmarket's other most currently celebrated equine resident, the Queen's Derby favourite Carlton House. Iva and I were cantering respectively First Pressing and Silken Thoughts along the first sand this morning when we passed two Michael Stoute-trained horses, ridden by Kevin Bradshaw and John Nolan, on the walking ground. I don't know whom Kevin was riding, but the other horse was clearly Carlton House. I did actually manage to keep our distance when we turned to walk for home, saying that we should show the Derby favourite the respect which he deserves by not trotting our two fillies past him under his nose - but when they took a turn and came back towards us, we found ourselves close enough for, fingers crossed, some of his aura to rub off on our mounts, as well as for the inevitable photo-opportunity. Here's hoping, anyway - and here's hoping that in a week's time we shall be calling him the Derby winner, rather than merely the Derby favourite.

Rain drops start falling

Water has been intermittently falling from the sky over the past couple of days (so the dust being kicked up two days ago in this photograph wasn't in evidence yesterday and today, while we've definitely lost for the time being the summery atmosphere of the next photograph, taken on Tuesday, of Kirsty Milczarek and Josh Crane walking off the first sand on two of John Ryan's horses). This precipitation is very disconcerting and has to be filed away under the heading 'freak weather conditions'. I enjoyed the Journal's weather retrospective for April. The wettest day for the month was 6th April, on which 2.2mm of rain fell; while the month's total rainfall was 2.2mm. In a country where usually it seemingly rains all the time, we can't complain about that at all, can we? March had been not massively wetter than April was, and most of May was in similar vein - so we had to get some rain at some point. Probably not enough to avert the future shortage of hay, though, because this area and the country in general will have got so far behind in the growth of grass that hay yields are bound to be well below-average - and especially if, now that it has started raining, it keeps raining so frequently that the making of hay becomes unfeasible. That would be ironic: too dry to grow it, too wet to bale what little there is! And that could happen. Our forage merchant has already raised his prices in anticipation of future shortages, but there's no point in worrying about it: hay is like diesel in that you have to have it, so you just have to pay whatever it costs. I always think that it's worthwhile to remember that, as we have more than enough to worry about anyway, time spent in worrying about things over which one has no control is time wasted.

The weather is still warm, though, despite the changed conditions, and far from unpleasant. Our most immediate precipitation dividend will be that Frankie (pictured on Tuesday being washed off after exercise by Sara, who has been his most regular partner over the past few months, and then having a go at finding something to eat on the parched 'lawn') should find some lovely ground at Stratford tomorrow for his debut. I'm never too worried about the ground for bumpers, reasoning that if it's acceptable for a jumps race (which you'd hope that it is, bearing in mind that there have been six jumps races run on the course by the time that the bumper is held) then it should be fine for a flat race, which effectively what a bumper is. Having said that, the jockeys were all saying that it was very firm at Yarmouth last week, and yet to my foot is was less firm than it had been for the jumps card at Market Rasen five days previously, so it doesn't necessarily follow that jumps tracks will have more give in them. But that's by the by: I wasn't worrying about the ground anyway, but I'll definitely have no misgivings now as I am sure that we'll be asking Frankie to race on ground that is either good or softer than that. It's a job to know what to expect of Frankie. He doesn't show a great deal of speed in his home-work and he still looks, as you can see, rather fat, but he's been in work for what seems like forever so should be reasonably well prepared. And, while he hasn't been impressing as a fast horse, that's not really relevant as (a) he's running over two miles and (b) he seems quite lazy (ie however hard you think that you've worked him, he's never tired afterwards) so I think that we might find that he's been hiding his light under a bushel somewhat. In short, he gives the impression that he might be a very nice stayer - but as one of the hallmarks of many a good stayer is that he doesn't really impress in his homework, all one can do is to run such a horse, hope for the best and find out what happens. I'm sure that I'll be wiser come 9.10 tomorrow evening; whether I'll be richer remains to be seen. Frankie will be wiser too, after ten minutes or so of William's instructive handling.

One of the nice things about the change in the weather is that the horses like it. I often find that, in a dry spell, they become more enthusiastic at exercise after a night of rain. That seemed the case today. It could be that the air is fresher (because some horses don't really like it when the air is very heavy, dusty, or insect- or pollen-full, and get quite grouchy or sluggish) or it could be that they find the underfoot conditions, even on the walking grounds, kinder. And if they maybe find the Heath more fun, they definitely find the field even more fun. There was some great playing this afternoon after the latest shower, as the very perky and rather dirty Frankie trotting towards the camera in the previous paragraph's third photograph suggests. They all had a mighty time in there, getting both dirty and playful, and I had some fun watching them, even if from a photographic point of view it was rather frustrating. There was some terrific frolicking going on, but it was very, very hard to capture it on film, not only because the best displays tend to appear out of nowhere very quickly and are over before the photographer has woken up, but also because there was usually a horse between the frolicker and me. The first photograph in this paragraph is a classic example: a close-up shot of Batgirl letting rip would have been tremendous, but basically the bulk of the photograph is dominated by Kadouchski, First Pressing and Hotfoot standing still with their attention elsewhere, while the bucking Batgirl is semi-obscured by Kadou. At least the rolling is easier: the horses love to roll and roll once the rain has fallen (as Asterisk and Kadou are showing in the next two shots), but then taking photographs of horses rolling is 11+ stuff. Decent rearing or bucking photographs are proper A-level material. I'll get there eventually, but.

Mornings further brightened

As this photograph taken this morning shows, this lovely weather is continuing, notwithstanding the facts that it has been intermittently very windy over the past three days and that we did have some cloud cover (and even some squally rain for a brief period yesterday evening) at times over the past couple of days. The wind hadn't arrived on Saturday morning, though, when I was able to set myself up perfectly for a weekend of watching terrific racing on television by overtaking Frankel. Sorry to disappoint you: we haven't unearthed a superstar who can outgallop the wonder horse - it was merely that we were cantering down Railway Land sand, behind two of Stuart Williams' horses and en route to the Al Bahathri, while Henry Cecil's string were walking down the adjacent walking ground to get to the gallop. Not wanting to get stuck behind a large string at the bottom of the gallop, I made sure that we cantered down smartly enough to slot in in front of them at the bottom so that we could head up the Al Bahathri undelayed. Which meant, of course, pushing in under the noses of Frankel and his Lingfield Derby Trial-winning brother Bullet Train (they are more than half-brothers but less than full-brothers, each being from the Danehill mare Kind, with Bullet Train being by Sadler's Wells and Frankel being by Sadler's Wells' son Galileo). Amazingly, my mount Frankie (who surely appreciated that fact that we weren't galloping into a strong headwind) was still in front of Frankel at the finish, presumably only as a result of the latter having given us a three-furlong start. Anyway, the sight of Frankel and Bullet Train (nearer the camera) walking nonchalantly off the gallop behind us was more than pleasing.

I can, therefore, say that Frankel was the best horse whom I saw last weekend, but I don't know that I would have been able to make that claim had I headed off to either the Curragh or Longchamp. Had I done so, I would have seen either So You Think or Goldikova, instead of merely watching those two greats on TV. How lucky we are that we can stay at home and have such champions brought before us. Great racing from the Curragh, Longchamp, Kranji and some excellent stuff from various tracks in the UK - it couldn't get any better, could it? (Other than by having the Preakness on our screens too). So You Think was pretty special, but Goldikova's never-say-die performance to win her 13th Group/Grade One on her first start as a six-year-old was the highlight for me. What a terrific mare - and to think that we thought that Zarkava, not Goldikova, was the greatest filly in training in France during 2008! Oh, the folly of premature judgements. On which subject, I'd more or less written off Roderic O'Connor after his moderate appearance in the parade ring before the 2,000 Guineas (pictured above) and his even less inspiring performance in the race - but I was delighted to be proved wrong when he and Joseph O'Brien (pictured, right, on board his mother's Encosta De Lago filly Empowering in the parade ring before the 1,000 Guineas) won on Saturday. While, of course, Joseph would not be put on fancied runners in Classics if he wasn't Aidan's son, there is all the world of difference between being given terrific opportunities and being able to take advantage of them once given. Joseph's future as a Flat jockey seems sure to be very limited as I don't suppose that it will be long before he is bigger than I am, but he will be able to look back on his riding career with great pride - not just for having won all these big races, but for having become a genuinely high-class rider. I did see him beaten in a race nine days ago which I thought that he ought to have won (at Navan on the 4/7 shot Boris Grigoriev, whom he allowed/encouraged to do too much too soon) but that happens to them all - and set against that is that some of his winning rides (eg on Roderic O'Connor on Saturday or on Empowering in the Leopardstown 1,000 Guineas Trial) have been true gems. His parents will between them have enjoyed umpteen reasons for satisfaction and pride over the past couple of decades, but Joseph's accomplishment and his accomplishments must surely top the lot.

At a less obvious level, I was delighted to see Nicky Mackay win a big handicap at Haydock on Saturday on the Hughie Morrison-trained Sagramor. He falls very nicely into our roving spotlight which we direct towards the quieter achievers. Nicky was a top-class apprentice with Luca and seemed set for stardom, but it never really happened for him. And the strange thing is that I really don't know why. Granted, his father Alan and his brother Jamie have both shown slightly maverick tendencies at times (notwithstanding their successes in the saddle) but Nicky (pictured this morning in third place in John Gosden's string, in the pale cap, behind Rab Havlin and Laura Probert and alongside Saleem Golam) has always been a much less wild. Even so, despite I'd imagine always keeping his nose clean and despite being a very good jockey, he seemed at one stage in danger of falling off the face of the race-riding earth altogether. Taking a job with John Gosden last year seems to have been the best thing he ever did. He is now one of several jockeys in the stable getting race-rides to supplement their morning duties, and consequently, being seen to be riding good horses for a top-class stable, he is picking up more outside rides too. I don't think that I can add anything to the tribute which Hughie Morrison paid him after the race on Saturday: "Nicky is excellent - John Gosden uses him for a reason". The above photograph, of course, isn't much help if you want to know what he looks like, so the second one (of the Mark Tompkins-trained Astroleo at Yarmouth last Friday) is probably more useful in that respect.

The final unsung hero of the chapter, though, provides the best news of all. Over the past few decades, Dave Goodwin has been entering the winner's enclosure on foot rather than on horse-back. However, he has entered some very distinguished ones on foot, including the winner's circle at Epsom after the Derby in both 1985 and 1993, having looked after both Slip Anchor and Commander In Chief during his years working for Henry Cecil. Over and above being an outstanding and conscientious horseman, though, Dave is even more notable for being a really nice man - so the general concern when he appeared to be on death's door last May after being knocked off his bike in Snailwell was genuine and universal. Happily, the recovery which he has made has exceeded even the most optimistic predictions, so the highlight of last Saturday had to be the fact that Dave rode out again in Jeremy Noseda's string for the first time for more than a year. As it was his sixtieth birthday too, it was clearly a very special day for him - and, as such, was a day to warm the hearts of many. Dave had actually been back in the saddle already as I'd spied him on the stable's hack a few weeks ago, but returning to the back of a racehorse was a really special land-mark. And, happily, it wasn't just a one-off either, as he's now fully back doing what he loves and what he does so well, as the photograph above taken on the Severals this morning shows. And if that sight doesn't further brighten the already bright mornings enough, we have the never-failing brahma of Gus lairizing with the two older greyhounds, who tolerate his annoyances splendidly, on a daily basis to bring additional smiles to our faces.

Seaside sunshine

Our day at Yarmouth on Friday couldn't have been nicer. It's usually a real pleasure to go to Yarmouth; and on days like Friday, when the sun shone for most of the afternoon (other than when I was taking the photographs of Batgirl) and when there wasn't too much of that breeze which often makes it colder on the coast than one might expect, it was just perfect. And the icing of the cake, of course, was too very pleasing runs: a win by Batgirl and a good fifth by Hotfoot (pictured under Richard Mullen down at the start). One might ask why I should be so happy with a fifth place, when ideally one would always like to win. The reason is simple. A trainer would be very stupid if he expected to win every time he saddled a runner. When, like Hotfoot, the runner starts at 22/1, it is common sense that any impartial assessment of the form suggests that the horse is unlikely to be very competitive. So when Hotfoot - who had never previously been placed, who hadn't run since August and who had run very badly on her most recent outing - finished within three lengths of the winner in fifth place, it was clearly a time to be very pleased and encouraged by the run.

And Batgirl's win under Frankie Dettori was, of course, just lovely. Anyone who watched the race on ATR will have worked that out from the excellent coverage which it received: it received more attention than a Group One race on Channel Four! We have Jason Weaver to thank for this as he gave plenty of airplay to the fact that trainer and jockey had been colleagues in Luca Cumani's stable in our younger days in the '80s - a fact of which he was very aware as he too had been our colleague at the time. As I remarked to the Racing Post's reporter Bruce Action Jackson afterwards, it was understandable that Luca had had such a good strike rate in apprentice races at the time, with Frankie and Jason, who subsequently became two of the very few jockeys to have ridden 200 winners in a British season, as first and second apprentice! What made the connection around the win even stronger was that the ride was booked by another former colleague (Ray Cochrane, who was Luca's stable jockey at the time, is now Frankie's agent) while one of Luca's then-head lads, Peter 'Maxi' Taylor, was on duty down at the stalls. As mentioned in the chapter after Batgirl's win on Easter Monday, it has given me a huge amount of pleasure to have him winning for this stable; and it has been lovely to find that he, too, appears to have found such a result extremely pleasing. And, of course, it is always nice to have a brave and genuine horse such as Batgirl running well - and, while a trainer obviously wants to do well for any patron who has demonstrated faith in him by putting a horse into his care, one would be very hard pressed to find someone for whom it is more pleasing to saddle a winner than Tony Fordham, who fits very easily into the list of valued patrons for whom I can genuine say that I have had the pleasure to train. What better way, though, to end the summation of Batgirl's victory than with a brahma? Brahma of the day undoubtedly was provided collectively by the opposing jockeys in her race. When I was leading her and Frankie around down at the start, I was favoured with a few observations on the theme of (bearing in mind that I have just been elected onto Newmarket Town Council), "You know the only reason he is riding for you is that he wants permission to build a conservatory onto his house"!

Leaving aside the pleasure and satisfaction of Batgirl's win and of Hotfoot's good run, it was a lovely afternoon anyway. The weather was perfect, and the afternoon was a perfect illustration of why Yarmouth is such popular racecourse. It is always particularly popular with people from Newmarket: being close to home, it always attracts a lot of horses and people from our town, so it is very much a home from home. On my previous visit, when I had helped Jason with the ATR coverage ten days previously, all the winners had been trained either in Newmarket or very close by (ie by Julia Feilded in Exning or Chris Dwyer between Newmarket and Six Mile Bottom). Friday's card couldn't quite match that record, but even so there was a really local feel to its shape. Kieren Fallon rode three winners, one each for three of the town's stables I particularly like: Mosaicist in the opener for James Fanshawe, the well-named King's Best filly Wallis in the fillies' and mares' mile handicap for Luca Cumani and Torran Sound for James Fanshawe in the concluding staying handicap. (The three winners are pictured after the line, in that order). From the point of view of watching some of the world's best jockeys in action, it was great to see him and Frankie, two of the best jockeys the world has ever seen and two who have ridden umpteen champions in umpteen championship races, not only riding so well largely on middle-of-the-road horses for smaller stables at a relatively humble midweek card, but clearly really enjoying doing so. They have both enjoyed long and hugely successful careers so it would be understandable if they had reached the stage of just going through the motions, particularly at the minor meetings. Far from it: you see a master-class in race-riding pretty much any time you watch either of them in action, with probably the most pertinent lesson being that they are doing it so well because they are enjoying their work. That's a pleasure to behold. Long may it continue.

Taking over the asylum

I was very disappointed this year that the Racing Post didn't have an April Fool gag in its 1st April edition. (Or that I failed to spot the gag which that day's paper contained). However, all is forgiven now, I hope, because I'd like to think that they printed the story today (19th May) instead. You might have seen it because it ran along the top of pages two and three. The story concerns Racing For Change's latest wheeze, the creation of a collection of multi-coloured silks for use in a race at Ascot, a race whose conditions will carry the stipulation that the jockeys bear these harlequins' outfits rather than the liveries of the horses' owners. Anyway, the designs in the collection (which contains 12 sets) are "all based on the fruit machine theme" because "betting on horseracing and playing fruit machines go together". I don't think that I really need to make too many comments on these remarks and this farcical idea, other than possibly to add the observation that we our racecourse used to be adorned by a much greater variety of colours and designs than we see nowadays, but that these have been phased out in recent years because they are deemed to be too complicated, leaving owners to chose from a limited selection of basic colours and patterns. Anyway, instead of uttering any expletives, I'll just say that I sincerely hope that this article was an April Fool.

On the subject of working towards increasing racing's public appeal, I'll reproduce an excerpt from a recent Richard Callendar Winning Post column. Compare and contrast with what goes on here. "I welcomed the news that Australian Turf Club CEO Darren Pearce is looking outside his office to find out what punters and patrons at his club's meetings want out of a raceday. Pearce has given well-known ex-bookie David Emanual, who has always been a punter and racetrack regular, a blank sheet and told him to find out what the club needs to do to make racing more appealing, keep those regulars happy and maybe entice a new audience to head to the track. Marketing degrees are important when you're meeting with the corporate world but they mean very little to our customers at the track, in the public area or the members, and even less to the punters in lounge rooms, TABs, pubs and clubs around the country. Growing up as a regular Aussie and having a beer at the local is a better grounding to know what punters want than standing in room full of university students learning about graphs, demographic trends and which suit to wear to impress the marketing world. Emanual had his hands full at Canterbury last week when he approached some hardened regulars and asked them what they thought was missing from a racetrack experience. He was lucky there were only seven races because he was given all three barrels over what the ATC isn't doing but should be. I look forward to Emanual's report and I look forward even more to seeing what the ATC does with it.". Food for thought?

We'll have our own latest "racetrack experience" tomorrow when both Hotfoot (3.20) and Batgirl (4.20) run at Yarmouth. I'd imagine that Batgirl will go off close to favourite after her win over course and distance on Easter Monday, while Hotfoot seems to have a less obvious chance on her first run since last August, and only the fifth of her life. Frankie Dettori rides Batgirl again, while another very good jockey, Richard Mullen, will be on Hotfoot. Both horses are pictured here walking down the side of Warren Hill at the end of March (Batgirl and Hannah being closer to the camera, with Hotfoot and Hugh on the far side). Fingers crossed that both horses run creditably and safely. However well or badly they run, though, I'd say that my greatest training achievement of the week has already taken place. As you might have picked up, our cats have been rather stand-offish since the arrival of our (my) Dalmatian puppy Gus. Natagora in particular has been giving Gus a very wide berth, completely overlooking the fact that we had similarly to get used to her when she arrived. Gus is growing at an alarming rate, which is all the more alarming as Natagora seems to be shrinking (which can't really be true as she's not yet three years old, so it must be an optical illusion). Anyway, my aim had been to get them to the stage where they'd put on the 'upstairs downstairs' show - and I'm pleased to say that we got that this afternoon, as this extremely poor photograph shows. The ice has now truly been broken.

Bons mots

I've rather surprised myself by finding that the Racing Post's 'Tweets of the day' slot can be entertaining. Most tweets are inevitably dull - I find it hard enough to write twenty entertaining words out of a thousand, so if I were restricted to twenty words, the chances of even one of them being either enlightening or entertaining would be long odds against. The first few days that the paper carried this feature, the offerings were predictably banal, but last weekend we struck gold when both observations evoked a chuckle. Just in case you hadn't seen them, the first recounted an excerpt from an interview on Channel Four, Emma Spencer quizzing John Gosden. In answer to Emma's question, "This horse (I presume Duncan) was gelded over the winter - has that made a man of him?", John's reply was as good as you'd get: "That depends on how you like your men." Then we had Jamie Spencer (pictured) observing that "Kerrin McEvoy has contacted me to ask me to pass on a message to someone who is no longer alive. Does he not know, or is he trying to tell me something?". Pure gold!

The sentence best put recently, though, came from Team Valor principal Barry Irwin shortly after the syndicate's horse Animal Kingdom had passed the post in front in the Kentucky Derby. Under normal circumstances, the highlight of the Kentucky Derby telecast would have been The Village People's choral tip for Mucho Macho Man, but Barry Irwin, showing remarkably admirable correctness even in the immediate euphoria of victory, coped very well with the introduction given by the interviewer, who observed that Barry Irwin "used to be a former sports journalist". The response couldn't have been bettered: "I still am a former sports journalist". Great stuff.

Great stuff, too, at Market Rasen on Sunday, where dear Kadouchski ran another game race to finish second in the two miles, five furlongs handicap hurdle. Of all our opponents, the one by whom I really didn't expect to be beaten was the one who beat us, but that's racing. And I suppose that one could say that, as the winner Galley Slave (pictured looking very proud of his victory in this paragraph's third illustration) had gone into the race with a career record of one win from 76 starts, he was due a win. I particularly remember this horse's previous win (at Cartmel last August) because I was very taken by the fact that a horse whose career statistics were zero wins from 63 starts (as they were at the time) could go off at an SP as short as 11/2. A further pointer to Galley Slave's ostensibly surprising (but in retrospect easily explicable, as I'm now demonstrating) victory was the fact that, apparently, his trainer Michael Chapman was on a losing run at Market Rasen of 162 - and as I always think of Michael training all his winners at either Market Rasen (where he trains) or Cartmel (or Southwell on the Flat), then it was almost inevitable that Galley Slave would win, to bring this impossibly long sequence to an already-overdue conclusion. So that was that. And Kadou's performance was all the more creditable considering that the ground really was very firm, by jumping standards - and he, of course, has done all his turf winning on heavy ground. When I walked the track, I found it impossible to find the good places in what was supposed to be "good to firm, good in places". (I found the supposedly non-existent firm places easier to locate). I mustn't grumble, though, because the ground, although firm, was in great condition, with plenty of grass on top of the firm ground, and the firm ground itself being level rather than rough. And Market Rasen in general is a really well-run track whose management generally goes well beyond the course of duty to make things run smoothly for its patrons - as I discovered when I left some tack there on Sunday and subsequently found the track's staff very happy to locate it and assist in its reunion with me.

On the subject of walking the track, by the way, I might just use this as an opportunity to hail another unsung hero. Any time I'm walking the track at a jumps meeting, I can guarantee that I'll bump into the conditional jockey Charlie Wallis running round it if he is at the meeting, as he always does irrespective of what weight he has to do. We duly had our statutory pre-race meeting in the home straight on Sunday, and once again I was impressed by Charlie's professionalism, dedication and industry. He isn't exactly local to Newmarket, coming from Essex, but he started his time in racing here (with Chris Dwyer) and rode out for us on odd occasions when he was working for Chris. Having had, I think, a spell in the Pipes' stable, he's now, as you'll be aware, working for John O'Shea (pictured debriefing Charlie after their runner had finished third in the handicap chase on Sunday) and he rides most of that stable's jumpers. He rides them well, too, and, being one win away from a reduction in his claim, it shouldn't be too long before he's taken another step up the ladder.

Unsung heroes - reappeared and continued

A really strange thing happened. The previous chapter disappeared for 24 hours, which really pissed me off at the time, but thankfully it has reappeared. Thankfully for me, anyway (if not for the faithful few who have found it and felt obliged to wade through it) as it means that I don't feel moved to repeat myself. However, had I repeated myself, I would certainly have added to it by hailing Tom McLaughlin (seen in his main job, riding out for Ed Dunlop, crossing the Severals just behind Snow Fairy's attendant Lynsey Hannah last autumn) on riding the winner of the Listed race at Hamilton last night, Red Cadeaux in the Braveheart Stakes. Tom is a cracking jockey whose career has not been nearly as fruitful as he deserves, and for no obvious reason. The all-weather has always traditionally been his best hunting ground - he was easily the leading jockey at Wolverhampon during the days when he used to ride for Nick Littmoden, when Nick was based on the track and used to clean up on there and on the other AW tracks - so I suppose that he hasn't helped himself by heading for warmer climes over the past couple of winters. However, plenty of other jockeys do that and don't seem to find it hard to get going again during the summer. Tom (in the second picture returning to the winner's enclosure at Yarmouth last September on Batgirl) seems, though, to find things sticky. But now that he has a stakes win under his belt for the season, fingers crossed things will start to pick up again for him. They should do, anyway, if there are plenty of meetings at Bath and/or Chepstow coming up, as he always seems to make hay in the west country sunshine there, notwithstanding the distance from his home in Newmarket. Anyway, that win last night was well deserved, and merits applause. So it will get that here, if nowhere else.

Let's hope that our perennial unsung hero, William, can ride a winner tomorrow - particularly because, if he can, it will be on Kadouchski, who is (predictably) his only ride at Market Rasen. Kadou is moving up from his usual two miles to two miles and five furlongs, but I don't foresee that being a problem. He has stepped nicely into the role temporarily vacated by Ethics Girl, of running every two weeks and getting fatter and fatter, which is good. He's happy as a sandboy at present (the fact that he was content to stand still enough for me to take this long-distance shot of the fillies by Tiger Hill, Barathea and Beat Hollow - ridden by Hugh, Hannah and Adam respectively - setting off up the canter on Long Hill this morning suggests that he's fairly chilled out) so I hope that he will run well. The Dr. Newland-trained Wake Board might be a bigger problem than Kadou's condition, though: he won with his head in his chest today and, as that victory was in a steeplechase, he'll be unpenalized tomorrow, and should win if in similar form (which cannot, of course, be guaranteed). As that photograph shows, it was a really beautiful morning today, which was something of a surprise: not that lovely mornings are uncommon at present, but yesterday the radio told me that rain would cover the whole country, arriving into south east England during the night. It was, therefore, a pleasant surprise to find that the day dawned thus, with the picture of the two-year-olds being taken during second lot and with the sky having been even clearer earlier in the day when Hugh (on Asterisk) and I had been out, as the next three photographs demonstrate. Let's hope that some of the good form of John Gosden's string (the back of part of which is seen in the final photograph) will have rubbed off on us, with it having come up with winners at all three Grade One afternoon meetings yesterday (York, Newbury and Newmarket). Tomorrow afternoon will tell us.

Unsung heroes

By coincidence, I received a text from my friend John McNamara a couple of days after I'd written about the late David Chapman. I'm sure that John hadn't read my thoughts as expressed on this blog, but we had clearly, as so often, been thinking along the same lines. His typically lengthy text message concluded, "... Musing, on hearing of the sad news of David Chapman's death, about the daily, but lazy & thoughtless, media adoration of the trainers of huge strings of blue bloods to the detriment of a wonderfully talented handler who turned 40-rated losers into group performers again and again." I couldn't have put it better myself.
As you will have noticed in previous chapters, I do like to make partial amends on this blog for "the daily, but lazy & thoughtless" slant which is given to the general portayal of achievement within our little world, by highlighting a few quiet achievers. This is inevitably parochial, with the closer the achiever's home is to Exeter Road, the more likely his achievement is to be hailed. But that (parochialism) is the way of the world, so I make no apologies for drawing your attention to what I believe to be Ashley Hamblett's strike rate this season: I think that I am correct in saying that Ashley has had four rides this season, and two of them have won. His most recent win (I use the superlative rather than the comparitive, because of course his two wins this year do not represent the sum total of his achievements) came at Ascot last Saturday on the George Margarson-trained Imperial Guest, who won the last race, an 18-runner six-furlong handicap, by a neck and a head. Ashley has been riding out for three trainers in the mornings - George Margarson first (as the first photograph taken on Monday morning shows, with Ashley fourth in the George-led string - and eagle-eyed observers might see two extremely talented former jockeys, Sean Keightley and Gary Foster, just behind Ashley) then Peter Chapple-Hyam (whose string is pictured crossing the Bury Road towards the end of the winter, with Ashley between Gary Hindmarsh and Jack Mitchell) and then in this stable for Dave Morris - so he has now saluted the judge this year for two of his three employers, having ridden a winner for Peter on Easter Monday at Warwick. We've just got to see him in the winner's enclosure for Dave now, but that might be harder as Dave's ammunition is far from plentiful at present, and Dave's other rider, the similarly under-rated Adrian McCarthy (pictured leading Dave and Ashley home across the Severals at the end of March), should probably be regarded as the more senior rider in that queue of two.

We would, of course, say that the real quiet achiever in this parish has been Matt Crawley, who performed wonders to win over hurdles at Musselburgh without stirrups on Last Rose Of Summer for Rae Guest (pictured a couple of months ago with his wife Rachel in what has to be regarded as an increasing rare sighting of Rae in the saddle, which is rather a shame as Rae is one of the best riders I've ever seen) and has had very few rides since then to show for the feat. However, Matt won the 'Lester' for National Hunt Ride of the Season, so the achievement can no longer be regarded as a quiet one. Even so, though, I should hail him here because, as Matt's continued lack of patronage shows, the feats of the less celebrated names are easily forgotten. And they shouldn't be. And we should also hail Matt's employer Lucy Wadham, whose string has been going really well, most notably with the victory of Dorcas Lane in the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Craven Meeting at Newmarket. Lucy's nephew-in-law Hugo Palmer (Lucy's husband Justin is Hugo's uncle) has been in the news this week, having saddled his first winner when sending out Steady The Buffs to win the two-year-old maiden at Brighton on Monday under Adam Beschizza. Hugo (seen here on his grey hack alongside his string on a sunny morning early in the spring) is now ensconced in what was Luca's bottom yard on the Snailwell Road and he seems to be going about things in the right way, so I'd imagine that that victory will prove to be merely one of many for the filly's trainer. Adam, who I would have thought must be pretty much a certainty to be champion apprentice this season, then rode two winners for his aunt Julia Feilden at Yarmouth the following afternoon when I was there helping Jason Weaver to present the At The Races coverage - but a more surprising rider there was Russell Price (pictured on Warren Hill last month), making a come-back after several years out of the saddle and at an age when the few jockeys who are still riding are thinking of jacking it in. That was a suprise, but Russell's weight seems to be good and he certainly doesn't ride any less effectively than ever, so why not? Lack of riding ability has never been Russell's problem, and he seems to be working hard and applying himself, so there's no reason to say that this come-back won't see him return to the winner's enclosure at some stage.

At least all the above have been in the news for the right reasons - unlike two members of our community who have been in our prayers this past week. I went to the funeral at noon today in St. Mary's Church of Alan Scott, who died ten days ago at the age of 76. I hadn't even known that Alan had been unwell, but apparently he was diagnosed with cancer towards the end of the winter and then died eight weeks later. The last time I saw him was at Wolverhampton in the winter, in a role in which I had enjoyed bumping into him on numerous occasions over the years: that of travelling head lad for Robert Cowell, a role which he had filled for the entirety of Robert's training career. I didn't know Alan particularly well, but I always enjoyed seeing him, and he was a perfect example of the type of person who makes the racing community such a special one. He was a man I both liked and respected, and I offer my condolences to his family, most particularly his sons Nigel and Simon, both of whom spent lengthy periods working for Michael Stoute before moving on - in Nigel's case eventually out of racing.

We can only hope that a similar fate does not befall the hugely popular ex-jockey Richard Fox, who has been in a coma since collapsing in the Rookery Shopping Centre on 1,000 Guineas Day. Richard was one of the best light-weights of the '70s and '80s, and even, memorably, rode in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (finding himself in the right place at the right time when John Reid was injured at the start of the Prix de l'Abbaye, shortly before he was due to ride In The Groove for Richard's old friend and patron David Elsworth in the Arc) - but, talented though he was as a jockey, Richard's greatest talent surely has to be the never-failing ability to bring smiles to the faces of those around him (a talent which his son Dominic has inherited). Richard (pictured last July in Exeter Road with either Olivier Peslier or Mark Denaro) has remained one of the most popular and likeable inhabitants of this town, so let's hope that he can make a recovery - and, while initially the outlook seemed very bleak, the bulletin on the Racing Post site this evening seems more positive.