Monday did indeed sort of prove to be the last day of the Indian summer, but happily the good weather still hasn't disappeared altogether. I think that we got up to something like 27 on Monday which was lovely, but we've still managed the low 20s in the couple of days since then. And warm nights too, although with a wind blowing I have put the rugs on the horses again tonight as I think that it will end up a bit cooler. The wind seems to be bringing in a change with some clouds starting to appear in the sky as of yesterday (as these first
two photographs show) but the change, happily, is only coming slowly. We're very dry still and today's warm wind will have made things even drier. I see that the ground is likely to be firm at tomorrow's meeting at Towcester, and jumps meetings tend to try to move heaven and earth rather than have to announce a firm track. But the strong warm wind today will have made moistening soil very, very difficult - as was confirmed to me when I cycled over to inspect the Rowley Mile this afternoon, where I took the third and fourth photographs in this paragraph.
The side of the track on which Saturday's inaugural 'Future Champions' Day', including the Cesarewitch, will be run is fresh ground so there is a very thick covering of grass on it, and that grass will provide a certain degree of cushioning - but take the grass away and one would have to call the ground firm, which sadly means that we won't be running Alcalde in the Cesarewitch on Saturday. It is hard with these early-closing races because Alcalde's owners have paid 800 pounds for him to be in the Cesarewitch, so under the circumstances one feels
almost obliged to run if at all possible - but basically running on that ground would make no sense at all. There will be 34 runners and there's only really a point in running if one can finish in the top four - and the top four in a field of 34 means that one would need to have everything in one's favour. So one would be risking jarring the horse up - and I have no doubt that several of the runners will come home jarred up - to run in a race in which it is almost certain that one would finish unplaced. So he will probably run in a hurdle race at Cheltenham six days later instead (assuming some cut in the ground, which seems a fair assumption).
We could have three jumps runners next week as Kadouchski is entered at Huntingdon and Dr Darcey will have some entries too. I'd imagine that the Dr will run somewhere, but rain will have to reach Huntingdon before Tuesday for Kadou (pictured in the field yesterday) to make his long-awaited and oft-postponed steeplechasing debut there. Before that, Ethics Girl might run at Salisbury on Monday. She seems to have come out of her race at Warwick last Thursday as well as she generally comes out of races (ie very well). We were back
at Warwick four days later, ie on Monday, for Grand Liaison's debut (after which she and Adrian McCarthy are pictured in the dazzling sunshine). I'd be lying if I said that she ran well, as she finished last, but I wasn't unhappy with the run. She was one of only two debutantes and she finished just behind the other one, the pair of them both showing their inexperience by getting a bit lost from the outset. She's unlikely to scale the heights achieved by some of the horses who finished last on debut (eg Kingston Town or Dulcify - and this can be today's project, coming up
with other champions to finish last first time out) but she'll do OK. The funny thing about this race was that I was stupid enough not to realise until the next day that I had trained the dam, maternal grandsire and grand-dam of the winner (La Gessa, Largesse, En Grisaille). I can't believe that I missed that, particularly as I'd done the form closely enough to have taken on board that this horse was by Monsieur Bond, was trained by Peter Makin and had run well enough at Newbury on his most recent outing to make him a likely winner of the race. And I'd looked at him as a yearling in Tattersalls last October. I suppose that it just demonstrates that when you have a runner in a race, that one horse can dominate your attention. But, even so, how dozy can I get?
Monday did indeed sort of prove to be the last day of the Indian summer, but happily the good weather still hasn't disappeared altogether. I think that we got up to something like 27 on Monday which was lovely, but we've still managed the low 20s in the couple of days since then. And warm nights too, although with a wind blowing I have put the rugs on the horses again tonight as I think that it will end up a bit cooler. The wind seems to be bringing in a change with some clouds starting to appear in the sky as of yesterday (as these first 
two photographs show) but the change, happily, is only coming slowly. We're very dry still and today's warm wind will have made things even drier. I see that the ground is likely to be firm at tomorrow's meeting at Towcester, and jumps meetings tend to try to move heaven and earth rather than have to announce a firm track. But the strong warm wind today will have made moistening soil very, very difficult - as was confirmed to me when I cycled over to inspect the Rowley Mile this afternoon, where I took the third and fourth photographs in this paragraph. 
The side of the track on which Saturday's inaugural 'Future Champions' Day', including the Cesarewitch, will be run is fresh ground so there is a very thick covering of grass on it, and that grass will provide a certain degree of cushioning - but take the grass away and one would have to call the ground firm, which sadly means that we won't be running Alcalde in the Cesarewitch on Saturday. It is hard with these early-closing races because Alcalde's owners have paid 800 pounds for him to be in the Cesarewitch, so under the circumstances one feels
almost obliged to run if at all possible - but basically running on that ground would make no sense at all. There will be 34 runners and there's only really a point in running if one can finish in the top four - and the top four in a field of 34 means that one would need to have everything in one's favour. So one would be risking jarring the horse up - and I have no doubt that several of the runners will come home jarred up - to run in a race in which it is almost certain that one would finish unplaced. So he will probably run in a hurdle race at Cheltenham six days later instead (assuming some cut in the ground, which seems a fair assumption).
We could have three jumps runners next week as Kadouchski is entered at Huntingdon and Dr Darcey will have some entries too. I'd imagine that the Dr will run somewhere, but rain will have to reach Huntingdon before Tuesday for Kadou (pictured in the field yesterday) to make his long-awaited and oft-postponed steeplechasing debut there. Before that, Ethics Girl might run at Salisbury on Monday. She seems to have come out of her race at Warwick last Thursday as well as she generally comes out of races (ie very well). We were back 
at Warwick four days later, ie on Monday, for Grand Liaison's debut (after which she and Adrian McCarthy are pictured in the dazzling sunshine). I'd be lying if I said that she ran well, as she finished last, but I wasn't unhappy with the run. She was one of only two debutantes and she finished just behind the other one, the pair of them both showing their inexperience by getting a bit lost from the outset. She's unlikely to scale the heights achieved by some of the horses who finished last on debut (eg Kingston Town or Dulcify - and this can be today's project, coming up 
with other champions to finish last first time out) but she'll do OK. The funny thing about this race was that I was stupid enough not to realise until the next day that I had trained the dam, maternal grandsire and grand-dam of the winner (La Gessa, Largesse, En Grisaille). I can't believe that I missed that, particularly as I'd done the form closely enough to have taken on board that this horse was by Monsieur Bond, was trained by Peter Makin and had run well enough at Newbury on his most recent outing to make him a likely winner of the race. And I'd looked at him as a yearling in Tattersalls last October. I suppose that it just demonstrates that when you have a runner in a race, that one horse can dominate your attention. But, even so, how dozy can I get?
2 comments:
I'm pretty sure the mighty Phar Lap finished last in his first race John.
Nathan.
Thanks, Nathan. I'd had a feeling that that was the case too, but I'd been too lazy to check.
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