We're still getting more than our fair share of magnificent mornings (such as Monday, as seen here, looking over Long Hill and then the Severals) and warm sunny days this week. So far, anyway. However, before I move on to this week, I should just revert to last week. No review of last weekend should have concluded without my saying how much pleasure I received from two victories at Doncaster on Saturday. Well, three really, because everyone loves to see a really good horse; and Camelot certainly is that. Most likely he won't win the Triple Crown, but we can use the thought that he might
to keep us warm over the winter. There has been a Triple Crown winner in my lifetime, but I hadn't yet started to pay attention to racing in 1970, so within my conscious racing lifetime there has been none. And I really hope that that omission will be rectified before it's too late. Anyway, leaving Camelot aside, I was delighted by the victories of Mia's Boy and Direct Answer. Mia's Boy is a grand horse, as admirable as his trainer and owner, Chris and Shelley Dwyer (pictured on him early last month). He hadn't won for a couple of years (in fact, not since that same race two years ago, I believe) but
he races at a very competitive level, and he'd run some terrific races in the interim. He really deserved that victory, and so did his connections. I'd been very pleased too earlier in the afternoon to see Direct Answer, a horse who has featured in this blog in the past, win a handicap. He's a son of one of my favourite stallions (Dynaformer) and I'm always pleased to see him and his lad Umar Saleem on the Heath (as here on Long Hill in a wet week in August) - well, almost always. I'd had a cock-up a couple of weeks previously when Kadouchski and I had overtaken him on the Al Bahathri when we were galloping and he was, to my surprise,
doing pacework. Everyone involved had got their wires crossed, particularly me, so I was pleased when I waited at the end for Umar to apologise and explain that I hadn't meant to muck his exercise up, to find that he didn't mind and said that the exercise hadn't been spoiled anyway. Because all three people involved (Umar, Michael Stoute and Tony Crombie, the head lad who had been at the bottom of the gallop) are people whom I like and respect, I emailed Michael Stoute to reiterate the apology which I'd given to Umar. The reply was a brahma: that it was good of me to have written, that I had nothing to apologise for, that the misunderstanding hadn't been my fault, and that "anyway it was good to see you ride another winner in such a short space of time"! The fact, of course, that I was on Kadouchski made this brahma particularly good.
Moving on to this week, the most note-worthy event has, unfortunately, been the departure of Rhythm Stick. It's a fact of life that horses don't stay here forever, so there's no good in worrying about it. And we had reached the obvious time for Rhythm Stick's breeders (who had bred him to sell him, but hadn't done so when he was a yearling, as had been the plan, because he was still too backward then to be offered for sale) to sell him - and, while they would have loved to have kept such a lovely horse and found it a wrench to make the decision to do so,
it was an economic fact of life that it behoved them to do so, as long as they were offered a good price. So he headed up to Tattersalls' Horses in Training Sale yesterday, where he duly fetched a very good price (35,000 gns). It was a sad moment for us all to bid him farewell, but there's no reason to suppose that he won't be in safe hands with his new keepers. He leaves us with many happy memories, and he departs with our very best wishes. Life goes on - and in this particular case the circle continues as we've recently welcomed a lovely Tiger Hill yearling filly (pictured being lunged by the photographer on the Severals on Monday) from his breeders Louise and Peter. She, too, was
too backward to attract a buyer at the yearling sale, but she too surely has potential. So let's hope for lightning to strike twice. If she is as obliging a horse as he proved himself to be, I'm sure that she'll do very well. She has big shoes to fill. More immediately, we must hope for a good result at Kempton this evening when Hotfoot (pictured in the field a few weeks ago) runs at 6.05. It's hard to be too optimistic about a horse who has disappointed sorely in the past, as she has done on three occasions, but she seems well - and seems to be in a suitable race, bearing in mind that, despite her poor record, the Racing Post has put her in as the second favourite. She'll (like all our runners) be doing her best, so let's hope that her best is good enough.
Looking elsewhere, there's one happy story and one very sad one, each concerning one of Newmarket's finest horsemen and nicest people. Ray McGhin's tale is a good one. Ray (pictured early in the summer on Lucy Wadham's stakes-winning filly Dorcas Lane) had a terrible fall at the bottom of Long Hill a few weeks ago. We saw him lying there receiving attention from the medics on our outward journey one lot, and he was still there on our return, not having moved at all in the interim. That didn't bode at all well, and it turned out that his injuries were indeed severe. Anyway, the happiest sight for me this week was bumping into him and his wife Lynn in the High Street a couple of days ago. They had just got off the 'bus from the airport, having returned from a holiday in Ibiza, where his convalescence had clearly continued apace. Other than having lost a little bit of weight, Ray looked pretty much back to normal, which was as cheering a sight as I could have asked for. At the other end of the scale, the saddest news of the week was the death of George Winsor. Look at any photograph of a Henry Cecil horse returning to the winner's enclosure in that stable's golden era, and George will be alongside in his role as travelling head lad. He left Henry's stable when Julie started training. He served as Julie's head lad throughout her training career (which was when I first got to know him well, as I was training for a time - 1995 and '96 - in the neighbouring stable) and subsequently worked for Nick Littmoden and Jeremy Noseda. Anyway, George had a terrible fall on the Al Bahathri last year when the horse he was galloping, I think, dropped dead. When the surgeons were investigating his many injuries, they found, shockingly, that his battered body also contained fairly advanced, but still undetected, terminal cancer. I'd say that it was only George's toughness which kept him alive for as long as he did, but sadly he finally lost the unwinnable battle a couple of days ago. There will have been more famous men move on during the past year, but no better one.
We're still getting more than our fair share of magnificent mornings (such as Monday, as seen here, looking over Long Hill and then the Severals) and warm sunny days this week. So far, anyway. However, before I move on to this week, I should just revert to last week. No review of last weekend should have concluded without my saying how much pleasure I received from two victories at Doncaster on Saturday. Well, three really, because everyone loves to see a really good horse; and Camelot certainly is that. Most likely he won't win the Triple Crown, but we can use the thought that he might 
to keep us warm over the winter. There has been a Triple Crown winner in my lifetime, but I hadn't yet started to pay attention to racing in 1970, so within my conscious racing lifetime there has been none. And I really hope that that omission will be rectified before it's too late. Anyway, leaving Camelot aside, I was delighted by the victories of Mia's Boy and Direct Answer. Mia's Boy is a grand horse, as admirable as his trainer and owner, Chris and Shelley Dwyer (pictured on him early last month). He hadn't won for a couple of years (in fact, not since that same race two years ago, I believe) but 
he races at a very competitive level, and he'd run some terrific races in the interim. He really deserved that victory, and so did his connections. I'd been very pleased too earlier in the afternoon to see Direct Answer, a horse who has featured in this blog in the past, win a handicap. He's a son of one of my favourite stallions (Dynaformer) and I'm always pleased to see him and his lad Umar Saleem on the Heath (as here on Long Hill in a wet week in August) - well, almost always. I'd had a cock-up a couple of weeks previously when Kadouchski and I had overtaken him on the Al Bahathri when we were galloping and he was, to my surprise, 
doing pacework. Everyone involved had got their wires crossed, particularly me, so I was pleased when I waited at the end for Umar to apologise and explain that I hadn't meant to muck his exercise up, to find that he didn't mind and said that the exercise hadn't been spoiled anyway. Because all three people involved (Umar, Michael Stoute and Tony Crombie, the head lad who had been at the bottom of the gallop) are people whom I like and respect, I emailed Michael Stoute to reiterate the apology which I'd given to Umar. The reply was a brahma: that it was good of me to have written, that I had nothing to apologise for, that the misunderstanding hadn't been my fault, and that "anyway it was good to see you ride another winner in such a short space of time"! The fact, of course, that I was on Kadouchski made this brahma particularly good.
Moving on to this week, the most note-worthy event has, unfortunately, been the departure of Rhythm Stick. It's a fact of life that horses don't stay here forever, so there's no good in worrying about it. And we had reached the obvious time for Rhythm Stick's breeders (who had bred him to sell him, but hadn't done so when he was a yearling, as had been the plan, because he was still too backward then to be offered for sale) to sell him - and, while they would have loved to have kept such a lovely horse and found it a wrench to make the decision to do so, 
it was an economic fact of life that it behoved them to do so, as long as they were offered a good price. So he headed up to Tattersalls' Horses in Training Sale yesterday, where he duly fetched a very good price (35,000 gns). It was a sad moment for us all to bid him farewell, but there's no reason to suppose that he won't be in safe hands with his new keepers. He leaves us with many happy memories, and he departs with our very best wishes. Life goes on - and in this particular case the circle continues as we've recently welcomed a lovely Tiger Hill yearling filly (pictured being lunged by the photographer on the Severals on Monday) from his breeders Louise and Peter. She, too, was 
too backward to attract a buyer at the yearling sale, but she too surely has potential. So let's hope for lightning to strike twice. If she is as obliging a horse as he proved himself to be, I'm sure that she'll do very well. She has big shoes to fill. More immediately, we must hope for a good result at Kempton this evening when Hotfoot (pictured in the field a few weeks ago) runs at 6.05. It's hard to be too optimistic about a horse who has disappointed sorely in the past, as she has done on three occasions, but she seems well - and seems to be in a suitable race, bearing in mind that, despite her poor record, the Racing Post has put her in as the second favourite. She'll (like all our runners) be doing her best, so let's hope that her best is good enough.
Looking elsewhere, there's one happy story and one very sad one, each concerning one of Newmarket's finest horsemen and nicest people. Ray McGhin's tale is a good one. Ray (pictured early in the summer on Lucy Wadham's stakes-winning filly Dorcas Lane) had a terrible fall at the bottom of Long Hill a few weeks ago. We saw him lying there receiving attention from the medics on our outward journey one lot, and he was still there on our return, not having moved at all in the interim. That didn't bode at all well, and it turned out that his injuries were indeed severe. Anyway, the happiest sight for me this week was bumping into him and his wife Lynn in the High Street a couple of days ago. They had just got off the 'bus from the airport, having returned from a holiday in Ibiza, where his convalescence had clearly continued apace. Other than having lost a little bit of weight, Ray looked pretty much back to normal, which was as cheering a sight as I could have asked for. At the other end of the scale, the saddest news of the week was the death of George Winsor. Look at any photograph of a Henry Cecil horse returning to the winner's enclosure in that stable's golden era, and George will be alongside in his role as travelling head lad. He left Henry's stable when Julie started training. He served as Julie's head lad throughout her training career (which was when I first got to know him well, as I was training for a time - 1995 and '96 - in the neighbouring stable) and subsequently worked for Nick Littmoden and Jeremy Noseda. Anyway, George had a terrible fall on the Al Bahathri last year when the horse he was galloping, I think, dropped dead. When the surgeons were investigating his many injuries, they found, shockingly, that his battered body also contained fairly advanced, but still undetected, terminal cancer. I'd say that it was only George's toughness which kept him alive for as long as he did, but sadly he finally lost the unwinnable battle a couple of days ago. There will have been more famous men move on during the past year, but no better one.
3 comments:
Hi John, I hope all is well with you! I've been following the blog from Egypt- Luxor is rather different from Newmarket, but is very enjoyable. Shame that Whipper has moved on, I'll continue to follow him via the Racing Post though. Say hi to everyone for me, and good luck to Hotfoot in her next race (and any other runners that you have soon)!
Becky
Thanks Becky. Good to hear that you're enjoying Egypt.
I'm with Billy kilgallon he is trying to get in touch with people that he new from Newmarket
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