I enjoyed my trip to Lingfield on Tuesday, even though it was a gloomy, wet day. And I'm pleased to say that Asterisk seemed to enjoy it too, which was great as she hadn't really enjoyed her previous visits to the races. Mind you, this was easier for her: what she hadn't enjoyed in the past had been the starting stalls, and of course there were no stalls for her hurdle race, hence her being aimed at it. Unfortunately she had developed a massive aversion to starting stalls before she arrived here two and a half years ago, an aversion which we have never been able completely to overcome. However,
when we took her to Newmarket in the summer I was pleasantly surprised by how relaxed and settled she was in the preliminaries while being saddled and while walking around the parade ring - but when she got down to the start and saw the stalls she become a different, and far less relaxed, horse. After that it was an easy decision to wait for the autumn and send her hurdling - and I'm delighted to say that on Tuesday she was ever so relaxed being saddled and in the parade ring, and still ever so relaxed when she arrived at the stalls-less start. We could see her on the TV walking around perkily at the start, rather than jig-jogging nervously, and she really looked in her element. And
she was very unstressed afterwards too, so that was all good. And the most important part, the race? Well, she ran OK. (In fact, by the standards of horses who finish 12th, beaten 50 lengths, she ran very, very well!). She wasn't far away from the leaders, and still going OK, when a horse fell in front of her at the second last hurdle. She was nearly brought down and that ended her chances of finishing close to the place-getters. So no harm was done. It was actually something of a low act by the horse (the favourite) who nearly brought her down: she cut in front of Asterisk approaching the hurdle, which wasn't a very nice thing to do - and then fell, causing even more (considerably more) interference to Asterisk than she already had. Still, that horse is owned by one of my favourite musicians/singers, Roger Waters, so all is forgiven. If I were going to make a weak pun, I'd say that this horse's jockey, when waiting beside the track afterwards for his lift back to the weighing room, was picked up by the ambulance so promptly that he didn't have time to consider the pros and cons of hitch-hiking; but I'm not, so I won't. And I won't mention that, when he got back to the weighing room and wanted to find out exactly what had happened, he did so by watching TV.
So that was Tuesday, a damp, dreary, drizzly day - which was at least an improvement on Monday, which was a very wet one indeed. But the good news is that, having in a few days gone a long way towards catching up on our rainfall quota after the prolonged dry period, we've returned to more pleasant conditions today. It was like a spring day, which was lovely, and a couple more like this should dry the place out a bit. I happened to be up at the far end of Waterhall at around 3.50 this afternoon, and as you can see, from under an oak tree which is doing remarkably well at retaining its leaves this far into autumn, we were getting set for a magnificent autumn sunset at the time. Let's hope that we see as much of the sun again tomorrow.
I can't finish, by the way, without saluting a couple of recent winners. I wasn't still at Lingfield by the time the last race was run on Tuesday (in fact, I was probably considerably closer to Newmarket than to Lingfield by that time, being keen to get home expeditiously as it was the Town Meeting at 6.30 that evening and, as a councillor, I wanted to be home in good time for that; so, having run in the first race, we left shortly after the third) but, had I still been there, I would have watched a very good Newmarket-based conditional jockey, Trevor Whelan, ride a winner for his boss Neil King. Trevor (pictured in Neil's string at the bottom of Warren Hill a few months ago, behind Alex Merriam,
and also riding the Toby Coles-trained Dear Maurice at Huntingdon last month, just ahead of AP McCoy) arrived in Newmarket in the summer, having previously worked for George Baker (and Ian Williams before him, I believe). He's working for Neil, as mentioned above, so we see him every day; and, while I haven't watched him ride that many races, he seems a very good rider indeed, and a very switched-on, professional
and diligent young jockey. Let's hope that that victory will help him on his way, because I'd say that he deserves to get on. Anyway, I was pleased to see that horse win - and another horse I was pleased to see win recently was a sprinter trained in the same part of town. Unbelievably, Dunaden, who cost 1,500 euros as a foal, was not the least expensive Group race winner on Melbourne Cup day: Iver Bridge Lad, whom John Ryan bought for 1,000 gns as a yearling, won a Group Three race in France the same day. That was excellent. The horse (pictured in the summer with Kirsty Milczarket at the bottom of Long Hill) had been running consistently well all year and he really deserved a Group win, as did his trainer. So I was delighted to see that come to pass.
I enjoyed my trip to Lingfield on Tuesday, even though it was a gloomy, wet day. And I'm pleased to say that Asterisk seemed to enjoy it too, which was great as she hadn't really enjoyed her previous visits to the races. Mind you, this was easier for her: what she hadn't enjoyed in the past had been the starting stalls, and of course there were no stalls for her hurdle race, hence her being aimed at it. Unfortunately she had developed a massive aversion to starting stalls before she arrived here two and a half years ago, an aversion which we have never been able completely to overcome. However, 
when we took her to Newmarket in the summer I was pleasantly surprised by how relaxed and settled she was in the preliminaries while being saddled and while walking around the parade ring - but when she got down to the start and saw the stalls she become a different, and far less relaxed, horse. After that it was an easy decision to wait for the autumn and send her hurdling - and I'm delighted to say that on Tuesday she was ever so relaxed being saddled and in the parade ring, and still ever so relaxed when she arrived at the stalls-less start. We could see her on the TV walking around perkily at the start, rather than jig-jogging nervously, and she really looked in her element. And 
she was very unstressed afterwards too, so that was all good. And the most important part, the race? Well, she ran OK. (In fact, by the standards of horses who finish 12th, beaten 50 lengths, she ran very, very well!). She wasn't far away from the leaders, and still going OK, when a horse fell in front of her at the second last hurdle. She was nearly brought down and that ended her chances of finishing close to the place-getters. So no harm was done. It was actually something of a low act by the horse (the favourite) who nearly brought her down: she cut in front of Asterisk approaching the hurdle, which wasn't a very nice thing to do - and then fell, causing even more (considerably more) interference to Asterisk than she already had. Still, that horse is owned by one of my favourite musicians/singers, Roger Waters, so all is forgiven. If I were going to make a weak pun, I'd say that this horse's jockey, when waiting beside the track afterwards for his lift back to the weighing room, was picked up by the ambulance so promptly that he didn't have time to consider the pros and cons of hitch-hiking; but I'm not, so I won't. And I won't mention that, when he got back to the weighing room and wanted to find out exactly what had happened, he did so by watching TV. 
So that was Tuesday, a damp, dreary, drizzly day - which was at least an improvement on Monday, which was a very wet one indeed. But the good news is that, having in a few days gone a long way towards catching up on our rainfall quota after the prolonged dry period, we've returned to more pleasant conditions today. It was like a spring day, which was lovely, and a couple more like this should dry the place out a bit. I happened to be up at the far end of Waterhall at around 3.50 this afternoon, and as you can see, from under an oak tree which is doing remarkably well at retaining its leaves this far into autumn, we were getting set for a magnificent autumn sunset at the time. Let's hope that we see as much of the sun again tomorrow.
I can't finish, by the way, without saluting a couple of recent winners. I wasn't still at Lingfield by the time the last race was run on Tuesday (in fact, I was probably considerably closer to Newmarket than to Lingfield by that time, being keen to get home expeditiously as it was the Town Meeting at 6.30 that evening and, as a councillor, I wanted to be home in good time for that; so, having run in the first race, we left shortly after the third) but, had I still been there, I would have watched a very good Newmarket-based conditional jockey, Trevor Whelan, ride a winner for his boss Neil King. Trevor (pictured in Neil's string at the bottom of Warren Hill a few months ago, behind Alex Merriam, 
and also riding the Toby Coles-trained Dear Maurice at Huntingdon last month, just ahead of AP McCoy) arrived in Newmarket in the summer, having previously worked for George Baker (and Ian Williams before him, I believe). He's working for Neil, as mentioned above, so we see him every day; and, while I haven't watched him ride that many races, he seems a very good rider indeed, and a very switched-on, professional 
and diligent young jockey. Let's hope that that victory will help him on his way, because I'd say that he deserves to get on. Anyway, I was pleased to see that horse win - and another horse I was pleased to see win recently was a sprinter trained in the same part of town. Unbelievably, Dunaden, who cost 1,500 euros as a foal, was not the least expensive Group race winner on Melbourne Cup day: Iver Bridge Lad, whom John Ryan bought for 1,000 gns as a yearling, won a Group Three race in France the same day. That was excellent. The horse (pictured in the summer with Kirsty Milczarket at the bottom of Long Hill) had been running consistently well all year and he really deserved a Group win, as did his trainer. So I was delighted to see that come to pass.
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