We'll be back this evening to the routine of racing at night with which we became so familiar last winter. Thankfully, common sense is again prevailing and the winter midweek evening meetings are being run at a sensible time. For too long they persisted with a last-race time of 9.20, which made no sense from any point of view: after all, it isn't only the participants who have to be up for work the next day, but potential racegoers and punters too. Those winter late evening meetings used to attract virtually no spectators, and it's easy to see why. Plus, from an off-course point of view, there was no sense in having a massive hiatus between the end of the afternoon racing and the start of the evening meeting. So now procedings start shortly after the afternoon fixtures end, wind up at a civilized hour, and I'm sure that any audience is (nearly) as pleased by this time-table as are those who put on the show. So tonight we'll be running Karma Chameleon (pictured following Dr Darcey around Side Hill AW on Monday) at 5.20, which will be the third race on a 7-race card which starts at 4.20 and ends at 7.20, which is grand. The day's last afternoon race, incidentally is at 4.00 (at Hereford) so all works well - not having the first evening race until 6.20, as would formerly have been the case, would have been madness.
Let's hope that it's an enjoyable trip, like our visit to Folkestone on Tuesday. Monday was a pretty grim day - dark, damp and cold - but Tuesday and Wednesday (ie yesterday) were lovely days, with warm sunshine after a very foggy start. Admittedly on Tuesday the murk had reappeared by the time that racing was run, but the second half of the morning had been truly glorious, allowing Gus to enjoy his inspection of the course in lovely sunshine. Dr Darcey ran well. He'd finished miles behind the Seamus Mullins-trained Hi Samana at Kempton last month when they made their debuts in the same race,
with Hi Samana finishing a close second and Dr Darcey finishing a distant fifth. The margin between them was massively reduced this time as Hi Samana, unsurprisingly, won, while Dr Darcey (pictured heading out boldly towards the track before the race) finished third. He jumped much more positively and did everything right, being very calm but perky before the race, travelling and jumping with enthusiasm in it, and looking very content afterwards. His run at Kempton had been a bit of a let-down as (largely because of circumstances out
of our control, ie a horse falling in front of him at the second) his performance was much less polished than I'd have liked it to have been. However, this was a massive step in the right direction - and when a horse puts in one of those, one has to be pleased. Let's hope that he can continue to progress from here, that his mini-me (ie Karma Chameleon) can run well on his first run from the stable, and then that Zarosa (seen here yesterday morning through Asterisk's ears at around 9.15 just as the fog was starting to lift) can be inspired by the Doctor to follow in his foosteps by running an awful lot better at Wolverhampton (late) on Saturday night than she did on her debut at Newmarket last month.
We'll be back this evening to the routine of racing at night with which we became so familiar last winter. Thankfully, common sense is again prevailing and the winter midweek evening meetings are being run at a sensible time. For too long they persisted with a last-race time of 9.20, which made no sense from any point of view: after all, it isn't only the participants who have to be up for work the next day, but potential racegoers and punters too. Those winter late evening meetings used to attract virtually no spectators, and it's easy to see why. Plus, from an off-course point of view, there was no sense in having a massive hiatus between the end of the afternoon racing and the start of the evening meeting. So now procedings start shortly after the afternoon fixtures end, wind up at a civilized hour, and I'm sure that any audience is (nearly) as pleased by this time-table as are those who put on the show. So tonight we'll be running Karma Chameleon (pictured following Dr Darcey around Side Hill AW on Monday) at 5.20, which will be the third race on a 7-race card which starts at 4.20 and ends at 7.20, which is grand. The day's last afternoon race, incidentally is at 4.00 (at Hereford) so all works well - not having the first evening race until 6.20, as would formerly have been the case, would have been madness.
Let's hope that it's an enjoyable trip, like our visit to Folkestone on Tuesday. Monday was a pretty grim day - dark, damp and cold - but Tuesday and Wednesday (ie yesterday) were lovely days, with warm sunshine after a very foggy start. Admittedly on Tuesday the murk had reappeared by the time that racing was run, but the second half of the morning had been truly glorious, allowing Gus to enjoy his inspection of the course in lovely sunshine. Dr Darcey ran well. He'd finished miles behind the Seamus Mullins-trained Hi Samana at Kempton last month when they made their debuts in the same race, 
with Hi Samana finishing a close second and Dr Darcey finishing a distant fifth. The margin between them was massively reduced this time as Hi Samana, unsurprisingly, won, while Dr Darcey (pictured heading out boldly towards the track before the race) finished third. He jumped much more positively and did everything right, being very calm but perky before the race, travelling and jumping with enthusiasm in it, and looking very content afterwards. His run at Kempton had been a bit of a let-down as (largely because of circumstances out 
of our control, ie a horse falling in front of him at the second) his performance was much less polished than I'd have liked it to have been. However, this was a massive step in the right direction - and when a horse puts in one of those, one has to be pleased. Let's hope that he can continue to progress from here, that his mini-me (ie Karma Chameleon) can run well on his first run from the stable, and then that Zarosa (seen here yesterday morning through Asterisk's ears at around 9.15 just as the fog was starting to lift) can be inspired by the Doctor to follow in his foosteps by running an awful lot better at Wolverhampton (late) on Saturday night than she did on her debut at Newmarket last month.
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