Kadouchski finishing second on the last day of October meant that we reached the end of that month winless, which was a shame as we had enjoyed at least one success in the each of the preceding 11 months. We had a good summer and early autumn last year, but October was winless before we resumed the sequence in November. And that sequence, happily, continued for 11 months, but sadly we couldn't make it 12 consecutive successful months, which was a shame as I'd have liked us to have done that. Still, it wasn't the end of the world - and, realistically, it would not really
have been something for which it would have been realistic to hope. We average around 80 runners per year, which is something between seven and eight a month. A busy month might see us having 10 or more runners, a quiet month only three or four. And when one's going to have several months with no more than one runner a week, it's not realistic to think that one can keep getting a win a month (although ironically our winless month saw us having 10 runners, with only three of those finishing in the first four). So now we must try to get a new sequence going, and our second attempt to get off the mark for
November will come tomorrow when Asterisk (pictured being schooled by William back in July) runs at Lingfield. It's hard to know what to expect as she has achieved very little so far; but, then again, she is only lightly-raced, she hasn't run for ages, and she has never run over hurdles. So it's a real shot in the dark - but I can say that she jumps very well. We will, unfortunately, be without the bang-in-form William (three wins in the past seven days) as he has to go to Huntingdon, but - funnily enough - our record when William's unavailable is surprisingly good, and Rhys Flint (who rides her) has won on two of the three occasions he has ridden for us. William would always be my first choice, but I'm never unhappy to leg Rhys aboard. Let's see what happens.
This is probably a good time to mention a few other young riders. There are plenty of good ones knocking around, some of whom have crossed our path. Most immediately we should mention poor Joe Akehurst, who rode so well for us at Sandown two days ago. Yesterday Joe called me around noon to say that he'd just broken his collar bone. He seemed to have taken this painful setback quite well, but it must have been a big disappointment to pick up
an injury at this time of year. Otherwise, local amateur Jack Quinlan is very much the man of the moment. Jack rode yet another winner today for John Ferguson, who has put together a string of Sheikh Mohammed's former horses, all now owned and trained by John. Jack went to work for John full-time in the summer and the rides seem to be split between him and Paul Moloney, which is great as the horses are very good and a large proportion of the runners win. Jack (pictured here at Stratford in June winning on Peader Miguel, trained by his father Noel - and then after the race alongside Noel and Richard Pitman) is a young lad of the highest calibre, both as a rider and as a person, and I am ever so pleased to see
fortune thus smiling on him. Otherwise, the jockey who deserves to be mentioned in dispatches is Elliot Canal, whom I wouldn't know from a bar of soap but whose name caught my eye when I was reading the results from Saint-Cloud last Thursday. Dick Francis always used to come up with some splendidly unlikely names for the characters in his novels, but this one is good even by his standards. And on the subject of great names, I was ever so pleased to see one of my favouritely-named (if that makes sense) horses finally salute the judge at Wolverhampton on Thursdsay (under November Handicap-winning hoop Robert Havlin, pictured on Ethics Girl): Whey Sauce, a filly like Ethics Girl whose name is best appreciated when heard rather than read.
Kadouchski finishing second on the last day of October meant that we reached the end of that month winless, which was a shame as we had enjoyed at least one success in the each of the preceding 11 months. We had a good summer and early autumn last year, but October was winless before we resumed the sequence in November. And that sequence, happily, continued for 11 months, but sadly we couldn't make it 12 consecutive successful months, which was a shame as I'd have liked us to have done that. Still, it wasn't the end of the world - and, realistically, it would not really 
have been something for which it would have been realistic to hope. We average around 80 runners per year, which is something between seven and eight a month. A busy month might see us having 10 or more runners, a quiet month only three or four. And when one's going to have several months with no more than one runner a week, it's not realistic to think that one can keep getting a win a month (although ironically our winless month saw us having 10 runners, with only three of those finishing in the first four). So now we must try to get a new sequence going, and our second attempt to get off the mark for 
November will come tomorrow when Asterisk (pictured being schooled by William back in July) runs at Lingfield. It's hard to know what to expect as she has achieved very little so far; but, then again, she is only lightly-raced, she hasn't run for ages, and she has never run over hurdles. So it's a real shot in the dark - but I can say that she jumps very well. We will, unfortunately, be without the bang-in-form William (three wins in the past seven days) as he has to go to Huntingdon, but - funnily enough - our record when William's unavailable is surprisingly good, and Rhys Flint (who rides her) has won on two of the three occasions he has ridden for us. William would always be my first choice, but I'm never unhappy to leg Rhys aboard. Let's see what happens.
This is probably a good time to mention a few other young riders. There are plenty of good ones knocking around, some of whom have crossed our path. Most immediately we should mention poor Joe Akehurst, who rode so well for us at Sandown two days ago. Yesterday Joe called me around noon to say that he'd just broken his collar bone. He seemed to have taken this painful setback quite well, but it must have been a big disappointment to pick up 
an injury at this time of year. Otherwise, local amateur Jack Quinlan is very much the man of the moment. Jack rode yet another winner today for John Ferguson, who has put together a string of Sheikh Mohammed's former horses, all now owned and trained by John. Jack went to work for John full-time in the summer and the rides seem to be split between him and Paul Moloney, which is great as the horses are very good and a large proportion of the runners win. Jack (pictured here at Stratford in June winning on Peader Miguel, trained by his father Noel - and then after the race alongside Noel and Richard Pitman) is a young lad of the highest calibre, both as a rider and as a person, and I am ever so pleased to see 
fortune thus smiling on him. Otherwise, the jockey who deserves to be mentioned in dispatches is Elliot Canal, whom I wouldn't know from a bar of soap but whose name caught my eye when I was reading the results from Saint-Cloud last Thursday. Dick Francis always used to come up with some splendidly unlikely names for the characters in his novels, but this one is good even by his standards. And on the subject of great names, I was ever so pleased to see one of my favouritely-named (if that makes sense) horses finally salute the judge at Wolverhampton on Thursdsay (under November Handicap-winning hoop Robert Havlin, pictured on Ethics Girl): Whey Sauce, a filly like Ethics Girl whose name is best appreciated when heard rather than read.
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