A pleasant winter weekend

Yesterday morning was indeed a cold one, but the wind had dropped so it wasn't too bad at all. We had a fair amount of frost here (as they clearly had at both Lingfield, which was abandoned, and Doncaster, where racing only went ahead after, I think, four inspections) and the ice which had formed here overnight on the puddles was still there come nightfall where the puddles hadn't been in the sun. In fact, even though a signficant warm front had moved in overnight last night, some of the ice was still there this morning. But, as I say, it was only a few degrees below zero, and a still and bright morning meant that conditions were far from unpleasant. And the morning was quite spectacular once the sun came up, as you can see with the pictures of Karma Chameleon heading into the rising sun en route to the Al Bahathri, and then coming up the Al Bahathri; and then of Dr Darcey heading up towards Side Hill for his canter mid-morning. Karma Chameleon was meant to have gone to Southwell yesterday but we had to scrap that plan, so he just had a gallop instead and will instead head to Kempton on Thursday. I'm actually very glad that he wasn't ready to run at Southwell because it turned out to be a race which he couldn't have won anyway: our potential opponents didn't look particularly fearsome on paper, but one of them turned out to be pretty much unbeatable in that grade, as the winner won by 12 lengths in a time which was the fastest of the four mile-races at Southwell yesterday, two of which were for older horses. So we wouldn't have won that. It's far from certain, of course, that we'll have a winning chance at Kempton, but as of now we can't say that we won't win there, but we can say that we wouldn't have won at Southwell.

So yesterday's entertainment instead revolved around watching the racing on TV, which is a great way to spend any Saturday afternoon, and a particularly good one when there's Cheltenham to watch. The highlight in our camp came in the first race when Kadouchski's little Tom George-trained half-brother Fair Mix galloped and jumped his way to Triumph Hurdle favouritism by winning his first start in the UK. He seems clearly the best horse which Douchka has bred from a variety of stallions, which speaks very well for the merit of his sire Al Namix, an admirable horse who raced 49 times over six seasons, winning eight (including a Listed race at both four and five) and finishing in the first three 27 times. You can't beat having a bit of toughness in any horse, and Al Namix clearly had plenty of it, which probably explains why he's turning out to be such a good stallion. Baby Mix was, of course, merely the first leg of an Al Namix double at Cheltenham yesterday, the second leg coming when Grandouet won what should still be called the Bula Hurdle. So that was good - as was ATR's coverage of the Hong Kong races this morning, which provided a perfect reason to get up at the same time as normal, rather than enjoy a Sunday lie-in. It was great to see the Melbourne Cup winner Dunaden back up by taking the Vase, and to my eyes even better to see a grey son of Highest Honor (California Memory) winning the Vase. Highest Honor, sadly no longer with us, ranks as one of my all-time favourite stallions, not least because he is the sire of my mare Minnie's Mystery (pictured, above, a couple of winters ago at her home at Haras de la Cauviniere). Let's hope that little Roy, who conducted himself very well when going for a trot along the horsewalk yesterday (pictured) can emulate in California Memory in bearing Highest Honor's grey coat with distinction. And the highlight of last night's racing on TV was seeing Chris Dwyer's stable star Mia's Boy (seen here on the Heath last month in an embarrassingly bad photograph, ridden by Shelley Dwyer with Chris following on Patriotic, who finished third at Southwell this afternoon) win the feature handicap at Wolverhampton, seemingly with a bit in hand but by about the same margin (ie a pixel) by which Dunaden won the Melbourne Cup. He really is a tremendous horse, and one who has long been a real credit to Chris and Shelley.