New Year reflections

Karma Chameleon's victory at Southwell did indeed, as I had anticipated, prove to be the stable's final achievement of the year, although our one subsequent runner (Douchkirk at Newbury on Saturday) didn't do too badly: he was predictably outclassed, but he plodded round safely, willingly and happily enough in an incident-free hurdles debut. He won't find himself up against the likes of All The Aces and Destoyer Deployed every time he runs, and his rather cautious jumping style will, one presumes (and hopes!), become slicker and less ponderous as he becomes more experienced. He's schooled up at the Links until the cows come home (hence his very correct and accurate technique) but generally they need to experience the hurly-burly of race conditions one or more times for their jumping to acquire the necessary urgency. So that was all good - and it was lovely to be at the races at a Grade One track with a runner on a day which featured such top-class horses as Cue Card, Walkon, Minella Class, Fingal Bay and Celestial Halo, as well as the hugely promising novices Vendor, All The Aces and Destroyer Deployed. We only watched a couple of races after ours, but I made sure that we had a good view of the rising star Fingal Bay (pictured in the pre-parade ring) before we loaded up Frankie for the journey home (pictured with both Anthony and Gus making sure that all is in order).



Since then, it's been a couple of quiet days to start the New Year, although we were up at the Links in the sunshine this morning for a straightforward schooling session, which I was able to observe through the ears of Frankie, acting as my hack for the morning and happily none the worse for his run two days ago. By and large, though, the majority of the horses' New Year exercise has taken place out in the field, where they have been really enjoying playing in what are really rather benign conditions for the time of year. So that's nice. Here are a few photographs of the playing, just as accompaniment for my end-of-year musings. (The pictures being Kadouchski, Asterisk and Frankie indulging in a spot of synchronized rolling yesterday; Alcalde rolling under Frankie's supervision this morning; the half-brothers Kadouchski and Douchkirk getting the synchronization almost right; Karma Chameleon hooning around the herd; and Gus enjoying today's sunshine with what remains of one of their Christmas bones). The year has ended as the stable's most successful ever, with 16 wins. Our previous best was 14 in 1999 (when, admittedly, the prize money tally would have been significantly higher, not just because prize money in general was better in those days, but also because two of that year's principal contributors, Largesse and Il Principe, were running in higher-class races). I don't tend to indulge in much record-keeping, and I certainly couldn't tell you our seasonal tallies in the interim, but it is by our numerical total (Flat and National Hunt combined, with the Town Plate included) that I generally assess the year, and I've had the figure 14 in my head for a dozen years as the one to beat. So it's great that we've had our best year ever. And for that we have some nice horses owned by some wonderfully supportive patrons, and plenty of hard work predominantly by Hugh, Hannah and Terri, to thank. As regards the horses, they are all special, and each victory is a very special occasion indeed. However, I ought to highlight a few equine contributions. Kadouchski has been a true trouper all year and over the past 13 months he has provided three real riders' red-letter days: giving Hannah her first ride at Kempton in December 2010, giving her her first winner at Folkestone in July 2011 and then giving me the Town Plate victory the following month. I can say with certainty that those are three races which will live in the riders' minds forever. Otherwise Rhythm Stick's third consecutive win (in January) and his fourth consecutive win (in September) were very satisfying occasions, as were the string of good runs, most obviously her wins at Newbury and Lingfield, of Silken Thoughts, who turned out to be an admirably progressive filly. Let's hope that her progress can continue in 2012. Batgirl too provided some lovely moments, courtesy of her two memorable back-to-back wins under Frankie Dettori at Yarmouth. And finally, what better way to end the year than with Karma Chameleon's three wins in 15 days in December? One particularly remarkable aspect of this hat-trick was that he wore the same set of plates throughout: a hat-trick is rare enough, but I would say that very few sets of plates/shoes are ever carried to victory three times without having come off the horse at any stage during the period. I should add, incidentally, that whenever I've remarked that the bulk of the credit for this spree goes to Richard Guest, I've been told that I'm being modest - but I'm not. Consider this: if you look at our roll of honour, you'll see three two-year-old victories in the period 1995 - 2010 inclusive (one win each by Seaside and Largesse in 1996, and one by Imperial Decree in 2007). So in just over a fortnight we've doubled our tally of juvenile victories, winning the same amount of races in 15 days as we had done in the previous 15 years! That alone is remarkable - hence my remarking on it.