We've had some very nice results in recent days. Best of all was the news yesterday (and we weren't expecting to hear the verdict until 5th April) that Lord Derby's appeal against FHDC's vetoing of his Hatchfield Farm development plans had been turned down by the Secretary of State. That, of course, does not guarantee that we have heard the last of this long-running saga, but that result is certainly much, much, much better news than if the nod had gone the other way. One would hope that Lord Derby would have now reached the stage where he'd drop his plans, but one never knows: sometimes when a trooper
insists that he is the only soldier on the parade ground marching in step, he will stick to his guns for an insanely long time. We'll see. But anyway, that was really good. As was the victory at Kempton on Wednesday of Billy Buttons. He's a lovely four-year-old grey son of Act One, owned by Mr and Mrs Bill Robins and trained by Andrew Balding - and, as I discovered when he and Ethics Girl contested the same race at Salisbury last autumn, he was the last horse raised and broken by the late John Kirby. John's widow
and daughter Veronica and Caroline were there that day, and I hope that they were at Kempton this week when he broke his maiden. I saw them last month when Anthony and I called in to their farm near Wantage on our way back from the west country, and they have given me one of John's racing bridles, which will be worn by some of our future runners - and worn with great pride and very fond memories of a lovely man. You might have worked out what a special man John was from Bruce Jackson's report of the meeting in yesterday's Racing Post: Mr and Mrs Robins had clearly paid tribute to him after the victory, which sentiments Bruce relayed in his report. So that was really nice.
Casting the net a bit wider, I was very pleased to see that William Buick rode the first winner at Lingfield this afternoon. As we have read in the paper, William (pictured in John Gosden's string on Wednesday) had a horrible experience when thumped in a night-club in Dubai a small amount of weeks ago. Most people who are thumped in a night-club maintain afterwards that they had done nothing to deserve it. This plea, of course, is usually untrue, but in William's case one can guarantee that it would have been true. So it's good that he has been able to resume riding maybe three weeks later, and to resume riding with a winner. It was particularly
good going to ride the first winner at Lingfield as he rode three lots for John Gosden this morning and wouldn't have finished riding out until nearly 11.00. He's one of plenty of jockeys whose reappearance on the Heath is telling us that spring is here (not, of course, that we need much telling as the weather is lovely: we've had a week of beautifully misty mornings, like the ones from this week shown in the first paragraph of this chapter, leading us into warm sunny days, which is lovely). Another is Brett Doyle (pictured in Clive Brittain's string in the Bury Road in the mist this morning). Brett signed off from his latest lengthy stint in Hong Kong recently with a Group One victory on Joy And Fun (on whom he won the Alquoz Sprint on Dubai World Cup Night two years ago,
and whom he rides in the same race again next Saturday) and is now back in town, back riding for his former boss Clive Brittain. Brett's such a good jockey as well as a really nice guy, and I very much hope that he'll be able to ride us a few winners this season, as he has in years gone by. And he's back on the winner's list already, having won at Kempton in the week on Clive's Manomine (who had finished second to Karma Chameleon at the same track before Christmas on his most recent outing) which was his first winner in the UK for something like five years. Arguably the most famous riding name, though, who has reappeared on the Heath in recent weeks is L. Dittman - but, of course, that's not L. Dittman sr, but Luke Dittman, son of Mick Dittman. Luke was over here with Luca Cumani a couple of years ago, and it's good to see him back now, in the string of Luca's former assistant Ed Walker (in which he is pictured here this morning, behind the stable's apprentice Michael Murphy).
And, of course, I can't end this litany of nice results without highlighting a few recent winners from our particular part of town. A few hours before Dr Darcey was claimed on Monday at Southwell, I'd entered him in a selling hurdle at Stratford this afternoon. For obvious reasons, we didn't run him in that - but, even so, the race still fell to a horse trained in Exeter Road, Charlie McBride winning it with Extremely So (who would have been far above plating class in his prime, but who seems to
have deteriorated badly over the past 12 months). That followed the win at Wolverhampton last night for Safwaan, the latest winner which Jamie Mackay has ridden for Charlie's neighbour and former boss, Willie Musson. That was nice - but best winner of the weekend has to be lovely old Premio Loco, ridden as usual with great skill by the admirable George Baker. Premio Loco is such a special old horse, and it's lovely to see him and Bill Lord leading Chris' string summer and winter, as these two photographs show.
We've had some very nice results in recent days. Best of all was the news yesterday (and we weren't expecting to hear the verdict until 5th April) that Lord Derby's appeal against FHDC's vetoing of his Hatchfield Farm development plans had been turned down by the Secretary of State. That, of course, does not guarantee that we have heard the last of this long-running saga, but that result is certainly much, much, much better news than if the nod had gone the other way. One would hope that Lord Derby would have now reached the stage where he'd drop his plans, but one never knows: sometimes when a trooper
insists that he is the only soldier on the parade ground marching in step, he will stick to his guns for an insanely long time. We'll see. But anyway, that was really good. As was the victory at Kempton on Wednesday of Billy Buttons. He's a lovely four-year-old grey son of Act One, owned by Mr and Mrs Bill Robins and trained by Andrew Balding - and, as I discovered when he and Ethics Girl contested the same race at Salisbury last autumn, he was the last horse raised and broken by the late John Kirby. John's widow 
and daughter Veronica and Caroline were there that day, and I hope that they were at Kempton this week when he broke his maiden. I saw them last month when Anthony and I called in to their farm near Wantage on our way back from the west country, and they have given me one of John's racing bridles, which will be worn by some of our future runners - and worn with great pride and very fond memories of a lovely man. You might have worked out what a special man John was from Bruce Jackson's report of the meeting in yesterday's Racing Post: Mr and Mrs Robins had clearly paid tribute to him after the victory, which sentiments Bruce relayed in his report. So that was really nice.
Casting the net a bit wider, I was very pleased to see that William Buick rode the first winner at Lingfield this afternoon. As we have read in the paper, William (pictured in John Gosden's string on Wednesday) had a horrible experience when thumped in a night-club in Dubai a small amount of weeks ago. Most people who are thumped in a night-club maintain afterwards that they had done nothing to deserve it. This plea, of course, is usually untrue, but in William's case one can guarantee that it would have been true. So it's good that he has been able to resume riding maybe three weeks later, and to resume riding with a winner. It was particularly
good going to ride the first winner at Lingfield as he rode three lots for John Gosden this morning and wouldn't have finished riding out until nearly 11.00. He's one of plenty of jockeys whose reappearance on the Heath is telling us that spring is here (not, of course, that we need much telling as the weather is lovely: we've had a week of beautifully misty mornings, like the ones from this week shown in the first paragraph of this chapter, leading us into warm sunny days, which is lovely). Another is Brett Doyle (pictured in Clive Brittain's string in the Bury Road in the mist this morning). Brett signed off from his latest lengthy stint in Hong Kong recently with a Group One victory on Joy And Fun (on whom he won the Alquoz Sprint on Dubai World Cup Night two years ago,
and whom he rides in the same race again next Saturday) and is now back in town, back riding for his former boss Clive Brittain. Brett's such a good jockey as well as a really nice guy, and I very much hope that he'll be able to ride us a few winners this season, as he has in years gone by. And he's back on the winner's list already, having won at Kempton in the week on Clive's Manomine (who had finished second to Karma Chameleon at the same track before Christmas on his most recent outing) which was his first winner in the UK for something like five years. Arguably the most famous riding name, though, who has reappeared on the Heath in recent weeks is L. Dittman - but, of course, that's not L. Dittman sr, but Luke Dittman, son of Mick Dittman. Luke was over here with Luca Cumani a couple of years ago, and it's good to see him back now, in the string of Luca's former assistant Ed Walker (in which he is pictured here this morning, behind the stable's apprentice Michael Murphy).
And, of course, I can't end this litany of nice results without highlighting a few recent winners from our particular part of town. A few hours before Dr Darcey was claimed on Monday at Southwell, I'd entered him in a selling hurdle at Stratford this afternoon. For obvious reasons, we didn't run him in that - but, even so, the race still fell to a horse trained in Exeter Road, Charlie McBride winning it with Extremely So (who would have been far above plating class in his prime, but who seems to 
have deteriorated badly over the past 12 months). That followed the win at Wolverhampton last night for Safwaan, the latest winner which Jamie Mackay has ridden for Charlie's neighbour and former boss, Willie Musson. That was nice - but best winner of the weekend has to be lovely old Premio Loco, ridden as usual with great skill by the admirable George Baker. Premio Loco is such a special old horse, and it's lovely to see him and Bill Lord leading Chris' string summer and winter, as these two photographs show.
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