Mia's boss

Great excitement. We've reached the stage where it's a rare thrill to have a runner. That, though, is what we should have tomorrow night, when Karma Chameleon will attempt to enhance his record further in the 7.40 at Wolverhampton. Only seven runners and the race doesn't look too daunting, but predictably (bearing in mind that he had four entrants to chose from) Mark Johnston's runner looks potentially a tough nut to crack. As things stand, we look like being second favourite behind that filly, who is the winner of her only race and who is impeccably bred: Maktoum-owned, she (Rosby Waves) is by one of the best stallions in the world (Distorted Humor) and is from Windsharp, a Grade One winner who has already bred two Grade One winners including Johar, who dead-heated with High Chaparral for the Breeders' Cup Turf in Santa Anita. It might be asking too much to beat her, giving her weight, but I'm sure our little horse will do his best. We'll see. In the mean time, though, we can see how Dave Morris' two runners fare tonight: Zaheeb (pictured in Rayes Lane on a frosty, snow-covered morning last month under the trainer) in the 8.00 at Kempton and Chez Vrony in the 8.30.

Other than that, I've had a couple of excitements: a trip (with a brahma) yesterday and a brahma today. The trip was great. It worked out that a trip to Ireland to see some breeze-up two-year-olds would be a good thing, which allowed me to do something which I've always wanted to do, which is visit the place which has the best record for producing successful breeze-up graduates, Con and Theresa Marnane's Bansha House Stables. I think that their tally of Group/Grade One-winning graduates is 12, which is a mighty achievement. Going there, one can see why it is so good. Con is as good a horseman as he is nice a man, and his property really is horse-heaven. It's so unpressured, outdoors and natural that it's no wonder that horses thrive there and continue to thrive (given the chance) thereafter. From speaking to Con on previous occasions, I'd found that his approach is right after my own heart, and I certainly was not disappointed on seeing it for myself. And it came with a bonus: the discovery that his standards of horse-husbandry are on a par with his standards of Dalmatian husbandry. Mia (pictured assisting her master in his administration) is clearly the most precious animal on the property, which revolves around her just as completely as this place revolves around Gus.

So Mia was yesterday's brahma - while today's came courtesy of http://www.racenet.com.au/. My eye was caught by a terrific Racenet headline: "Owner guilty of whacking jockey with race book". This was tremendous (and took place in Queensland, with Chris Munce the whackee, just in case you were wondering). Granted that an Australian racebook, which contains the fields and form for all the meetings in the country on which the TAB is betting that day, is considerably more substantial than the British racecard, which is as flimsy as you'd expect from something which tells you virtually nothing of use, but even so you'd struggle to make a racebook an offensive weapon. So the crime (if indeed crime it is) can't be taken too seriously - particularly when one bears in mind that until relatively recently such actions, rather than being frowned upon, would have been considered the done thing. You'd feel that, were the practices of the late Lord Glasgow, who will surely forever remain the most brahmatic racehorse owner in history, to be brought under consideration, being whacked with a racebook would have been the least of his jockeys' (or trainers') worries.

Post script - nearly a mighty double for 50% of Dave Morris' string. Zaheeb won at 9/1, Chez Vrony second, beaten a head, at 16/1.