I had a pretty fair idea of what I'd be doing this weekend: Saturday (yesterday) would be spent in front of the TV watching the BBC's outstanding coverage of Grand National Day, while Sunday (today) would see me heading up to Market Rasen with Kadouchski. I got the first part right, even if I couldn't have predicted quite what a roller-coaster of emotions which Grand National Day would evince; but today has seen me staying home. Kadouchski seemed in fine form when I had him out first lot, which took place in splendidly atmospheric foggy conditions (as these three photographs show) even if the sun was already trying to break through once we had moved from the Severals
on to Long Hill. However, I got the first inkling of a problem early in the afternoon. Four of the horses who spend the afternoon in the field didn't exercise until last lot, which meant that by the time I turned them out early in the afternoon, the others were already out there. And as I took one of them into the field, I found a new-looking racing plate on the ground. This was not a good sign - and when I fetched the horses in a few hours later, it became clear that it was a bad sign: it had come off Kadouchski's near-fore foot, which had heat in it and upon which he was walking lame (admittedly on stony ground). It was hard to tell whether he would still be lame when the shoe had been put back on, and there is clearly no serious damage, but, today being Sunday, taking him to the races would have meant taking him and the plate up and asking the racecourse farrier to put it back on - and if, once it was back on, he was still lame, then I'd have felt very silly. If it had been a big race, I'd have
taken him up there, and very likely run him, because the likelihood is that he would have been sound once the plate was back on, even if there was clearly going to be some residual soreness in the foot, bearing in mind that the foot was still hot this morning (indicating some degree of inflammation in it) while the other foot was stone cold. However, today's race was just another big-field, low-value handicap, and there are similar races every week of the year - so staying at home was the sensible thing to do. I called William yesterday evening to say that we were odds-on to be a non-runner and that I would only go if there was no heat in the foot this morning - so when the foot was still hot this morning, I called him at 8.00 to confirm that the outing had been aborted. No harm done: no wasted journey for man or beast, and as usual it's well to remember the truism that it's better not to run and wish that one had done so, than to run and wish that one had not done so.
I had a pretty fair idea of what I'd be doing this weekend: Saturday (yesterday) would be spent in front of the TV watching the BBC's outstanding coverage of Grand National Day, while Sunday (today) would see me heading up to Market Rasen with Kadouchski. I got the first part right, even if I couldn't have predicted quite what a roller-coaster of emotions which Grand National Day would evince; but today has seen me staying home. Kadouchski seemed in fine form when I had him out first lot, which took place in splendidly atmospheric foggy conditions (as these three photographs show) even if the sun was already trying to break through once we had moved from the Severals
on to Long Hill. However, I got the first inkling of a problem early in the afternoon. Four of the horses who spend the afternoon in the field didn't exercise until last lot, which meant that by the time I turned them out early in the afternoon, the others were already out there. And as I took one of them into the field, I found a new-looking racing plate on the ground. This was not a good sign - and when I fetched the horses in a few hours later, it became clear that it was a bad sign: it had come off Kadouchski's near-fore foot, which had heat in it and upon which he was walking lame (admittedly on stony ground). It was hard to tell whether he would still be lame when the shoe had been put back on, and there is clearly no serious damage, but, today being Sunday, taking him to the races would have meant taking him and the plate up and asking the racecourse farrier to put it back on - and if, once it was back on, he was still lame, then I'd have felt very silly. If it had been a big race, I'd have 
taken him up there, and very likely run him, because the likelihood is that he would have been sound once the plate was back on, even if there was clearly going to be some residual soreness in the foot, bearing in mind that the foot was still hot this morning (indicating some degree of inflammation in it) while the other foot was stone cold. However, today's race was just another big-field, low-value handicap, and there are similar races every week of the year - so staying at home was the sensible thing to do. I called William yesterday evening to say that we were odds-on to be a non-runner and that I would only go if there was no heat in the foot this morning - so when the foot was still hot this morning, I called him at 8.00 to confirm that the outing had been aborted. No harm done: no wasted journey for man or beast, and as usual it's well to remember the truism that it's better not to run and wish that one had done so, than to run and wish that one had not done so.
1 comment:
Very wise words John
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