Rain stops play

I haven't heard anything of the "drought" having ended, so I think that it's fair to say that we're now in the middle of the wettest drought in history.  Those clear couple of days at the start of last week are seeming very distant now, especially now after just about 24 hours of more or less uninterrupted rain.  The dam at the top of Long Hill seemed to be overflowing this morning, and that's something which I'd never previously seen.  And also among the ongoing deluge's consequences is the fact that we didn't head to Folkestone today.  Grand Liaison and Zarosa ought to have been lining up in a maiden race there (I'd anticipated that they would line up in different divisions of a maiden race, but the very wet track meant that most of the entrants were not declared, meaning that no division of the race was required).

As it has turned out, though, we've stayed at home: Folkestone was one of THREE meetings in England to be abandoned because of waterlogging today.  Equally remarkable is that the three meetings are all in different parts of the country: Folkestone in the south east, Newton Abbot in the south west and Newcastle in the north east.  Still, it'll make the grass grow, even if it is pretty dismal (and unseasonably cold) at present.  On the negative side is that it makes our working hours far from fun, but set against that is the fact that there are no worries about the ground being too firm.

It would have been interesting to see how the two fillies would have gone today.  Their mate Wasabi ran a nice race at Newbury on Saturday on her debut.  I must confess that she exceeded my expectations, which makes me suspect that the run might slightly have flattered her.  When one's rivals are all either unraced or very lightly raced, it's hard to be adamant about how good they are - and when one's own horse finds them less testing than one would have expected, it can be that the opponents are less good than might have been the case.  Still, it was surely a promising debut from a filly whom I've always liked. 

And I like her even more now, because she has proved that she has got an excellent temperament for racing: she took everything in her stride at every stage of the day, being well-behaved, calm and seemingly happy before, during and after the race.  The very soft ground probably wasn't what one would necessarily have chosen for a horse's debut, but in fact I think that it acted in our favour.  Being by Tiger Hill from a Carnegie mare, Wasabi is almost certainly likely to be well suited by wet tracks, and by tests of stamina. 

The conditions, then, which were obviously the same for all the runners, were probably much less unsuitable for her than for many of her rivals - while they meant that the jockeys all rode fairly conservatively in the first half of the race, meaning that the test became less, rather than more, gruelling than might have been the case under more spring-like conditions.  So that was all good, and all helped to bring about a debut which was enjoyed by both horse and connections. 

There's been plenty more happening, all of which can be jotted down in good time, but we might as well keep abreast of the runners before broadening our perspective, so that can do for tonight's report.  After a 10-day period where I've been doing everything but keeping up to date with my administration, I should become better organised as this quieter week goes on, so we can cover a few more topics during the next few chapters.