Character-building

Hard to know who had the more frustrating day.  Hannah went up to Newcastle (250 miles from Newmarket) to ride Hydrant for Peter Salmon.  It was good news for her that it was raining up there because Hydrant loves the wet.  He looked to have a very good chance in the 4.30 -  but, of course, the track copped a freak 30mm of rain in 15 minutes and, although the first four races were run and then the horses for the 4.00 went to post, those horses returned without racing and the rest of the meeting was abandoned.  That would have been hard for her to swallow - but Yarmouth too proved a character-building exercise for those of us who had gone there, as Silken Thoughts finished second in a race which she arguably should have won.  As at Windsor ten days ago with Grand Liaison, our runner got farther back than I'd have liked and flew home to be an arguably-unlucky place-getter (second in this instance).  Still, one can never be unhappy when the horses run well - and, as I reflected during Royal Ascot, when you see horses flashing home from an unpromising position to be narrowly beaten (eg Sentaril in the Jersey Stakes) in Group races, one can't feel too sorry for oneself when it happens to one in a handicap at a minor meeting.  Life goes on.  And it goes on with the compensation that Silken's defeat meant that the race was won by connections whom I'm always pleased to see in the winner's enclosure: the race went to the enterprisingly-ridden Laverre, trained by Lucy Wadham for the Anthony and Victoria Pakenham of Sir Percy fame.

On a more positive note, the weather has been great here.  They might have had a tropical monsoon in Geordieland, it might have been extremely wet in most other places in the north, Leicester might have been abandoned waterlogged today (for the third time in a fortnight) and tomorrow evening's Newcastle fixture might already be off - but it was lovely in the south east.  It was shaping as a lovely day here when I left for Yarmouth; and, while it was merely pleasantly warm at Yarmouth with its sea breezes, when I got back here this evening it was clear that it had been a scorcher of a day, because even now at bed-time it is still extremely warm.  And on a different positive note, I was pleased a couple of days ago to note that a very good apprentice Toby Atkinson rode his first winner of the season at Brighton on the Mark Rimmer-trained Ooi Long, an example of an under-rated jockey winning for an under-rated trainer.  Toby is apprenticed to Marco Botti and is an excellent young rider, but his career seems rather becalmed at present - through, as far as I can see, absolutely no fault of his own, other than the fact that he went over to California to ride trackwork for Simon Callaghan for a few months over the winter, allowing himself to be forgotten.  He rode the grey Silver Linnet (pictured) at Yarmouth today for John Butler and it was, I think, only his sixth ride of the year.  Still, now that he has had a winner, he might find that a few people start to remember that he's still around.  I hope so, anyway.  If we found today character-building, how has Toby (who seems invariably to remain cheerful and positive) found the past three months?

Footnote - it has been pointed out to me that my previous assertion that I've never trained a winner at Windsor makes me look as if I'm going senile: one of the most special days I've ever had at the races came at Windsor when Brief Goodbye carried to victory the colours which Silken Thoughts bore today.  I may not be getting wiser, but I'm definitely getting older if I can forget things like that.