A sunny sky with one big cloud in it

After the slight setbacks which caused Ex Con and Grand Liaison to miss races over the past few days, one might have been expecting to have another veterinary hiccup, these things reputedly, of course, always coming in threes.  Unfortunately we have had one: Panto, Emma's hack/pet, is currently in the Newmarket Equine Hospital, having been operated on for twisted gut surgery last night.  He'll either survive or he won't, and there's nothing we can do about it, other than leave him where he  is, ie in the best possible hands.  God willing he'll make it, but if he doesn't we'll at least have the consolation of knowing that he's had the best possible assistance.

Leaving aside that one extremely downbeat note, I hope that things will start to run a bit more smoothly.  At least we've got the weather right, in more than one sense.  Firstly, we elected not to declare Ollie for either Ayr of Musselburgh, both of which seemed likely to provide good ground.  Neither did, and Musselburgh, to which it was touch and go whether we'd travel, was subject to a remarkable change of conditions.  The course's bulletins all centred around good ground and high pressure moving in, with mention of possibly 2 or 3mm of rain on Monday (in advance of raceday on Tuesday).  Well, Monday saw 15mm fall there and then there was more on Tuesday morning, making the ground that afternoon soft, good to soft in places.  We got that one right, anyway!  And on top of that, this was the glorious scene on Tuesday morning down here in the south.  (And today's quiz question is the identity of the string here shown - and that's not an easy one).

The even better part of the weather situation is that, as you can see, not only did we avoid completely the wrong weather in Scotland, but we have perfect conditions here.  Perfect conditions for living and working in at present, and, fingers crossed, perfect conditions to produce fast ground for Ollie at Yarmouth on Monday - which will have the added bonus of being 70 miles from home, rather than 370.  I don't know, though, that this lovely weather will last more than a few more days (I am rather dispirited to see that these temperatures which have suddenly shot up to the high 20s might only last a couple more days, and that there could be quite a lot more rain next week again) but while it's here it's great, as these next few photographs (from this morning) ought to show.

We're off to the races tomorrow with Batgirl (shown in the paragraph's final photograph, as she and Hannah head out of the yard for their canter this morning, negotiating their way around a flat-out Gus, who is clearly finding all this hot weather really too ennervating for words.  She'll be re-united with her good friend Frankie Dettori, so let's hope that she can put up a good show, which she has always done on any previous occasions Frankie has ridden her.  She ought to do so.  And then, after this week's one runner, we should (fingers crossed) be kept busy next week.

The entries for next week currently appear to be Ollie, as mentioned above, at Yarmouth on Monday.  Then Silken Thoughts will be in at Goodwood on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the latter option only being a fall-back for if she is eliminated from Tuesday's race, which is possible but very unlikely.  Then  Zarosa will be entered for Nottingham on Thursday and Wasabi (pictured on the right of the penultimate photograph over on Racecourse Side this morning, ridden by Hannah and alongside Terri on Ethics Girl) for Newmarket on Friday.  We won't, unless I've overlooked anything, have any entries on the Saturday, but then the half-brothers Kadouchski and Douchkirk will both be entered at Market Rasen on the Sunday (which, of course, will be the first day of the following week, but we think of it as the same week as the week in the Racing Calendar is listed Monday to Sunday, which is actually helpful, if in one sense misleading).

And, of course, if all those horses actually run, it'll be a miracle (going on recent evidence, anyway).  But let's hope that they all do, as all are shaping up nicely at present.  As things turned out, Grand Liaison probably could have run at Yarmouth yesterday.  We've got off surprisingly lightly from her pricked foot as it is only just hurting her a little, and if she goes along on flat ground so that her sole doesn't touch the ground, she's 100% sound.  But that, of course, still doesn't make it ideal for going to war: ideally, you'd prefer to run them in perfect condition, and I don't at all regret erring on the side of caution and doing things correctly.

I might, of course, end up regretting it: I'm conscious that we've had rather a lot of non-runners this season, and we're always told that trainers who have withdraw too many on self-certificates might find themselves under the microscope.  So this latest one might prove to have been the straw to break the camel's back in that respect, and I might be told that I've had one non-runner too many.  But if that's the case, then that's the case: all the horses who have been taken out have been ones whom I would have loved to have run, but who, it became clear in advance of the race, really should not be running.  And if there was a rule which said that it was wrong of me to have taken them out, then that rule wouldn't be a very good one.  Anyway, let's hope that we can redress the balance by having a 100% success rate in running our next few intended participants.  And some success would be the icing on the cake.

In the meantime, we'll just pray for Panto.