Best-laid plans

"The sun is out, the sky is blue; there's not a cloud to spoil the view ...".  That, of course, was the preamble to Leo Sayer telling us that he's not very happy - and I have to admit that, although the long-awaited arrival of summer which should start to dry the place out took place today and I should consequently be as content as Alamshar looks in this picture, I'm a bit pissed off too.  The reason?  Well, our usual problem: the general fate of the best-laid plans of mice and men.  By rights, I should have spent today driving from one of the only two racecourses at which I have ridden a winner (Newmarket) to the other (Newton Abbot) and back again, which 11-hour or so round trip wouldn't have been ideal other than for the fact that it would have seen the eagerly-awaited anticipation of Ex Con, which I was really looking forward to.  But, of course, he's not running, so that's another plan down the pan.

Instead of heading to Newton Abbot, I've been able to spend the day at home, joining the animals in savouring the arrival of summer - but the gilt was largely removed from my gingerbread at around 10.30 this morning when Grand Liaison, whom I'd just ridden out alongside Ollie (pictured) and who seemed in very good form, trod on her off-fore foot with her near-fore, dislodging the shoe - and then picked up the off-fore and put it straight down again, with one of the nails going straight (but, thankfully, not very far, into her sole).  It was one of those occasions when you see a ****-up happening but it happens, out of nowhere, so quickly that you can't do anything about it.

I think that I knew what she'd done before she did, and I'm afraid that I wasn't able to put into practice my theory about taking setbacks with equanimity: I must have frightened the life out of her because I roared in frustration at this second setback in less than 24 hours, the first, of course, being Ex Con too having to be a non-runner, of which more anon.  This Grand Liaison debacle, of course, came half an hour after this morning's declaration time, so half an hour after she'd been declared to run at Yarmouth on Tuesday.

You might recall in a previous chapter my surprise that Paul Nolan, when Joncol did exactly the same thing en route to the races, elected to run the horse nevertheless; Joncol ran disappointingly, but even without that knowledge it will be a no-brainer to scratch the filly from her race on Tuesday.  Still, there'll be an identical race at the same track (Yarmouth) 15 days later, so she should be fine for that.  And if Tuesday's race would have been perfect for her, then I'm sure that the identical one 15 days later might turn out to be equally suitable.

Ex Con's lack of action stems from another very annoying temporary setback.  He's had a lymphatic infection in his off-hind leg on previous occasions.  Once the lymphatic system in a horse's leg has been damaged, he'll always be very prone to suffering a recurrence.  It's been impossible in these wet times to take horses out on the Heath without them getting plastered in sand and mud, but he's been washed down thoroughly after each day's work, put back in his stable and left there: I daren't turn him out because anywhere outside the stable is wet and dirty, and he's so prone to getting an infection in his leg, even if there is no break in the skin. Under the circumstances, a nice clean stable is the place to be - as Simayill shows (below) as she enjoys her post-work roll.

Yesterday morning Ex Con cantered as normal, was scrubbed clean afterwards, had his leg re-bandaged (while mooching around the field has been out of bounds for him, I've been keeping the leg bandaged just to help circulation and prevent it from swelling up because of the inactivity) and all seemed fine - but then at 7pm when I went to feed him, it was plain that there was some infection in the leg.  I called a vet out straightaway to give him a shot of anti-biotics as it would clearly not have been wise to leave things until the morning.  I'm glad that I did as we've arrested the spread of the infection in his leg, but he'll be on anti-biotics for a few days, is clearly harbouring an infection in his body and clearly couldn't have run today.  Ah well - he hadn't run for 15 and a half months, so I suppose that it won't be the end of the world if he now goes 16 and a half months between races instead.  It's at times like these that I appreciate how lucky I am to be training for sympathetic and supportive patrons: even with the best will in the world, things don't always run smoothly, but knowing that in the general and remembering it in the particular can be two different things - as my frustration reminded me this morning as I watched Grand Liaison render herself a non-runner only 15 hours after it had become apparent that Ex Con would have to be scratched.  Best-laid plans, eh?  Still, at least the weather's good.