More storms

Gee, this weather is so bad - but amazingly Epsom managed to dodge the storms well enough to provide a lovely evening on Thursday.  After April and June each having been the wettest such month ever recorded in Britain, it's very hard to swallow that so far July is shaping up as being even worse.  Strange but true.  But Thursday was a lovely day.  It was very warm and sunny when I left home in the afternoon (we weren't in until the last at 8.50, so there was no need to be on the road too early) and at Epsom it was just a lovely evening: we didn't see much of the sun, but it was bright enough, still, dry and very warm.

I love going to Epsom.  It's such a special place.  Arriving, when the stand on top of the Downs comes into view, is always exciting.  The icing on the cake, of course, was that dear old Ethics Girl (pictured above, coming back in under Neil Callan) ran very well to finish fourth on her first start for nine months, the good weather having helped her as the ground had dried out to be as good as near-perfect good ground can be.  The evening at Epsom ended perfectly as Gus joined Ethics Girl and I for our cooling-off walk after the race.  Racing was over for the night so there were no worries about him interfering with any racing.  Frankie Valli was starting to sing on this lovely summer's evening; we were in this magical setting and I had the most super little brave mare wandering along next to me, stopping to listen to the music, and Gus scampering around.  What could be better?  For Gus it was better still as he managed to ingratiate himself to anyone and everyone around stables so he had a real fuss made of him.  I think it was one of his best days at the races ever, and it was just lovely.  And it's always a pleasure to take a horse as genuine as Ethics Girl to the races.

I got home from Epsom just after midnight and, unbelievably, it was just starting to spit with rain when I got home.  The following morning then could not have been more different from the previous day as we got soaked.  It then rained virtually all the way down to Sandown on our very slow journey which took an hour longer than it should have done.  Fortunately, though, it was dry and bright during racing (until the rain resumed torrentially after the last).  You'll have seen that there were four meetings abandoned yesterday (Beverley, Warwick and Haydock in England,  plus Wexford in Ireland) and three more today (Carlisle, Leicester, Nottingham) but the ground at Sandown wasn't too bad at all as that part of the country seemed to have got off extremely lightly.  I only walked the straight, which I found to be in really good condition (even if Tom Queally told me that it was wetter on the far side and around the bottom bend, as it generally is there).  I'd have called the few furlongs I walked "really good slow ground" (as opposed to "good fast ground" which is something we often say) if that makes any sense.  The first two races had been up the straight course and I walked the track after the third, which was the first on the round course and in which the runners had come up the stands' side.  For the fourth race, Richard Hughes went down early, but as I was coming back in off the track, Kieren Fallon and Frankie Dettori were riding out and Frankie asked me what the ground was like.  I replied that it was lovely ground, maybe just a bit softer than good, and uniform all the way across, and that there would be no advantage in coming across to the stands' side.  The race was duly run - and I was feeling rather nervous as Richard Hughes, making the running, headed across to the stands' side, while Kieren and Frankie, in second and third, didn't follow him, staying instead up the far rail.  I thought that I'd feel really stupid if Richard Hughes won so the next 30 seconds or so were quite tense for me - but fortunately Kieren and Frankie finished first and second, so my blushes were saved!

The point of the trip, obviously, was to run Silken Thoughts, but there isn't really a lot to say about her race.  She ran unaccountably badly.  I'd thought that she had a great chance, even if the handicapper appeared to have made a rick in putting the Mahmood al Zarooni-trained Encke in on a rating as low as 90 for his handicap debut, which was astonishingly little for a horse who had won a two-year-old maiden race at Newmarket last October by four and a half lengths.  That win had suggested that Encke might well live up to his pedigree (he's by Kingmambo ex the top-class 2005 Irish Oaks winner Shawanda) so Encke, assuming that he didn't have anything wrong with him, might prove impossible to beat.  Encke duly proved himself to be extremely well handicapped and won despite racing greenly, but that was irrelevant to our performance we didn't finish anywhere near him.  Silken Thoughts (shown in a very unflattering photographs in the parade ring under Tom Queally) looked to be going very easily at the 3-furlong pole, but was going nowhere by the two, so it's back to the drawing-board with her, I'm afraid.  Still, we already knew that they're only human.

We're back to normal now after the freak weather conditions (ie sunshine) which prevailed for a few hours at Sandown (but virtually nowhere else in Britain, with the 35mm which fell at Nottingham during the morning being fairly typical of the bulk of the country) yesterday afternoon.  We had some impressive skies on the way home yesterday evening, and it wasn't surprising to find ourselves in monsoon rain on the A505 near Baldock just a few minutes after I took this picture of the double rainbow, which looked better in real life than it does in the photograph.  Today we've got soaked yet again riding out with some heavy squalls of rain breaking into the sunny spells (the chapter's final photograph, taken through Kadouchski's ears of the Smart Strike colt and Ollie at the top of Long Hill as more rain bursts threaten) and all in all it was an easy decision to scratch Ollie (pictured below in his preferred sunshine on Wednesday morning) from his race at Beverley today, knowing that the "soft, heavy in places" would be anathema to him.

We can't feel guilty about taking him out with the ground having deteriorated so badly (it was good at Beverley yesterday morning prior to the arrival of the storm which saw yesterday's meeting there abandoned waterlogged) and with there being so many non-runners.  There were five scratchings (from a field of 13 horses declared) from Ollie's race today while the following race had five taken out out of 10.  Even more decimated was the first race at Sandown, which had 10 of the 16 declared runners scratched.  Included amongst these were the horses drawn one to five inclusive, so that would be something to ponder for those fools who think that the usual reason for scratching is because one doesn't like one's draw.

Here though is another reason for scratching.  On the way to Sandown yesterday we passed a hearse, complete with cargo of coffin and flowers.  I did all that I could (ie salute it) but basically, if one believes in omens (which I do), our chance was gone at that point.  With someone else's horse one is basically obliged to carry on and run as one can't really say, "I passed a hearse so I turned round and went home, and your horse isn't running"; but if it were my own horse, I think that I'd probably abort the trip there and then.  But what the would be the reason for withdrawal?  "Self-cert - hearse seen"?  I think "transport difficulties" would have to suffice!

The last word should go to Hannah, who has had a mighty week.  She turned 18 on Wednesday and on Thursday she rode yet another winner, partnering the Peter Salmon-trained El McGlynn to a 50/1 victory at Haydock.  That was terrific, while the SP was truly astonishing for a horse who had won a handicap last time on similar ground over a similar distance and who was not out of the handicap.  Hannah had been going to ride Ethics Girl at Epsom that afternoon and initially was declared for her as we didn't think that El McGlynn would get in.  However, when El McGlynn did get in, switching her to take that ride was clearly the correct thing: not only would it have been wrong for her not to ride a horse on whom she'd won last time out, I always say to her to take an outside ride over a ride for this stable, as we'll still be here.  And I'm very glad that I did.  She's going from strength to strength at present, so let's hope that that can continue.  She's certainly doing everything right.