Singing in the rain

It was great that Zarosa ran a very good third at Nottingham yesterday.  Great for many reasons, not least the fact that Roger Vicarage, her owner, is just the sort of person who deserves to own a nice horse, so it was lovely that she ran her first placing (at the fifth attempt) and gave a strong hint that she could indeed, as we'd been believing and hoping, turn out to be en route to compiling a good record.  Of course one can take nothing for granted in this game, but it was a thoroughly promising run.  I'm sure that she's improving anyway, and she definitely improved for the step up to two miles, so now that she's coming to herself and we've found her preferred conditions, we can continue to travel with hope.

Another bonus to the good run was that it enabled us to overlook the fact that we all got absolutely drenched before the race.  It was one of those rather nice sunny/cloudy days (nice compared to what we've been having, but not really nice by comparison to a perfect summer's day).  One expects that there might be the odd shower on such a day, but it never crossed my mind that the heavens would open as they did - in fact, it didn't even cross my mind that we'd have such a storm even as the storm was starting.

It had been very pleasant when Gus had given the track (which was in perfect condition) the once-over before racing, and it was still very pleasant when he was rootling around in the long grass in the centre of the track, finding much excitement therein.  Even though there wasn't much blue sky, it was still very pleasant when Terri and Zarosa left the racecourse stables, and was still very pleasant when I reluctantly swapped my shorts for a pair of slacks 40 minutes before the race.  It was very pleasant when I saddled her, and still very pleasant when we entered the parade ring 20 minutes before the race.

A few minutes later, though, it became apparent that the blackest of grey clouds was coming our way from the direction of the city centre - and then it started to rain.  And did it rain, along with thunder and lightning (admittedly not right overhead)!  We were soaked to the skin within a minute.  Most of the horses scurried for cover to stand in the saddling boxes, but the jockeys had obviously been chased out of the weighing room so they appeared and we had to get under way.  The rain was already easing off considerably by the time that the race was run and it had more or less stopped raining by the time that it was over, but it had definitely been a storm to remember.

Anyway, the weather was forgiven once we saw how well she was running.  She was, admittedly, beaten just over three lengths into third, but it's not hard to believe that she would have finished around three lengths closer had Rab Havlin been able to find the gap which seemed sure to appear at some point in the straight.  It certainly wasn't Rab's fault that he couldn't get out, as he surely only had to wait for one of the two horses in front of him to come off a straight line.  He gave her a lovely ride - but sadly those two horses ran as straight as dies without either weakening.  So he eventually had to pull out to try to come around them, which of course she couldn't do.

But she did really well and, all in all, it was just a lovely outing.  Let's hope that this evening's trip with Wasabi to a much sunnier July Course can be similarly pleasing.  One thing, though, which it is extremely likely to lack over and above a torrential cloudburst (which surely won't happen?) is a little ornithological highlight like the one with which I ended my time at Nottingham yesterday: this lovely little 3-year-old owl, whom I was permitted by her kind owner to stroke.  Owls really are the most magical of creatures, and it was really, really good.  I felt like Alan Partridge enjoying a particularly good Valentine's Day.