A quiet day

I'm glad that today was a Sunday and I could take things a bit easier.  I didn't get up until after 8.00 and that was very much appreciated.  I wasn't back late from Wolverhampton last night - I was back before 10.30 - but it felt like 2am: I was exhausted.  Still, the two days' travelling had been good.  Haydock on Friday, as mentioned in yesterday's post, was extremely good, while yesterday wasn't bad: Batgirl was having her first run for nearly two months and, with us running by default really at a track which wouldn't have been our preferred option had we had other options, she fared well to be beaten four and a half lengths, albeit finishing unplaced.  There's a race for her at her preferred Yarmouth in just over three weeks' time, so we can head to that with hope.

I was glad that we still had daylight, more or less, for Batgirl's race, because it's nicer to race in daylight, even if the floodlights were on too by that time.  And yesterday's daylight was lovely.  I put up a couple of photographs of the beautiful morning in the previous chapter which I posted before heading off to Wolverhampton, and the day ended as it had begun: the sun was just going down during the race before ours last night, and the 1/6 winner Stir Trader bounding out of it made a splendid sight.

Wolverhampton was actually the second meeting which I had attended yesterday, sort of: I'd managed to fit in going up to the Rowley Mile to watch Frankel's pre-racing gallop.  We see plenty of Frankel, but one can't see enough.  It speaks volumes for his charisma that, on a card which featured two Group One races and the Cambridgeshire, him galloping was the prime attraction - which it was for me and I am sure that it was for many others.  I doubt that many would have followed my lead by leaving before the first race (because, presumably, not too many had to get to Wolverhampton) but I wasn't the only one.  We're blessed to have him, and were blessed to see him in action yesterday - even if it's still hard to fathom why he took his workout unpaid yesterday rather than the previous afternoon in the 100,00-pound Group Two Joel Stakes, which he'd have won with no more effort than he put into the gallop.  Still, ours not to reason why.

I mustn't close without highlighting the heroes of Friday.  Remarkably, it seems that I was the only winning trainer at Haydock on Friday, which was rather poor.  And I wasn't in the obvious trainer's role: just Hannah and I had gone up with the horse so, as she was riding her, I led the filly up.  There was a presentation after the race, and it looked as if it would just be Mike Meaney, Grand Liaison's co-owner, and Hannah doing duty for that, as obviously I had the horse in my hands.  However, Roger Teal and his travelling head lass were beside the winner's enclosure, and unprompted they volunteered to take care of Grand Liaison while I accepted my prize.  That was extremely decent of them, and they certainly didn't cut any corners with her: when I got back to the stables, they had just finished washing her down and giving her a drink.  But that's racing for you: you never have to look very far to find some really decent people.

I should also salute Haydock, who'd done a really good job with their ground.  The turf up the straight looks odd as it's basically new turf, new drains having been put in (I think) last winter, but it works very well.  That part of the country has been so wet (as you can see in the previous paragraph, with the view out of the window of the box being of fields alongside the M6 - and I'm sure that they are meant to be fields, not a lake) and the ground was extremely testing, but the surface of the course was standing up to things remarkably well.  We've seen too many racecourses recently whose surface is far too churned up, but one certainly couldn't level that criticism at Haydock.  Good on 'em.  You can't beat a nice safe and sound surface.  Grand Liaison clearly shows her appreciation as, tired though she must be after her two races in eight days, she was looking very spunky out in the field today, with Gus clearly deciding that a tactical withdrawal might be prudent.