Indian summer (cont'd)

As you might have worked out, I'd have loved to have seen Ortensia win the Betfred Sprint Cup at Haydock yesterday.  Seeing her and her rider Leah Gavranich regularly on the Heath in the mornings has been one of the highlights of summer for me and I've been delighted that she's won the King George Stakes and the Nunthorpe.  Let's hope that some of her magic can rub off on young Many Levels, who is seen here wandering along beside her on Thursday morning.  However, yesterday it wasn't to be - but the result was still good because I had split loyalties anyway.

Society Rock is another horse whom it is a regular pleasure to see; plus his is another stable which I always like to see enjoy success.  He's such a good horse (witness his Golden Jubilee second behind Starspangledbanner in 2010, his win in the race last year and his great run this year when the distance he was behind Black Caviar at the finish was considerably less than the ground which he had lost at the start) - but, of course, he can be his own worst enemy as he does so often start slowly after misbehaving in the stalls.

He's been doing a lot of stalls work with Yarmy (and is shown in the previous paragraph with James Fanshawe's head lad Andy Hopkins, coming home from a recent stalls session) and it paid off yesterday: he got away on level terms, and that was good enough.  We had Anthony for a few days in the week and what was particularly nice was that Anthony and I cycled around to Pegasus Stables on Friday afternoon to try to catch Anthony's friend Tom Fanshawe - but as, it transpired, term had already started for Tom, we saw a few horses instead, including Dandino and Society Rock (shown here enjoying the evening sunshine in his pen) who, of course, between them landed a big Group-race double the following afternoon.

One highlight of Anthony's trip was going out to Warren Hill to see his most-admired horse Frankel ("the best horse in the world") doing his daily exercise, which Emma took him out to do on Thursday morning.  But the real highlight, certainly for me and I hope for him, was him making his debut in the string.  Obviously I chose his mount with extreme care, but Extreme Conviction, having done his proper exercise earlier in the morning, proved to be a perfect conveyance for him last lot Friday and Saturday.

It was really, really good riding alongside him - and I think that Anthony enjoyed the experience very much too.  Obviously I also wanted a very sensible mount for myself in case quick action was required, and Alcalde similarly rose to the occasion.  On Friday we restricted ourselves to going along the side of the Heath (see above) but yesterday (photographs in this paragraph and the next one) we went all the way up Warren Hill (just trotting, obviously) and it was lovely.

Alcalde was so good because when we started trotting I rode close enough to keep a hand on one of Ex Con's reins, but it soon became clear that such a precaution was not necessary, even if I still made sure that I was riding right close beside him while we were trotting.  Anthony, who for several years was very nervous at the thought of riding, now rides with complete confidence.  That's not always a good thing - but rest assured that I was being cautious enough for the two of us!  He'd ridden on the Heath previously, but these were the first occasions he's done so with me mounted, rather than on foot, alongside him.  Let's hope that they prove to have been the first of many.

As these photographs have made clear, our Indian summer is continuing, which is lovely.  Our midweek spell of lovely days after cooler dawns has gone as it's remained very warm overnight too the last couple of days, which is perfect.  Friday and today (Sunday) have been boasted rare (for England) examples of cloudless skies.  How long this will last is uncertain, but any perfect day is a bonus at this time of year - and it's a particularly appreciated bonus this year, after a summer filled with days which largely were very far from perfect.

We've got two runners only this week: Ollie with first-time blinkers to try to shake his natural indolence a bit in a long-distance (ie ten furlongs) nursery on what will be a very firm track at Bath tomorrow, and then Ex Con who, God willing, will finally resume after more than 500 days off the track by contesting a two-and-a-half mile hurdle race at Uttoxeter on Wednesay.  God knows what the ground conditions will be there, but let's get tomorrow out of the way first before we start worrying about that.

As Ex Con is very overdue for a run, I'm certainly not looking for an excuse not to run him, but obviously one doesn't want to be too carefree about ground conditions for 'summer jumping', especially with a horse who has had more than enough things wrong with him already.  Anyway, both horses seem very well, and both can be seen in these three photographs of their exercise this morning (in two of which the tips of Simayill's ears can be seen too).

So that's grand.  Let's see what the week brings - and let's hope that it can bring more of this lovely weather.  Because for outdoor work it does make such a massive difference for both man and beast, and it's fair to feel that we are still owed some good weather to make up for all the good weather which we didn't have for the majority of the period April to August inclusive.  We love it, the horses love it - and the dogs love it too, as one can tell from Gus' carefree meanderings here among the herd of horses in the field this morning, with Zarosa's little face in the foreground.