Rub of the green

Oh yes, in all the excitement on Thursday of writing about Roy's and Many Levels' day out on the Rowley Mile, I forgot to review Batgirl's run at Yarmouth the previous afternoon.  At Newmarket I found out why the course so rarely races on a track rated heavy (because it was apparent that the going was heavy there that day in all but name) and at Yarmouth (where they owned up to it being heavy) things were equally testing.  Batgirl's funny because she's become more of a sprinter as she's got older (if that isn't a stupid thing to say about a five-year-old who won over six furlongs on firm ground as a three-year-old) and the seven on heavy ground did seem to test her.  However, even so, she ran a really good race.

I wasn't surprised that she ran really well because she went there in great shape, having this year held her condition and form for considerably longer than in previous years, which probably tells us nothing other than that the longer I've known her, the better I've known her, as one would expect.  However, I didn't realise quite how well she'd run until I finally saw the race today.  (I didn't see it at the time because I was, as usual, down at the start, which I didn't really need to be because she is so well behaved nowadays, and she was super-relaxed and -content at the races this week).  The Racing Post report in the following day's paper had given me the clue ("Batgirl ... raced towards the far side, which had not really seemed the place to be, and her effort can be upgraded") but it was only when I watched the race today that I realised that, had things gone differently, she probably could have finished, at a rough guess, about four and a half lengths closer - which, as she was beaten four and a half lengths, is food for thought.  Ah well ...

Anyway, let's hope that we get the rub of the green tomorrow, when Silken Thoughts (pictured back on the last day of August when conditions were massively more pleasant than they are now) makes her hurdles debut at Stratford, one of my favourite National Hunt tracks (and not only because it has the virtue of being not too far away - it's about 110 miles away, but somehow seems closer).  She has one rival with significantly better Flat form and one whose Flat form is roughly the same (but who was a well-beaten favourite on his hurdles debut) so it would be hard to predict victory, but she should have place claims if all goes well.  So fingers crossed that it shall.  As ever, we live in hope.