Three tough horses

Probably no harm in not having been able to run Ethics Girl (pictured this morning having a nibble of grass after her exercise, just as the sun is getting up) in the Cesarewitch yesterday.  It rained here all night on Thursday, but it was a bright and breezy raceday and the ground wasn't too testing so that wouldn't have been the problem.  But it is just such a taxing race, not just the distance but the opposition too.  Even when there are 34 runners, you can still only have four of them finishing in the first four - and if one's horse doesn't do that, there's rarely been much point in running.  So many really nice horses ran really well to finish unplaced (while having a desperately hard race) that it's easy to think that that is exactly what she would have done.  So, no harm done - and she can, God willing, instead make her hurdles debut this week, on Friday at either Cheltenham or Fakenham.

I did go up to the Rowley Mile yesterday even so, even if I was not there when the Cesarewitch was run.  There's always plenty to do here so there are always plenty of valid reasons for me not to be loitering on a racecourse when we don't have a runner, but I did want to see the colts in the Middle Park and the Dewhurst.  And I'm so glad that I did, as I now have a new favourite horse (our own inmates excepted, of course).  I'd been really taken by Dawn Approach already, but now that I've seen him, and seen his gutsy, laid-back, stamina-packed, perfect-Derby-trial Dewhurst win, he's gone right to the top of my most-admired list.

The breeding of the thoroughbred has gone so badly off the rails in recent decades that finding a truly sound and hardy horse is far, far harder than it should be; but he, winner of the first two-year-old race of the season and now unbeaten six-from-six winner of the Coventry, National Stakes and Dewhurst, stands out like a beacon, as much for his physical and mental toughness as for his huge ability.  He's a throwback to the days of such horses as Bayardo and his grandson Hyperion (to name but two of the equine gods).  Ger Flynn, Jim Bolger's travelling head lad (seen in both the pre-race and the post-race shots) was kind enough to chat to me about him after the race, and it seems as if the lovely colt really is as straightforward, resilient and professional as he seems.  Long may he reign.

Our own little trier Grand Liaison (pictured cantering around a fairly cold Bury Hill this morning just as the sun was preparing to stick its head above the horizon) heads off to Salisbury tomorrow, which is a trip I'm looking forward to.  Even I will admit that she lacks the class of Dawn Approach, but then so does nearly every other horse in training.  But she wouldn't be far behind him as regards straightforwardness, toughness and honesty, so let's hope for another good run tomorrow.

Winning three consecutive races is always easier said than done, and Salisbury can be a place to throw up strange racing when the ground is heavy, as it probably will be tomorrow.  However, it will be heavy for all of them, and she coped with very testing ground well enough at Haydock, even if the manner of her win there certainly wasn't one to suggest that she'd necessarily find things easy off a 6lb higher mark the next time.  So we'll hope for the best but won't expect too much.  Win, lose or draw, she'll do her best and won't let us down.

Oh, and by the way, just in case you're worrying from the Ethics Girl and Grand Liaison photographs that today's been too wintery, don't be too concerned: once the sun was up conditions were divine, as these final two photographs (of Long and Warren Hills through the ears of the second horse whom I rode this morning, Ex Con, and then off a similar view, albeit taken just a bit farther back towards the Bury Road, the following lot, taken from Many Levels' back) indicate.  At this time of year, every day of really nice weather is a bonus, as it's getting noticeably colder all the time.