Great racing

ATR really are serving us very well.  Yesterday ended with the Breeders' Cup (the new-style first day - largely for horses who previously wouldn't have been good enough to run at the Breeders' Cup - and isn't that a great marketing wheeze) up to and including the Filly & Mare Turf, which I stayed up until 10.45 to watch as I wanted to watch Nahrain (whom you might be able to spot in this photograph, if you're really eagle-eyed, passing by in front of us on the Severals one nice morning last month, ridden as usual by Iva) even if the writing turned out to be on the wall from an early stage as she raced so fiercely in her surprising first-time blinkers.

And then today started with VRC Derby Day at Flemington, along with a recording of the BC Ladies' Classic, which was won in terrific fashion by Royal Delta while I was asleep.  And now it's winding to a close with the main Breeders' Cup Day, massively enriched by the signing by ATR of James Willoughby, whom I could watch all night.  So that's all really good.  But - we should get back to more important details, namely that yesterday I saw a mouse in the feedroom/back room.  Bearing in mind that we have seven cats, that's disgraceful.

At least we can say that one of them is taking her responsibilities seriously, as you can see (above) that I found Natagora on the job later in the day.  But the others?  Pathetic!  Camelot, who admittedly can do no wrong, has taken his little eye off the ball, what with Hallowe'en an' all.  We had Anthony over for the first half of half-term, which was great, and one of his creations was his pumpkin lantern, which really got Camelot working on his Hallowe'en costume.  I was expecting him to come out dressed as a bat - so, all in all, I can't be too surprised that, while the cat's mind's been elsewhere, the mice have been playing.

But that's all by the by.  The weather is more or less holding up (as this picture of the Town Plate course through the National Stud yesterday suggests) so we'll head off to Huntingdon tomorrow with Ethics Girl.  Poor William had two rides at Ascot today and was unseated by both, so it'll be nice for him to ride a horse as reliable as she is.  It's funny because one would expect me to be a bag of nerves when any horse makes his or her jumps debut, never mind a horse as special to me as she is, but when she ran at Fakenham (after which run she is pictured below) I was very calm, simply because I have such complete faith in her.  Let's hope that it's not misplaced.

Other than Fakenham, I'll be concentrating on Flemington, not only because I'll be preparing myself for the overnight Melbourne Cup shift on ATR Monday night through to Tuesday morning, but also because I'm taking the TAB's Star Stable Spring Carnival competition very seriously.  Going into Derby Day I was lying 130th of the 40,684 entrants.  For my two changes, I didn't recruit any Derby Day runners, preferring to stock up on Cup runners (Mount Athos and Galileo's Choice) so I'm happy enough only to have dropped down to 382nd.  Fingers crossed I'll have six Cup runners, and all of the favourites bar Americain (who might be a costly omission), so that'll keep me on my toes.  Even more than this great racing is doing already.