All good bar on the computer

I enjoyed very mixed fortunes yesterday, and for once I'm not just talking about the weather.  Our meteorological fortunes, in fact, have not been mixed, notwithstanding the facts that we had two or three hours of rain during the night and that with the clear skies and falling temperatures this evening we could now be in for a touch of frost.  No, it's basically been lovely.  We've had lovely mild days, with today being both very sunny and very mild, which is an unlikely combination for the second week of January.

An indication of just how pleasant it was today was that the dogs spent all afternoon outside, content to soak up some rays over on the far side of the yard rather than bang on the door to come back in.  So that really was very good.  As was yesterday, despite the fact that it wasn't as sunny - and despite the fact that things went from very good to bad later in the day.  But the good part was very good, as I was lucky enough to find myself in the second half of the morning, in my lesser role of bloodstock correspondent, at a press open day at Dalham Hall Stud where 13 Darley sires were on view, many of whom had recently arrived back from Australia.

Star of the show from my perspective had to be Sepoy, one of the few horses to have completed the Blue Diamond/Golden Slipper double, and as good as a three-year-old as he had been at two.  He and his mate Helmet, who between them mopped up the Group One two-year-old races in Sydney in the autumn of 2011 (Sepoy winning the first and Helmet winning the next two), were on view and, while Helmet went on to win the Caulfield Guineas at three, really it would be under-selling Sepoy not to state that he was easily primus inter pares among these two mighty horses.

Anyway, I'd seen Sepoy once previously (on July Cup Day last year, when he looked a mere shadow of his former mighty self) and it was a real joy to see him again yesterday, as the photograph in the previous paragraph gives you a small indication.  It was great to see him, it was great to see Helmet (pictured here) and it was great to see some of the more established stars, including the most established (Dubawi) and the one who, having sired an unprecedented three first-crop two-year-old winners at Royal Ascot winners last year including the remarkable Dawn Approach, is the most obvious rising star: New Approach (pictured in the next paragraph)

So that was a really nice outing.  And Darley were kind enough to give us lunch after this visual treat, which was the icing on the cake.  I enjoyed that in very good company: Chris Dwyer's son Mark and senior Darley employee Ollie Tait, a very nice Aussie who has been in the UK on and off for years now and whose family has owned some really lovely horses over the year, formerly with Neville and then Graham Begg and more recently with Guy Walter, including the top-class filly Whisked and her top-class son Tie The Knot, and the former top-class sprinting mare Spinning Hill, about whose luckless breeding career Ollie was filling me in yesterday.

Anyway, that was very good - but it was downhill from there, I'm afraid.  I was sending off some emails in the afternoon once I'd got home when I found at one point that, for no obvious reason, I couldn't compose one for a couple of minutes - and then shortly afterwards all became clear as it began to transpire that my email account had been 'hacked' and that, seemingly, everyone I know on email (and, oddly, some people I'd never heard of and am sure that I've never corresponded with) received a message purporting to be from me but which certainly didn't have anything to do with me, and which would probably blow their computer up if they'd followed up on the link which it contained.

Anyway, that was annoying, for those who received the message as well as for me (in fact, more for those who received it than for me).  One had to think that whoever had committed the misdemeanour (and, fingers crossed, it won't happen again as I have changed my email password) must have terrific computing skills - and so why, oh why, can't he or she find a more positive (ie less destructive) direction into which to channel his energies?  Anyway, that was annoying, but not, I think, my fault.  The next debacle was my fault and my fault alone.

Common sense says that one doesn't eat or drink while using the computer - but that restriction doesn't apply to me as I don't have any common sense.  It should do, though, as I was reminded when suffering the inevitable consequences of spilling a glass of wine (my first of the evening, not my 12th, I hasten to add) over the keyboard of my computer.  That was really, really annoying - particularly on a Tuesday, when I always have two deadlines (Winning Post and www.thoroughbredinternet.com) to honour before I go to bed.  Happily I had finished my 'Stallion of the Week' Grey Panel on thoroughbredinternet (a Selkirk appreciation, that lovely horse, thrice pictured here in November 2010 including in this paragraph with his mate Hernando in the foreground, having died last week) but I hadn't sent off the Winning Post column.  Fortunately, I was able to sort something out to get it sent off before bedtime, but that was a debacle and a time-waster without which I could have done.