This hasn't been a great week for runners from this property. Dave Morris ran two thirds of his string (ie he had two runners) at Lingfield on, I think, Wednesday and came home with two lasts. One of them was a 100/1 shot so that would have been easy enough to swallow, but the other horse (Zaheeb) was favourite, so that wouldn't have made for a great journey home. We fared marginally better last night at Wolverhampton, but only marginally so: we ran Magic Ice (pictured here) and Simayill (pictured below) who started at around the 6/1 mark in fields of eight and six respectively - and neither finished in the first four. So that was very far from great.
One shouldn't lose sight of the fact it was also far from disastrous - no lives were lost, no injuries were sustained - but even so one wouldn't want too many trips to the races along those lines. Magic (again) travelled well and didn't finish the race off; while things didn't work out for Simayill at all. The last time she'd run as if the mile and a half wasn't enough of a test of stamina, so it seemed the obvious thing to make more use of her, bearing in mind that we were racing over the same distance. However, when ridden more prominently she raced far too fiercely - and as I ride her most days I can certainly testify that when she gets fired up she is very keen. And, of course, when they race that fiercely, they invariably weaken out at the end, unless they have a massive amount of ability. Next time it might be wise to make it more of a stamina test for her by going farther, and ride her as quietly as possible. But it might not be that easy, as I can't say that I've found the key to this particular enigma yet, and she's been here for more than a year.
After that evening, the drive home seemed a long one. It would have seemed long even if we'd been leaving the course well before my usual bedtime, but as we got on the road shortly after 9.00 I have to admit that I found it extremely hard during the latter stages of the journey to remain awake. Particularly as the latter stages were longer than they should have been as the A14 was shut just north of Cambridge. Still, night racing is far easier to bear in the summer, and we're getting there. It was great to have the first runner (Magic Ice) at Wolverhampton at 5.00 pm and it still being run daylight; and it wasn't nearly as cold as we've been accustomed to, notwithstanding the fact that there was still a pile of snow (which presumably had fallen on Wednesday, two days previously) in the middle of the parade ring. The forecast is relatively good for the next week or so, so let's hope that that's the last sighting of such substance for several months.
This hasn't been a great week for runners from this property. Dave Morris ran two thirds of his string (ie he had two runners) at Lingfield on, I think, Wednesday and came home with two lasts. One of them was a 100/1 shot so that would have been easy enough to swallow, but the other horse (Zaheeb) was favourite, so that wouldn't have made for a great journey home. We fared marginally better last night at Wolverhampton, but only marginally so: we ran Magic Ice (pictured here) and Simayill (pictured below) who started at around the 6/1 mark in fields of eight and six respectively - and neither finished in the first four. So that was very far from great.
One shouldn't lose sight of the fact it was also far from disastrous - no lives were lost, no injuries were sustained - but even so one wouldn't want too many trips to the races along those lines. Magic (again) travelled well and didn't finish the race off; while things didn't work out for Simayill at all. The last time she'd run as if the mile and a half wasn't enough of a test of stamina, so it seemed the obvious thing to make more use of her, bearing in mind that we were racing over the same distance. However, when ridden more prominently she raced far too fiercely - and as I ride her most days I can certainly testify that when she gets fired up she is very keen. And, of course, when they race that fiercely, they invariably weaken out at the end, unless they have a massive amount of ability. Next time it might be wise to make it more of a stamina test for her by going farther, and ride her as quietly as possible. But it might not be that easy, as I can't say that I've found the key to this particular enigma yet, and she's been here for more than a year.
After that evening, the drive home seemed a long one. It would have seemed long even if we'd been leaving the course well before my usual bedtime, but as we got on the road shortly after 9.00 I have to admit that I found it extremely hard during the latter stages of the journey to remain awake. Particularly as the latter stages were longer than they should have been as the A14 was shut just north of Cambridge. Still, night racing is far easier to bear in the summer, and we're getting there. It was great to have the first runner (Magic Ice) at Wolverhampton at 5.00 pm and it still being run daylight; and it wasn't nearly as cold as we've been accustomed to, notwithstanding the fact that there was still a pile of snow (which presumably had fallen on Wednesday, two days previously) in the middle of the parade ring. The forecast is relatively good for the next week or so, so let's hope that that's the last sighting of such substance for several months.
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