Clutching at straws

Sunday was a really lovely day and today has been quite nice too, albeit that it rained all night and didn't stop until after first lot this morning.  However, just to illustrate the vagaries of this weird climate in which we live nowadays, yesterday was a shocker.  All the while I was driving, I was driving through rain - but happily it only drizzled intermittently while I was at Kempton.  Which was good as Russian Link's run wasn't particularly satisfactory.  She ran in the 4.20 and I was thinking that it was nice to race at Kempton in the winter season in daylight, and it was still semi-daylight for her race.

However, that's about the best one can say about it from our point of view.  Eleven furlongs with a small field (six) of largely moderate horses - and she seemed unable to go the pace at any stage.  She took forever to muster speed, and then was struggling shortly afterwards anyway.  She was under pressure the last seven furlongs - but, weirdly, didn't get tired, and ran on strongly after the line. And hardly blew at all afterwards.  Were she a debutante, it would be easy to understand; but it was her fifth run, so she should know a bit about what is required.  Still, it was a good trial for races about three times the length.  And she enjoyed herself and behaved impeccably throughout, so maybe all is not lost.  Town Plate 2017, perhaps!