Going west

Gee, we've had a lot of rain over the past week.  Anyone who saw Sheikhzayedroad winning the Fred Archer Stakes at 2.55 on the July Course on TV yesterday will have seen us at our worst because the rain was truly torrential at that stage.  Fortunately it didn't remain that intense for long (it couldn't remain that intense for long) but we did get another proper drenching in that short time.  It was enough to see the going changed during the course of the afternoon from 'good to firm' to 'soft', which could justifiably have been called 'heavy', judging on how badly the horses who couldn't handle it were struggling.  And then we had another deluge this afternoon.  But I hope that that's our lot for the week.

The strange thing was that both yesterday and today we had lovely mornings.  Yesterday we got our last lot out relatively early.  Petra and I were going on the Heath around noon on Indira and Grey Poppett, and we bumped into David Simcock (trainer of the aforementioned Sheikhzayedroad) watching his last lot of horses heading off down the first sand.  We remarked on how lovely the weather was, compared to how grim the forecast had been - and, sure enough, by the time he welcomed his winner after the race less than three hours later, he would have been absolutely soaked.

Today was the same because it was a lovely morning, as these photographs suggest.  But then it started raining by around 11.00, and then rained for several hours.  Looking ahead, that ought to be our quota of rain for the week - so I hope that tomorrow I might have the rare treat of going to Wales and not being soaked.  Wasabi (whose ears are pictured in the first paragraph as she had a canter along the first sand first lot this morning) runs in the 7.15 at Ffos  Las tomorrow evening, so I'll be heading down there in the morning.

It's just too far to go there and back in the day, as I'd be looking at getting home around 2 am, and that would just be asking for trouble.  So I'll stay down there afterwards and get on the road early on Tuesday morning.  Let's hope that when I do come home, I come home happy rather than disappointed.  With Wasabi appearing in the first paragraph, by the way, we can see Magic Ice and Paddy Aspell after second lot in the second paragraph; Indira and Sara Fleck during third lot in the third paragraph;  and Near Wild Heaven as the final illustration.