Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Roy Rocket is alive and well

I have called this chapter 'Roy Rocket is alive and well' because I feel that I ought to explain why Roy is called Roy Rocket.  That phrase features in the telling of that tale, only I won't tell it now as it's late and I need to go to bed as we need to be in Wolverhampton in good time tomorrow as we are in an early race, and there'll be plenty to do here before we go.  I only realised last week when Roy won that not even Larry or Iris McCarthy, his co-owners, knew where the name came from, so I told them the tale, and I'll tell it here too, on the off chance that anyone is interested.  But it won't be tonight - notwithstanding the fact that Roy is indeed alive and well, as he reaffirmed at Brighton this afternoon.

When Roy won last week it was a wonderful and blissful surprise.  It shouldn't have been a surprise that he won; but it was, because he'd become so regular in failing to win that one didn't really think about whether or not he would win.  ("Don't expect too much, and then you can't be disappointed.")  But he won and that was fantastic. Today, though, was different, because the consequence of last weeks' victory was that expectations were inevitably higher - and high expectations often, of course, lead to disappointment.  Thankfully, though, they did not do so on this occasion, because he and John Egan won in magnificent style, winning more rather than less easily for the 6lb penalty.

We had had a bonus in that we drew an even number this time (4) rather than an odd number, as was the case last time.  The odd numbers are loaded first, so with him (who does not like being in the stalls for long) the dream of barrier one would indeed turn into a nightmare.  But this time he was loaded last in a 7-horse field.  Perfect!  That was plain sailing - as was the race, although it was again only thanks to John Egan that it looked plain sailing: Roy is not an easy ride, and it would have been considerably less straightforward (and very possibly less successful) with a less accomplished hoop (ie just out anyone else) on board.

So that has been a lovely day.  Beautiful blue skies throughout, as you can see here at the start of the day and then later at Brighton.  Cold win, but.  We must not not overlook that we did have one setback today: Fen Flyer was declared for Newcastle but was eliminated, but that was inevitable bearing in mind that only 14 got a run, and there were 31 declared.  (Even if the race had been divided, there would still have been a surplus).  But that's not the end of the world: he's in good shape and God willing should still be when he does get a run.  In the interim, Grand Liaison is set to resume at Wolverhampton tomorrow, and that's something to look forward to.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're on fire Mr Berry.
Long may it last.

wroughtironron said...

great stuff John - three winners in a short space of time just shows what a good job Gus is doing there.