Tuesday, June 09, 2015

Birthday review

Six days and one runner have passed since I last wrote a chapter of this blog.  Still, it's been the first week of the month (ie accounts to be drawn up, not that any have been sent out yet, of course) and it's been the Derby  (ie TV to be watched) and there have been mayoral duties (I'll keep that vague because it maybe sounds less unimpressive than it is if I do so) and there's been MY BIRTHDAY.  This birthday was OK because it ended in a 9; next year's will obviously be less good, ending in a zero.  And it really was more more than OK, because we went over to the coast at Orford (castle shown here) in beautiful weather to eat a really lunch with our friends Simon and Gemma Waterhouse.

The runner we have had was our Italian import Koreen, who ran in a maiden race at Kempton on a very pleasant evening last Thursday.  He finished 10th of 14, but he didn't run badly.  I came home with a souvenir: a betting ticket.  It hadn't crossed my mind to have a bet, but when I saw that he was 100/1 I couldn't let him run unsupported.  So that was £20 which was lost needlessly.  The brahma was that the one bookmaker who had him at those odds firstly took £10 EW from Aaron Lau (pictured leading the horse) and then £10 EW from me - and then didn't alter his price.  Either he was very cheeky, or he knew more than I did - or both!

We have another runner tomorrow.  Roy will be going to Brighton to try to maintain his 100% record at the course.  He doesn't have a 100% wins to visits record there, his last visit taking place on the day when the programme was abandoned after only two races (and he was set to run in the fourth race) because of the strong winds.  Fingers crossed that won't be a problem tomorrow.  So let's hope that his perky little ears (pictured here in Snaffles' 'Finest View in Europe' mode) can be as perky there tomorrow as they generally are in his exercises on the Heath here.

Our trip to Orford, incidentally, was not the only highlight of my birthday (Sunday).  The previous day had seen Newmarket-trained horses fill the trifecta in the Derby, and John Gosden was kind enough to lay on a press photo-opportunity on the Sunday morning with Golden Horn and Jack Hobbs, the winner and the runner-up.  And, of course, Winning Post's overseas correspondent felt that he ought to be there.  I'd actually had a good omen tip that the stable would provide the Derby quinella as I'd seen Gus' mother and his sister in the garden there as I rode past down the Bury Road during fourth lot on Saturday morning.

After seeing those two Dalmatians regally sitting out on the lawn on Saturday morning, it was inevitable that the stable would come up with a big quinella in the afternoon.  I do like my omens.  And what is particularly good is that the I had another omen this morning: Roy passed within two metres of Golden Horn (who is on the left as we look at the pair in the previous paragraph, with his Galashiels-born lad Mick Cullen in the light blue shirt) at exercise on the Heath today.  It would have been too cheeky to brush by any closer than that, but I did want to give us every chance of having some of the magic rub off.

1 comment:

neil kearns said...

belated birthday greetings good job with the rocket the fluence obviously rubbed off