Of mice and men

Best laid plans!  Going into today, Hymn For The Dudes had never been lame.  Today he was set to make his debut, and - yes, you've guessed it - he's lame.  Nothing serious.  He has a nick in the sole of his off-fore foot (presumably from having trodden on a stone at exercise yesterday, not that I noticed anything amiss when I rode him, when he impressed me as being 100% sound throughout) and thus has a small abscess, which became instantly apparent when I went to see him this morning, as he was noticeably lame.  He'll be sound in a few days and his debut should only be delayed by a couple of weeks, but it's annoying.  It's a suitable race today, at a relatively local track which would have been convenient for his owners, and on nice ground after the recent rain; and we're going to the meeting anyway.  So he's a non-runner in the first race at 6.10 pm - while we shall kick our heels waiting to run Tommy in the 8.40, reflecting that we don't even have the consolation of the night being less of a late one.  Ah well, it's not the end of the world.