Busy (and hot) time

Oh dear.  I havnen't written anything on here since before Roy ran at Brighton on Tuesday of last week, which was eight days ago.  So I haven't posted a chapter for, I guess, nine days.  Roy ran well.  He was the hot favourite, and I couldn't name a horse who looked likely to beat him; but at the same time I went to the races aware that they can't keep winning forever.  And, of course, his SP of 6/4 suggested that he was significantly more likely not to win than to win.  And that's exactly how it proved: he ran well to finish second. The horse who beat him was a 33/1 shot, but he oughtn't to have been.  He was that price because he had been pulled up in a steeplechase last time out, but that had been his first run for six months, and he was a previous winner on the Flat, over hurdles and over fences who had been running consistently well during his campaign in the second half of last year.  So, all in all, that was OK.

What is more than OK is the weather at present.  It's glorious.  We had got to 27 degrees by mid-morning, and apparently we can expect a high of 33 later in the afternoon, before an overnight low of 17. That's terrific.  I'll be appreciating much of this week's wonderful weather from the cab of a horsebox, though.  I drove 400 miles yesterday afternoon, collecting two horses from a farm the other side of Malton, leaving here after morning stables and getting back at 9.30 in the evening.  Today and tomorrow evenings will be considerably later than that; and then we will have another trip on Friday, which will mean four consecutive days on the road.  Which is a lot, as I have plenty of other things to do as well.

Today we have Grand Liaison (whose little face, on the Heath late morning yesterday, adorns this paragraph, and whose rear end can be seen in the second paragraph) in the 8.45 at Kempton.  It isn't necessarily what I would have called the ideal race for her, but in a spell of hot, dry weather beggars with horses who don't like fast ground can't be choosers.  She's ready for a race, so she can run in it, and I hope that she will run well.  Then we have Hymn For The Dudes set to make his debut at an evening meeting at Newbury tomorrow, which will mean another late night, and then Cottesloe running at Doncaster on Friday afternoon.  Let's hope that the trips go satisfactorily.