Still spread thin

I was thinking that surrendering the mayoral chain would see me spreading myself a bit less thinly, but that doesn't really seem to be the case, even with today being the fifth Monday of the month, fifth Mondays being special days for Councillors as they are Mondays which don't contain Council meetings.  But I feel a bit under pressure: three racedays in five days is a lot, and especially when they are all fairly long ones.

Brighton Friday was a pleasure, but the Friday at the start of a Bank Holiday weekend is inevitably a busy and slow one on the roads.  Ditto Chester on Saturday: an absolute pleasure, but a Saturday on a Bank Holiday weekend up the M6 (in my opinion an even worse road than the M25) is a congested one, as is any raceday at Chester.  I believe that the journey to Chester on Saturday was generally a nightmare; and the fact that it was straightforward for us was a result solely of the fact that we left very early to make sure that we were past the M6 and into Chester racecourse early enough in the day to miss the congestion.

Tomorrow, our third raceday in a five-day period, won't feature a tortuous journey if we're lucky - but it will inevitably feature a drowsy journey as we're running at 8.40 at Wolverhampton, which means that we won't be home until after midnight.  But the two runners we have had so far in this period were both good.  Roy ran a nice race at Brighton on Friday to finish a good third, given a typically sound ride by one of the most under-rated jockeys on the circuit, the Autumn Double-winning Adam Beschizza.  Indira ran even better the next day, finishing a hugely creditable second in a valuable Scoop Six handicap at Chester off her career-high rating of 90, ridden as impeccably as usual by Josephine Gordon.

Let's hope that Hymn For The Dudes can also run well when he goes to Wolverhampton tomorrow.  I'm disappointed to find that the race is more competitive than one might have hoped for an AW Class Six event, but he ought to acquit himself with credit.  One can see him in the first paragraph, ridden by Jana and following Lucinda onto Bury Hill AW on Friday morning.  Thereafter we see Roy at Brighton, Indira at Chester, and then the two of them having a mighty time in the field on Sunday morning, clearly none the worse for their exertions.