Keeping our world turning

Gosh, my previous chapter provoked much more of a response than either I expected or it deserved.  I wasn't expecting that it would become a news story, and still question whether it should have done.  Still, I probably should have anticipated it, but I never learn.  Ah well, the world, as is usually the case, has kept turning, and the sun did indeed rise this morning, right on cue (as you can guess from the sky, shown through Roy's ears).  And I hope that it will do so tomorrow too.  Particularly as we shall be taking a two-year-old to the races for her debut, an event which is always exciting - so it would be a shame if Armageddon were to come tonight, as it would be disappointing to miss that outing.

I initially had Ethics Girl's little half-sister Sussex Girl (shown here being cleaned off after work about three weeks ago, when we were still in our Indian summer) pencilled in to run at Catterick yesterday, but (even though the ground was given as 'good' earlier in the week) I was sure that the track would be very wet; so I re-routed her to Pontefract tomorrow, in the probably vain hope that the ground might be less testing there.  She has never given us a clue as to how she will cope with soft ground as she has never even cantered, never mind galloped, on it.  But Ethics Girl was hopeless in the wet, and this filly is quite like her, notwithstanding that she is a different colour.  So she might struggle tomorrow; but the race is only six furlongs so it won't exhaust her.  And we've got to start somewhere, so it'll be good to do so in a suitable race where Josephine, who came in last weekend to ride her, can ride.

We then have Roy going to Kempton on Tuesday, which should be fun.  He's been on the go all year, but he's working with great zest at present even so (in fact, he's working better now than he was before his last race, at Brighton) and I hope will run well.  He has never won away from Brighton and the pattern of the average race at Kempton probably is not his ideal scenario; but he's going nicely and it's worth taking a chance at a course where he has previously been placed.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  John Egan can't make it but we'll have a good replacement: the under-rated Saleem Golam, who has already worn his silks once this year (on Roy's half-brother So Much Water at Windsor in May).  (And it is another of his half-siblings, White Valiant, who illustrates this paragraph, in a photograph taken yesterday on the Al Bahathri.)

Then we should have a third runner this week: Cottesloe at Ludlow on Thursday.  That's another trip that I'm looking forward to.  He ran adequately on his jumps debut at Hexham last month, even if his jumping was more novicey than I had expected.  He has schooled very well under Jack Quinlan since then (as you can see in this photograph, taken yesterday up at the Links) so I hope that that was just first-night nerves on his part, and that he will jump more fluently this week.  He is certainly capable of doing so.  If he does so, he ought to run very well.  Fingers crossed, as ever.