Revived

Our trip to Chelmsford was very enjoyable on Tuesday evening.  We did stay dry (we drove through some heavy rain near Stansted, and there was rain just outside Newmarket early in the evening while we were away) which was a bonus.  Typical Chelmsford generosity meant that we were given very good packed lunches (as we had been at Yarmouth) and we had access to tea and coffee too.  But the best was that Hidden Pearl ran very well: third, beaten a length and a half.  She looked a very possible winner at the top of the straight but two of her rivals were just a bit too strong for her in the last furlong.  But that was no disgrace: first, second and fourth had all had a run since the resumption of racing on 1st June, but she hadn't run for four months.  All in all, she did everything right and we came home satisfied and optimistic.

Chelmsford has been our highlight of the week, but overall Royal Ascot / Ascot Heath (delete as applicable) has been / is being the general highlight.  One couldn't say that it's been a good Ascot, but that's inevitable, with the expanded programme diluting the quality and the lack of lead-up races meaning that too many of the races are dominated by horses with whom one is relatively unfamiliar.  But that's nobody's fault.  It's been wet, particularly today (Thursday), but that's less of an issue than in a usual year because all spectators are spectating warm and dry at home, rather than in discomfort on the course.

The rain has obviously led to soft ground but that's fine: the racing is no better or worse on soft ground or firm.  It's still racing, with some horses suited by underfoot conditions and some horses discomfitted by them.  That's the same whatever the ground.  What isn't ideal is the seemingly massive draw bias on the straight course.  In big fields up the straight course, a low draw seemed to equate to maybe a 7lb penalty on the first day and then a bigger penalty than that yesterday, which really isn't satisfactory.  I feel sorry for people whose horses have been drawn low.  It is not obvious why this has happened or why it has been allowed to happen, but we've gone back to the worst of the old days of the straight course prior the renovations of 2005.

Although the new races have detracted from the meeting's appeal (to purists, anyway), I'm rather enjoying some of their names.  I have some very happy memories of National Hunt racing at Windsor so I like it that the Copper Horse Handicap Hurdle has been salvaged, albeit that it has been transferred to Ascot, had its distance shortened by two furlongs and had the hurdles removed.  We have a similar situation with what used to be one of the features of the Ascot September Meeting, the Golden Gates Nursery, a race whose name always had a pleasingly distinguished ring to it.

It's good to see the Golden Gates Nursery back, albeit at the June Meeting, with three-year-olds added to the field, two-year-olds removed, its distance extended by four furlongs and, most jarringly, transferred to the round course.  It was always a bit odd having its start at the six-furlong pole rather that at the Golden Gates, but it's even odder now.  The race which I'd have most liked to see revived would have been the Churchill Stakes, which was the highlight of Ascot Heath for many years (supported by the Fern Hill Stakes for three-year-old fillies and the three-year-olds' sprint handicap).

It would be good to see the Churchill Stakes resuscitated in any year; in this particular year it would have been a welcome shot in the arm for the many of us who feel that the country is losing the plot.  It's worth remembering at any time, but particularly now, that without Churchill rallying parliament and the country in the early stages of the war, we wouldn't now be worrying about the treatment of people who aren't of European gentile origin and who aren't heterosexual as there wouldn't be any.  (And we certainly wouldn't have the luxury of protesting).  Society is far from perfect as things are, but it would be a hell of a lot more imperfect if it hadn't been for Sir Winston Churchill.