That was the (good) week that was

I'm going to have to make this brief (that'll be a first) because I'm tired.  I have had a few long days recently, most obviously Friday and Saturday, and I shall have another one tomorrow as we're in the 8.00 at Bath - which isn't quite as daunting as the 8.00 at Chepstow which we had on Saturday, but not far off it.  And we won't have a Sunday's later start the next day.  But the fact that we have a runner means that I feel that I ought to tie up the loose ends from the last few runners and preview tomorrow's.  That latter part is easy: Hidden Pearl runs in the last race at Bath tomorrow evening.  The tying of the loose ends is straightforward enough too because, for once, we had a very good week.  

The Rocket Park winning on the Sunday at Thirsk was the best possible way to start the week. We had the low point the next day when The Simple Truth didn't run very well at Leicester, but the world didn't stop turning.  Friday's trip to Chester was then excellent.  (Well, that's not strictly true: the trip to Chester was a nightmare - nearly five hours to cover 190 miles.  I've generally found that the A41, a lovely road, provides a smooth passage, but I can no longer say that.  And it would have been at least as bad had we stayed on the M6, which is so often a dreadful road to take).

Even driving into Chester on the Friday afternoon to attend a spectator-free meeting was awful, the traffic across the lovely bridge over the Dee being as slow-moving as it would be at the Chester May Meeting before racing in a normal year.  The funny thing was that the box carrying David Simcock's runner left Newmarket at about the same time as we did and arrived at Chester at about the same time as we did.  Both drivers (Tom Kerby and myself) took different routes and we both became so demoralized that we went on detours.  And we both passed a National Hunt racecourse which shouldn't be on the way to Chester, Tom going via Uttoxeter and my choosing to pass Bangor!

But the good thing was that our horses travelled very well and kept their cool, meaning that they hadn't sweated their chances away on the journey.  Kryptos finished third, beaten a neck and a nose, and that felt like having a winner.  He had two and three quarter years between races, and I've been rather cautious in his training (that's what a horse having had tendon trouble does to you) so he probably needed his previous races.  But his last gallop before the race was the first time this year that he had gone as well as the old Kryptos, and as Nicola Currie put it, "Halfway through the race he was travelling so strongly, just like his old self, and I just felt, 'He's back!'".  So that was fantastic.  And Dereham showed a glimmer of promise in his race too.

And then Chepstow the next day was wonderful, Das Kapital gaining his first win at the 14th attempt, at the age of five and in his third season of racing.  The way he won, one has to wonder why it took him so long.  But, in fairness, he is a big, lanky, slow-developing horse who has needed all this time to (start to) come to himself.  And he had been placed a few times previously.  And he had only rarely had the opportunity to run on the soft ground which he relished on Saturday and which he needs.  So that was a great joy, doubly so because he thus became the first winner led up by my son Anthony.  So that was a good week - and I'm now going to bed to get some much-needed sleep, hoping that tomorrow can be a good day too.