Hope in our hearts

Our trip to Fontwell last Friday was indeed a wet one.  (And we have had to become further innured to being rained on since then).  There was torrential rain there before racing, and we even drove through some more deluges on the way home.  It made things testing for Das Kapital, accustomed as he was to the less gruelling conditions of Flat racing (shorter races, lower weights, ground less testing) but he acquitted himself well, notwithstanding that he got tired and dropped out in the last half-mile.  We probably made too much use of him too, but I like horses who haven't had much experience of running in jumps races to race prominently if they jump well, and not just for the fact that it's good to get their blood up by riding them briskly into the early hurdles.

If there are other inexperienced horses in the race, you'll often find that some of them will be quite green, running around or slowing up into the hurdles, and it's as well to be in front of these horses rather than next to or behind them.  I was particularly happy that we had put my theory into practice when one of the other jumps debutants unseated his rider at the first hurdle - but it probably did mean that we got tired a bit earlier than we otherwise would have done had we ridden him more quietly.  Still, the horse didn't seem at all fazed by the experience so we'll press on with him as a jumper, although his next race might be on the Flat (at Windsor in 12 days' time).  

That was our most recent runner, but we have two coming up at the end of this week.  Dereham goes to Kempton on Friday evening and Kryptos to York the following afternoon.  Dereham is fairly slow but he seems to stay well, and he has been improving with his racing anyway.  So I hope that he'll run well at his first attempt at two miles.  And Kryptos ought to run well, assuming he copes with what might be quite difficult ground.  He ran much better in the Cambridgeshire than his finishing position suggests as he finished second on his (unfavoured) side of the track.

Being drawn over there basically meant that one had no chance, but it was good to see him run so well.  It might have been quite frustrating if we had finished first on that side rather than second, but even then it would have been fairly easy to swallow as the winner won so well - breaking the track record, which really was not something which I was expecting to happen that day - that I think that he would have won however things had panned out.  But overall I think it was Kryptos' best run of the year, and I remain very happy with him.  So we'll continue to travel with hope in our hearts.  One needs a bit of hope even at the best of times, and 2020 certainly doesn't come into that category.