I was hopeful that last week might provide a welcome boost to the morale and, happily, that is indeed what happened. We definitely had luck on our side, although I don't want to diminish Dereham's achievement of such a good win by making that reflection. Last week was the second time that Hidden Pearl and Dereham have run in the same race without taking each other on, ie with the race being divided. At Bath last autumn I found myself reflecting beforehand that I could never recall an occasion when a handicap had been divided with as big a discrepancy between the quality of the two divisions, with Dereham's division being the weaker. That's how it proved, with Dereham's division being run over three seconds slower than Hidden Pearl's.
This time, at first glance, the quality looked similar in the two divisions. And then an amazing thing happened: there were two non-runners in Dereham's division and they were the first two favourites, well ahead it seemed of the rest. So that was great. And then the race was run and, to my eyes, the horse who would have been third favourite but who became favourite after the scratchings didn't get the run of it at all. This was too good to be true, and it was lovely to see Dereham, very well ridden by Thore Hammer Hansen who has done very well with the few chances which we have given him, seizing the opportunity with both hooves, winning decisively by four and a half lengths.
He won so well that he may have won anyway, but I can't stop reflecting that the unplaced Hidden Pearl, carrying the same weight, actually ran the distance in a quicker time in her division (which was run over two seconds than Dereham's time). Dereham was given an RPR of 60 for his win but a Topspeed figure of only 29 (compared to Hidden Pearl's 51 and 34). He has gone up 10lb in the ratings to 56 so it's going to be hard next time when the race will almost certainly be more competitive than the one which he won, but we'll worry about that when we get there ('there' possibly being Nottingham in two weeks' time) and, whether or not he was a fortunate winner, he was A WINNER, which was just bloody marvellous, giving us all a big boost and providing Emma with a wonderful reward for her patience with her slow-developing little home-bred.
Gee, we're mentally volatile creatures, aren't we? I like to think that I'm more level-headed, more stoic, more philosophical than most, but even so I can be as guilty of the next man of allowing one or two setbacks to get me down and one or two good results to make me feel on top of the world. I sometimes answer the inescapable 'How's things?' query with the observation, "Nothing wrong that a winner wouldn't cure", and dear little Dereham's victory last week certainly illustrated the truth of that sentiment.
Hidden Pearl ran adequately in her division, especially as this outing continued the freakish trend that every time I have run her on turf either this season or last, it has rained heavily either the night before racing or on race-day. She is the one horse in the stable that I am most convinced wants firm ground, and yet I keep failing to run her on it. And it's not for the want of trying: the turf tracks on which she has run last year or this have been ones synonymous with fast ground during the summer months: Catterick, Bath and Yarmouth. I hope that her day will come. (Mind you, it may be the case that when eventually I do succeed in running her on fast ground, she runs worse on it!).
Das Kapital ran well at Lingfield the next day, finishing second. His run was a slightly frustrating reminder of just how bloody difficult it is to win a race, any race. He had absolutely everything in his favour, was in great heart and was perfectly ridden; and he finished five and a half lengths in front of the third horse, and recorded the best Topspeed figure of his life - and still didn't win! Ah well, it's always good to see them run well, whether or not they win. The pleasant post-script is that his rating hasn't been changed, which is nice.
I'm hoping that the unseasonably autumnal weather (which is forecast finally to settle down from tomorrow onwards) will continue long enough in Yorkshire for there still to be cut in the ground for Das Kapital at Thirsk in eight days' time. Could happen, bearing in mind that Beverley was abandoned, water-logged, today (along with Newton Abbot today and Windsor two days ago), further confirming how very wet it's been up there. In fact, Thirsk was second, behind Bala in north Wales, in the list on Countryfile on Sunday of Britain's wettest places during May.
Kryptos (who didn't run at Newmarket on Saturday after our 18 hours of rain reduced the GoingStick rating from 6.7 to 6.0 - which may not sound much of a change, but is) may have run before then at either Windsor or Leicester, and Turn Of Phrase is declared for Brighton on Friday. I'm finding her a bit frustrating at present as her last run at Yarmouth showed that I haven't found the key to her. Brighton might unlock her potential, or might fail totally to do so. We'll find out on Friday and I feel that she is capable of winning that race, but I'm afraid that I won't be holding my breath.
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