Go home, you bewdy

Undisputed heroine of the week has to be Mozie Cat. Any win is special, but a horse's first win is always the best. The first win turns a maiden into a winner, and anything else is a bonus. As recent postings on this blog will have indicated, Mozie's recent work had been very good, and had certainly indicated that she was up to winning her race on Monday, but she still had to prove that she could and would go out and put the potential into practice. So it was wonderful to see her do so. Greenness (because she has been a slow learner), lack of recent racing (particularly as she is a very thick-winded horse) and quirkiness (because she does like to express her individuality, and any time she says that she really doesn't want to do something, one isn't surprised) could all have made her on-track form fall short of her homework - but despite looking as feared very green, she was going too well and, aided by a typically polished ride by Brett Doyle, she came home in front. Andrew Hollis has assembled a very nice band of broodmares at Norcroft Park Stud - to which his Stakes winners Polar Jem and Tarandot will have made excellent recent additions - and I hope that Mozie is now qualified to join the harem. She certainly should make a lovely broodmare - being from the only crop of the great Mozart has to be a plus, while her dam is by Storm Cat from a Classic winner (Eurobird, a daughter of the great Ela-Mana-Mou) who is a half-sister to two more Classic winners (Assert and Bikala). I've grown really fond of Mozie, whom I really enjoy riding, and would love long-term to see Andrew breed a champion from her, which certainly could happen. But I hope she will be able achieve a bit more on the racecourse before that.

It was great to have Brett on another winner for us. He's an excellent jockey, who probably isn't fully appreciated in the UK because of having done most of his riding in recent years overseas. I think Sayyedati in the Sussex Stakes remains his only Group One winner here, but he's had no end of success elsewhere, and now that he seems happy to be settled back at home, I suspect he won't remain under-appreciated for long. His record for this stable is superb. I reckon he's ridden us six winners - two on Archirondel, two on Critical Stage, one on Ex Mill Lady and this win on Mozie Cat - and I doubt that that's from more than about a dozen rides. He rode dear old Timmy at Lingfield today, who ran another brave race. The wide draw didn't do him any favours and he consequently ended up working too hard, too soon and too wide. If things had gone really well, today's fourth place might have been a second, but we wouldn't have beaten the winner Binnion Bay, who confirmed the impression he'd given when beating Timnmy at Kempton last week that he's a lot better than Regional class. However, Timmy is such an honest soldier that that all-important first win has to come at some point. He certainly deserves it.

Diligent blog-readers might have noticed that Dickie Sims is trying to make his replies longer than my initial postings (an impossible task Dickie - you're pissing into the wind, mate); but if you've missed his ramblings, seek them quickly, because I'm going to contact the Blog Administrators to have the worst offending articles removed. I'm the only person who is exempt from the principle that brevity is best (in my mind I'm exempt, at least). So if you've missed Dickie's wafflefests, how about entering our competition. I've been put up to this by Postponed's stud manager. Michael Tidmarsh and I keep an eye on an NZ site called racecafe. One of the main contributors to its discussion is the studmaster responsible for Postponed, sire of our dear Dolly (see 'Horses In Training' section of this site). One of his stunts was to stage a competition in which one was to nominate the three most successful stallions, by average (at least three offspring had to be in the sale), of the NZB Ready-To-Run Sale. (I think No Excuse Needed was the best-seller, which is remarkable bearing in mind that Irish breeders couldn't give his yearlings away this autumn). Anyway, to give a sensible entry, one would have had not only to go through the catalogue thoroughly, but also watch all the gallops. Hours of work. And the prize? A Postponed cap !!! Free advertising for Postponed. God knows who won it, but I'm thinking about contacting the stud and asking that they send Michael and I a cap each, which I think we'd merit. Mind you, if I walked around Newmarket wearing a cap bearing the logo 'Postponed', nobody would be any the wiser, and I guess that I'd just have several wags asking whether it shouldn't read 'Abandoned'. So, to get to the point, a competition with not much of a prize seemed to be the go. So I've decided to go one step farther, by stageing a competition with no prize at all. So here it is:-

What you've got to do is nominate the most similar celebrity look-a-like for various people connected to this stable. Their names are listed below, along with some of the answers so far supplied. If you can't do any better than the identities already put forward, keep your suggestions to yourself, but if you can better them, then stick 'em up. Here goes.

Richard Sims (whom else could we start with?). Answers already given - Douglass Whyte; Aidan O'Brien; Graeme Connors; Tony Robinson (in his roles as Baldrick in Blackadders I, II and III, and, particularly, as Private Baldrick in Blackadder IV).

Joff Dumas. Chopper Reid.

Gerry Chesneaux. Daniel Craig, in his role as 007 (both Gemma and Emma put that one forward, so if that ends up as the winning suggestion, then they'll have to split the non-existent prize).

James Dowsett. Michael Douglas (in Wall Street); Leonard Rossiter (in Rising Damp, and particularly when Miss Jones appears).

Ollie Marsh. Dustin Hoffman (in The Graduate).

Our neighbour Willie Musson. Peter Fonda (in Easy Rider).

So keep your suggestions flowing. And if there's anyone else for whom we should also be looking for doppelgangers (including me), do let us know. I'm sure that I keep catching glimpses of George Costanza and Cosmo Kramer riding out in our string, but whenever I turn to look, they're not there.