Famous blue raincoat, again

Ah that's great. Photos galore on the past two blogs. And our best correspondent Problemwalrus has posted too. We've been very short of dialogue in recent chapters, so it was great to have the walrus back with us. It seems that 'flu, riding in the Walrus Hunter Chase, preparing for the 'people's race' and attending concerts at the Corn Exchange had kept him out of commission for a while, but it's great to have him back. All we need now is a few more bloggers.

If the walrus is going to more concerts, I can give him a tip which James passed on to me. James and I are very similar in that, while I can confirm that he's a very generous man and I like to think of myself as such too, he shares my belief that one shouldn't spend money unnecessarily. Parking near the hall costs money, so if one parks in Thriplow and walks in, one can save a couple of pounds. And not only that: in the next few weeks that would mean that one can see one of the country's best collections of daffodils. Furthermore, doing it this way makes the evening a much bigger event than it otherwise would have been: a blink-and-you'll-miss-it couple of hours becomes and unforgettable all-night excursion. I'm afraid that we won't have ready access to such useful tips henceforth, because James has decided to move on. That's rather sad really, and partly my fault I feel, but fortunately I am confident that our twenty-year friendship will survive, and that we won't have seen or heard the last of him. In his two stints working here he's become very much part of everything, and I am sure he'd be as unwilling to lose touch with us as we would be to lose touch with him. So money-saving advice will still be only a phone call away - even if one can be confident that such calls won't be lengthy or pre-6pm (if originated by him). And don't be surprised if you hear the sounds of bongoes emanating from the stable at some stage during the summer.

By a weird coincidence, when Martha and I were riding round Hamilton Hill this morning (on Imperial Decree, who is really learning to focus on her work now that she is back cantering, and Belle Annie respectively), we bumped into Martin Banks. I hadn't seen him for ages, so it was appropriate that he should appear on James' final day working here. Martin, of course, was the villain, who eventually came to be something of a hero, of the story of James' missing Famous Blue Raincoat last April. I don't think I ever did recount it in full, but suffice to say that the raincoat was eventually retrieved, and that even James could see the funny side of it in the end. Going around Hamilton Hill makes rather a nice diversion, because one sees some different faces. A pair of talented riders on the circuit together today were the extremely nice apprentice Jerry O'Dwyer, who has enjoyed a deservedly successful winter, and Brian Reilly, which is an odd sight bearing in mind that Brian was warned off a month or so ago. But as Robbie Fitzpatrick, who was also recently disqualified, was riding at Lingfield today, I've given up trying to understand how these things work. What was then particularly pleasing was to see Peter Ryan riding out for Geoff Huffer. I hadn't seen Peter on a horse for years. You might remember him as the most promising conditional in the north a few years ago, but he had a very bad experience which caused his career to stall badly: he was given a long ban for riding a non-trier and, although I got the strong impression that he'd been riding to orders, the owner and trainer publicly distanced themselves from him afterwards, and he found himself very short of rides. Richard Guest was the only trainer to give him a go, and then he broke his leg very badly and had to pack it in. He was then working for Godolphin, but even his riding-out was very stop/start as he had to have more and more operations to get his leg back to something like normal. So sad for a man in his mid-20s, at most. He was kind enough to school Diamond Maxine for me over hurdles in the autumn of 2003, and did a really good job: he was back in Dubai by the time she won first time out at Fakenham that November, but I was very mindful of how much of the credit was due to him. I think his leg resumed playing him up the following year, but hopefully he's eventually back in better shape, and I was delighted to see him back in the plate.

The previous lot we'd had another Southfields Saturday brahma: after the shock of being caught out by Luca's marathon trial last weekend, this time it was Sir Mark Prescott who bowled us a googly by walking his string for a large part of the circuit. At least Luca's ploy was permissible! I was on Lady Suffragette this time, with visiting rider Jamie Trotter with me on Mattie Stokes, and both horses are so straightforward and amenable that we were able to wait for the obstruction to move on before having a very enjoyable spin along on the grass. Gemma on Bilkie and Martha on Glen Garioch were more inconvenienced than we were, and two other strings had their work disrupted even further, but no lives were lost.

Since then, it's just been an enjoyable afternoon in front of the television, with superb Grand National trials by Simon and Nil Desperandum, and a really good win on the unbelievably testing ground by a sweet juvenile hurdler called Punjabi, a son of Komaite formerly with Geraldine Rees by now representing the great Nicky Henderson/Mick Fitzgerald combination (which I suspect will last for quite some time yet, despite Mick's supposedly imminent retirement). A little highlight for me was seeing a four-year-old called Harrisburg run second first time out in the concluding bumper on the bottomless ground at Kempton. He's by Alhaarth ex Pennsylvania, a mare who lived at Woodditton Stud while I worked there. He's like his mum in being a strong chesnut with a big white face. She should have been a good broodmare, being by Northjet from Ian Balding's lovely Mrs Penny, winner of (if I remember rightly) the Cheveley Park and Prix de Diane, but wasn't: she was a disastrous producer, but perhaps now she has finally (and I presume posthumously, because she'd be a good age now) left something nice - although the fact that he's running in bumpers suggests that he followed the family trait by having problems in his younger days.

This action meant that the racing in the afternoon was as entertaining as that in the morning, because ATR had brought us our usual three-hour slot of thunder from down under, 2.30 to 5.30. Great sport from Caulfield and Rosehill. Every race was a highlight. With two Group Ones on the card at Caulfield - plus the St. George Stakes which, although Group Two, was Group One standard, and a three-year-old race containing both the easy Derby winner Efficient and Elvstroem's supremely-talented Fusaichi Pegasus half-brother Haradasun - it seems strange to pick out a race in Sydney, but the Hobartville Stakes was a wonderful race, with the duel between dear Gold Edition and the magnficent Mutawaajid. These two superb three-year-olds have been campaigned in contrasting styles: her record is now 23-12-6-1, while his is five from five after defeating her today. He's just such a magnificent horse, which he is entitled to be, being by Redoute's Choice from a Vain half-sister to Shaftesbury Avenue: that's a list of three of the best-looking and mightiest horses you'd ever see (I never saw Vain, but have seen pictures of him - I have a photo of him being led back in after winning the Slipper, and he looks a monster). Coincidentally, yesterday saw the debut here of another Shaftesbury Avenue, who ran unplaced in a maiden on the all-weather. He's by Fusaichi Pegasus, but he's now (I presume) a very cheap cast-off from a major operation, being trained by Britain's smallest trainer, Jimmy O'Reilly who, although a very competent trainer and nice man, would work on a budget smaller than himself. I'm not expecting this Shaftesbury Avenue to match the achievements of his beautiful antipodean namesake.