A happy time

Very slack. Far too long between posts. Any excuses? Not really. Oh well, we did get married on Sunday, which took up a bit of our time and a lot of our attention. It was a lovely day. For various reasons, we wanted to make it a low-key event, and make it a personal, rather than a social, occasion. How best to do this was the question, and the answer was provided by Paula Minchin, who kindly put us in touch with the vicar, Tony Douglas, of her parish - indeed, one could even say of her church, as she effectively assists Tony in being custodian of this very special and spiritual building - at Holkham. We met Tony and he agreed to marry us there, and he then proceded to do much more than that, as he organised what was a wonderful service.

The congregation, numbering 18 (including Emma and I), basically consisted of our immediate families, plus a handful of people who are as close as family: Paula and her partner Simon Lester (the head game-keeper on the Holkham Estate), Chris (who acted as my best man) and Shelley Dwyer (below), and Colin and Eileen Casey (left), who basically are my family, except that we're not actually related.

The ubiquitous and excellent Kevin Hawes drove (on what I believe was a memorable journey, during which apparently Emma's mum kindly made a few helpful suggestions to Kevin about motoring protocol) the eight who came up from Newmarket (Chris and Shelley, Colin and Eileen, plus the four who had stayed with us the previous night: Emma's parents David and Carol, my father Claude and my brother Dominic). These four had ensured that the previous evening was a memorable one. It had been the first time that Emma's parents had met my father or brother, and it was great to find that they got on famously.

I don't see Dominic (pictured here with Emma's sister Jules) nearly as often as I should, and that I should see more of him was particularly emphasised by the fact that he was in superb form and was really good company. He'd made a good effort to be there, because he had to be back in Edinburgh by the end of the weekend, so it was a long journey for a short visit, but I'm so pleased that he did so.

So the wedding was a wonderful occasion, not in the least spoiled by the rain, and we had a lovely lunch afterwards in the neighbouring Victoria Hotel, courtesy of David Collings. If anyone is unfamiliar with Holkham, which I was until we were rash enough to take Richard Sims there to have lunch with Paula, Simon and Simon's father Jim in November 2005, they can find out more about this truly special place on www.holkham.co.uk. We were so lucky to be married there. It has to rank as one of the finest estates in Britain, and therefore, I think it's fair to say, in the world.

Although Sunday was a wet, grey day, Emma and I stayed up there in one of the lodges on the estate for Sunday night (left), and on Monday morning we were much better able to appreciate its beauty, because it was a fine sunny (albeit windy) spring morning. I can report that I spent my wedding night in the approved manner: we watched 'Rough Diamond' and then I fell asleep during 'Lewis'. It was quite a wrench on Monday morning to break camp and head for home, but I had a Newmarket Trainers' Federation meeting to attend, followed by a post-haste drive with Emma to Lingfield, where Lady Suffragette ran a nice race, finishing a staying-on fifth.

A win would have been the icing on the cake, both for Emma and I and for Cliff Rimmer, who led her up on his birthday; I ought to know which birthday, but it was either his 74th or 75th. (Cliff, incidentally, is a native of Liverpool and, therefore, has a wry appreciation of the city of his birth and its inhabitants - and he was intrigued to learn that we had been married by someone who matches his description of "a posh Scouse - if there is such a thing"; and he was even more baffled to hear that Tony is a protestant Everton supporter). Anyway, the little lady couldn't manage a win, but she ran well in what was the battle of the pocket dynamoes: a driving finish fought out between Cathy Gannon and Sam Hitchcott, whose mount, the Phil McEntee-trained Dubai Sunday, got the verdict, to the surprise of most on-lookers, by about half a centimetre. What was pleasing was that our jockey was JD Smith, whom we've known and liked for years and who really is worthy of Jimmy Lindley's usual platitude "deserves more chances than he gets". I'm only ever able to throw JD aboard infrequently, and this would have been the first time I've put him up on something with a chance, but he always provides a good service. I managed to take a suprisingly good photo of him unsaddling the filly, which will probably find its way to accompanying this wafflefest.

I was tempted to take my camera to the Links this morning, when Tom Greenway schooled Lady Suffragette again, but I didn't because I knew that any photographs I took would be inferior to the ones which Emma took the last time she'd schooled. Not that there wasn't the potential for some good shots today, because the filly jumped really well and, on the evidence of last Monday's run and today's schooling, she should acquit herself very creditably next Monday when she makes her hurdling debut in what should be an extremely weak event at Plumpton. It is, of course, what is nowadays referred to as the Cheltenham Festival next week (traditionalists, of course, still think of it as the National Hunt Meeting, while I usually refer to it as the Cheltenham Spring Carnival) which will be great and which I'm getting very excited about, but without doubt the race next week to which I'm most looking forward will be the 4.00 at Plumpton on Monday. That's the thing about having one's own horses, however moderate they are: watching other people's, however good they are, just isn't the same. We were, incidentally, as fortunate today as we were the last time that Tom schooled her, because when I arrived up there Rob, the Links foreman, told me that Tommy Keddy was about to arrive with a couple of hurdlers, which proved to be correct informtion. Tommy, predictably, was as helpful as Michael Bell had been on the previous occasion and was very happy for Lady Suffragette to come up the line of hurdles behind his two horses (an older horse ridden by his wife Hayley and a young one ridden by Ken Clutterbuck's conditional). He's repeating his horses' exercise on Saturday and said our filly would be very welcome to join them again, but she was so good today that Tom and I are very happy for her to go to Plumpton as she is. She is a good and safe jumper, but she did just need to become more fluent, and the confidence she got by following the others today looked have completed her education nicely. Fingers crossed.

We had a similarly encourageing exercise yesterday, when Tom Rossiter, accompanied by his niece Ruth and her husband Chris, came to watch Mattie Stokes gallop. Mattie is such a dope and is basically happy to treat gallops as if they are canters, but he is gradually becoming more focussed on his work, and each time he gallops he goes a little bit better. Yesterday was his best effort yet, and I was very proud with the display he put on. Brief Goodbye accompanied him, with David riding Brief for Mattie's benefit, and pleasingly it looked as if towards the end David, while he wasn't pushing Brief at all, wasn't actually having to hold him back for Mattie to be able to stay with him. We had an unknown workmate, as Brian McMath had asked me if we had any gallops into which he could put an unraced three-year-old. I had told him that he'd be very welcome to have his horse gallop with this pair, but warned him that, as we'd be going the pace of a green and unraced bumper horse, it wouldn't be a taxing gallop for anything of any ability - but that his horse would be very welcome to go on past us and leave us behind in the latter stages if that suited him. As most of the horses which Brian trains are very moderate, I wasn't expecting too sparkling a performance from his colt, so was reasonably impressed when the horse powered past me after about five of the eight furlongs. However, it didn't go far clear and only finished two or three lengths ahead of us, albeit under minimal pressure, which means a lot less pressure than I'd put on Mattie. Even allowing for the promising way in which Brian's horse galloped, I was still rather taken aback by the punch-line, which came afterwards when Brian mentioned that the horse is entered in the Derby; that certainly wasn't what I was expecting to hear! I think a bumper at Towcester (March 29th has been pencilled in) will be more Mattie's cup of tea.

What was also rather nice about that exercise was that Martha and Hugh had preceded us up the gallop on By Storm and Belle Annie respectively. Emma had gone up to the Heath with Tom, Ruth and Chris, and she took some nice photographs of these two horses doing their work. Both looked to be carrying themselves well, and Martha looked extremely polished on By Storm, which isn't easy as By Storm is such a little thing that it's hard not to look cumbersome on her. Her riding is coming on so well, and there's a really good feeling in the stable just now because I think we have a really good team working here.

If Hugh's name is unfamiliar to you, you could check out his entry on the staff biography section. He started here this week, having been out of racing for a while, and I'm delighted to have him here. He hadn't ridden a horse for two or three years prior to Monday, but you certainly wouldn't guess that from the way he's riding. Of our recently departed colleague James we have no news, which isn't surprising as he's still in Thailand. No doubt when (if) he returns to the UK, there will be some tales to tell (how editted they will be will depend on the identity of the listener). I'm just concerned that we might find him traumatized by a life-changeing encounter with a lady-boy. What will also traumatize him will be when he hears the bombshell of a girl called Ali who has been riding out here some mornings. I think Ali started riding out the last week James worked here, so she must have ridden out with him two or three times; anyway, the following week Gemma and I were talking about James, and Ali couldn't remember him. Unbelievable! As he is the suavest ladies' man that I know (with the exceptions of Gerry Chesneux and Richard Sims), I'm sure he'll be as stunned as we were to hear how small an impression he'd evidently made on her - and that's even leaving aside the fact that James is, like Richard, someone that, once met, one doesn't forget, irrespective of one's gender.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings. I must just add one important point (to the very few people who will have ploughed their way this far), which is that I've been really touched by all the good wishes which Emma and I have received before, during and after Sunday's happy event. So many people have expressed genuine pleasure at our happiness and have wished us well, and I've found that very moving. It has been very much appreciated.