Punting, drinking, shagging ...

'Not a day goes by without someone coming up to me at the races and saying they enjoyed it. Different people like different aspects, be it the punting, the drinking or the shagging'. No, I'm afraid that isn't my summary of the feedback I've received about this blog, although you probably thought it was. It was actually Dave Nevison, as quoted in yesterday's Racing Post, talking about readers' reactions to his book. I haven't read it, so I can't comment on its merit, but I think that those reflections have ensured that I am unlikely to do so. I'll stick to Henning Mankell and Peter Temple, who have been entertaining me so well recently. And I've been lent a history of Goodwood racecourse by Roger Vicarage which looks interesting; if that's as good as the last racing book I read, the Vincent O'Brien biography, it will be excellent.

I've been chuckling about a passage from Henning Mankell recently, in the wake of Squeak's visit. The main character Kurt Wallander, the senior detective with the police force in Ystad, a town in southern Sweden, is investigating the latest brutal murder. In the course of the investigation, he interviews an older man called Bror Sundelius, whose reaction to the crime is to ask the rhetorical question, "What kind of people do we let into this country anyway?". This comment puzzles Wallander, who replies, "There is no evidence that this was the work of an immigrant. Why would you think that?". Sundelius' reply is splendid: "It seems obvious to me. No Swede could have done anything like this."! As some of you may know, Squeaker was raised in an environment where liberal thinking wasn't encouraged, so he consequently is cursed with what one might call rather old-fashioned views on some aspects of life. In Squeak's mind, one of the advantages of Sweden is that it doesn't have an immigration problem, but as Bror Sundelius' thought make plain, not all Swedes share that view. Furthermore, I suspect that, were Bror Sundelius to move to Taby, bumping into Squeaker might reinforce his (misguided - the serial killer did, unsurprisingly, turn out to be a Swede) views!

The weekend's racing confirmed that I should indeed leave the punting, drinking and shagging to Dave Nevison, as two of my Cheltenham dark horses (Blue Bajan and Thyne Again) ran and neither ran well, so that doesn't bode well for my punting prowess. So where does that leave us with forecasting how the stable's runners this week will fare? I don't know really. My Obsession ought to run a decent race tomorrow if he doesn't find the two miles too far: as his previous trip to Folkestone resulted in a win over seven furlongs, it can't be taken for granted that two miles over the same track will be ideal. It would require a similar leap of faith to forecast a win for Polychrome on Wednesday, as I think the bare form of her debut suggests she ought to finish towards the rear of the race; under the circumstances, I'll just settle for saying that I predict that she will put in an improved performance this time. And then we have Run From Nun on Saturday. She's run quite well on both her runs for us to date, and she ought to do so again. We've started the week with glorious weather - overnight frosts being replaced, after golden pink sunrises, by warm sunny days - so if we could have three safe and pleasing runs to go with it, that would be lovely.