Return of a lady and a girl

Just before I settle down to the afternoon's televiewing, it's occured to me that I haven't recorded our recent arrivals. Last Thursday I spent an enjoyable afternoon heading up to Norfolk in Tim Phillips' lorry to collect Lady Suffragette and Ethics Girl from their two-month break. It's always a pleasure to visit Kerry's farm, and as invariably happens I was delighted with the condition of the two horses we found there. Ethics Girl had changed the most in appearance during their holiday, which you'd expect as a two-year-old is going to have grown noticeably in any two-month period, while a five-year-old isn't. But what was more important was that both horses looked as if they'd had a lovely break on plentiful grass, and have returned to the stable perky and seeming ready to resume training. They've both now been shod, and this morning Martha and I had a nice trot up Warren Hill on them while Hugh was out on a solo attempt to break the record for trotting around the Hamilton Road circuit: on trotting mornings, it's often easiest to send Jill out on her own, because she can trot so quickly that there aren't many who can keep up with her (even by our standards, which is saying something because we tend to be one of the fastest-trotting strings on the Heath) and, as she is quite impatient, it's usually more satisfactory to allow her her head than to keep reining her back.

It was good to see Kerry, and another bonus for me was the the opportunity for plenty of reading during the journey. Having finished the Kurt Wallander novel I was devouring, I moved on to the FRBC yearbook, which I'd only skim-read previously. There are some excellent articles in there, providing a very good overview of the state of play of the sport - flat and jumps - in France. One article, though, did take me by surprise. Written by Fanny Hubart-Salmon, it is entitled 'The Australian face of international bloodstock ad-selling'. The standfirst (which is what Emma assures me is the correct, if inelegant, term for a self-contained introduction to an article) then states: 'He's 56 years-old, rather good-looking and - should you run into him in Royal Ascot - he wears a morning suit rather well for an Australian ... Meet Richard Sims, the face of international bloodstock ad-selling.' I know that the FRBC is keen to strengthen its links with racing down under, but honestly ...

Post Script - one aspect of this chapter isn't entirely true.