The arrival of summer; and the words of a hero

Today, the first of May, seemed as good a day as any to assume my summer wear, ie a pair of shorts instead of a pair of 'longs'. Although we have had some lovely days recently, the nights have been cold, and there still seemed to be a touch of early-morning ground frost as recently as two days ago. However, today started mild, and when Mark Tompkins saw me still wearing long trousers at first lot, he gave me a gentle reminder that the time for wearing shorts was probably ripe. So I'd changed in time for second lot, so I suppose that I have five months thus attired to look forward to; let's hope that most of the time in that period is reasonably warm.

In addition to being the start of May and the eve of the Guineas Meeting, today is the day after when we should have had our first turf Flat runner of the year, and the day before when we shall (fingers crossed) do so. We had Filemot in at Folkestone yesterday, but she proved to be one of this stable's very rare non-runners. I hope that no such fate will await Ethics Girl, who is engaged at Goodwood tomorrow. There will probably be some quite fast horses in the field, so it might be inappropriate to go there with high expectations, but she's a nice filly who is fit and well, so I hope that she will acquit herself with credit on what I hope will be a glorious spring/early summer day at one of the world's loveliest racecourses.

I'm actually not disappointed at not having run Filemot yesterday now that I know the result. I see that the race was won by the John Jenkins-trained Chris' Jem, who had finished a good second in a maiden on her previous start. It's not just that I don't think that on form we could have beaten Chris' Jem, but also the fact that, reading in today's Racing Post the background to the win, I am very pleased with the result. I think the report will make it clear what I mean. 'There are few tougher men in the training profession than Jenkins, but he found it hard to hold back his emotions when revealing: "This filly brought (her owner) Aidan (Murphy) and myself together and because of our tragedies we decided to name her after (my late daughter) Jemma and Aidan's wife Chris. Jemma died of leukaemia and Chris of a similar illness. This filly has a magical temperament and has given us some good memories to take home today. She's like a kid's pony, and you could take her to a gymkhana."' Who'd want to change a result like that?

If that report is moving, the book which I am currently reading, 'Life's too short to cry' by the late Tim Vigors, DFC, is at least as inspirational. I don't know why it has taken me three years to get around to reading this book, which was first published in 2006, three years after the author's death. I knew of Tim Vigors by repute as a wartime fighter pilot, bloodstock identity, one-time owner of Coolmore Stud, father of the former trainer and stewards' secretary Nicky, and, in his final years, resident of Lowther Street whom I'd often see walking to fetch his morning papers in Hogg's papershop on St. Mary's Square. But I didn't know the man, and I hadn't really taken on board what a true hero he was. I read a wonderful book of memoirs by one of 'the few', Geoffrey Wellum's 'First Light' a few years ago and found that book inspirational; Tim Vigors' book is even more so. I could, and probably will at some point, quote one or two particularly memorable passages from this book, but really every page is worth reading. I know that tough times can bring out the best in men, and that we are lucky enough not to have to rise to the challenge of the adversity which faced Tim Vigors and his peers during the war; but, even allowing for that, it's hard to believe that there are many men of the calibre of Tim Vigors around nowadays. If you read this wonderful book you will understand what I mean.