Fingers crossed for tomorrow

Well, we're set to have another go at running Anis. 5.00 tomorrow, the mares' bumper at Uttoxeter. I'm, naturally, getting quite tense in advance of this, but really I oughtn't to: she's fit, well, 100% sound, in a sensible but switched-on frame of mind and more than ready to run. I'm actually in retrospect quite pleased that we've had the three weeks' delay which has resulted from having to miss Fakenham: she's (in common with all her relatives, so Sir Mark tells me) not a good eater, but she's eating better than she was in advance of Fakenham, and I think looking better too. She's a lean filly and I'd rather she were more substantial, but Sir Mark told me from the outset that if I waited until she was as robust as I'd like her to be, I'd never run her. I've avoided running her for two and a half years, but enough is enough! Of to Uttoxeter we go, so let's hope she runs well and comes home safely so that we can then make more plans for the future.

We won't have William on board her tomorrow. He will be at Uttoxeter, funnily enough, but only for an earlier race, and will have gone to Southwell for one of his principal patrons, Alex Hales, by the time our race is run. Seamus Durack will ride instead. He's a jockey whom I hold in high esteem, so that is far from a disaster.

On the subject of jockeys whom I admire, we've heard more than enough about Johnny Murtagh's alleged short-comings this week, so I thought it worth making one observation. Today and yesterday both saw a Racing Post whose front page story was along the lines of 'Murtagh c*cks up (again)', so it speaks volumes for the calibre of the man that today he got to Lingfield good and early and made himself available for a long pre-racing interview with Robert Cooper on ATR. Many jockeys would have understandably kept themselves to themselves in similar circumstances, but not this one; and for that I take my hat of to him. Very few jockeys make no mistakes (Mick Kinane perhaps? Anyone else?) and Murtagh's only human. He should have won the Chester Vase this week, wouldn't (in my opinion) have won the Dee Stakes however he'd ridden Frozen Fire (who seemed very loathe to extend himself fully on the very fast ground), and, going a bit farther back, gave Soldier Of Fortune in the Breeders' Cup Turf and Septimus in the Melbourne Cup terrible rides last year. But his real gems outnumber his shockers many, many times, and I'd be honoured to stick him on a horse any day. And today he proved, if proof were needed, that he's a fine man as well as an excellent jockey.

Someone else whose merit was made even more clear today was one of my all-time favourite horses, Sulamani, whose first-crop son Mastery won the Italian Derby. I'd imagine that there will be reference to this success on Emma's blog before too long, as she is the proud owner of a Sulamani yearling, but suffice to say that this was a result which gave us both a deal of pleasure. I regard Sulamani as one of the most genuine racehorses and best I've ever seen, so I feel that he deserves to be regarded as a king. I came across an old Winning Post column recently in which I gave the stud prospects of Sulamani, who had just won his final race (the Canadian International) a big thumbs-up. This was written the same weekend as Motivator won the Racing Post Trophy, and I wrote of him as having a first-rate chance in the following year's Derby. I got that one right, so let's hope I'm ultimately proved right about Sulamani too. Today was definitely a step in the right direction.