A (mostly) enjoyable week

Another week between posts, I'm afraid. We were awaiting a visit from our Australian friend and patron Cameron Plant (he is a part-owner of Jenny Dawson) when last I blogged, and as usual his visit proved to be very enjoyable. Cameron passes through the UK fairly regularly as he travels between Australia and various Asian and Eastern European countries where he has business dealings. He is fairly good at ensuring that his British stop-overs coincide with interesting races, and this time he found that his 48 hours here coincided with the Derby. Emma was down at Epsom anyway working for Racenews, but Cameron and I found it an easy decision to head down there on Derby Day, which is my favourite British race-day: the Derby is so special, and I love the fact that it so dominates the card that one can concentrate entirely on enjoying and appreciating it without worrying too much whether one does or does not take in every aspect of the supporting races. (Obviously one would view things differently if one had a runner in one of the other races, but from a detached perspective the Derby dominates). My car, unfortunately, is permanently off the road (which is understandable as it had passed the 180,000-mile mark, but I'd really hoped that it would make 200,000 before giving up the ghost) but luckily our travel problems were resolved by John Egan giving us a lift. For all John's faults - and who doesn't have any? - he is a very generous man, and he duly proved more than happy to take us down, making our Derby Day more enjoyable by his company as well as by the act of getting us there. Sea The Stars (pictured above, as ice cool as his jockey as they prepare to write themselves into the history books) also enriched the day, obviously, because it was a real pleasure to admire such a wonderful horse. I was quite pleased with myself because I had photographed what I deemed to be the two best-looking horses in the parade ring, believing that I'd given myself a good chance of having a pre-race photo of the winner; and the two horses ran first and second. Sadly I backed the wrong one of this pair of extremely handsome horses (ie Fame And Glory), falling into the trap into which I'd blundered a few years ago when I saw Dubai Millenium of thinking, "Can a horse who looks that big and impressive really be as good as he looks?". As we know now (and, in truth, should already have known), Sea The Stars really is as functional as he is magnificent, and he went round Epsom as if he were enjoying a canter around the park. It was a privilege to see it, and to applaud him and his admirable trainer and jockey.

My next trip to the races was far less enjoyable. Hugh and I headed to Redcar on Tuesday with Ethics Girl. I had felt obliged to back her up after the Carlisle debacle as she seemed sure to be in line for a hefty rise in the ratings, so the opportunity to have a second crack at running off a mark of 55 couldn't really be turned down while it lasted. She seemed none the worse for her previous race, but sadly completely failed to reproduce the form. Quite a lot of things didn't go right in the race, and conditions were very different (a cold, windy and very wet day meant that the track had greatly softened, or the surface of it had anyway - and on which subject, wasn't that a splendid going report for Yarmouth yesterday: "Good, good to firm in places, changing to soft after race one"), but basically the decision to back her up was not a good one. Still, she has returned home undamaged and will fight another day.

This property has, though, sent out a winner this week, as Dave Morris' Iceman George won the amateurs' race at Newbury yesterday, ridden by Dave's son Ben. That was a lovely result. Dave's string is tiny nowadays (numbering four, three of whom are currently in training), but he is still a very good trainer indeed; and Ben is turning into a very competent rider, and rode the horse very well yesterday. We could have a second winner from here for the week as To Be Or Not To Be runs at Goodwood this evening and has to have a leading chance. I will watch on television rather than on-course: I have rather a backlog of things to do here (which wouldn't be reduced during any of the several hours which I would doubtless spend on the M25 were I to drive down there this sunny Friday afternoon) and the show will run smoothly with Wayne and Cathy in charge of matters there.

At this time of year, one of the most interesting aspects of Newmarket is the fact that we welcome some overseas visitors. The Abington Place isolation yard, which in past years has contained the likes of Choisir, Elvstroem and Fastnet Rock, currently contains Scenic Blast and (for the fourth consecutive year) the great Takeover Target, plus Wesley Ward's American Royal Ascot raiders. Emma and I enjoyed an excellent evening (which was a Welcome To The Overseas Raiders event) in the Jockey Club Rooms on Wednesday as guests of Ascot and Newmarket racecourses, plus a press conference there the following morning (and Emma went along to watch the overseas horses exercise earlier in the morning, which I eschewed to spend the time with some less high-profile horses); and we gave ourselves an extra treat yesterday afternoon by heading along to the stable for a more personal 'G'day'. This turned out to have a real bonus because, as well as finding the ever-welcoming Aussies Joe Janiak and Dan Morton (who has already trained a big winner this month, Scenic Shot having won the Brisbane Cup on Saturday) we discovered that the man in charge of the American horses is Jose Corrales, formerly the dominant jockey in Macau. I knew him by repute, remembering John Egan telling me years ago what a great jockey he was, so was really honoured to meet him in person. I was very pleased subsequently to hail him again on the Heath this morning; twice in fact, as he was out on the side of the Heath early on when a film crew was filming Dan Morton exercising Scenic Shot, and then mid-morning Hugh, Martha and I passed Kieren Fallon and one rider whom I didn't know riding two horses (which I didn't recognise) towards the start of the canter - and then these horses' provenance became clear as we got farther up the Heath and saw Jose standing by the rail waiting for them to work past him. So that's all been really good - especially as the sun has shone today, for a change.

And just to effect another abrupt change of subject, I can pass on good breeding news. I was delighted to be informed recently by John McNamara that he had discovered that two mares which they had formerly owned and which I had formerly trained have each bred their first winner, a Statue Of Liberty ex Odabella winning in India and an Iron Mask ex Ballets Russes winning in Italy. So that's nice; as was Dandoun, the stallion formerly stood by Chris and Shelley Dwyer at Georgia House Stud in Burrough Green, siring his first winner at Yarmouth yesterday.