Absolute Heaven

It's ages since we last had a runner, but we nearly had one this week. The plan had been to run Anis at Uttoxeter on Sunday, but after much wailing, gnashing of teeth and general agonising I took the decision not to run her. She didn't seem completely comfortable at exercise; and while it was hard to put a finger on what the problem was - which made one suspect that it couldn't be anything too serious - I just decided that running would not be the correct course of action. Which was a shame as it was a race in which she, as an unbeaten course and distance winner (as recalled by this photograph),
would have had in theory a great chance, and as several of her part-owners had arranged to go. Anyway, I'm really glad that I decided not to run her, because I am sure that we were spared a disappointment: Carol visited her on Tuesday and found her back to be out. The problem is fixed and she'll be right as rain with a day or two's rest, but as sure as eggs are eggs she would have under-performed on Sunday; and very like she'd have enjoyed the day even less than her connections would have done. We're ever so lucky to be able to avail ourselves of what Leslie Harrison once described as "the genius of Carol Whitwood". I know I've said this (probably several times) previously, but there's no harm in repeating oneself occasionally. In fact, all our recent winners (recent meaning within the last year, not week!) such as Anis, To Be Or Not To Be, Extreme Conviction, Take Me There and Kadouchski, have been horses who would not have been able to do much at all without her help.

Having thus been runner-less for a few weeks, we ought to have three runners next week, which is exciting. Douchkette and Stardust Memories are due to contest the same fillies' mile maiden at Windsor on Monday, while Ethics Girl ought to go to Chepstow eight days from now. Although this blog is most definitely not a tipping service, I don't think that I'd be letting too many cats out of the bag were I to say that Ethics Girl will probably have the best chance of the three; but as she is likely to be one of the favourites and the other two will probably start around the 66/1 mark, you could probably have worked that one out for yourself. However, one never knows what is around the corner, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens. In fact, I have a feeling that there is being a plot cooked up for this Windsor maiden. It has been a week of the most heavenly weather - very hot and sunny, but never quite reaching the stage of being unpleasantly hot - and yesterday I spotted Douchkette (who is the darker of the pair)
and Stardust having a word in each other's ear. I know that when Aidan O'Brien sends out a multiple entry in a race, his way of planning the team tactics is to get in a huddle in the middle of the parade ring with his octet (or however many) of hoops and work out how to cook things up; however, my method of arranging the team tactics is to put all the horses in the field together and let them sort it out themselves. (Aidan might like to consider this idea). Anyway, you will see in this photograph that these two lovely fillies seem to be coming up with a plan. I suppose that we shall have to wait until Monday to discover what it is!

As I have said, this week's weather has been really, really special. We spend so many weeks over the winter dreaming of weather like this, so we must savour it while we can. As a reminder of less pleasant times, I now attach another photograph of a view of the same field taken approximately twenty weeks ago. This one was most definitely taken from behind glass, as Alamshar and I
stared gloomily out of the window in the middle of the afternoon, thanking our lucky stars that we were indoors rather than outside. I think that you will agree that as captions for these two photographs we could borrow the titles of the lovely pair of prints which Lisa Sandys-Lumsdaine painted in the '70s of a string of horses heading up to the gallops in contrasting weathers: 'Absolute Heaven' and 'Absolute Hell'.