Supermoon

It's lovely to be in spring. Today was glorious. It's just about dark outside now and I still haven't felt the need to don a sweater, which is a great sign that we've reached a time of year when the weather is nice. Mind you, we shouldn't concentrate solely on the temperature and the sunshine, as we have also been able to savour a night-time treat: the 'Supermoon' which bathed us in light after nightfall on Saturday. I rather cocked up because I squandered a great photo-opportunity. It really was rather nice wandering around the (mild and dry) stable-yard before bedtime on Saturday. Living in a town, we never have true darkness here, even when there is no moon, but we are at least sheltered in the yard from direct artificial light - which meant that the splendid moonlight was reasonably possible to appreciate. The best night-time 'daylight' we have is when we are covered in snow and the moon is out, as we've had the pleasure of observing at various times during the past two winters with the snow bouncing back photons all over the place, but this was the next best thing. However, I'm afraid that my attempts to capture the special light of the Supermoon (a full moon when the moon was at its closest position to earth for God know how many years, decades or centuries) weren't really a success because, stupidly, I overlooked the fact that one can change the settings on the camera. There is a night-time setting, and there is a sky setting, but muggins here never thought to move away from the moving image setting at which I have the camera set as standard. Even so, I'll still put up a couple of pictures to remind myself of the night. While looking at the moon and the sky around it was nice, arguably the more worthwhile pictures came with the moon behind me: at least the light on Alcalde and the shadows around him give some idea of what visibility really was like.

I'll get to see a fair bit of the night tomorrow as Kadouchski is in the 7.40 at Kempton. Next week, 7.40 will be only just after nightfall; but, as the clocks don't go forward until Saturday, tomorrow will see that time falling properly during the night. I'd like to think that Kadou will go well. On the basis that, on average, a horse's jumps rating ought in theory to be around 35lb higher than his Flat rating (based on the fact that the Flat scale is based on the idea that a champion might be rated on 10 stone, ie 140lb, while a jumps champion might be rated on 12 stone 7lb, ie 175lb), I felt that the horse who beat Kadou at Towcester last week was well handicapped, being rated only 13lb over hurdles than he is on the Flat. Therefore, as Kadou is currently rated 56lb lower on the Flat than he is over hurdles, one would like to think that he should be competitive tomorrow off his rating of 48. However, the fly in the ointment is that, unsurprisingly, his Flat form isn't as good as his jumps form: on the Flat, he is a 7-year-old maiden, which isn't particularly inspiring. However, he is relatively unexposed on the Flat and he is fit and well (as the above picture, taken today, confirms, I hope) so we should at least be able to hope for a good run. You'd like to think that we can also hope for a good run from Alcalde at Newbury on Friday. His rating went up for his being beaten last time, which is never ideal, but he did run well so one can't really complain and he, too, ought to be one of the principal chances in his race. If he races with the gusto he was showing when I looked out the window on Saturday afternoon and spied him enjoying a roll out on the grass in the middle of the yard, then he should go well!