Last weekend went well enough. Silken Thoughts (pictured) was, as one might have guessed or hoped, the star of our show: she ran a very bold race to dead-heat for second in her competitive race at Newbury, sharing second spot with the promising John Dunlop-trained High Chaparral colt Moutain Range and beaten only by the Godolphin-trained Anatolian, an unexposed son of Pivotal who had won a maiden race at Windsor on his previous outing. She did everything right,
once again leaving all her connections pleased and proud. Her jockey did well too: Fergus Sweeney had become a father two days previously, but he showed that the pressures of fatherhood have inhibited neither his professionalism or his riding ability. He's quite tall so did very well to make the weight of 8:06, and then he gave the filly a lovely ride to take his tally for the day to two wins (albeit one of them coming in an Arab race) and a second from three rides. It was his first ride for the stable, but I'm sure that it won't be his last. Meanwhile, back at HQ Ethics Girl struggled a bit in her race, but she raced as enthusiastically as ever and, predictably, she was was far from disgraced - and it certainly did her no harm, as this photograph of her taken in the field the following afternoon indicates!
Newbury on Saturday was a very interesting race-meeting. There was a massive crowd, which is explainable by the fact that Tom Jones was singing there after racing (as he had been at Newmarket the previous evening). This was great as the meeting had a really good atmosphere: although clearly many of those there were mainly attracted by the concert, all seemed to be taking the racing seriously and enjoying it, and pretty much everyone had dressed up smartly for the occasion, which really was remarkable.
We were in the second last race so the concert had started before we left, even if we were already heading for the green green grass of home before it got into full swing. I'd like to have heard Tom Jones singing that, my favourite of all his songs, but I'd contented myself with seeing, over and above Silken Thoughts running so well, two lovely potential stayers (Census, pictured above, and Brown Panther) both running excellent St Leger trials in the Geoffrey Freer and the admirable Marco Botti-trained Excelebration revelling in the fact that, for once, Frankel was not among his opponents, a fact which enabled him to win the Hungerford Stakes by six lengths (as shown here).
Since Saturday we've been enjoying some good weather, and we've also enjoyed William's assistance. He was here yesterday morning, schooling Kadouchski over fences and Asterisk (pictured) over hurdles. I'd love to say that this was in advance of Kadouchski's steeplechasing debut at Hereford tomorrow, but sadly I've had to chicken out of that one: the ground is still good to firm, with the Going Stick reading suggesting that it is considerably faster than when it was good to firm in the spring. I don't know whether one can take the Going Stick with
anything other than a pinch of salt, but that's its verdict, for what it's worth. I'm probably being over-cautious because Kadouchski does seem able to gallop on pretty much any ground, but there is evidence to suggest that he doesn't attack his obstacles with his usual zest on fast ground, so we're as well waiting. And I'll eventually reach the stage where I run out of excuses to put off his steeplechasing debut any longer! So that means that Hotfoot will be our only runner tomorrow. She heads off down to Folkestone to contest an amateurs' race over a mile and a half. I think that
she is ready to run well - she was certainly holding her own in the frolicking in the field on Sunday (as shown here, where she's leading Asterisk, Batgirl and Ethics Girl in a competitive romp) and she seems just in good form all round. She'll get plenty of assistance from the former champion lady rider Emily Jones, who's ridden a few well for us in years gone by (including being beaten about a millimetre on Ballets Russes at Yarmouth one day, and also riding Jack Dawson in the Queen Mother's Cup at York) so I think and hope that she'll be very competitive. Let's hope so, anyway. And if the weather is as splendid as it was at the start of the day today (pictured), then that would be the icing on the cake.
Last weekend went well enough. Silken Thoughts (pictured) was, as one might have guessed or hoped, the star of our show: she ran a very bold race to dead-heat for second in her competitive race at Newbury, sharing second spot with the promising John Dunlop-trained High Chaparral colt Moutain Range and beaten only by the Godolphin-trained Anatolian, an unexposed son of Pivotal who had won a maiden race at Windsor on his previous outing. She did everything right, 
once again leaving all her connections pleased and proud. Her jockey did well too: Fergus Sweeney had become a father two days previously, but he showed that the pressures of fatherhood have inhibited neither his professionalism or his riding ability. He's quite tall so did very well to make the weight of 8:06, and then he gave the filly a lovely ride to take his tally for the day to two wins (albeit one of them coming in an Arab race) and a second from three rides. It was his first ride for the stable, but I'm sure that it won't be his last. Meanwhile, back at HQ Ethics Girl struggled a bit in her race, but she raced as enthusiastically as ever and, predictably, she was was far from disgraced - and it certainly did her no harm, as this photograph of her taken in the field the following afternoon indicates!
Newbury on Saturday was a very interesting race-meeting. There was a massive crowd, which is explainable by the fact that Tom Jones was singing there after racing (as he had been at Newmarket the previous evening). This was great as the meeting had a really good atmosphere: although clearly many of those there were mainly attracted by the concert, all seemed to be taking the racing seriously and enjoying it, and pretty much everyone had dressed up smartly for the occasion, which really was remarkable. 
We were in the second last race so the concert had started before we left, even if we were already heading for the green green grass of home before it got into full swing. I'd like to have heard Tom Jones singing that, my favourite of all his songs, but I'd contented myself with seeing, over and above Silken Thoughts running so well, two lovely potential stayers (Census, pictured above, and Brown Panther) both running excellent St Leger trials in the Geoffrey Freer and the admirable Marco Botti-trained Excelebration revelling in the fact that, for once, Frankel was not among his opponents, a fact which enabled him to win the Hungerford Stakes by six lengths (as shown here).
Since Saturday we've been enjoying some good weather, and we've also enjoyed William's assistance. He was here yesterday morning, schooling Kadouchski over fences and Asterisk (pictured) over hurdles. I'd love to say that this was in advance of Kadouchski's steeplechasing debut at Hereford tomorrow, but sadly I've had to chicken out of that one: the ground is still good to firm, with the Going Stick reading suggesting that it is considerably faster than when it was good to firm in the spring. I don't know whether one can take the Going Stick with 
anything other than a pinch of salt, but that's its verdict, for what it's worth. I'm probably being over-cautious because Kadouchski does seem able to gallop on pretty much any ground, but there is evidence to suggest that he doesn't attack his obstacles with his usual zest on fast ground, so we're as well waiting. And I'll eventually reach the stage where I run out of excuses to put off his steeplechasing debut any longer! So that means that Hotfoot will be our only runner tomorrow. She heads off down to Folkestone to contest an amateurs' race over a mile and a half. I think that
she is ready to run well - she was certainly holding her own in the frolicking in the field on Sunday (as shown here, where she's leading Asterisk, Batgirl and Ethics Girl in a competitive romp) and she seems just in good form all round. She'll get plenty of assistance from the former champion lady rider Emily Jones, who's ridden a few well for us in years gone by (including being beaten about a millimetre on Ballets Russes at Yarmouth one day, and also riding Jack Dawson in the Queen Mother's Cup at York) so I think and hope that she'll be very competitive. Let's hope so, anyway. And if the weather is as splendid as it was at the start of the day today (pictured), then that would be the icing on the cake.
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