Good news and brahmae

Today's been another splendid day. Even better than yesterday, in fact, despite the fact that it dawned less promisingly. We must have had a top temperature of about 26 degrees which was a real treat. So that's been lovely. Great views over the Heath again - but the best view of the week, of course, was the photograph in the Racing Post of Peter Toole's healthy and smiling face (pictured here in the spring of last year on Ethics Girl) at Doreen Rackham's funeral in Lambourn, the first time he'd been up to going back to his adopted home village since his terrible fall at Aintree nearly five months ago. That's a great sign that his recovery must be going very well, which is news which will be greeted with pleasure by the entire racing community. Also going well I believe is the recovery of Isobel Tompsett, who had that terrible fall at Fakenham a few weeks after Peter's injury. I saw her partner John Llewellyn (pictured on the corner of the Severals in June with two of his compatriots - John stayed in Newmarket while Isobel was in Addenbrokes', and passed some of the time riding out for David Simcock) at Chepstow when First Pressing ran there the other day and he was telling me that she is now able to take short walks in the hospital. A small step for mankind, maybe, but a massive step for one recovering from near-fatal injuries, and that particular step forward must be as good a boost for her morale as it is a sign of promise for her physical recovery. That's wonderful news.

Continuing along with a few more general observations, we should salute someone from this street who had her first ride the other day: Shannon Edmondson (pictured on the Severals this morning) rode Turjumann at Wolverhampton for her boss Willie Musson, for whom both of her parents, Robert (pictured below in Willie's string in Rayes Lane earlier this summer) and Sue, also work. Many of you will remember Robert as champion apprentice roughly thirty years ago. Shannon's doing really well with her riding: she's really come on a lot over the past year and is now a very polished and confidente rider. Willie is a great tutor for apprentices, having had one champion apprentice (Stevie Donohoe) in his stable in recent years, plus has had several other very successful apprentices through his hands, including Lisa Jones and David McCabe, who still pops up every so often riding a pacemaker in a Group One race for Aidan O'Brien. Phil Shea and Stuart Lanigan have been others to ride a few winners while apprenticed to Willie, and I am sure that there are plenty others whose names escape me at this instant. Let's hope that Shannon can also work her way into that category. She certainly deserves to do well as she's a very conscientious and hard worker. Anyway, we've clearly got one very promising young apprentice in the street (Hannah) so it is a bonus that we now have another one too.

One race-rider at the other end of the experience scale is Russell Price (pictured enjoying a joke outside the stable yard at Yarmouth on Monday). He deserves salutations too: at Newmarket seven days ago he rode his first winner for what must be several years (which gave me inspiration for the following day's Town Plate, as Russell must be nearly as old as I am). Russell, as anyone who read Saturday's Racing Post will know, has suffered in recent years from too great a liking for drink, but he's done really well to get his life back on track. He now rides out for Clive Brittain full-time. He took out a riding license at the start of this season after several years without one and he did have a ride or two in the spring before taking another sabbatical. However, his nose now seems glued to the grindstone, so it was great to see him salute the judge on a two-year-old maiden for Clive (pictured walking his dogs outside the depot at the bottom of Bury Hill the other Sunday). There was, as one would hope, a brahma. If you read the Racing Post report you will already have savoured this one, but it bears repeating: almost unbelievably, the race was sponsored by a vodka distiller and the winning jockey's prize was a 3-litre bottle of vodka. Anyway, quote of the day was Clive Brittain's "Russell, you go and pick up your prize and then make sure that you put it straight down again". Anyway, hats off to Russell, and hats off to Clive too.

Further brahma, of course, came to light when we went to Yarmouth on Monday. No trip to Yarmouth is complete without tuning into Alan Partridge's former employer, BBC Radio Norfolk on 104.4. The news bulletins are always a joy and Monday's episodes did not disappoint: the first and third items were the on-going regime change in Libya and Hurricane Irene, which either was or was not submerging Manhattan. The second item was an illegal rave which 100 people had attended the previous night in a forest near some Norfolk village which I had never heard of. Perfect! A further leap into the brahmosphere came on arrival at Yarmouth, where the Norwich Star Wars Club had set up its stall for the day. We'd had Anthony over for a few days the previous week and had taken him to Chepstow and Lingfield. He'd enjoyed those outings, and in particular meeting the best jockey in the world (Tom Queally, rider of the best horse in the world, Frankel) - but think how much more he'd have enjoyed meeting Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader!

Let's see now what tomorrow's trip to Thirsk might bring. Some more lovely sunny weather, for one thing, I hope.