All-weather racing

As we all know because of the efforts which Cheltenham had to make to enable racing to take place on the first day, it's been very, very cold this week.  I think that we probably had it better than Cheltenham yesterday (Tuesday) because, although it wouldn't have been remotely raceable here, we did at least see plenty of sunshine.  Which they didn't.  And, of course, the only reason why Cheltenham was able to race yesterday was because the course had been swathed in snow covers, which obviously the Heath hadn't been.

Monday, as you can see from the picture of Tommy and Iva in the first paragraph, was just a write-off, courtesy of the snow-falls of the previous couple of nights and the unremittingly leaden skies.  But yesterday was, at least, largely sunny, here if not at Cheltenham - and the second and third pictures show how picturesque it was out on the Heath.  But it was bitterly cold.  Our new-found friend the north-east wind was in boisterous form, making his presence unrelentingly known.

It was a day which was good to look at from behind glass in a warm room, but one wouldn't have wanted to spend much time standing still out in the open.  Still, the sun shone and we had Cheltenham on the television to delight us.  Today was rather different as it looked a very pleasant sunny afternoon at Cheltenham - but if you saw any of the racing from our local jumps track at Huntingdon, you'd have got a better idea of conditions here.  We had a fresh snowfall, albeit just a sprinkling, overnight and another frost and, although the sun came up (see pictures in last three paragraphs) and then shone brightly for an hour or so, it was bleak enough thereafter.

Just watching Huntingdon on the television, it was slightly surprising that it took place, because there looked to be significant patches of white on the surface of the grass, and at various places on the course they seemed to be kicking up frost the same way that they'd kick up water if that was lying on the surface.  And the bumper looked to be run in a blizzard, which was understandable, as we had intermittent snow flurries through the afternoon.

Still, the upshot is that winter's definitely still here, but Cheltenham's survived the elements, and that's great.  It has meant that we've seen Quevega making history and also that we've enjoyed the sight of Sprinter Sacre putting up arguably the best Champion Chase performance ever.  I've always considered Master Minded's first win in the race as the best, but this was probably as good.  And perhaps better.  It'll be hard for any performance to top that, but we can watch the next couple of days and hope (almost certainly in vain).

Mind you, it seems as if some people wouldn't have been that impressed anyway.  I may have misheard, but I'm sure that I heard someone on Channel Four (possibly Nick Luck, but I could be doing him a massive disservice by even suggesting that) saying that the Coral Cup is many  people's favourite race of the meeting.  Could that be right?  It would be like someone coming home from Derby Day and saying that he'd enjoyed the Vodafone Dash the best; or someone coming home from Arc Day and saying that the concluding Tierce handicap had been the race of the day.  Lunacy!