Born Sandy Devotional

Thank you very much for the feedback at the end of the last chapter, Neil.  And don't worry about the chapter's headline.  Yes, Free Electric Band is has no connection to the contents beyond being the title of one of Albert Hammond's best songs.  (In other words, it has no connection to the contents).  It is just that I was rather tickled by the idea of getting someone to write the headline who hasn't read the article.  So I started following suit and was still doing so (notwithstanding that I'm only pretending as I am both writer and headline-writer on this blog) in the last chapter.  And I'm doing so again here.

I suppose that if one stretches the point far enough, then there is a connection between the title and the text here.  Paul Kelly memorably describes The Triffids' wonderful album 'Born Sandy Devotional' as "a great cathedral of a record inside which singer David McComb preached on love, lust and loneliness, surrounded and uplifted by the soaring architecture of 'Evil' Graham Lee's pedal steel.  Nashville never sounded like this.  For months I worshipped there daily."  In other words, it is a truly wonderful record, a cathedral in which I still regularly worship, 31 years after its release and 18 years after David McComb's death - and yesterday was a truly wonderful day.

Well, it was for us anyway, thanks to Kryptos winning at Chester in thrilling style.  (He's in the first four pictures here, the first having been taken when Ivona was riding him on Friday morning and the fourth this morning, with Sussex Girl.  It's our other Juddmonte refugee, Freediver, in the final photograph).  He's a lovely horse who was bought by Tony Fordham out of the Juddmonte draft at last October's Horses-in-Training Sale at Tattersalls, having previously had two races from Dermot Weld's stable.  He's made good progress as he has become less immature, but it hasn't been plain sailing at all.  He nearly died from a twisted gut in the first week of February, a completely freak occurence which left us with the immediate choice of an operation (which might or might not save him) or a certain and agonised death.  Thankfully, courtesy of the skill, efforts, care and dedication of Mark Hillyer and his colleagues at Newmarket Equine Hospital, he's still with us.

Any winner is very special.  When the win is as thrilling as yesterday's victory-from-the-jaws-of-defeat finishing surge, and is posted on a big day on a good racecourse by a young, unseasoned horse showing genuine promise and potential, it is particularly special.  And when it is posted by a horse who had been lucky to survive a very-near-death experience less than six months previously, then it makes for a great cathedral of a day.  Happily Tony and his family, who are wonderfully staunch patrons and supporters of the stable, were all able to be there, so all fell into place very nicely.

Kryptos is entered at Newmarket on Friday.  Obviously if he should have a decent chance there if he runs there without a penalty (being unpenalized courtesy of yesterday's win having come in an apprentices' race) so we'll just have to spend the next couple of days mulling over whether he'll be ready to back up.  In the interim, we shall have Kilim running at Windsor tomorrow night.  Same jockey: Nicola Currie, who rode Kryptos really well yesterday on what was her first ride at Chester and only her third winner.  She's an excellent rider who rode Roy (who isn't easy) very well at Newbury a couple of weeks ago.  While Kryptos ultimately won quite comfortably yesterday, he's still an unseasoned horse and was running in a competitive race on a tricky track.  He wouldn't have won without good assistance from his jockey.