We're only making plans for ...

I think that when I last wrote a chapter on this blog, we had just run Parek (Sussex Girl) at Bath and were shortly going to run Roy at Brighton.  Roy did indeed run there last Friday.  I'd been a little uneasy going there, even with a horse who likes the track and likes fast ground, as on TV the ground hadn't looked very nice on the first two days of the Festival, George Hill (the clerk of the course) having found himself in the difficult position of having had plentiful rain forecast but only a minimal amount arriving.  The worst thing (as regards laying himself open to a barrage of criticism) that a clerk of the course can do is to water and then have rain arrive, leaving the ground softer than people want.  The upshot was extremely firm ground for the start of the Festival, and quite rough too as the track has had a lot of racing this summer.

However, George sorted things out very well, watering and putting up a false rail, so the horses ended up racing on a very acceptable surface the day that we were there.  That was good.  So was the race, sort of.  Roy finished last of the five runners but ran well enough.  The three three-year-olds in the race finished first, second and third.  The two older horses finished fourth and fifth.  The three-year-olds have such an advantage in these 3yo+ handicaps.  Not only do the receive a hefty weight-for-age allowance, but they are so much less exposed than their elders, and hence are generally much better handicapped.

The first two home in the race will probably still be well handicapped when their ratings are 10lb higher than they were last week; while Roy, at the age of seven, was 1lb higher than his highest winning mark.  The other older horse in the race, who beat Roy by one and a half lengths for fourth place, won three races last season (one at Windsor, two at Goodwood) and had now dropped back to a mark 2lb lower than the one off which he won at Goodwood at the end of August, and had seemingly been waiting for the fast ground.  In effect, we were dependent on one of our rivals running below form for us to finish anywhere but last.  None of them did (well, the third arguably did, slightly) so fifth of five it was.  But that was OK.

I ought, as I believe most trainers do, to have looked at the updated handicap list as soon as it was released this morning.  However, I didn't: getting the horses worked requires one's full attention.  Well, it requires my full attention anyway, from 5.30 to 12.30.  And then there are always plenty of other things to do.  So I'll finally have a look now (at 7.50 pm) ... You bewdy!  Roy has dropped a pound, and Sussex Girl has dropped 4lb.  That's got to help, both of them.  Both ought to run again around the end of the month, possibly Roy at Epsom on August Bank Holiday Monday and Parek four days later, at Thirsk on 1st September.

More imminently, we have a runner a day on the next two days.  Kryptos goes to Salisbury tomorrow and then Hope Is High back to Yarmouth on Thursday.  Fran Berry on Kryptos, Silvestre De Sousa on Hope.  One would hope that both horses should have a good chance.  I was in two minds whether to declare Hope, but I'm glad that I did.  Of the entries, The Detainee (who had beaten her narrowly last time over course and distance when she did not have luck on her side) looked easily our most daunting potential opponent.  It was an obvious race for him, and unsurprisingly he was jocked up with Trevor Whelan to ride again.

We decided to declare - and I'm glad that we did, now that we find that The Detainee has not been declared.  Set against the pleasant surprise of finding that The Detainee was not in the field was the discovery that we have drawn ten of ten.  Snakes and ladders, swings and roundabouts, as ever! But we'll start worrying about what Yarmouth will bring for this genuine filly, who seemingly finds it very easy to be placed but considerably harder to win, once we have tomorrow's outing out of the way.  Kryptos' work has been very good, but there are some nice horses in opposition and his mark is now 84, so we won't take anything for granted.  As ever, we'll travel full of hope while expecting nothing.