Those two impostors

Too long since the last chapter, so that means that there's too much to write about.  I'm going to have to be brief lest I let this chapter run to 20 paragraphs - although that would mean 20 photographs, and I do have that many and more which could fit in.  But I'll try to be brief.  In short, the nine-day period since I last posted a chapter on this blog has seen me facing a very stern test of my ability to measure up to some of Rudyard Kipling's admonitions, to see whether I really can treat those two impostors just the same.  I hope I've done OK.

We went off to Doncaster last Saturday and it was a lovely day.  From a personal point of view, it was the first day that I'd run a horse on the same card as a Classic.  It was also the first time that I'd run a horse in a Class Two race (Class One being the highest class, Group and Listed races; Class Two being the next tier down; and so on down to Class Six, or Seven if that still exists) for, I believe, over a decade.  I'd guess that Benedict's ill-fated assignment in the 2006 Lincoln would have been the last time.  I don't think that either Ethics Girl or Indira, probably our two most successful horses in the interim, ever ran above Class Three.  So just the idea of the trip was exciting - and it became infinitely more exciting when Kryptos won.

It was just a lovely day.  Tony Fordham hadn't been able to make it to Thirsk when Kryptos had won the previous weekend, but he was there this time, which was great.  Ivona and I headed up there with the horse, and we had our friend Aaron Lau with us too.  The afternoon started with the best possible omen.  Nicola, Aaron and I walked down to the straight mile start to check out the track.  As we got to the junction of the courses, we ran into Aidan and his posse, coming along the round course to work out their St Leger tactics.

This was perfect: as well as giving us the perfect excuse to spend some time with one of the truly great men of racing (as this still from the Dubai Racing Channel, presumably using ATR pictures, shows) it couldn't have been more encouraging.  The last time Aidan, Joseph and I had (also completely by chance) walked a racecourse together (on Whitbread Gold Cup Day at Sandown a few years ago, in the rain) we'd both had a winner, Imperial Monarch taking the Classic Trial and Silken Thoughts landing the Flat Jockeys v. National Hunt Jockeys Handicap.  So when Seahenge won the Champagne Stakes and Capri took the St Leger in a terrific display of honest galloping, the result was surely in the bag, wasn't it?

Indeed it was, which was thrilling.  Nicola again rode Kryptos perfectly, and the horse again showed himself to be a hugely progressive and exciting young horse.  The Ryan Moore-ridden favourite Battered ran his race again, just as he had done when winning Glorious Goodwood and being second in an extremely competitive race at the Ebor Meeting, but Kryptos was too good for him.  It was a joy to watch - and even more of a joy because of how well received the result was, including by my friends/colleagues on ATR who really helped us to enjoy the specialness of the moment by treating it as if we'd won the St Leger.  That was much appreciated.

London buses.  Having not run a horse in a Class Two race for over 10 years, it turned out that we won two in six days.  It had been very disappointing for many people that Bath had had problems with their track in advance of their big two-day meeting on St Leger weekend, including the connections of the horses engaged in the Bath Summer Stayers' Series Final, a race which gives Class Five and Class Six horses a rare and eaglerly-anticipated opportunity to compete in Class Two.  The final obviously has to be an open handicap because any horse who has contested a qualifier is eligible - and, while all the qualifiers had been Class Five and Class Six races, there was nothing to say that one of the qualified horses might not have risen markedly up the ratings since then.  And, as an open handicap, it is automatically a Class Two race.  Something of a Clayton's Class Two, a cynic might suggest, but a Class Two nonetheless, and with a Class Two prize attached to it.

Anyway, ARC in general and Yarmouth (and Bath) in particular stepped up to the mark and arranged for the race to be re-scheduled and run on the final day (Thursday) of what used to be Yarmouth's September Meeting and which is now known as the Eastern Festival.  This was terrific and extremely public-spirited, going well beyond the call of duty.  So it was doubly good.  Trebly good, in fact.  It meant that the race took place; that it took place on a less difficult track where a bad draw (we drew 12 of 12) becomes a less insurmountable disadvantage; and it meant that we had a runner at the Eastern Festival, which we otherwise would not have done.

Yarmouth's September Meeting is a big thing for the small trainers in this area.  Or, more correctly, it used to be.  We all used to like to have runners there.  But there are fewer opportunities at it nowadays for lower-tier horses, and it's harder to run an ordinary horse there now.  We even had a double there for Henry and Rosemary Moszkowicz in 2005 but neither of those races exist nowadays: Picot De Say won a claimer under Jimmy Quinn on either the first or the second day, and then La Gessa and Nicky Mackay won a seller the next afternoon.  (Which was a particular pleasure for both owners and the stable as I had trained both parents of both horses for Henry and Rosemary, Picot De Say being by Largesse ex Facsimile and La Gessa being by Largesse ex En Grisaille).

But that particular double couldn't happen nowadays.  Almost unthinkably, Julia Feilden, a real Yarmouth stalwart, didn't have a runner at the meeting, and we wouldn't have done had the Bath race taken place at Bath.  But as things turned out we had both a runner and a winner: Jana and I took dear ultra-brave Hope Is High over there on Thursday and she confirmed again that she and Silvestre De Sousa are a match made in heaven when they took their joint-record for the season to four wins (including, now and most recently, a hat-trick) from six appearances.  She had plenty going against her (top weight of 9 stone 10lb, a career-high rating of 72, stall 12 of 12 in a race with a fairly short run to the first bend, ground softer than ideal for the longest race she'd ever contested) but she and Silvestre were able to overcome all the potential negatives.

It was just truly thrilling, and again made all the more special by the reception which she received: she's becoming a popular horse, particularly at Yarmouth where her form figures are now 241211.  I've rarely been at the races and had more racegoers stopping me to have a chat about the horse, both before the race and afterwards.  So that was lovely - and the afternoon became even better when another of Newmarket's smallest trainers, Mickey Quinn, sent out the next winner, the hat-trick-scoring Great Hall in the other Class Two feature race of the day.

I was nearly as pleased to see that win as I had been to see our one, and duly took the opportunity to invite myself to that celebration too, as this photograph confirms.  Mickey is not only one of the nicest, friendliest and most entertaining people in the game, but also someone who ranks up there with his fellow-Scouser Billy Newnes as someone who has in the past received a notably raw deal from the authorities.  I always like to see natural karma compensate someone for poor treatment received, and I am invariably very happy to see Mickey enjoying well-deserved success.

So that was fine.  The next day - well, I'd been lucky enough to have the opportunity to demonstrate how well or badly I could take triumph (and we'd had a good run too with the one runner whom we had had between Doncaster and Yarmouth, when Kilim ran another very bold race to finish a very creditable second at Brighton on Monday, again ridden extremely well by Nicola) but sadly come Friday evening I found myself facing the latest test of my ability to cope with disappointment. To cut a long story short, I was slightly unhappy with how one of Kryptos' legs felt when I fed him at 6pm on Friday.  David Dugdale, the world-class vet whom we are lucky enough to be able to describe as 'our vet', provided a second opinion and the upshot is that the horse has in the blink of an gone from being a leading candidate for the Cambridgeshire to the injured-list.

Still, it's not all gloom.  David assures me that, the start of a tendon injury having been picked up in its infancy, we have a 95% chance of normal service being resumed next season.  Any time you detect a source of concern in a tendon, the phrase that flashes through your mind is 'career-threatening'; so, under the circumstances, it's hard to be too down.  But it was a colossal disappointment, as well as a major worry, for everyone concerned, most notably Tony Fordham, Ivona Slachtova and Nicola Currie.  But that's racing, that's the sport which we know and love.  You never know what's around the corner.  Most times it is crushing disappointment.  But just once in a while there's a glorious surprise lying in wait.  And that's what keeps us going.  Even knowing that, though, it's rare to receive such sharp reminders of both sides of the coin in such quick succession.  I hope that Kipling might feel that I've done my best to live up to the standards to which he exhorted us to aspire.