Cold wind

Hot wind appeared in the title of the last chapter of this blog.  It's a cold wind now: we've had a stiff northerly wind for the past couple of days, meaning that down the east side of the country has been more than bracing.  One wouldn't have wanted to have been taking a stroll along the beach at Skegness, and riding out in Newmarket has brought the colour to one's cheeks too.  We had a top temperature of 3 degrees today, after minus 1 at daybreak and with a few snow flurries thrown in, but it hasn't been too bad.  We expect that at this time of year, and at least we haven't still descended into the mire of mud which is usually our habitat from October until April.

There's no place like home when you're not feeling well, and there's no place like home when the weather's bad.  I'm feeling fine at present, but the weather isn't great, so it's no bad thing not to be having to go anywhere.  I had intended to go to Wolverhampton this Saturday night with Freediver (whose ears adorn the first paragraph) but that isn't to be.  She had her third run 10 days ago (Monday last week) which meant that she could be entered in handicaps any time from the following Monday onwards (ie three days ago) which meant that she could run in handicaps any time from this coming Saturday onwards.  There was, I believed, a suitable race for her this Saturday, so I entered her, intending to run her.

The only potential hitch was that, when I entered her on Monday morning, I didn't know what rating she would have been given, as the week's list isn't published until the Tuesday morning (which is fine for allocating the weights for the weekend's racing because, although the entries are taken on the Monday morning, the weights aren't allocated for another 24 or 25 hours, by which time the new ratings are known).  Anyway, the race was a 46-55, which meant that she would be eligible as long as her new mark was no higher than 57 - and as in her three runs she had recorded Postmarks of 56 (on turf in 2016, trained by Michael Stoute), 55 (on AW in 2016, trained by Michael Stoute) and 50 (on AW last week, trained by me) it was hard to see that she would be rated higher than 57.

The best laid plans dot, dot, dot - she's gone in on 60, so she can't run.  Ah well. That's not the end of the world.  I'll just take it as a compliment that the handicapper seems to think that she'll do better with me than she did with Michael Stoute, sticking to that high opinion of my skills even in the face of the disheartening fact that she was sold for 1,500 guineas at the February Sale after having raced for him.  Or he might just think, rating her as he does higher than she's ever performed previously, that she was a non-trier every time.  I wouldn't take that as a compliment at all.  (For the record, and while I can't comment on her first two runs, she was definitely trying last week, as anyone who watched the race will be aware).  Anyway, if she's been rated fairly, that's fine.  If she's been put in too high, that will become apparent when she runs later in the month, and her mark will be reduced.  Time, as ever, will tell.  Let's hope that she can end up running to a mark of 90!