Best seat in the house

"Are you going to Cheltenham?" is the pre-Festival equivalent of the "Did you have a good Christmas?" of the post-festive period.  I generally find the latter hard to answer (in fact, I've eventually come to the conclusion that, as with "Alright?", it's easiest just not to answer) but the first question is a piece of cake. "No - the TV will do me."  And it really is doing me: absolutely terrific.  Who would miss this?  (And it doesn't matter whether one opts for RUK or ITV - I'm on RUK this afternoon because it has the bonus of showing Huntingdon too, but ITV would be equally good, albeit with fewer races).

Anyway, I have the best seat in the house.  I never used to have a sleep in the afternoons, but I've got into the habit of doing so this year.  When I had 'flu in January, I found the only way to get through it was by making sure that I had at least 12 hours' sleep a day.  I'd have at least 10 hours every night, and then aim to have a couple of hours during the day.  I am no longer sleeping anything like that long, but I still haven't been able to shake the habit of finding the day a struggle if I don't shut my hours for half an hour or so early in the afternoon, and get to bed by 9.00 in the evenings.

I've been to Cheltenham a few times and I more or less know my way around, although I can't say that I'm an expert.  When people mention to me the various points at which they watched the various races and the various points at which they met various friends at various times, I never really know what they are talking about.  But I suspect that even the people who know the racecourse like the back of their hand would probably struggle to pinpoint a good place to have half an hour's sleep during the afternoon, other than the car or horsebox I suppose.  And the armchair in which I nodded off both yesterday afternoon and today is more comfortable than those.

The further advantage which home has, over and above providing a more comfortable place to sleep, is that when one wakes up, one can (nowadays) just run the TV back (assuming that one hasn't been asleep for more than an hour) and pick up up where one left off.  I slept through the Arkle yesterday, but that didn't matter at all as I just re-wound when I woke up.  I actually dodged a bullet today because I nodded off shortly after the start of the 1.00 news on BBC1.  Of course, one can only run back on the channel that one is watching - but happily I woke at 1.28 (the first race being at 1.30) so all was good.

It's been wonderful racing as usual, of course.  Great galloping, jumping, riding and training performances.  But you don't need me to tell you that, or to itemise some of them.  Aside from the joy of watching the most sublime pieces of racing and riding, one other source of pleasure for me has been the 'pus in foot' scare which bedevilled Altior's preparation over the past few days?  Why was there a pleasing aspect to this setback to a horse whom I hugely admire and really want to win, you might well ask?  Well, we always have a few foot-abscess setbacks each winter, as the constant wet conditions mean that the horses' feet become softer than ideal, and just treading on a stone, which can happen any time, can leave a little nick in the sole, a nick into which a tiny bit of dirt can work its way - and hey presto!  The horse has a tiny pocket of pus in his foot, just as you might do in your hand if you found that a tiny splinter had worked its way into the tip of your finger.

When that happens, the foot is hot and it hurts the horse, so the abscess needs to be located, opened up, cleaned up, drained and kept scrupulously clean (which isn't easy if the horse is to continue working, because the whole of the great outdoors is grubby during prolonged wet periods).  Just as you would dig the splinter out of your finger, wash the area and be sure to keep it scrupulously clean for a while.  You can guarantee that we'll have a handful of foot abscesses every winter, and they drive me mad.  Some can be sorted out in a day, some linger for weeks.  The odd one lingers for months.  So bloody frustrating.  It's not really an issue if the horse has no races coming up as you'll get him right eventually unless you are very unlucky (and it is worth remembering that once in a blue moon the people are very unlucky, as the death of the ante-post 1,000 Guineas favourite Chriselliam reminded us a few years ago) but it's an unwelcome complication if he has.

Anyway, those looking after Altior will have had an unwelcome complication over the past few days - but every cloud has a silver lining, and it is heartening to be reminded that it happens to everyone!  Fingers crossed the issue can be sorted out as satisfactorily as it was when Harzand suffered a similar issue in the run-up to the 2016 Derby or Don't Forget Me in the days prior to the 1987 2,000 Guineas.  I'm writing this half an hour before the Queen Mother Two-Mile Champion Chase.  As always, time will reveal all, and we'll know one way or another before I go outside to start evening stables.