Worse things happen at sea

Speak of the devil and he shall appear.  In this case, I was musing in the previous chapter about the fine line between victory and defeat, that if the photo goes your way you're a genius and if it doesn't you aren't.  So what happened?  Parek (Sussex Girl) isn't an easy ride and she has to be ridden quietly as, left to her own devices, she would do too much too soon and would weaken in the closing stages of the race.  Silvestre settled her perfectly yesterday and rode her with the necessary patience, so much so that she was able to fly home in the closing stages.

Unfortunately she was flying home just too late and she failed by a neck and a short head to get up.  It would have been a contender for 'Ride of the Month' if the photo had gone our way, but as it was I imagine that the Betfair Forum would have been clogged with stern critics happy to vouch for the incompetence and/or crookedness of our champion jockey, who is as good and as honest a rider as one could ever wish to see.  And I shared the role of villain too: an emailer (Garry Whitworth of Garrywhit@tiscali.co.uk) was kind enough to drop me the unpunctuated line, "So happy that you got chinned you piece of filth").

I can't quite work this one out.  It is usually punters who have backed your loser who decide that directing their malevolence your way is a good idea, but in this instance it doesn't really add up that he could have backed Parek as he was so happy that she didn't win.  Whatever, he must just dislike me, although what I have done to earn his disdain is to hard work out as I have never knowingly met him.  Mind you, I've got off lightly this week compared to both Michael Appleby and Roger Charlton, recipients of messages from 'zed jb' (email address: z944_a@hotmail.com) who hopes that they die of cancer and that both Eponina and Nawar snap their tendons.  As Alan Partridge would say, "This country!".

Mind you, it's not just us.  (Or, correctly, one should say that it's not just we.)  I read on www.racenet.com.au today that Michael Hickmott received an email too 'disgraceful' to publish after Leider finished second in the Darwin Cup on Monday.  ("The language involved in the message means we won't publish the comment, which Hickmott rightly called out via Twitter, but once you get through the dreadful grammar, it expresses a sentiment hoping that the horse is badly injured and the trainer contracts an often-terminal disease.").  Small world, eh?  The bogans seem to be equally feral and equally illiterate in each hemisphere.  I still blame the parents (as always) but I think that we have to apportion some of the blame too to the 'education' systems of the two countries.  Is grammar too hard to grasp?  Is civility?  Is normal behaviour?

I think that I ventured the opinion in advance of this week that, with four realistic chances for a stable which has been struggling to muster four runners per month, it would either be a good week or a disappointing one.  Well, the former option is not looking favourite at present.  Yesterday was very disappointing.  Garry Whitwell may have been so happy that Parek didn't quite get up, but I wasn't as I had approached the race feeling that I would be disappointed if Parek didn't win.  (But at least we had confirmation of my belief that she is in terrific form).  Solitary Sister got as far as being entered for two races at Yarmouth today but didn't get as far as being declared.  Hope didn't even get as far as being entered for her intended race at Yarmouth yesterday.  And it's been raining all day today at Brighton, which is unlikely to be positive for Roy's chances tomorrow as he loves fast ground.

Ah well, we're still here.  Worse things happen at sea.