Keep going forward

The Rocket Park's win last week was particularly well timed as it was otherwise a week containing more than the usual quota of frustration, disappointment and irritation.  One of the less significant setbacks (or, at least, I hope that it won't be a significant setback) was that only 12 hours or so after my having written on this blog about how much I was looking forward to running White Valiant at Fontwell on Sunday and how well he was going, it became apparent that he wouldn't be able to run.  Nothing serious, though, I hope: he had knocked a scab off an old cut on a hind leg when schooling so well on Thursday and, although I cleaned it up afterwards, smeared it with Sudocrem and happily left it at that in the belief that it wouldn't be a problem, on Friday morning his leg had blown up, he was lame and he clearly didn't want to be running two days later.

Still, it's already much better.  He is sound again and he had a short, slow canter this morning, and should be fine to run at Plumpton in 13 days' time.  His owners live in Brighton so Fontwell on a Sunday would have been perfect for them - but Plumpton on a Sunday merely two weeks later should be equally good; and, while yesterday's race was not a strong one and looked a good opening, it's not unrealistic to hope that the depth of opposition at Plumpton will be similar.  So, assuming that we do indeed run at Plumpton, that was merely a minor setback.

What the revised plan will mean, unfortunately, is that I won't be able to open the stable on the Open Day, which I am not happy about.  But there is no decision to take.  It would be a dereliction of my duty to the horse's owners if I do not go to Plumpton with him if it is feasible for me to do so, and it would be a dereliction of my duty to them if I failed to put that race (which is far and away the most suitable race for the horse in the next month) on the horse's agenda simply because it didn't suit me; and I am not going to open the stable to the public and not be here.  I will feel bad about not opening, but that's the way it will have to be.

Mind you, I won't feel too bad as we're here every day of the year, and I am always happy to welcome visitors any day rather than merely on this one day of the year.  That's always my misgiving about the concept of an Open Day: it implies that you aren't open on the other days, which I am.  There are enough stables where visitors wouldn't be so welcome on other days, and more than enough who won't open on the Open Day simply because they never do, so I don't think that I need to feel too guilty.  It has been very disappointing in recent years how many stables just don't open because they don't, and I imagine that there will be plenty in that category again this time.

Another disappointing aspect about the Newmarket Open Weekend is the 'Trainer Commentary' thing on the Saturday afternoon.  In theory there are six races for which the on-course commentary is done by a trainer.  It's a sort of 'getting into the spirit' thing, and is rather a nice touch for an Open Weekend of the training centre.  Today I read a list of the commentators, and it seems as if only three trainers could be found to do it.  Fair play to those three (Ed Vaughan, Charlie Fellowes, Richard Spencer) and fair play to the three other people who have been found to make up the numbers (Lee Mottershead, Richard Farquhar and Hayley Moore) but this hardly reflects well on us in general if from 65 or whatever it is trainers, we have only been able to find three prepared to give it a go.

As I said at the outset, last week was a frustrating one, notwithstanding The Rocket Park's lovely win.  But this is another week and next week will be another one too, so we look forward with optimism as ever.  We'll look forward to White Valiant's intended run at Plumpton on Sunday 23rd, and in the interim we can, I hope, look forward to Hope Is High at Bath on Sunday 16th, Parek (Sussex Girl) at Brighton on Monday 17th and Das Kapital on Tuesday 18th.  None, obviously, is a definite runner, but they're all entered and it would be disappointing if none were to run.

First we'll have Hope Is High, although we won't know whether she will be able to run until Friday as the race is oversubscribed and I presume that she will be number one in the elimination order.  The race is the Final of the Bath Summer Stayers' Series, a race which she won last year (when it was run at Yarmouth as Bath was out of commission).  The elimination order is compiled on how many points horses have accrued in the qualifiers.   Last year she was guaranteed to get in: she had run in at least two qualifiers, and had won one and been placed in another.  This year she has only just scraped into the list of entries by the skin of her teeth, and has zero points to her name.

The way one qualifies is by running in a qualifier; or by being eliminated from a qualifier; or by being declared to run in a qualifier which is then abandoned; or by being "officially entered" in an abandoned qualifier "if the time of abandonment was prior to the declaration stage".  She only just scrapes in on the final clause.  When Bath was shut during and after the dry spell, some of its meetings were transferred to other ARC tracks (eg Chepstow, Wolverhampton) and the qualifiers were run there.  However, the final meeting set to stage a qualifier (28th August) was transferred to Chelmsford, which is not an ARC track, and the programme was not duplicated, meaning no qualifier was run (hence Hope running at Catterick the following day instead).

In this instance, the meeting was abandoned not only prior to declaration time, but also prior to the entries closing.  For most people (ie disorganised people who enter late) this would have cooked the goose, but happily for us I like to plan in advance, and generally make my entries as soon as the races appear on the site.  (For example, Roy is already entered for Epsom on Sunday 30th September, notwithstanding that the race does not close until Monday 24th September, two weeks today.  His entry confirmation reference number, ie the receipt one gets to confirm that the entry has been received and accepted, is 1KDH).

In this case, fortunately, I was my usual efficient self (I write with a totally straight face) and Hope was already entered in the race at the time it was abandoned.  My first worry was proving this because obviously no list of entries was ever published.  Thank God, I was able to track down my entry confirmation reference number; once I had that, I was obviously able to demonstrate that we were entered in the qualifier before its abandonment.  Disappointingly, even once that had been demonstrated, it still required further discussion - notwithstanding that nobody was disputing that she had been entered and that an entry confirmation reference number confirmed this - to confirm that she is indeed qualified.  So we can at least enter - even if the likelihood was always that she would be likely to be eliminated. But we may get in as the race, although oversubscribed, has not attracted a huge entry.  We'll see what happens.