Respite

Disappointing run last night.  Horses can have you scratching your heads, and Solitary Sister is getting towards the stage of having me scratching mine.  I was very happy with her going into the race; but, of course, the doubt was that, although she seemed ready to run to her best, that didn't really mean a great deal as she had never come close previously to winning a race.  I was very happy with her in the preliminaries and very happy for most of the race.  Turning in, I still thought she could win, but she didn't pass a single horse in the straight.  Frustrating.  We might send her back to Chelmsford for a similar race a week today, wearing either blinkers or cheek-pieces.  If she doesn't do much again then, waiting until the grass would probably be wise.

That aside, it was a very enjoyable evening.  Chelmsford is a pleasure to visit, and as it's starting to feel springlike (for the time being, anyway) it was a very pleasant evening.  And the result of our race was very good.  Obviously I would have most liked Solitary Sister to win the race; but, failing that, it was really good to see Croeso Cymraeg win for two of the nicest men in the game as he's owned and bred by Richard Evans and trained by his brother James.  It's always a pleasure to bump into one of them at the races, so seeing them both sharing a win was great.  I always enjoy a trip down Memory Lane and I'd steered them down that street with Fred Rimell (for whom they both rode when they were jockeys) recollections, and it got even better when Nigel Tinkler, who also rode for him, showed up on a rare visit from Malton to Chelmsford.

So that was very pleasant, just as it's been here the past couple of days which have started with a slight frost but quickly turned into perfect spring days.  The downside, of course, is that, while the tracks look wet enough at the moment, this could mean that by the middle of next week we could resume hearing anguish about 'the ground' again, particularly in relation to the Great God, The Cheltenham Festival.  Every cloud has a silver lining, and the one benefit of the media frenzy sparked by the Equine Influenza outbreak was that for a few days we didn't have to hear about the ground at Cheltenham (or about how it really shouldn't be up to Apple's Jade's connections which race she contests).  Just a short-term respite, I'd imagine, but it was nice while it lasted.