Oh dear -She ran like a hairy goat!! It was a good bit softer than we expected as there was torrential rain when we arrived which carried on right up until our race - I didn't want to pull her out at that stage even though we knew it wouldn't suit her, as she needed a run, and it most certainly didn't suit ...She ran well enough with the leading group for the first part of the course but her action completely changed when she hit the heavy ground on the back straight and just floundered. Charlie was brilliant in that as soon as he knew she wasn't handling the ground he just let her come home in her own time. We had given him instructions that the most important thing for her was that she wasn't bottomed and that she should enjoy the experience. After the race she was a fresh as a daisy and pulled Lucy around when she was walking her off. We have now got to decide what to do with her next - either wait in hope of getting better ground for a bumper, or run her over hurdles in the soft three times, and get a nice (low) handicap mark for her and then run her on the good ground in the spring. Hmm, will have to think about that one, as we know that she is a better horse than she showed today
The funniest thing was that at the end of her race in the gathering gloom a streaker (YES - a butt naked streaker!!) ran past us and up the home straight. It was totally bizarre as it wasn't as though there was a group of drunken louts cheering him on, he just ran past us as though it was a perfectly normal thing to do. He was quite fit actually - just what I needed to cheer me up after a woeful run from Frog!
On the journey home we decided that the most important thing was that she is home safe so we celebrated by opening the bar - Lucy and I did anyway, as Doug was driving.
When we got back Will had done afternoon stables and got the horses in which was a wonderful luxury for us. We then went out for an Indian in the new 'Spice Restaurant' in the village. It was very nice indeed and they do home deliveries. Oh dear, not good for the waistline...