The wedding was far too good yesterday and we didn't get in until the early hours this morning, consequently we were feeling a bit steady at the races. Jess was also in a 'steady' mood and pulled up on the second circuit not having gone the fierce pace that was set and slipping badly on the bend. She loves picking off tired horses and with only seven in the race she didn't really get the opportunity, Toby was told to pull her up if she didn't stand a chance of being in the first three as we didn't want her to be bottomed. Also with two fences being omitted because of the frozen ground the race was never going to play to her strengths as it is her jumping that wins her races.
Ponty was in the same position where four fences were omitted because of the low sun so it turned out to be more like a flat race. However , we were pleased with the way he kept with the pace for most of the race and finished a very respectable seventh out of fifteen and only about ten lengths off the winner.
It was great to be back racing though and the owners were more than happy with their day out. They are a lovely lot and very understanding when things don't quite go to plan.
The whole day was full of drama with lots of falling horses and chaos caused by loose horses. The first bend caused huge problems as it was very tight and a lot of horses ended up either slipping over or crashing through the running rail. On another occasion we were standing by the third fence when a girl fell off and just lay there as if dead. They then dolled off the fence so that the horses didn't jump on her on the second time around, and this ground steward was standing 50 metres in front of the fence waving her flag to make sure that all the jockeys had seen the arrows. However a loose horse ran straight at her and knocked her flat. She then lay there as if dead, so we had two comatose bodies within ten metres of each other. Both ladies were completely unconscious and there was a very worrying period of time when it seemed to take the medical staff ages to get to them and no one else seemed to know what to do. Eventually after a very long delay they were stretchered off. We have since heard that they both regained consciousness, thank goodness.
Very competitive racing and really good to be back - I saw an avid blog reader, Darren, who questioned how many Christmas sherries I had when I did the last posting as I had got the King George results totally mixed up with the Christmas hurdle! All corrected now now but I have to say I am totally partied out and will be very pleased when the festive season is over and I will be back wearing my bed socks and sipping hot cocoa before going to bed at a reasonable hour! In fact that is exactly what I am going to do now....Goodnight all x
Ponty was in the same position where four fences were omitted because of the low sun so it turned out to be more like a flat race. However , we were pleased with the way he kept with the pace for most of the race and finished a very respectable seventh out of fifteen and only about ten lengths off the winner.
It was great to be back racing though and the owners were more than happy with their day out. They are a lovely lot and very understanding when things don't quite go to plan.
The whole day was full of drama with lots of falling horses and chaos caused by loose horses. The first bend caused huge problems as it was very tight and a lot of horses ended up either slipping over or crashing through the running rail. On another occasion we were standing by the third fence when a girl fell off and just lay there as if dead. They then dolled off the fence so that the horses didn't jump on her on the second time around, and this ground steward was standing 50 metres in front of the fence waving her flag to make sure that all the jockeys had seen the arrows. However a loose horse ran straight at her and knocked her flat. She then lay there as if dead, so we had two comatose bodies within ten metres of each other. Both ladies were completely unconscious and there was a very worrying period of time when it seemed to take the medical staff ages to get to them and no one else seemed to know what to do. Eventually after a very long delay they were stretchered off. We have since heard that they both regained consciousness, thank goodness.
Very competitive racing and really good to be back - I saw an avid blog reader, Darren, who questioned how many Christmas sherries I had when I did the last posting as I had got the King George results totally mixed up with the Christmas hurdle! All corrected now now but I have to say I am totally partied out and will be very pleased when the festive season is over and I will be back wearing my bed socks and sipping hot cocoa before going to bed at a reasonable hour! In fact that is exactly what I am going to do now....Goodnight all x
