All three horses from yesterday were full of themselves and bucked and squealed when they were turned out this morning. It was a shame not to have been able to run Sea Rock and I am still somewhat bemused by the attitude of the senior steward. How could he possibly say that he had walked every inch of the course that morning and pushed his stick in at least three inches when he absolutely could not possibly have done? Why lie?  He arrogantly refused to come down to the frozen strip when challenged and it was only because Doug and Patrick managed to talk to another more reasonable steward that it was re-checked and deemed to be unsafe. More wood chip was then put down thereby making the ground safe. It took ten minutes. We have lost a horse in the past (Varkala at Marks Tey) with a similar scenario. We had been stuck in a traffic jam and were too late to walk the course, Toby our jockey had mentioned that there was a firm patch where a fence had been removed and there was no grass. We asked a steward about it and were told that it was safe. Half an hour later we had a dead horse. She broke her leg on exactly the patch that Toby had mentioned. That is all it takes. As she was in the first race the situation was quickly remedied with wood chip but we will never quite forgive ourselves for not making sure that it was sorted out before she ran. When a horse gallops from soft ground to firm is when it is at most risk and for the sake of ten minutes and a bit of humility is it really worth it?

Ponty Pandy before the race

It was such a beautiful day today. I was watching Countryfile last week and Adam Henson mentioned that spring was just around the corner - At the time it was a gloomy January day and nothing seemed further from the truth but today it actually felt extremely springlike -The birds were full of song and you could see the snowdrops pushing their green shoots through the soil. I walked for over two hours with the dogs around the Edgcote estate and didn't see a single person. It was stunningly beautiful and we are so lucky to live in such a magnificent place.