Saturday, 17 January 2015

Doug walked the course just as I was about to make declarations and phoned to say that there was a frozen road crossing which in his opinion was dangerous. I asked the senior steward if there was any chance they could delay racing for half an hour to allow the frost to come out of the ground but he wouldn't entertain the idea saying that the ground was perfectly safe. Annoyingly, because Sea Rock was in the early race I had to withdraw him as he is too nice a horse to risk on dangerous ground. Doug and Patrick then insisted that the clerk of the course and another steward should inspect the road crossing again and after doing so they agreed that it was unsafe and put some more wood chippings on it and aerated the ground. It only took ten minutes and it is such a shame that they couldn't have done that in the first place. Anyway, we ran Scruffy (Exclusive Rights) in the second division of the maiden and she ran a cracking race coming 5th out of 13 runners. It is the first time she has completed and to do so in such good company is very encouraging indeed. She was really happy when she finished the race and not at all stressed. Fantastic to see the improvement in her every time she runs, She will definitely make a racehorse.
Ponty was in the club race which had top class horses in - He ran a surprisingly good race and kept up with the sizzling pace until three from home when he got a bit outpaced but still finished strongly. He needed the race and will come on enormously from the run.
It was a great day out and we had a lot of picnicking happening by the lorry. Sea Rock had a race course gallop at the end where Pete came back and reported that he was 'awesome'
We are just off to have a takeaway at Juliet and Patrick's and watch a replay of today's racing
Exclusive Rights