Trying to turn the tide

It’s been an incredibly frustrating week with the weather not going our way and races doing likewise.

Generous Genella went all the way to Doncaster on Thursday only to be withdrawn because the ground was too firm and the forecast rain never materialised. There was a fair bit of money for her during the day and, it is true to say, that she had been going well at home but we are not a yard who set out horses for a gamble so it was a surprise that she was so well backed. That’s Newmarket though – work watchers hide in trees to catch a secret glimpse of horses galloping strongly on the Heath and once the information is out, it spreads through the town like wildfire.
Salisbury didn’t bring us much luck later in the week either with the ground going against King Columbo and the race didn’t help him much too – there was no confirmed front runner and so the race was a very slowly run one.

It’s like banging your head against a brick wall at the minute with winners hard to come by but the same happens every year – midsummer is annually a quiet time for us as most of the horses have done all their winning earlier in the year and are suffering in the handicap as a result. The only thing that you can do is to keep doing what you have always done and the handicapper will eventually show some mercy and the winners will flow again.

Another trip to Scotland looks on the cards next week as we’ve got Night Orbit and Ocean Rosie in at Musselburgh on Thursday. Travelling vast distances is not what we like to do because mainly if it’s far for us to go, it’ll be far for the owners to go as well but the current weather situation has forced us to travel – both horses want soft ground and up north is the only place getting some rain.

It looks likely that we will have quite a few runners at the end of the week and the highlight will probably be Emma’s Gift who tackles handicap company for the first time. The handicapper has been pretty severe on her with a mark of 98 but we’ve managed to get our talented apprentice Adam Beschizza the ride (he was meant to be riding Sir Gerry in the Stewards Cup at Goodwood on the same day).

Hopefully Lady Luck will shine on us again.