Getting the winter blues.

Well, I think it is safe to say that summer has finally gone.
The weather is as miserable as sin at the minute with the mud making a quick reappearance in the fields and it will probably be with us all the way through until May now. Something else that might be soon coming out of retirement are my clippers. It's a sad sight when some of the horses start to lose their velvet-like, short, summer coats and turn into hairy bears but despite the number of rugs and duvets you can wrap them up in, Mother Nature will always win and the hair will grow.

One horse who always loses her summer shine first is Bavarica. Going to Ascot on Friday, she was in need of a clip but we left it for a day because it was in the back of our minds that she was in need of a break. Because we've had her almost six years now, we know the mare inside out and she had just started to become very keen at home, pulling Ross' arms out up the gallops. This would usually be a promising sign with any other horse but for Bavarica it usually means she is 'over the top' - i.e. in need of a short holiday. Anyway, we took our chance at the Berkshire venue but she ran a lifeless race and was duly put into the field the day after until the new year. She's won three races this year, nine in her career, and my gut feeling is that next year may be her last. I just want my daughter Shelley to win on her first.

The wet weather will play havoc with entries across the country but all the ones I've got in this week will enjoy the softer surfaces. Pyjoma makes her belated debut at Nottingham on Wednesday. She's had her problems (fractured a shoulder at the beginning of the year) but she's going OK now. She does have a temperament and we will do well just to get her there as she sometimes has an aversion to the horsebox but, fingers crossed, she won't be a pain.
We'll need some luck as well if Shelley is to have a ride at Warwick on Thursday. The amateur race attracted an astonishing 50-odd entries so we'll need a lot to not run if we are to go.

A trip up north to Redcar will be on the cards on Saturday if the ground is right. Spirit of Sharjah runs in a listed race and probably the best filly I've trained, Emmeline Pankhurst, runs in a maiden. I would take that praise with a word of caution though as she can be a right cow and on her debut earlier on in the year, she ran a howler and was later found to be in season. If the same horse that destroys everything on the gallops in the morning turns up at Redcar, then we should see a nice performance. But that's a big IF.