Out of the cold?

The chilly nights and red-hot days have been keeping us on our toes this week and there have been plenty of visits to the yard at 10pm to put some rugs on the horses as the mercury drops when night falls. It is a crucial time of year to keep the chill off the horses' backs as many of their coats will start to grow soon in preparation for winter. You can't stop the inevitable but it's nice to have shiny and sleek coats on the horses for as long as possible.

Another cold thing we want to avoid is the 'cold trainers list' in the Racing Post. For those who don't know, this is part of the stats section of the paper and it highlights trainers who are on a bit of a losing spell. It takes no prisoners and all the great and the good trainers appear on there from time to time and it just so happens that we're living on it. I hate being on there but sometimes various things happen to the runners and you build up a dry spell. If I'm still on there this time next week, I'll be very disappointed given the runners we're going to have.

It all kicks off tomorrow with the trek to Bath.
No Such Number (below left) will be having his first run for us after we bought him in July and he's done nothing but please us and I think I've found a decent race for him to kick off his UK campaign. His last bit of work on Wednesday was by far his best yet and champion jockey-elect Richard Hughes is on board. The ground will be firm at the track as they have no watering system but, as you can see from the photo, he has a low action and fast ground should be ideal.
Also at Bath is Entrance (middle). She is becoming very well handicapped now and with jockey Natasha Eaton claiming seven pounds off, she should be a certainty! The problem is, I've thought this before and the filly does have her own ideas about racing and everything has to drop right for her to win. Hopefully it will tomorrow.

Following those two up is Emma's Gift who has come out of her latest run in good order and runs in a couple of weeks' time.

If the ballot goes our way, The Ducking Stool (below left) should run at Doncaster's St Leger meeting on Wednesday. She's had a great year but is pretty high in the handicap as a result. The race is for retired jockeys and the potential candidates to ride her are a mixed bunch but you don't get to chose who rides - it is done via random allocation. I'm praying we're lucky enough to get Mick Kinane as the man is a genius on a horse and has ridden a winner for me before. 

Khajaaly just followed The Ducking Stool up the gallop and he is still on track to make his reappearance in a fortnight.

I've found a great race for Wiggo (below) to make his debut in next month. As he was bought at Ascot sales, he qualifies for their £25,000 sales race and gets treated favourably at the weights because he is unraced. He has a great attitude and, with still a month to play with, he should be spot-on for his big day.

We just had a trio of runners over the past seven days, kicked off with juvenile Believe In Me on Monday at Wolverhampton. After a slow start, she never got competitive but coughed a lot after the race and subsequently had a snotty nose for a few day after. She's since been on antibiotics and seems to be getting better. This does explain the below par run.
Kampai went back to Brighton on Friday but is still rated too high and hopefully the handicapper can be kinder to us in the future.
The following day, Didn't I Do Well (below) made his debut at Kempton. There were only three runners and he did finish third but he surprised many with how well he ran and it was good for him to get some racecourse experience. As there were so few runners, the owner picked up £800 prize money for finishing last. Now, that's not bad at all! He has come out of the race well and should improve a lot for the run.

I'm praying this week that I receive my new horsebox as the day for collection has been pushed back several times. Although there was nothing faulty with the old one, new laws brought in mean the police are getting very strict on weight limits so the new box is much lighter without compromising on comfort for the horses. It will look really smart in standard Feilden green plus the personalised number plate of FE12 DEN.

After the 'Essex Tiger' furore last week, we had our own mystical sighting. A large white creature had been seen lurking around the top of one of the fields all day on Thursday and it led many to ponder what it may be. A puma, a white hart or even a polar bear? Some long-lens photography and a zoom on the resulting picture revealed the animal in question was in fact a very-white domestic cat. Scary indeed!