It’s been a long time since my last blog. My house is in a mess at the moment – my computer is packed up in a box. My study, which was supposed to be finished in February, is only nearing completion now. Our bathroom upstairs was supposedly a two week job – they started in June and we’re still waiting. It’s all extra stress in my life that I don’t need.
I’m fairly happy with the horses, but not a lot going on. Theophrastus is a great prospect for this year – he was fairly beaten last time, but he needs a longer trip and softer ground. Mon Michel is back with Gary and is moving well – he will come out reasonably soon. Tifernati is over his problem but will take longer. Latin America is an interesting prospect this year – he’s probably made more physical progress than any other and could step up. It could be a half decent NH year.
On the flat, Peintre D’Argent comes out tomorrow, and she’s moved to William Knight. She’s very lowly rated (51) and I wasn’t comfortable about us keeping her at Manor House when we were turning away other low grade animals. We were thinking about retiring her but I decided to stick with her after a text from Matt Williams made me see sense – she’s a late maturing type and could easily be progressive next year. It guesswork how she’ll run tomorrow, but I don’t see why she won’t go well – she’s over a few recent problems and I’m hoping she’ll run to somewhere close to her best.
Lilac Moon was supposed to run tomorrow, but she was entered in the wrong race – she’ll be out soon. She’s well enough to win – there’s just a niggling concern that her attitude may not be what it was.
One high point is Swindon, who finally seem to be getting it together now. I’ve spent a lot of time recently in Swindon board and strategy meetings, and they haven’t been easy. The finances and politics of the club were extremely messy and it’s taken a lot of time and money to put things right – the CEO and chairman deserve a lot of credit for the work they’ve put in. It’s starting to come right on the pitch – we need to get the attendances up now, which is not easy, but they’re going slowly our way.
I’ve been to alot of award ceremonies recently – it’s that time of year. Yesterday I was seated between John McCririck and Eddie the shoe at the HWPA Derby day awards – Greg Wood won the main prize, which was well deserved. Michael and Louise Owen came down last week for the ROA dinner – earlier in the week I won the award for “outstanding achievement” at the EGR awards.