Strange things coincidences – you go along for ages without getting one and suddenly two come along at once.
The Half Moon in Jamaica has giant palm trees everywhere. On my last day there I was walking back to out apartment from the pool when I heard a crack above my head – I looked up and saw a palm branch tumbling down, hitting the ground next to me. A little startled I moved on – it must happen I thought, but I’d never seen it before. Fifty yards on, as I walked under another tree, it happened again – the same crack, same branch hitting the ground right next to me. I wondered if I’d developed some sort of super power – an ability to control nature. I had a strange dream about it that night.
A couple of days later I had an email about a guest coming to my box at Chester – it said that he was defiantly coming. “I wonder who he’s defying” I said to Jane and made a comment about it being a typo and a misspelling rolled in to one. A couple of hours later I got an email from a friend talking about her hospitalised mother – she said she was “defiantly improving”.
Lots of runners but not many winners. Foghorn Leghorn is turning out to be what I thought he was – a very decent honest sort of animal who is just a little short of top class. He’s been beaten twice in maidens – I think he’s been unlucky having run up against a couple of really good types. He’ll win soon and could run well in a better race. Blue Jack is the high point and he goes on Saturday in the Temple Stakes at Haydock – the course should suit and I’m expecting a good run.
There’s a couple I like today. I thought Press Release ran a great race at Chester and he has a far easier task at Musselburgh today. He’s a great looking horse and should take all the beating. I had a flick through Michael Bell’s six to follow that he has published on his website – I noted that Babycakes is in his six to follow and is also in Hayley Turner’s six, which is surprising given that she is a 70 rated maiden who did nothing last year. She’s a half sister to a horse I nearly bought in the mares sale last year – she may be better than she has shown so far – she runs at Nottingham.
It was a big night last night with Swindon qualifying for the play-off final at Wembley. We dominated at the County Ground on Friday but only came through 2-1 – it should have been more but our chances just slipped away. Last night’s game was a proper Roy of the Rovers type epic. We lost our keeper in the first few minutes, went two down in the first half the had our captain sent off. Down to ten men we managed to equalise, and held on throughout extra time to win on penalties.
I decided not to watch the penalty shoot out – I couldn’t bear it. I shook a few hands and quietly made my way out of the stadium – it was a weird feeling walking into the car park in total silence. I had a car waiting and my driver was listening to the game – I asked him to turn it off. My blackberry went crazy with texts five minutes later. Roll on Wembley.