Exciting news – Park Acclaim foaled down a filly this evening, the first foal ever born to one of my mares. I don’t know if she’s a grey (Park Acclaim is grey, by Clodovil) – she’s by Motivator. I’ll post some pictures later in the week.
Other horse news is poor. Big Paddy has been retired following further tendon issues – this continues our poor run with our Gifford horses. We bought four horses with Nick Gifford, none of them cheap and two of them point to point winners. Three years on we haven’t had a single winner – only one of the original four remains and he has yet to see a racetrack. There’s a lot of luck in racing, and unfortunately we’ve had none with Nick – I just hope that Theophrastus turns out to be a proper prospect.
We (the Comic Strip Heroes) have a 3yo by Verglas with Brian Meehan who will debut soon – I think we’re going to call him Hector Spectre. He had a freak accident as a 2yo which cost him 6 months. I don’t think he’s that special. Viscaya, a speculative claim with Nicky Vaughan had a racecourse gallop last week and didn’t impress much – I think she’s unlikely to work out. Effingham also had a racecourse gallop a short while back and he picked up a minor but niggling injury which is keeping him off the track. He might be up to winning a race but it would have to be a weak one.
I’m looking forward to a bit more work next week – it’s all been a bit quiet lately and I’ve been going stir crazy. Jane and I took the children out for a long walk today on the local common – it was a real winter wonderland with the trees frosted over and the ponds frozen. At one point the children wandered out in to the middle of a small frozen pond – I’d checked and it was rock solid. A woman pulled up on her bike and said haughtily “That looks dangerous – do you think you should be allowing your children to take such risks?” I smiled politely, resisting the urge to skip out onto the ice and do a cossack dance. I don’t fit well into today’s health and safety obsessed society.
I’ve started out on my latest cunning plan today – boosting my brain power by eating dark chocolate. I read in a book that “eating approx. 20-150g of dark chocolate a day boosts your brain while protecting you from heart disease and cancer”. “Bloody hell” I thought, “sounds excellent” – I went straight out and bought some. It tastes disgusting but if it does what it says on the tin it’s well worth it – expect the quality of blog tips to improve dramatically from here on in.
Anyone looking to read up on this subject should purchase “The Bourneville book of mental health” – available from all good stockists and sweetshops.