It was a big night last night, with Lord Snooty finally justifying our belief in him by winning his maiden in the US in smart style. I went to bed feeling exhilirated. My Blackberry rang early this morning, showing Pete’s name. Pete never rings early unless it is bad news – as I picked it up I was praying it would be about one of the lesser lights.
Pete was straight to the point – “It’s Winker – he’s not right”. Not the news I wanted to hear. It was minor, but there was a problem – he hadn’t felt right on the gallops and he wasn’t right afterwards. The vet was on his way. As the day went on I waited to hear more, but there was little to report. The vet found nothing in his first tests and did some more tests – by the end of the day Winker was sound again, but that was in his box and not storming up the gallops with a jockey on his back.
We’ll know more tomorrow. The Guineas are only three weeks away – I’m not experienced enough to comment on his chances of getting there, but this is obviously not good news.