.
It’s mid-November. I’ve been back at Gerolstein for a month and a bit. And today my racing season began. Wendy and I have got four racehorses this season, Mikie (Fifteen C) who won a race last year, Agnes de Gerolstein (who almost won several times), plus Thomas and Rocky (Rock of Ages) who haven’t yet had a race. The first three are more or less ‘ready’ and Rocky is closing fast. There is one slight problem with having such a big ‘team’: we have a two-horse float. Well, we’ll face that one when we come to it!
It’s mid-November. I’ve been back at Gerolstein for a month and a bit. And today my racing season began. Wendy and I have got four racehorses this season, Mikie (Fifteen C) who won a race last year, Agnes de Gerolstein (who almost won several times), plus Thomas and Rocky (Rock of Ages) who haven’t yet had a race. The first three are more or less ‘ready’ and Rocky is closing fast. There is one slight problem with having such a big ‘team’: we have a two-horse float. Well, we’ll face that one when we come to it!
It was Agnes who
launched our season. She’d missed a needful trial because of the float problem,
but there was a nice little race suitable for her (ie standing start, 2000m) at
Timaru, so off we set, to predictions of hail and thunder, for 2 1/2 hours
drive south. The storm hit us a bit after half way, but Timaru itself was dry if grey
I like Timaru
racecourse. It has a happy, countrified feel, and plenty of room for the
horses. Agnes, a notable misbehaver pre-race, was as calm and good as the
little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead. But she likes Timaru
too. She ran third at her last start there, when I was in Berlin. Following in
the footsteps of our Boofie, Cliffie and Wilma who have all won on the track.
Punters don’t back
our horses, tipsters don’t tip them. Agnes had had three placings in her last
five starts, most of the others sported a lot of zeros. But she was eighth
favourite of eleven when they headed for the start. And the rain started
(briefly)… and the wind blustered (determinedly) …
She got away from
the start pretty well, and was tucked in the one-one until the champion driver,
Dexter, decided to take his horse to the front, leaving Agnes in the ‘death
seat’ outside the leader. Ouch. What would Chris do? Well, fate and the wind
decided for him. As they raced down the straight for the first time, the wind
gusted and prematurely took Agnes’s hood and earplugs with it! That, to a
horse, means ‘go!’ and she went! For the whole final lap she laid it to
Dexter’s horse, which was well and truly cooked by the final turn and
disappeared backwards. Agnes led them down the straight, but in the last
hundred metres the effort (and the truncated preparation – just two workouts) told, and she got bombed just short of the line. Second! Great delight in the
Gerolstein camp. Seconds are good. You don’t go up a grade … But I was just
happy that we have a competitive horse, and I’m sure she’ll run some nice races
in the coming months.
Home. To find that
Richie and Johnnie had unlocked their gate and gone for a nice wee gourmet tour
around the track… horses!
Well, tonight its
Mikie’s turn. At Motukarara. Against much better opposition. He usually takes a
few starts to ‘warm up’ … and then
Tuesday, Rocky and Thomas to the workouts … its going to be all go. But Agnes
has set us off on a positive note …
