Kinneston

Sometime around this time last year Kit decided he would like to emulate his elder sister and do a bit of race-riding. It wasn't exactly the news Mrs A and I wanted to hear but we managed to send Lucy out on a winner first time (just) so we set about finding him a decent horse. By August we hoped we had the right one in the form of Commercial Express, a reasonably experienced steeplechaser that had normally been ridden by Kit's favourite jockey, Timmy Murphy. We almost had it ready to run in January when it started to suffer a series of minor setbacks which basically kept it off work for a month; despite the interruptions we thought we had it ready so took it to the Lanark point-to-point on Saturday.

After all the waiting... the anxious connections...

on board at last...

Sent off at an unfancied 6-1, Kit's instructions were to "ride him like Timmy" ie wait out the back and come with a late run. He carried out the instructions to perfection (almost) in that he waited, waited, waited and came with a tearing run round the home bend, over the last two and just failed by a head to nail the even-money favourite. One bookmaker in particular was most relieved (having given the connections 10-1) and a head seemed so desperately close to pulling it off after a year of plotting but it was a wonderful first run, problem is I think he wants to have another go.....

2nd was going to be the theme of the weekend as we headed to Alnwick on Sunday where brother Jamie on Almost Blue was just pipped by top amateur Tom Greenall on an odds-on favourite, going down by a neck in a driving finish and then Lucy on Foodbroker Founder was beaten into 2nd by another southern raider in the Ladies Open.

Considering "Foodie" failed to complete last season this was good progress but that's five 2nds this month from 12 runners..... talk about hitting the crossbar!

I am glad the horses ran well over the weekend because I started Saturday morning in very poor shape having finished up late on Friday evening at the Large Animal Hospital near Edinburgh after our promising youngster Northern Dusk injured himself seriously on the run-in in the last race at Kelso. This horse has been the apple of my eye through what has been a long and sometimes difficult winter, seeing him quicken up on the gallops never failed to set my heart racing and I was pretty certain I might finally have found a decent horse to take us somewhere. Everything he did on the day confirmed my hopes, he looked really striking, had poise, presence and was completely relaxed. He was an utter professional during the race and was just coming to mount his challenge on the run-in when his stride faltered slightly and he appeared to be running on empty, he still finished 6th but pulled up very lame and was taken off the course by horse ambulance prior to being transferred to the LAH where x-rays diagnosed a fractured pastern. A full recovery is possible but not certain and it was a bitter blow that having been so patient he should be injured on his racecourse debut, there was heaps of improvement to come and I just hope we can get him back to fulfil his potential for his loyal owners. Earlier in the afternoon Miss Colima ran a poor race in the staying handicap hurdle, she was a bit stiff afterwards and may not have liked the ground, I will turn every stone to make sure there is no underlying problem. On Thursday at Ayr Whispering Moor put up a lacklustre effort despite looking well, he just doesn't seem to want to get competitive.

A real roller-coaster of a weekend and it doesn't seem to stop as we run Smart Cavalier in the 5pm at Sedgefield tomorrow with brother Jamie on top, the ground will be fast and 14 run, if he can repeat his good 2nd at Kelso last time out he should go close.

I think I'll be lying in a dark room somewhere...