A glimmer of hope...

Seeking Power was flat to the boards all the way at Kelso on Friday but he stayed on to finish 5th of 12 which was pleasing in the circumstances and gives us a glimmer of hope that he might be OK when he goes over fences. Mrs A was in attendance, we're not the most relaxed couple to meet when the daughter is riding, memories of the drama that ensued when Seeking Power's bridle came off in March have been re-ignited by the publication of the annual point-to-point bible, Mackenzie & Selby, last week which contains rather a graphic description of the event together with a photograph of a rather forlorn daughter returning to the weighing room with breeches & silks shredded by the barbed wire, still, the elation when the race is over almost makes up for the agony before.

I was very pleased to meet our "digger man" Jimmy at the top of the gallop when riding out this morning (Sunday), he seems to have become almost as obsessed about its well-being as me; its been a bit of a battle keeping it in good order over the past few days (I literally went straight from the lorry onto the tractor on my return from Kelso on Friday afternoon) but we won the battle and have managed to keep the horses working hard, let's hope it pays dividends at the end of the week when we hope to run Skipping Chapel at Musselburgh on Friday and Contendo at Carlisle on Sunday... if Carlisle racecourse is still there.....