The stable's unbeaten run for the season came to an early end yesterday when Native Coll was beaten at Carlisle. I was convinced he would win and remained of that opinion as they turned towards the home straight but it quickly became apparent that 3 miles on tacky ground first time out for the season was too far and he finished a weary 6th. The listed bookmakers won't need to advise analysts that an upward revision to their estimates is necessary but it was painful nevertheless.
Lucy finished about 9th of 17 at Wetherby on Saturday, good experience though to be riding at a big meeting in a highly competitive handicap hurdle against lots of the top pro's, her journey to stay overnight with her grandparents wasn't much fun, the A1 Northbound was closed & traffic crawling, steam started billowing out of the bonnet, her long range mechanic father issuing instructions from his phone on the way out to dinner said "just keep driving" - shortly afterwards a helpful motorist seeing that this was more than a little steam & that she didn't know what to do forced her over onto the hard shoulder & stopped her, the AA was joined then summoned and for reasons best known to themselves 4 different vehicles were involved in ferrying the car to the grandparents about 70 miles away where she eventually arrived at 2.30am - just what they needed I am sure. Lucy seems to have inherited her father's aptitude for engines, one of the earlier mechanics had told her that it was probably the cylinder "head gasket" that had gone, by the time she passed this on to a later engineer she was trying to explain to him that there was a problem with the "egg casket" - oh dear.
Native Coll has come out of his race well and will now drop back in trip, this week we have entries at Hexham on Friday and Kelso on Saturday - as ever it will be the elements that determine where we go...
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