Bitter sweet...

The Paddy Premium

Well, what a week so far, the power of sport to transcend life has never been as apparent as it has been this summer and sitting here on Thursday afternoon I feel mildly shattered.  It started on Tuesday at Perth where after yet another monsoon racing went ahead in extremely wet conditions;  The Paddy Premium having his swansong at his local track, just denied by the narrowest of margins in a driving finish by Silver Steel ridden by, guess who,  Lucy, bitter sweet doesn't begin to describe the mixture of emotions!  And half an hour later Lucy struck again on Spirit of a Nation to record her first double at her local track.

  Why wasn't she riding our horse?  Because at declaration time he was lame and had been for the previous three days, we knew what the problem was and hoped that the combined efforts of our vet, farrier and team might just have him right on the day - fortunately they did and he came so very close to having a fairytale ending to his career.  Hmm, you never know, there may need to be one more chapter.

Lucy is narrowly denied her first treble

King Brex (Kit)

And then to York yesterday, an astonishing pilgrimage of 30,000 racing people to pay homage to the mighty Frankel as he faced his greatest test;  his superiority was awesome and the reception he received like nothing I have ever known, simply wonderful and made especially poignant by the presence of his frail but masterful trainer.  

Frankel with a jubilant Tom Queally, most probably the best horse of our lifetimes