Compliments?

Another fine mild day in prospect, amazingly quiet forecast for next 10 days, always makes me feel uneasy for some reason, we will end up paying for it sooner or later... Lots of work on the grass gallops planned for today which remain in good order despite the daily efforts of 2000 greylag geese to remove all the grass, it is well fertilised! Looks like Lucy might be going to be lucky enough to pick up a couple of rides at the Festival in two weeks time, press seem to be going to make a story out of it, nice article in yesterday's Daily Mail and another in today's Daily Telegraph - she will be grateful for this man Ferdy for having such confidence in her to give her a chance on the big stage, his "balls of steel" quote is being well repeated, not sure she will be quite so enamoured by his quotes in the Telegraph article! (Mrs A certainly isn't), anyway, two weeks in racing is a long time so let's hope everyone gets there in one piece, today she is busy at Southwell with Seigneur des Bois in the 2.00, Samson Coolonges in the 2.35, Glasson Lad in the 4.05 and Red Danger Angel in the 5.05, late home! Some good pictures of our evening stable routine taken last night by the masterful Frank Cornfield, more on his site...

Checking them over....

Something's funny...

Apply some leg clay

Ready for the morning....

Add a little garlic.....

Essentials!

Ghosts?

For many years I have sat in my office and from time to time heard the comforting sound of eighty-something year old Jock splitting logs into kindling...boom..... boom...... boom..... sadly Jock eventually retired a year or so ago, but today I hear the noise again, the ghost of Jock's past, what is going on, ahh, 'tis the multi-tasking Mrs A, for some reason makes me chuckle, then feel a little guilty...

Very mild today, quick trip to Lucinda's for Commercial Express and Academy, happy with them and most of the others here having a relatively gentle spin on the grass, Lucy is at Catterick where she rides Saveiro in the 3.20....

Academy - in an earlier life...........

Balmy or Barmy?

Slightly dreich today but tomorrow we are promised our warmest February day ever and Kelso look like having to water ahead of their premier fixture on Saturday, that is certainly unprecedented.  Looking further ahead I spy a little sting in winter's tail but, long range weather forecasting? this was meant to have been a very hard winter, not sure how they can get it so spectacularly wrong.
A splendid winner at Newcastle on Saturday for Lucy on the Ferdy Murphy trained Lord Villez and both our pointers ran with credit yesterday to be placed, slightly unfortunate quote in yesterday's RP with Saturday's victorious trainer saying Lucy had "balls of steel,"  perhaps more applicable to the entertaining streaker at Murrayfield who ran rings around the rotund flourescent jacketed security men as they tried to catch up with him, another "nearly" performance from Scotland, an entertaining match with an ultimately disappointing result.  

Led away... but he had a good run! (that couldn't be "Sir" Fred on the right could it?)

This week we hope to have a couple of runners at Kelso on Saturday, Lucy hopes to be at Catterick tomorrow, Southwell on Wednesday, Doncaster on Friday and then at Kelso....

Weekend

Another fair day and the grass gallops are in perfect condition, we use gallop markers to define where the horses work, by doing this we rotate the ground and repair as well as we can with a grass harrow once we move off it, as a result today's ground had not been used since late September.  Quickening up nicely first lot were Four Fiddlers, Buffalo Ballet, Academy and Amulree.  Others will have a gentler spin on it to freshen them up after a lot of work on the all-weather this week.

Buffalo Ballet

No runners today but tomorrow we send Flaming Thistle and Almost Blue to the p2p at Alnwick, Lucy is at Newcastle today and has three good rides, Lord Villez in the 2.20, Negus de Beaumont in the Eider Chase at 3.25 (Ch 4) and Big Water in the 5.10.

Thursday

Mild and blowy again, a quiet day for most of the horses but schooling over hurdles for Academy, Little Glenshee and Papamoa,decent piece of work on the grass for Sundays intended p2p runners Almost Blue and Flaming Thistle.
Racing has a curious habit of reflecting life, on Tuesday at Ascot Sales lot 43 was unsold at 400 gns, being sold by Rangers Racing and named Ibrox, poor thing is probably on it's way to Belgium by now which is really where the Directors should be going, a sorry affair but it's produced some cracking jokes!

Windy Wednesday

Blowing a bit of a gale here today but very mild and the forecast is for much of the same until early next month so  I'm going to relax, winter is defeated - salt spreader, snow plough etc can all go back into storage... (tempting fate?) Busy morning again, with Four Fiddlers, Papamoa and Academy heading over to Lucinda's and lots of others working hard here on the all-weather, very blowy over there but I loved seeing the horses work, twenty minutes standing in wind with soft rain but a skip in my step when I returned to the car.  A cracking winner for Lucy yesterday on Stanley Bridge at Wetherby, just holding on in a driving finish, today she is at Doncaster where she rides Go Amwell in the 4.10.
And how about the whip rules?  It appears from my brief look at the RP that they have effectively undone all the changes, that might or might not be the right thing to do and I am glad they are sorting it out before Cheltenham but what a huge waste of everyone's time, absurd, in any other walk of life someone would fall on their sword and that should be however presided over the whole debacle......

Blowy Monday

Wild and windy today but a top morning jumping a few young horses off the flat that are scheduled for a spring campaign over hurdles, nothing better than seeing the penny drop, also spent some time jumping some of the older ones who seems to be struggling with their fluency.  A quiet week on the racing front with only likely action the Percy p2p on Sunday if I can summon up the energy to drive down there again after yesterday, also am expected at Murrayfield, we will see what happens... Mrs A had a absurdly busy schedule driving her taxi yesterday afternoon to hockey matches and returning the younger two (and their gerbils!) to school, she kindly let me off after my 5 hour trip to Northumberland, I was left with a little time for contemplation and found myself on the scales - OMG!!! - disaster and emergency review of diet and exercise regime underway...

Sydney Cove has gone home for a short break, his run last week when 2nd at Ayr was possibly his best to date, I hope he can return to the track in the same fettle in the spring, he has become an unlikely favourite in the yard, here are another couple of fine pictures from Ayr taken by Frank Cornfield

Joe, Sydney and Kelly

The debrief..........

Nomadic Lucy has a busy day at Wetherby tomorrow.... Stanley Bridge in the 1.40, Naiad de Misselot in the 2.10, Bandamanan in the 2.40, Nine de Sivola in the 3.15 and Storm Surge in teh 4.25.