While the cat's away....

It may appear that I have been rather quiet lately, this is because Mrs D (Mrs A's mother-in-law) told me to shut up until I had something a little more cheerful to say, well, Mrs D has dragged Mr D off to somewhere in darkest Africa and I will therefore take the opportunity to stick my head over the parapet.
It has continued to be a most frustrating period with two thirds of the racing in the North since early December being abandoned (statistics courtesy http://www.lucindarussell.com/), the weather has made it impossible to build any sort of continuity into the horses' training schedules let alone their racing. Every time we think we are about to get going again the weather closes in so I disclose our many plans for the coming week with a certain amount of trepidation...
WEATHER PERMITTING, Native Coll will run at Newcastle on Tuesday, a course & distance winner he has been off since injuring himself at Carlisle in November 2008, it's a long time off for a big horse like him but he is as fit as we can get him at home and he seems well. His younger brother Skipping Chapel is likely to join him; we might run Forcefield at Musselburgh on Wednesday and Isla Pearl Fisher, Seeking Power, Fearless Footsteps and possibly Almost Blue at Kelso on Thursday. Hopefully we will also be represented at the Alnwick point-to-point next Sunday and Carlisle on Monday 22nd, plenty to look forward to if the weather behaves.
I have been quietly updating the website with news of what runners we have had, suffice it to say they haven't exactly been starring but we were delighted last weekend when Lucy had her first winner for an outside stable when picking up a spare ride on Floreanna in the Ladies Open at the Jedforest, it was a decent little race and she got back up in a blanket finish to win by two short heads; with luck she will retain the ride and the horse will reappear either under rules at Kelso on Thursday or at Alnwick on Sunday.
Mrs A has been playing her usual starring role; she was quite challenged this week though when a bay horse galloped back into the yard, fully tacked up but riderless, she caught the steaming beast but had no idea which horse it was or which stable it lived in. Oblivious to this drama, I was changing for a meeting; glancing out of the window I did wonder why brother Jamie was walking up the drive without his steed, the talented but fragile French bred Noir et Vert (ex Ferdy Murphy & a lovely propect for Hunter chasing), he seems to be Francois' favourite horse, funny that...