Things never go as smoothly in racing as you would like and after a great start to the week things ended like a damp squib. We didn't have many runners this week but Monday's heroin "Twizzel" kept us all buzzing. Silver Streak ran well on Friday night at Ripon when finishing second having been dropped back to six furlongs for the first time. He needs to settle in his races and grow up a bit and although he has some nice form over further, he has been too highly rated by Mr Handicapper. Last seasons mud loving winner "Letbygonesbeicons" looked like have a plumb draw at Thirsk last night but it turned out the far side had all the speed, but he too is very highly rated (as many juvenile winners are, it is a fact that three year olds often pay a tough price for winning as babies, life can be unfair on them for a while as three year olds until they find the right mark). "Danzeb" too suffered when his stall left him in no-mans land as the race split into two halves, leaving him to race up the middle of the track, he was too keen and without his much needed cover. Again he is another horse whose rating of 71 is looking unreasonable. Hopefully Mr H will recognise this quickly and lower those horses who are over-rated to a more competitive mark, without us having to run them unnecessarily often while we prove our point.
At Haydock poor "Bronte flyer" endured a rough race, too keen early she ran in to the back of horses who were slowing down as the leaders suddenly dictated a silly slow pace. The fast ground didn't suit her either but it was only her second race after making a winning start to her career last year, so she is still learning.
Today is a glorious day and a quiet one too, giving me chance to get some office work done and the two newspaper columns written for the coming week.