Aplenty. For those with Classic dreams and aspirations…
Months of planning. Gallops. Work mornings. Veterinary opinion. Nerves raging…
Does Aidan get nervous on mornings like this ? When you have a substitutes bench that is so talent laden, and the eggs are in several baskets, there are others to fill voids left by inevitable disappointment….
For others, the feel of legs and the dread sound of a cough and splutter is the be all and end all. When the only egg in the basket goes crack…
Tightropes and fine margins and shredded nerves. Bad enough when a false step or a cough scuppers the long held plan of a Windsor evening meeting on a Monday. Worse still when bad luck befalls the best. Of which there has been plenty in recent weeks for Guineas contenders, and some horribly deflating calls have had to be made…
The deflating calls. The dream shattering moments. The toughest part…
Gstaad the favourite for the 2000 Guineas. Supplemented for the race having been inadvertently “scratched’ when the Ballydoyle computers went bonkers. The idea of horses being scratched from a Classic because of some bizarre computer meltdown is hysterical. What is even more “hysterical” is the fact that Aidan and his cohorts expected us to believe that one…??!!
Somebody in an important seat at Ballydoyle HQ would have had a stomach churning moment of realisation when the wrong button was pressed. We have all done it. There is not a Trainer in the land who has forgotten a deadline or a forfeit or an entry or a declaration. We are all human, and mistakes are made. Or maybe there really was a surreal moment of technological chaos at Ballydoyle ? Yeah, right….
I have just seen Jim Boyle on the gallops here at Epsom. Into The Sky in the Guineas. Here’s hoping….
A gorgeous afternoon beneath the South Downs yesterday. Tallulah, having driven through the day from Edinburgh, with me to chase a little white ball around the West Sussex Golf Club. Jim Crowley and his son Sam joining us. Mobile telephone off for a few hours. Golden light….
The greatest winner of the 2000 Guineas in my lifetime. Watched from the far rail with Candida and Brough Scott. Disbelief. Clapping him home fully three furlongs out. Mind blowing. Watery eyes as we realised we were witnessing the extraordinary….
“He’s ten lengths clear at The Bushes….”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQajCQ1_BSA
