What a gathering of Legends is called ?
A legacy of Legends ? A folklore of Legends ? A mythology of Legends…..?
Another Legend gathered. Kevin Keegan. One of the greatest goalscorers of all time. A racing man. Passionate, uncompromising, blessed with natural talent, much loved and now much missed…
Time waits for no man, and as the years roll by, so the Legacy of Legends grows more numerous. But what fun they will all have, comparing notes and tales and glory days…
“The only thing I fear is missing an open goal in front of The Kop….”
Never happened….
Back here on English soil, golden brown dawn over scorched earth. Talk of August heatwave. Fabulous. We could do with rain of course, but ideally between 2.00 and 3.00 in the morning. Plans made and discussed and inked into diaries are being tweaked and twisted as “Good To Firm, Firm in places” is the daily going report mantra…
Patience. This is England, it will rain. I think…
A lovely bunch of 2-year-olds here at Downs House, but they are not for bouncing off fast and firm and rock hard. There will be plenty of days for them further down the line. And too firm for plenty of the older horses as well. Bouncing old legs off concrete makes no sense either…
Lighter on runners because of the Weather Gods. But this was always going to be a time of transition. The old friends who did us a favour or three when we first moved to Epsom have played their hands and the handicapper is, as ever, slow to relent. The handicapper hates horses running up sequences…
Older horses not a million miles ahead of their mark and young horses that will not run on this ground. Equals quieter on the runner / winner front, but no surprise there. The young blood coming through, and the yearlings that will join in the months ahead, the bedrock for the years ahead…
Patience. The long game. Take guard and dig in. No fanciful slashes outside the off stump. Patience the key…
And sometimes it is even rewarded….!!
This time next week, that fantastic drive across glorious Sussex towards high Downs…
King George weekend ahead of that…
One of the greatest. I was there, and can see it in my mind’s eye as if it were yesterday…
Shergar…
Jimmy Lindley – “racing on ground as perfect as you will find for flat racing…”
