“Of the less bad days of this week…..”
An apologetic Weather Forecaster on the radio just now. Not entirely his fault…
What is becoming fabulously noticeable is the light in the East on the drive to Epsom. Nearly there. The dog days of winter are tough when the alarm goes off to the accompaniment of bitter chill and horizontal sleet lashing the windows. When windscreens need to be scraped in the darkness, and the cold cuts through….
The “flipside” is that we are on the cusp of spring and the stolen hours of bright dawn when most are sensibly still tucked up in deep sleep. Payback. Payback for the hard black hours of early winter mornings. Nothing better than being up and about and on the gallops as a red sun creeps over the horizon and dawn chill is cut through by real warmth…
Still February. And a winter storm or two to navigate, and we all remember Cheltenham Festivals played out with snowy Cleeve Hill as the backdrop. But surely the worst is behind, and slowly sodden fields will yield to spring grass….
No surprise that it is well over 20 degrees warmer in The Kingdom of Bahrain. The Shaikh Nasser Trophy on Thursday. One of the region’s biggest races, and one that we stole away with Lucander a couple of years back. 8 runners that afternoon, and we were the only international in the field, and the only horse not carrying the colours of a member of the Royal Family….
If you could bottle the moment when Andrea Atzeni sat stock still approaching the final furlong with all around him rowing away…
Gordon Grey will make his Bahraini debut in the big race. He will be wrong at the weights – by some way. But the mile and a half of this historic race will suit better than the 9 furlongs of the Turf Series contest on the same card, and Callum Shepherd rides the place better than anybody. GG has not run for a while, and this run will most certainly not define him. The right place to get his year up and running….
Desert Cop (Lee Newman) in the Turf Series five furlong sprint. An excellent 2nd in a Local Group 2 last time out – a repeat of that would see him involved, but you can never ever set your watch by sprinters. He’s in a good place, so hope springs eternal….
Lucander, my much missed friend, and his biggest day in that desert sun…
https://bahrainturfclub.com/racecard/2023-02-17/8/results#race-replay
