The Guineas at Newmarket in May seem a thousand years ago. That blustery Epsom weekend is a distant memory. Even the glorious glow of Royal Ascot feels as if it could have happened last year…
The treadmill raging on. The daily punches and counter punches that is sport. The inevitable bad news thrown in amongst the wonderfully good. Treadmills and emotional roller coasters….
For whom will the victory bell toll later…??
The Ballydoyle magician most likely to fly home across the Irish sea with trophy filled baggage compartments. Marquand, Levey and Barzalona would have been a million to one to be the three O’Brien jockeys in the race a short month ago. Injuries and bans and circumstances giving unexpected chances….
Paddy Twomey and Carmers would be a cool result…
A new name on an ancient trophy by late afternoon. And a jockey in a silly hat post race…
“Men and Horses I have known”. A seminal racing book written by George Lambton and charting the horses and the characters that dominated our sport in the 19th Century. A book that I have read several times. The St Leger and the Classics filling several pages…
One of the most striking facts in the book is the number of times a horse would race at a meeting. I suppose a consequence of travelling long distances many decades before the high level transport of today….
Horses trained in the South would take days to arrive in Doncaster for the Leger meeting…
And so why not roll the dice and run on three consecutive days ? Several clearly did so with great success…
A different time. A better time ? Probably….
