There are dark days in racing - losing Struck Lucky and Desiree's foal have been two of the worst this year - and there are great days when the yard sends out a winner and Anis Etoilé and To Be Or Not To Be have lifted spirits in that department in recent weeks. All the frightful, dark, wet, cold, horrible, windy days that Newmarket's 4,000 acres of open space can throw at you through the winter (and often the summer) are swiftly forgotten on a day like today. For friends far away and for anyone who is simply interested in what goes on in one of the town's smallest stables of a Saturday morning, here's a quick recap of the action so far on this gloriously sunny day:
John and Aisling pulled out at 6.45am on Ethics Girl and Stardust Memories for a piece of work up the Al Bahathri. I tootled up there with the dogs in the car to take some photos. We hit a quiet spot there, which was great until we realised the gallop was being harrowed half an hour earlier than usual as so many horses had been up there since 5.30am - the very firm ground in this area at present means most trainers are reluctant to work their horses on the grass. Luca Cumani's string was heading over to the Limekilns but otherwise, most of the trainers on the Bury side of the heath were using the all-weather Al Bahathri mile.One very smiley face to greet us at the top as he waited to ride work for Luca was Kieren Fallon, who had a good laugh at John in his shorts (who wouldn't?). As I waited on the viewing platform to take some shots, William Jarvis arrived to watch five of his string gallop just behind John and Aisling, who had circled for ten minutes at the bottom waiting for the tractor to leave the gallop. William commented on how absolutely still it was out there and he was spot on. Apart from us chatting, the only sound was birdsong and there wasn't a breath of wind as we waited to pick up the distant drumming of hooves, growing ever louder as our horses approached. It's a noise that never fails to give me goosebumps of excitement. All went smoothly for our two, with Ais reporting that she felt Stardust had improved significantly from her previous gallop: an encouraging thought as we await her debut in a month or so.
Next lot we were joined by Batgirl's owner Tony Fordham and his father. Batgirl and Anis took to Long Hill for a strong canter under Hugh and Gemma. They may seem a mismatched pair - a four-year-old bumper winner and an unraced two-year-old - but the little chestnut filly is picking up all the time and it's nice to have her out for a routine exercise with a more experienced older horse. As we waited for them to come around the top and back down the side of the Moulton Road we stopped to watch Mark Tompkins' string having a pick of grass and having their photographs taken by Claire Hollest for Mark's excellent website. 
Gail Hacking, my great friend (and life-saving physio), who is assistant to William Haggas, sauntered past on the snowy white stable hack Sailor Jim. I have Priscilla, Queen of the Desert on my mind as Hugh and Hayden are off to London tonight to see it on stage and I think the accompanying photograph could easily be captioned: Gail, Queen of the Heath. Another equally white (grey) but tinier mount was that of young Tom Fanshawe (below), son of James and Jacko, who was out supervising his father's string on his slightly fresh but pretty well behaved pony. It looks as if Pegasus Stables will be in safe hands for at least the next generation.
Third lot involved Panto and me lumbering into action with a steady canter up Warren Hill leading two new two-year-olds Asterisk (by Fantastic Light) and a gelding by Whipper, ridden by Hugh and Suze. This is only the first week of cantering on the heath for both of them and they've handled the excitement admirably. We could have done without an unidentified string roaring up behind them on Warren Hill - it wouldn't have taken a huge amount of brain power for those coming on to the canter behind this pair that we jumped off steadily and that both look like very young, inexperienced horses so should be given some time to get away on up the hill. Still, no harm was done but it would be nice if people had better manners.We were without Martha today as it's her birthday and she had an exam to do this morning. Once she has that out of the way, let's hope she enjoys the rest of her birthday as much as I've enjoyed the start of it.
Now it's off to the races to salute Anne 'Scrivy' Scriven, who turns 75 this week and has a race named after her at Newmarket today. Scrivy was racing secretary to Cecil Boyd-Rochfort for 15 years, then to Henry Cecil for 21 and, most recently, Geoff Wragg for a decade. She retired along with Geoff at the end of last season and is an extremely lovely person who deserves to be honoured today on the Rowley Mile. Just think of all the Classic winners she must have made entries for during her time spent working in those yards.
That's it from me. Just time to log onto iTunes and download the Best of Haircut 100 to the pod.
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