Silly season

It was a fun if hectic week last week, which started in Deauville at the Darley Prix Morny. Patrick and Helen Barbe were very kind hosts to Wendy Milbank and to me. I was just really tagging along with Wendy but the Barbes were sweet enough to continually make reference to the day John and Panto helped by being trusty chaperones for Natagora when she came to Newmarket to win the Cheveley Park. Basically, owing to the extremely sweet nature of my horse, I was treated to a really lovely weekend chez Barbe. It’s always a delight to be in Deauville and it was good to catch up with Elizabeth and Sylvain Vidal, custodians of John’s mare Minnie’s Mystery, her Largesse yearling and Gold Away foal. It was slightly disconcerting to hear the yearling, now named Grey Panel (for reasons which might be clear to readers of Thoroughbred Internet), described by Sylvain as ‘ugly’ but yearlings are like teenagers and go through awful gangly stages so it will be interesting to see how he’s looking when he arrives here in a few months. Another treat was being able to see a three-year-old by the name of Mojave Moon (pictured) finish second in the Prix Kergorlay. He was the last foal of Moon Cactus, dam of Moonshell and Doyen, who died shortly after this Singspiel colt was foaled. He was put on a foster mare and I've been photographing him since he was only a few weeks old for the foal diary on the Darley Kids website. He was a cheeky foal and a bold yearling and it's lovely to see him running now in really decent races now.

Helen is agent to jockey Christophe Lemaire so she must have had a fraught week as the Aga Khan and the Niarchos family vied for his services next year. Helen also acted as agent for Dean Gallagher and Yutaka Take (pictured with his wife and Patrick) during their days riding in France and both jockeys were present at different stages over the weekend. Dean is not race riding any more but is about to start a new job with Eddie Harty in Ireland. He looked incredibly fit and well, as does Kieren Fallon, who was the unfortunate victim of a bit of stalking by me last week.

First of all, Marcus Armytage called and asked if I could take some pictures of him playing Kieren at squash for the Sunday Telegraph. It was one of the more bizarre assignments I’ve been offered and how could I refuse the opportunity to see who would fare best: the Grand National-winning jockey or the Derby-winning jockey. Despite Marcus setting a fierce early pace and winning the first game, he was no match for the steely determination of the man about to resume race-riding this Friday. Personally, I’d like to see Kieren take on another of Luca Cumani’s former preferred work riders, Dickie Sims. Then he’d know he’d been in a match. Sadly, Dickie is too busy ruling supreme at the top of the Caulfield squash ladder so it’s unlikely that the meeting of two such fine sportsmen will ever take place.

Later that day, I headed up to the British Racing School with Zoe Vicarage, who was doing some work experience with us last week (and thus probably enduring one of the most boring weeks of her life), to photograph Kieren again, this time as one of the team captains for the evening of mounted games as part of the pony racing camp. The other team captain was this stable’s favourite jockey Will Kennedy, who is always a delight to see and who seemed staggeringly tall next to Mr Fallon.

I’d watched Will and Jamie Moore as team captains at the same event last year so I already knew what a good sport Will would be but what was really heartening was how much Kieren got stuck in after having been called in as a replacement by BRS finance director and BHS work rider Gemma Dawson after Jamie broke his leg.

Gemma had to call a stewards' enquiry after the sack race and, having watched the former champion jockey urge his mount, a kind of shorter, fatter Seta, to the line in the bending race, I’d say he’s lost nothing of his competitive edge. There’s been so much written about Fallon over the years and David Ashforth's piece in today's Racing Post sums up perfectly the highs and lows of his career. We shouldn’t be blasé about racing's image – anyone involved in it should want the sport to be as beyond reproach as it can possibly be – but I can’t wait to see Kieren Fallon back on the racecourse again on Friday. The lure of such an unquestionable talent far outweighs any of the accusations that have been levelled at him over the years.

After Saturday's slightly disappointing trip to Beverley with Ethics Girl,who never really got into the race but, happily, has come home fine, it's been a quiet weekend. I've been out on my new bike, which was a fantastically generous birthday present from my family. Having both hit a significant birthday this year, Gail and I decided it was time to join the gym as neither of us fancied the prospect of running round a cold, dark, windy heath during the fast-approaching winter. The gym gadgetry looks a bit confusing to me but, as Gail is not just my friend but also my physio, at least she'll be on hand to sort me out if I put my back out trying to work out how to use the cross-trainer. Oh the joys of getting old.