Absolute Perfection

I was so gushing about Jack in the last posting that I forgot to mention AP McCoy. I think AP stands for Anthony Patrick but anyone who has seen him ride would also settle for Absolute Perfection. And it's not just his skills in the saddle that set him apart, he also seems to be an absolutely first-rate person, not that I know him at all. The last twice I've seen him publicly he has received a standing ovation. On Monday when he received his Jockey of the Year award at the Anglo-Irish Jump Racing Awards, and when he was led through the press room en route to his post-Grand National press conference. It takes a special something to make a roomful - and at Aintree it's a very big room - of hacks get up out of their chairs and he is just that. Very special indeed.

With jump racing thriving here, even in the face of prize-money concerns, it's hard to believe that at the other side of the world, it's almost certain to be banned. I've never been jump racing in Australia but days spent racing at Flemington, Caulfield, Moonee Valley, Ballarat and even Mansfield, leave me in no doubt that it is a country in thrall to racing. But it would seem our Aussie friends just can't stomach the jumping. It's a shame. Fly them in for a day at the Cheltenham Festival, or Aintree, or even dear old Fakenham, and they'd soon change their minds. To catch up on the state of play in Australian racing, or indeed any sports anywhere, I've been shown a really good Victorian-based website called Back Page Lead. This is well worth checking out, particularly the tongue-in-cheek guide to the World Cup (under soccer, rather than football, but they have this strange other type of AFL football there). For each team's profile, the last comment is 'Why boo them'. For England, it reads simply, 'They're Poms'. Enough said.

With Anthony here for half-term I have been trying to pretend that I know all about football and the impending World Cup. If only it was the Rugby World Cup, I'd fare much better. So are we going to win? Seems unlikely. 44 years of hurt...and counting.

Another new site I've found today is Louise Parry's new blog for Pantycoed Stud, the birthplace of Batgirl and Rhythm Stick and, judging by Louise's lovely pics, lots of really cute pony foals this spring.

Must dash. Pre-Derby pedigree discussion group calls. The only research I've done is to drive past the little boy's grave, where, tradition has it, the colours of the Derby winner are displayed in flowers on the morning of the race. The flowers there just now are purple and white - the planter had obviously not heard about St Nicholas Abbey's lacklustre gallop when he/she got to work with his trowel. I hope Newmarket's answer to Percy Thrower is right and the whispers from Ballydoyle are wrong. I'd love to see St Nick become the champion he hinted he could be when winning last year's Racing Post Trophy.

But then there's Ted Spread, trained here, just off Exeter Road (sadly not here in this stable). Will he get his much-needed rain? And then there's Bullet Train (above). Will he make us all cry by giving Henry Cecil another Derby victory, 25 years after he won the race with Slip Anchor (seen here at Plantation Stud at the grand old age of 28)? And, more importantly, who is Problem Walrus's selection for Derby glory?