8th May
James was up at the usual time this morning turning out some horses in order that we could get more out during the morning. He loves being in the yard on his own and getting jobs done and he also likes to get into his office when nobody is about in order to concentrate and get the horses plans done and when the telephone isnt going to ring.
I had a lovely lie-in until 7.20 it was so good. My love is to mess about with JAZZ the pony and her new love and next door neighbour IVAN (INVERMARK Group One winner of the Prix du Cadran in 1998). When possible I do them in the morning and it is wonderful to be around the two. IVAN is JAZZ's third friend to share her facilities and actually he is the best. He is in seventh heaven to have his paddock and his girlfriend next door. He is such a lovely horse. He was very surprised to hear that he had a niece running over 5f in a 2yo race at Ascot the other day and even more surprised that she nearly won.
Bar old SPENSLEY all our horses ran well yesterday but we would have loved a winner so much. I think SPENSLEY needs a few races each season before he really gets going and it will probably be the second half of the season when he is at his best. SOCIETY ROCK had a long time off after The July Cup and was still only trotting in January this year. My opinion is that he is still very rusty and each race will bring him on. DEACON BLUES ran a blinder and is an exciting horse for the future. ROSSETTI was flying at the finish and only got beaten just over half a length. There was nothing wrong with him this morning when he got free in the paddock this morning after a roll. He was having a ball and loved his freedom and was not going to give it up. He was certainly moving well. What he lacks in stature he makes up in character.
We have a great afternoon of sport with the Turkish Grand Prix and the Arsenal v Stoke unfortunately both will be on at the same time for a while so what we watch will depend who gets to the tv controls first. It's a shame we dont have the same quality of racing. It is absolutely ridiculous that today there are three jump meetings that will be run on good to firm ground. There are eight races worth under £2,000, nine worth between £2000 and £2602, four worth between £3000 and £3900 and the most valuable race of the day is worth £5204. You have to pay your staff quite rightly double time on Sunday so most of the winners will be actually make a miniscule amount of prize money. Todays racing is as bad as you can get and if we are going to have racing on Sunday it should be top class not this bad racing. Incidentally James was at Warwick last night and was appalled at the fact that there was so little interest in the horse. The noise around the paddock was terrible, there was a discoteque and a band playing and even though the discoteque was stopped while the horses in the paddock there was still a huge amount of noise and nobody seemed to worry about the effect it had on the horses