Grey Light and Anton Marcus
The weekend has just passed and it was summer here again in the middle of winter. We had the most delightful day, the temperature reaching almost 30 degrees. They even had to change the going at Kenilworth from heavy to soft so it just goes to show how warm it has been and how quickly things can actually dry out.
From a personal point of view, I am not a great believer in the penetrometer readings or the official going guide. When it does become extremely firm in summer, the actual readings are not that dissimilar. However, that is just my opinion.
The Premier League started off with a bang. I usually like to stake my claim on a team which I think will win it. After having taken it extremely seriously on Saturday and Sunday, I cannot say any team has particularly grabbed my fancy yet.
I know it is early days and everyone is claiming to be world cup weary and certain strikers and players are being rested. Let’s hope things become clearer in the weeks to come. One team which does not look like it will be troubling the score sheet too often is my beloved West Ham. Despite taking on a partially 10 man Spurs team (I know we were also reduced to 10 men at one point) and having numerous shots on target (I use this term loosely) as they didn’t appear to get close to the target from the viewpoint of the couch.
They do not look like scoring too many goals this season with their current striking line up. Again, I use the word striking loosely as Ricardo Vaz Te and Carlton Cole do not look like striking fear into the hearts of too many defenders. Vaz Te was a player we tried to get rid of last season but no one wanted him. Carlton Cole we have been trying to give away for free but no one has jumped at the opportunity of securing this burly, cumbersome oaf. Sadly, things look fairly dead for us in the transfer window and we do not look like signing up a much needed striker.
It looks to be a long, sad season ahead.
The cricket was not that much better with India capitulating. I get many texts from my old Indian mates and even they had given up hope a long time ago. It is surprising that a team coached by Duncan Fletcher showed so little backbone and was certainly not up for the fight in what was some very one-sided test matches towards the end. I know England bowled well but some of the batting was quite woeful.
I think Grant van Niekerk’s Tuesday evening action cricket team would have put up a better showing. They would certainly have put up more of a fight.
We had some lovely fillies running over the weekend. It was great to get a win with Cold As Ice, a beautifully bred daughter of Western Winter. She was just having her second start after being narrowly beaten first time out by what appears to be a nice filly of Glen Kotzen’s. They drew a long way clear of the third horse that day and it was good to see her repeat that performance on Saturday.
She looks to have oodles of ability. Usually one knows exactly where one is headed with the horses but after winning so impressively up the straight, it has certainly put a few more questions rather than answers in my mind. However, I am sure we will work through it.
We also had an impressive winner with Grey Light in Durban.
She won her Maiden on the polytrack and then had two starts in Grade 1 company where she ran really well. However, I needed smelling salts for revival after seeing that she was given a merit rating of 101! How the clever people came to this figure, well, I can only assume they have some very soggy thumbs.
Yes, she won extremely well on Sunday but she did beat an ordinary field. It is difficult to understand how she can be rated above horses like Kingvoldt, In the Cruise and Act of War. In fact, when you look at it, Variety Club was rated 118 when he left South Africa.
To have this filly rated only 17 points behind him after having only won an all weather Maiden certainly does raise a few eyebrows. But she won and won well and I am extremely grateful to Gold Circle for keeping Clairwood open to the end of the month and thus giving me the opportunity to run her.
It would have been extremely difficult to place her and try and win another race with her before the season. To find a Novice race over the mile, particularly on the all weather track that she had already won on was rather like finding the pot-of-gold at the end of the rainbow. She will now have a break before travelling back to Cape Town at the end of the month.
It has been lovely having Clairwood open to the end of August as we have been able to spell our winter campaigners in the good weather. Having said that, the weather in the Cape has been lovely too. However, when Clairwood is not busy, it is the most beautiful place to be with lots of trees and greenery. When the horses are on holiday there, they really seem to relax and enjoy themselves and it does them the world of good.
It is a busy week ahead with some lovely runners on Wednesday. I hope the weather holds out and the ground starts drying out more. Wednesday’s runners are most certainly our future.
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