My Race Days

Proper work, A Lucky Lady and into The West

I would hate to have to do proper work for a living! Last week, as I had no rides from Sunday to Sunday, I went and did a proper weeks work at my accounts yard in Lambourn to earn a few £££££. The place is for rent and so he wanted it cleaned up and let me tell you it was trying to make Chicken salad out of Chicken poo!  My jobs for the week were to paint the entire yard, weeding, strimming and sweeping. There was that much painting that I bought a spray painter machine. The best invention ever made I'll tell you but the down side is, if it's windy you end up with about the same amount of paint on you as the walls! Nevertheless it saves a serious amount of hours. I put in 45 1-2 hours last week including a 14 hour day and I can tell you we jockeys have it easy compared to people who do these jobs 365 days a year. On the plus side the weather was beautiful and I was able to change my skin colour from White to a very burnt Red. It was that nice one of the days I stripped down to my boxers. Luckily there were only a few people about so no one called the police.
 
A Working Man
 
My Girlfriend Rebecca came over from Ireland on Saturday night to what I thought was to see me but I think she really only came over to go to Fakenham on the Sunday. After all there is no better way to spend your weekend off than to spend 6 hours in the car when it's 28 degrees outside, especially when you’re only over for 24hours.  I had one ride for Peter Bowen on a horse called Cardigan Island who went on to finish fourth. Rebecca had a great day out in sunny Norfolk for all of one hour as we needed to get out of there asap for her to catch the flight home. I know how to treat a Gurl......
 
She does not know how lucky she is
 
Tuesday morning was an early start as I was catching a flight back to ride in Ballinrobe that evening. I had not ridden in Ireland for a few years so it was nice to get a ride back there. It was for Brendan Duke who used to train here in England and who is one of the biggest characters in the game. The horse was called Mister Benedickine who had won numerous times when he was in England but had lost his form and had come down over 20lbs in the handicap. Brendan said the horse was flying but he always tells me this! However I thought if he retained any bit of ability he had a fair chance off his new rating of only 93. I arrived at Brendans yard at The Curragh around 11am so, as I had a few hours to kill, I went for a run for an hour as I had a light weight the next day back in England. I ran around the gallops at The Curragh as I had never seen them before and I have to say I was very impressed with all the facilities they have there. We set off for the races at 2pm and made the long three hour trek to Ballinrobe. Now we had a grand trip to Galway but from there it’s like going to Bally Go Backwards. We eventually arrived at 5 and as I had not ridden there for about 10 years I had a quick walk around the course. The ground was perfect for my mount and at 6.35 we were off. I got a nice position just behind the leaders but Mister Bendedickine was very keen(strong). In fact I would say he was the keenest horse I had ever ridden but as I was under strict instructions not to hit the front until 2 or 3 out I had to just grin my teeth and keep holding on to him. The more I pulled the more he pulled but as he is an older and wiser horse he loved it. My only worry through the race was that he pulled so hard that he might not finish the race out, but i was worrying about nothing as he went on to win by 6 lengths hard held. He would have done more cantering in the morning. By far the easiest winner I’d ever ridden. So after the race I caught up with a few friends I had not seen in a while before we made the long trek back to Kildare for the night. We were all in great form so it was not going to matter how long it took. I was in the back seat with Brendan and I kept giving him a slap on his leg and he just kept smiling. He is a top man and trainer and getting that horse back in that form and winning meant the world to him.

Winning Team

Winging the Last

I got to bed around 12 and had a 3.40 alarm on Wednesday morning to catch my flight back to Bristol. I arrived at Newton Abbot early so a little power nap was called for before hitting the sauna. I had 10st5lbs in the 1st race so still had a couple of pounds to lose. While I was in the sauna having a sweat Luke Harvey from Attheraces popped in to say hello, and the Meerkat had his camera women with him.... Click on the video to see how it went....
 

 
I duly did the weight in the 1st race and went on to finish 3rd at 25/1 on Its Ruby for Nick Mitchell. I had a couple of hours to kill between rides so I relaxed in the canteen trying to rehydrate before my next ride. Hope Point was my next ride, she was 33/1 but I thought she had a little chance of at least reaching the frame. She travelled well and went on to finish 3rd again but it was definitely her best ever run despite winning last November. With no more rides until Saturday I am currently trying to get my Golf swing back, as it has been missing for the last few weeks. Let’s hope i find it.......G6