first NEW ZEALAND

A wonderful horsy few days in Christchurch with the Cup on Tuesday (quinella-ed by the two Australian entries Flashing Red and Cobbity Classic) and the Show day meeting on Friday. Accompanied throughout by Fred and Pat (now MET members!) and their good friends John and Christine McDermott who ensured we were treated exceptionally well. (John, who comes from a well-known trotting family and was on the MET committee for many years, has taken up amateur driving seriously.) There were three trots on the first day and four on the second (out of 12 races.. the days didn't finish until nearly 7 oclock) and all provided excellent racing. Only the standing starts spoiling the spectacle - even the French wouldn't contemplate asking a field of horses to trot off from a stand and it was a relief to see that this method is being undermined in various places in NZ, where they are now effectively walk-up starts. A very enjoyable visit to friend Kurt at Gerolstein on Wednesday, who was the perfect host despite the very recent loss of partner Ian. Two lovely foals from Gwen and Duchess and some superb pacing stock (even I fancied the Red River Hanover colt). Then on Thursday out to the establishment of Peter Cowan and Vicky. John has set up an arrangement to work and help prepare horses 'hands-on' there. Jack Hinton (the 3yo pacer that Fred has an interest in) is with Peter and worked very satisfactorily So we were looking forward to him going to the workouts at Motukarara on the Saturday but they were rained off. Peter has very nice young trotter to watch out for called Trotupastorm (by Sundon of course, as are about 80% of the trotting winners in NZ). Vicky was very interested in the dvd of Orlando winning the Piere Gamare and clearly was itching to have a go!

New Zealand Cup

Jack may have travelled half way round the world to see the NZ cup but it was grand neice Sarah Dowie ( on the right) who managed to get her hands on it.

Great to see you again Jack - have a safe trip home

BLOG PAUSE

Moving back from France and into new London house is the explanation. ORLANDO did a good prep race in the sulky at Vincennes on the 15th October (he is 70-80% fit according to Marion) and was all set for his monte return on the 2nd November when he started favouring his posterior gauche (left back leg), so he was taken to vet. Nothing found in the leg, but a muscle in his back sounds like source, so he has had an injection. We will see shortly whether this works - it often does the vet says hopefully. If he doesn't lose more than 2 weeks work he will still be on track - has a very nice race on New Years' Eve!
I saw the rest of the ecurie last week. QUIWI is about to become less of a boy because of his recent behaviour! And QUICK could follow (but much less likely). ROSKO and ROSA are now 'in' and starting to learn the ropes.
Off to NZ and Australia on Saturday.. will see NZ Trotting Cup for first time since 1963!!

Back home

Just back from a 10 day Mexico trip which meant a suspension of blogging. ORLANDO had a quiet re-entry at Rouen on the 15th, finishing well in behind the bunch. He is out again on Tuesday evening in another sulky race, this time at Vincennes. I'm not expecting much more and will be most interested in the monte warmup he will do with Eric Raffin, who will ride him on November 2nd. Eric is the hot property at the moment as will be seen from this item in today's Paris Turf!

Centième de la saison pour Eric Raffin
Maure-de-Bretagne. Eric Raffin est décidément un jeune homme pressé, très pressé même. À Maure-de-Bretagne, vendredi, le cadet des fils de l'entraîneur vendéen a signé son centième succès de la saison en selle sur Mad Martigan avant de rejoindre la capitale bretonne pour monter dans un TGV et être à l'heure pour la nocturne de Vincennes. Alors qu'il avait remporté l'an dernier cent vingt succès au combiné, Eric Raffin est donc en passe de faire encore beaucoup mieux cette saison, d'autant que le meeting d'hiver de Vincennes n'a pas encore commencé. En tête du classement des jockeys avec cinquante-quatre victoires, il a déjà battu nettement son total de l'an dernier à l'attelé puisqu'il totalise à ce jour quarante-six succès contre dix de moins pour l'année 2005.

QUICK gets his ticket too

QUICK (Coktail Jet- Isba d'Avignere) qualified at Caen yesterday in 1.21 despite being exceptionally green and having , like Quiwi, almost no work (compared with the winner of his heat who had obviously been worked a great deal). He will be put away until the spring to get stronger, but Quiwi will probably race in the coming weeks. ORLANDO will go to Grosbois on October 6 to be worked again monte by Eric Raffin, with some gear adjustments.

ORLANDO features in Paris-Turf

ORLANDO plans

ORLANDO was worked monté at Vincennes yesterday and is now scheduled to re-enter at Rouen-Mauquenchy on October 15th (attelé, giving 25 metres), essentially as preparation for Vincennes on November 2nd (Prix Jacques Olry, Group II, monté, 2850m). Sadly Didier, Marion's cousin, has not been able to adapt to the ‘en avant’ riding style that has become universal in the last year, so Eric Raffin will be in the saddle. Sod’s Law means that I will miss both races, being in Mexico for the first and York for the second. It's a hard life!

La Grande Duchesse and The Soldier Fritz

Only those who know that my NZ friend Kurt Ganzl is THE world authority on music halls and light opera will suspect the origin of their names (and of his property near Christchurch called Gerolstein). “The Grande Duchess of Gerolstein” is a 19th century comic opera by Offenbach. The Grand Duchess actually fancied Fritz in an un-motherly way, but had to be content with Baron Grog (is that the next baby, Kurt?) Anyway LGD (Sundon-Gwen-Gee Whiz II) has just produced the beautiful TSF in collaboration with Continentalman (Malabar Man - Continental Victory – Valley Victory). Wow!

QUIWI qualifies

Start of a brilliant career? Leaving on the 2000 metre trip.
Well done Quiwi!

Marion settled him slowly and he was three wide for a long while but he progressively made ground and led all the way down the long Caen straight. He rated 1.21.2 .... without ever having been worked seriously, so we have something more to look forward to! He won't be number 77 again! ... this morning over 100 2yos went off in heats of 6-8 at 15 minute intervals with 2 qualifying on average per heat. (BTW - POLINA is going to have a holiday, the view being that she is still growing and should be left to it for the moment)

Jacky's OKIRA wins at Craon

We were delighted to learn that our friend Jacky Madeleine's Okira won at Craon, trained and driven by Jules (General du Pommeau) Lepennetier. The Madeleines live at Champeon, about 20 minutes away and we met up at the STC Elitlopp dinner in Stockhom a few years ago, when his Jorestane ran at the big meeting at the end of May.

QUIWI and QUICK

Exciting news! The 2 year olds are ready for their qualifying test and we'll learn shortly when and where it will be. At this time of the year they must cover 2000 metres at a km rate of 1.22.5 or better (a mile rate of 2.12.8)... so not too demanding. The time is lowered as the months go by.

Porto ran 3rd on the petite piste at Vincennes the previous weekend after suffering major interference and followed up with an excellent 4th on the grande piste on Saturday. Olda was second in her race but Pepito galloped. He will be back in the saddle at Vincennes on Friday night.

GREEN and NICOLE chez nous

Green and Nicole have been enjoying a much more active life during Thembi’s stay. Green (at 12) barely remembers his 2yo victory at Mont St Michel and his win at Wolverhampton in 1997 (after the disqualification of a 5yo being run as a 3yo!), but he enjoys the life of Reilly here. 5yo Nicole (Festina’s 3rd foal, who didn’t survive Marion’s 2yo filtering) is a sweetie - so long as she has company (even the sheep seem sufficient), though she gets very anxious if separated from the old fellow for too lon

Trotting websites 2: Paris Turf

http://www.paris-turf.com
The French horse racing daily bible is published every day of the year except May 1.
The full content is available by subscription online, but many of the articles and reports are available daily free on the website (not the fields, form or results)

This weekend

Porto takes the big step up to Paris-Vincennes tonight. Pepito makes the long journey to La Rochelle on Saturday afternoon – running attele after his series of monte races - and Olda has much shorter trip to Bagnoles on Sunday. Orlando and Polina rest chez hue this weekend.

Trotting websites 1: Cheval Français

http://www.cheval-francais.com
For dates, tracks and race condition for next 3 months (approx) go to
Les Courses > Reunions par date (alternatively you can search by track, i.e. par hippodrome)
After final starters are declared (2 or 3 days in advance depending on type of fixture and day of week) the fields replace the conditions.
You can see whether the actual fields for a meeting are available by clicking on ‘Les Autres Reunions’ at top right of screen
For results go to Les Resultats officials - they are often several days late, other than for PMU meetings

ORLANDO on grass

ORLANDO trotted on a grass track for the first time since his first 2yo races when he worked at Craon today. It was another very satisfying performance and we hope he will be ready to race in October... his legs get special care thanks to Laura (pic) ... Craon is just an hour south of Metairie and must be one of the best grass tracks in the world in all respects... there were many thousands there today... Prince Djo also worked impressively (on his way back from the upsetting accident last time out at Enghien) ... but Prince des Baux could never get into his race after the start was retaken.

POLINA finishes 4th

David drove an excellent race. Polina was 3rd most of way (see pic) behind two of the front-markers, but she dropped her head with about 500m to go. This meant she couldn’t trot as fast as she could have done and she made no headway in the straight. There will be some small gear changes around the mouth for next time. She was not very tired at the end, so her stamina is not in question. Next race? Don’t know yet.

Porto won yesterday at the ridiculous odds of nearly 7-1 in a five horse field. Olda was third, 4/100 second from the winner (a few cms) and Mariol finished 7th in the claimer (and wasn’t)

ORLANDO works well

It was great to see him back on a track, looking very much his old self, though clearly some weeks off fitness to race. He will continue to go to tracks in order to give relief from boring unaccompanied straightline work in the forest - probably to Craon next Sunday, where Prince des Baux will run again. Prince was a good fifth today after having difficulty getting clear - Marion received a warning for his efforts to get out; last week with same horse, for the same thing the commissaires at Aix les Bain gave hime 4 days suspension last week. (He serves them 26-29th.) C'est la vie...

http://www.cheval-francais.com

David drives POLINA

Marion has Olivier de Fleur (a good third at cabourg on Tuesday evening after pulling throughout) running at Rochfort-sur-Loire on Monday, so David will be driving at Agon. I have every confidence in him! After Meslay on Saturday Marion takes Porto du Bootz, Olda des Baux and Mariol des Baux to St Malo on Sunday. Porto has found a 5 horse race, very rare in France, and should do well. Mariol continues to run in 'reclamer' - he is off 25m this time because his claiming price is 12,000 euros (those accepting 8,500 euros go off the front).

ORLANDO to see a racecourse again

Marion is taking ORLANDO to work at Meslay-de-Maine on Saturday, where Prince de Baux races. Meslay is not far from us and it will be very interesting to see how he looks. Fingers crossed!

POLINA winning at her first start at Le Neuborg on 4th June 2006... looking a lot like MOONLIGHT (FESTINA's second foal)

POLINA returns to Agon

POLINA runs again at Agon-Coutainville on Monday 21st. She is again off 25m but this time over only 2150m so she will need to leave well. Last time she was beginning to improve down the back (over 2800m) when two horses broke immediately in front of her and the interference caused her to gallop. We think she would have been third.. but much better if she used all her ability!