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.