TWILIGHT DES BAUX arrives

Things have been very quiet in France for the last few months as the horses wintered and Marion and Teresa took off to Tobago for a well-earned vacance! Now it is all systems go and first news is the arrival of a lovely filly foal from Moonlight. Her third and her first girl. Looks a lot like her dad I'm told and since he is also Orlando's dad (Ideal de l'Iton) that's good news. Festina will hopefully produce a full brother to Orlando in a few week's time.
Orlando has been working well, showing no signs of past problems and may race on April 14 at Vincennes or more likely on April 21st at Enghien (both attele). Fingers crossed!
And the good news from Down Under is that Fred's horse Jack Hinton ran second at his first race start.

then Australia

Superb hospitality from Robert Marshall from Sydney who heads the Inter-Dominion Council (not the most harmonious of bodies at the moment) and is on the NSW Regulatory body (and knows far too much about everything going on for some people!) By great coincidence (truly) I was able to see the Miracle Mile for the first time .. a great occasion with top quality horses (won by Be Good Johnny for second year running), but 'mile' (1760m) mobile paces on a half mile track are becoming too much like speedway for my taste. No trots at all on programme, hardly any in NSW. Victoria and South Australia have a respectable number
Had a great natter over dinner with sulky builder Jim Walsh (Regal sulkies) about the politics of getting sulkies approved in other jurisdictions (especially North America).
http://www.rjwalsh.com.au/

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!