re-entry to France

Before coming on down to Metairie for the first time since we left on June 28, which I was not looking forward to, I was able to spend 4 days with wonderfully supportive and hospitable Marion and Teresa ... and the horses. POLINA had been fourth at Graignes on July 21(Perle was second in the same race.)
She was going to race again at Bacqueville-en-Caux, near Dieppe, on Sunday. Before that PORTO was to race at Les Sables d'Olonne (4-5 hours drive each way) on Friday. He had drawn the outside on the gate (autostart) but Marion got him into the 1-1 round the first bend. Then the trailer galloped and the horse outside the leader moved in, leaving PORTO 'facing the breeze' for the rest of the journey (2650m). In the straight Marion wisely settled for fourth rather than risk the break which had happened the last two times.
Bacqueville-en Caux (possibly the worst track in France anyway according to a usually reliable source) turned out to be Bogville-en-Caux. POLINA was off 25m and a slip on the first bend meant the loss of another 25, and that was the difference between second and fifth, which was where she ended up. Still she ran another good race and her five starts since Evreux have produced 5 4 5 6 6. (Prince was fourth in his race.)
Despite the state of the track it was a fun day with the village choir performing church music as the entertainment and almost every van having to be pulled out of the mud by a tractor when attempting to leave (see pic above)

... and the horses?

Horses don't seem quite so important right now, but Marion and PORTO have raced valiantly on behalf of Hilary - first of all on the evening of the day she died (at Vincennes, Marion wearing a black armband) and on the day after funeral (at Enghien). Each time he was coming fast to take a major placing when he lost co-ordination and put in those few skips which are fatal in the French ligne droite. But we are confident this can be sorted and he will turn these performance into successes.
Marion, Teresa and Francoise (Marion's mother) came to the service in London and the following reception and Laura joined us from where she now lives near Reading (with Emma and Tim, the new owner of Quitus). Bernard and David were left behind to take Quitus to Cabourg for the last race of the night meeting. Laura joined us at Maryon Mews after the reception and to everyone's delight we were able to watch David lead all the way on Quitus. (Oh, Kurt!)


Driving all night Marion was back at Enghien next day to see Jean-Michel Bazire win the opening race with Querido (Marion wasn't sure he would make it). Two in a row!

By the way, Laura is very keen to come out to New Zealand when I come south in November, so I will be trying to ensure some trotting people get a chance to benefit from her expertise.

6 july 2007

My beloved Hilary.....

The most extraordinary and beautiful person left us on Tuesday 26 June 2007. Our beloved Hilary passed away at about 1415. She had no pain and was in a deep sleep. She looked completely tranquil and beautiful and was surrounded by her close family.
It is unbearably sad...
She had a simple fall while riding near our home in France on Thursday, but with catastrophic consequences. She received magnificent treatment in Angers but could not be kept with us.
She was doing something she really enjoyed and was the newest challenge in a life of responding to challenges.... I am overwhelmed with grief as you will understand.
Jack
To hear Hilary talking about the central struggle of her life against injustice in South Africa go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/03/2006_19_wed.shtml
My favourite of many pictures... soon after we met in 1986

COMING UP

POLINA races at Graignes on Saturday 23rd in race 2 of a 'semi-nocturne' meeting (i.e.about 6.30pm). PORTO is aimed at race 5 at Vincennes on Tuesday evening 26th.
Then on Wednesday 27th QUICK goes up for sale at Cabourg
http://www.trotting-promotion.com/fr/04_vente/recherche_liste.php?annee=2007&VENTE=ventecabourg&x=40&y=14&order=Numero_Lot
He is number 75 and Marion's other Coktail is there too(71). Pepito is also entered. The necessary reduction of numbers is under way.

Even Worse News

Orlando's racing career is over. During work yesterday morning he suddenly pulled up and walked home very lame. It turned out to be a broken bone in his foot... the long pastern (http://www.equusite.com/articles/basics/basicsPartsOfFoot.shtml) He will be in his box for a couple of months and we will await his foals next year to consider his future home. But he has earned honourable retirement through his achievements and the pleasure he has given... paticularly in his magnificent Group 2 win at Vincennes.

VERY SAD NEWS

QUIWI went to the butcher yesterday. (One has to learn to be French in these matters...) What was thought to be an abcess on his foot up to last week turned out to be bone which was growing progressively out through his foot. I will get a more accurate account when I am back in France. It ruled out all possibility of him having a racing future, but beyond that the vet's prognosis was that infection was inevitable and it would spread quite quickly up through through the protruding bone... so no point in keeping even as a companion. He had Olivier as company on his last journey. With only Bernard Marion and David the need to reduce horse numbers is pressing, although this was not the reason in these cases. Watch this space.

Free pedigree producer

Download the free software and complete database for French Trotters, updated to March 2007 from
http://www.trot-pedigree.fr
Produces 5 -8 generation pedigrees as well as lists of progeny for mares, etc.
Click on Logiciel in the left navigation bar and download the full package (about 80mb at moment, zipped. You can ask for it to be automatically updated with the latest 'donnees' (additions) at specified intervals

Here are the pedigrees of Snowball and Sierra.(Click on image to expand to full size.)

Third time UNlucky

What next for POLINA? After being thrown offstride by one of Evreux's big bumps and having to be handled with great care on the dangerous track at Neuborg, Dreux had another incident in store. Going alongside, and better than, the eventual winner the sulky of the latter bumped into Polina's, breaking a wheel. She pulled it for the last 500 metres into 6th place but with all chance gone ... that's racing of course. Still she's fine and getting fitter with every outing.
I have just seen the issues of NZ Harness Racing Weekly with Kurt' s reports (from his blog at http://kurtofgerolstein.blogspot.com and they look great. Thanks to the wonders of the net you can track his slow progress on the ARUNBANK at http://www.sailwx.info [Search for one ship by name and then click on Location.. In Caribbean heading for Panama Canal at moment.]

A BUSY TIME

Hard to believe that a 6 day trip to the south (Montpellier conference for Hilary, via old friends in Lyon both ways) would involve missing 4 runs by my horses, Porto as already posted, Orlando at Enghien on Saturday 26, Polina at Le Neuborg on Sunday 27th and Porto at Cordemais (near Nantes) on Wednesday 31. Anyway I omitted to say that on the night of Porto's Vincennes race Querido came with an eye-catching finish in a Group 2 race. However, as in the previous week Marion caught the eyes of the commissaires and received a 4 day holiday this time. So while he was able to drive Orlando, David was in charge of the others. ORLANDO ran much better, unplaced but only about 25m from winner this time compared with 75 previously. He needs a solid pace throughout and this race was run very slowly, followed by a sprint home, which left those back on the inside like him without much chance. He still needs a couple of more hard races I would guess. Next day the track at Neuborg was quite dangerous after storms and after some fallers in the previous race Marion told David to be careful.. so POLINA was a careful 6th, but a very satisfactory run. At Cordemais David got PORTO away brilliantly from the 25m behind line... but it turned out to be a false start. Of course the next time he was poorly away and ended up 3 wide most of the way in the 18 horse field. David rightly didnt persevere round the final turn...