I know, I know – I’m supposed to be a mature adult. Long gone is the former International Boulevardier. Instead, there is a shadow. A chap who has probably handed in his Wild Rover ticket, a quiet, unassuming, philosophical figure occasionally seen in the shadowed corners of The Poona Gymkhana Club with a Chota Peg on the side table and an old gazehound at his feet. Still and all, I couldn’t help noticing that the new PM has a pretty impressive bust on her.
Political observations aside, I’m sure she will confuse her enemies and deflate the rumours of her slightly insouciant attitude to the Red Case. I am agog as to whether she has adopted my chum’s energy master plan (read last post); the rumour mill suggests she has come close. What she and Kwasi mustn’t do, however, is to create another unpoliceable Sunak loan scheme for the adroit and recently-filed business that needs £1m to survive and goes bust (I use the term advisedly) the day before repayment comes due.
Donny starts today and offers us The Legends race. Somewhere else, there will be the Retired Jump Jockeys Challenge; at another track Flat vs Jumps; at yet another, Olympic showjumpers vs Dances on Ice Skaters who once rode in the Magnolia Cup at Goodwood but didn’t take the knee. When these are announced, look to the trees because as sure as eggs are eggs, it’s Autumn, the leaves are falling, and it’s the last big throw of the Flat season’s dice. Leger, Ayr, Champions, Arc, Breeders… and less than six weeks to the opening of the Jumps season. By then, we might see Mud!
On a sombre note, the lives of the De Bromhead family have been rent asunder by the loss of their son Jack at an Irish Pony Racing meeting. Many of us, in one form or another, spend some time in a yard, or on the gallops, or at a sale ring, and it is too easy to forget when we see the coltish yearling, the 12yo charger, the polo pony, the eventer, or the now retired hunter, that these animals are bigger, heavier and faster than us. The people who get on them, every day, are the bravest folk I know, and they do it because they love them and the sports with which they are attached. Their children are often raised with that same love for the horse, and Jack de Bromhead was no different. His many riding mates will all be saddened, numbed and shocked, but when you look at the roll call of their numbers and see the pantheon of racing family names, you know that they’ll be back in the saddle again next year. They’ll miss Jack enormously, and they’ll mourn him; but the horses still need exercise, feeding, grooming and love and care, and now Jack won’t do that anymore. But his mates will, and they’ll do it for their horses and themselves and in Jack’s memory. Courage Mes Braves.
A couple of tips for Donny Day 1.
1:50 SOUND OF IONA 3 pts Win – DARK SHOT 1½pt e/w
2:25 INDIAN DREAM 2 pts Win
3:00 SANDY PARADISE 2 pts e/w – SHINE ON BRENDAN 3 pts Win
3:35 UMM KULTHUM 3 pts Win – NECTARIS 1 pt e/w 4 places
4:10 KING OF STARS 2 pts e/w
4:45 X J RASCAL 5 pts win I have been waiting to get my Goodwood money back on this one.
5:20 VULCAN 2 pts e/w – BELL ROCK 1½ pts e/w