Tyke has Gerald Mosse on board Friday at St. Cloud, so the pressure will be on. I’m really hoping the old boy can stay a mile. We got a horrible draw (post 18 of 20), but I’m sure Mosse will sort things out. Tyke turned in a pretty lackluster workout on Tuesday, so I’m a little unsure of what to expect on Friday.

Hard Way, meanwhile, is likely to get eliminated on  Saturday at Longchamp, which is a shame because he seems in absolutely top form.

The stressful thing about racing anywhere just now is how the horse will handle the ground. It hasn’t rained in I don’t know how long, and Turfani came back quite sore from her victory in Chantilly. Just had the vet around tonight, and he said he had done a dozen ultrasound scans today alone on horses that have come up lame after racing on too-hard ground. He thinks Turfani will be OK with a bit more time, so she’ll be on the easy list for 10 days or so and then we’ll see how she is. I hate the thought of Tyke’s fragile joints running on firm going, but like many Cape Cross progeny, he doesn’t LIKE anything else. Now, again, we have to just wait and see what happens…

Cape Tycoon is set to run Friday at St. Cloud, a mile handicap. I’d really rather have 1,400 meters because I still have doubts about his ability to stay a mile, but there is no ideal entry coming up at the moment so I have to take what’s available. He likes the going on the light side, so we’ll have to take advantage of this strange dry weather we’re having and hope for the best. St. Cloud is the scene, of course, of his starting gate disaster, so hopefully he won’t remember too much about that. I’m not sure who will ride yet, but I would think in this case we can hope for a place rather than a win.

I’ve scratched Derringbay from Chantilly on Wednesday because he definitely should not run on this kind of ground. I’m still very unsure of what to do with him. He works very well at home, but his performance at Longchamp was dismal and I really think he needs to race at the country tracks or go jumping, neither of which I’m willing to spend a lot of time and money working on. I’m going to try to give him a couple of more races, although the entries for him are tough to find. There is a maiden in Lyon on Oct. 11 that I think is our best hope for the moment.

On a brighter note, Skid has come out of his race in terrific shape, and we’re all thinking he’s going to be quite difficult to put up with until his next race. He seems ready to go right back out there. Hard Way is also doing very well, and if we’re not eliminated on Saturday at Longchamp, we will run. Turfani seems OK but her ankle is still worrying me, so she’s still on the easy list for now. Pixie’s Blue has started back to work, and Blessing Belle is moving slowly forward, too, so hopefully they’ll both see some action before the end of October.

Skid Solo won his handicap today, finally showing his true colors. Theirry Thulliez said he did it pretty easily, despite jumping the shadow of the TV tower just as the pace started to quicken. I told him before the race that I didn’t understand why the horse hadn’t won, so if he didn’t win, please come back and tell me why. He answered the question in the best possible way, giving us our third winner in four starts over the past week. Needless to say, we are all very, very pleased.

Skid Solo will have Theiry Thulliez in the saddle in the sixth race tomorrow here in Maisons-Laffitte, and I really hope we can see where we are with his form. I still think he’s the best in the barn, and I can’t understand why he hasn’t already won a race, so if we don’t do it tomorrow I want to at least try to figure out why. He will run the 1,200-meter straight, which seems to be his best course and distance. He seems fit and ready, but that’s what I thought last time, too, when he turned out to have an irritation that was causing him breathing trouble. He’s been bedded on shavings and having his hay soaked since, and he scoped clear a week after his last race, so that should be solved. Now we just have to watch what happens…

Things are settling down after last week’s fun, and next up is Skid Solo at Maisons-Laffitte on Friday. He seems to be breathing better since he’s been moved onto a bed of shavings and having his hay soaked, and he is working OK, so I hope he can run to his potential on Friday. His last two races were disappointing, so I’m a little lost as to where we are with his form so Friday should be interesting. I don’t know who will ride yet, but ever since the jockey’s agents figured out I was in the market again my phone has been ringing like I’m a newly-widowed heiress. Still, the two jockeys I’d like best – Peslier or Mosse – aren’t available (not surprisingly – I was lucky to get Peslier last time). In any case, I will puzzle out the jockey situation this afternoon.

Hard Way has come back from his race like he’s the king of the world. He really seems to have finally figured it out and is now a properly grown-up racehorse. He lost a bit of weight between the transport and the race, but he’s eating well, has plenty of energy and doesn’t seem stiff or sore anywhere. Turfani, on the other hand, is extremely stiff and will need a few days on the very easy list until she comes back to normal. On the positive side, she is eating better than she ever has after a race. I usually have to cut her feed back for a few days, but she’s been downing full rations and calling for more, which is very good.

Derringbay is working, eating and acting like he never raced, which, for the most part, he didn’t. He started last and finished last, or close to it, and I’m not sure what we’ll do with him. It seems he has the means to do better, but doesn’t want to try. When he works at home, he pulls up dry and hardly blowing. I have entered him in a longer claimer in Chantilly next week, but I’m not overly hopeful. Meanwhile, I will start to school him over hurdles and see how it goes. If he really shows no spark, I’ll start to look for a placement as a riding horse for him.

Tyke is coming back slowly but surely from his last race, and we hope he can try again at St. Cloud at the end of next week. It might be a little too soon, but he’ll tell us.

On another note, I’ll be blogging a bit for the National Thoroughbred Racing Association between now and the Breeders’ Cup races in November, following the European contenders. I plan to go to Santa Anita on Nov. 6-7, where I’ll be pitching racing in France to all who will listen.

And on still another note, I recently had the pleasure of meeting Adam Roberts, who, in addition to his real job, runs a great blog called Invisible Paris. He came out to the yard to do a story about me for his “Paris People” rubric, and he does nice work. Thanks, Adam, for featuring me on your cool blog!

Hard Way earned a well-merited victory in Craon tonight, coming first in a field of 11 in his 3,100-meter handicap. There were a few nail-biting moments; first a false start, which is tough because Hard Way is not a fan of the starting gate to begin with, so asking him to do it twice is tempting fate. Secondly, there was no pace in the race, and after laying a struggling second for the first third of the race, Jean-Baptiste Hamel decided he’d better just let his horse gallop out a bit and took the lead on the backstretch about 1,500 meters from home. But he controlled the pace well once out front and held his lead just to the wire. This marks our second victory in three days, and boy is it sweet! Hard Way collects 9,000 euros for his owners, plus the premium for being a French-bred horse of 4,420 euros, plus a breeders’ premium of … I don’t know how much because the lame France Galop web site has crashed yet again. Anyway, Champagne!

Despite there being dozens of entries and being considered “non-admis” because of his dismal record in England, Derringbay somehow survived the entry process and did not get eliminated for his race at Longchamp tomorrow, so off he goes. Derringbay was an impulse purchase at the July sales, and it seemed quite an unwise one. The poor guy has a truly sad-looking face, but more importantly he has Swiss cheese for tendons and obviously went through a severe case of sore shins before he got to me. I had written him off as a racehorse until Jenny, my summer helper (I refer to her as my English Slave, which is how she comments on my blog) took a tumble with him in the far reaches of the Foret St. Germain and the horse headed for home at full gallop. He steamed through about four kilometers in record time, including galloping down a stony path and over a paved road. After all that, his legs didn’t look any worse, so I put him back into training. Jenny did a great job with him all summer (she didn’t fall off again, and that’s not for lack of Derringbay trying) and he’s been working surprisingly well. I’ve been trying to find the easiest race I can for him, but still, the Longchamp race will be a bit over his head, I think. That said, I need to see how he handles racing, so at least this will give me an idea. It’s an 1,800-meter claimer (don’t worry, Jenny, the chances of him being claimed are up there with the chance that I will be crowned the next queen of your country) for apprentice jockeys. Unfortunately, I will not be there to see it first-hand, because I’ll be in Craon with Hard Way, who is running a 3,100-meter handicap and has a good chance to win. It all depends on how he handles the transport – it’s more than a four-hour trip, but he will have an open box stall to himself, so hopefully he’ll do OK. It’s a long way to go, but I’m told the track is fantastic, it’s a PMU meeting, so the prize money is good and the transportation is paid for. Plus, it’s a handicap with only 11 runners. What more can one ask?

Turfani won her handicap at Chantilly today, beating a field of 20 pretty easily. Olivier Peslier rode her to perfection, relaxing her in fifth place for most of the course and then easing her out to the front in the stretch. This caps a great story; she cost just 1,000 euros at the Tattersall’s October sale last year, and she was running for her new owner, Alan Kennedy, who hadn’t been to the track as an owner in more than 30 years. We’re all very pleased and drinking plenty of Champagne tonight.

Cape Tycoon finished seventh of 16 runners at Fontainebleau tonight, running better than I had expected. He hadn’t raced since mid-June, when he had his battle with the starting gate, and he handled everything calmly and professionally tonight. He was one of the last to load with his blindfold, but he was no trouble at all. He broke well but  pulled quite a bit through the first half of the race. Despite that, he found enough in the tank to challenge the leaders about a furlong from home. He ran out of gas in the last 100 meters or so and was beaten about six lengths. The first seven horses home finished three lengths clear of the rest of the pack. While it’s still clear a mile is just a little to long for him, he showed he might work up to it. I still think his best distance is 1,400 meters. He recovered well and was eating up the mash tonight, so we’ll see how he is over the next few days. But I’m very happy with his work tonight.

Next up: Turfani tomorrow at Chantilly. She is favored in the Turf and could do well if the going cooperates. Olivier Peslier is in the saddle, so I shouldn’t have jockey complaints. On the other hand, Turfani is no Goldikova, so I hope he’s willing to work a little harder than he might be used to.

Why is it that with all the fantastic benefits French racing has to offer international owners that the stewards manage to embarrass themselves – again – on one of the biggest days in French racing? Andrew Lloyd Webber’s filly Dar Re Mi was clearly the better horse in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille, but she was demoted to fifth after stewards judged that she interfered with the horse that actually did finish 5th, Soberania. Stacelita, previously unbeaten, now stayed that way after being handed the victory in the stewards’ room. Dar Re Mi was blocked on the rail behind Stacelita’s pacemaker. When the pacemaker finally left a gap, Dar Re Mi went for it, and got there slightly quicker than Soberania and then went on to take the race by a head. Soberania would not have finished any closer even if she hadn’t missed the gap. But the stewards judged that she might have obtained a better place, so they demoted Dar Re Mi. The decision was ridiculous, and it was made by relatively inexperienced stewards. Keep in mind that in France, racing stewards are not professional, but “benevoles” who are compensated for their time with various gifts and always a good lunch with plenty of wine. I suppose I should stop here just in case any of them happen to read English  -  free speech is not exactly encouraged as far as France Galop is concerned. But sometimes I think those long lunches make our dear stewards a little sleepy by the end of the afternoon. If they thought Soberania would have gotten a better placing, I’d really like to know why none of them seemed to be awake when Hard Way got slammed into the rail three times on his way to finishing third in Chantilly. A small but vocal crowd at Longchamp loudly booed when Stacelita’s connections were awarded the trophy, something rarely seen in France. Hopefully, this ruling will renew the calls to make stewards’ post professional positions, with the appropriate training. It’s time to keep what’s good about French racing and drag the rest of the sport out of the 19th century, where it seems to be stuck.